Icona Pop – Ritual
Today, multi-platinum, award-winning duo Icona Pop release their new album, Ritual, out now via Ultra Records/Iconic Sound Recordings.
Alongside the album, Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo unveil its deeply personal focus single, “Hurt,” accompanied by a new official visualizer co-directed by Icona Pop and Nicole Walker.
A late-night conjuration of emotional electro-pop, Ritual finds Icona Pop at their most emotionally open and creatively confident. Across club-ready rhythms, euphoric synths, bittersweet pop melodies, and raw, vulnerable lyrics, Caroline and Aino explore friendship, reinvention, healing, motherhood, heartbreak, and joy—reclaiming the dancefloor as a space for release, connection, and transformation.
At its core, Ritual is an album about ownership. Caroline and Aino are owning who they are now—as mothers, creative partners, entrepreneurs, leaders, sisters, and women. The record channels that evolution into a feminine reclamation, creating space for emotion, catharsis, and transformation while celebrating the friendship that has remained at the center of Icona Pop through it all.
“It’s always been us against the world,” says Icona Pop. “But now, it feels like we’ve built a world of our own. We let each other grow; and we want each other to be happy. It’s beautiful to have somebody with you through the hardest times, but also the greatest times. We don’t take it for granted.”
The album was born during a transformative chapter for both artists. Caroline and Aino became mothers within days of each other, returned to Sweden after years in Los Angeles, and navigated heartbreak, anxiety, and major changes in their lives. Rather than shy away from those emotions, they built a creative environment where they could lean into them fully.
“The whole journey with Ritual was us being in the studio with people that made us feel safe enough to stay in the uncomfortable and explore,” Icona Pop explains. “We had no rules making this album. All feelings were welcome, and that felt very liberating. That’s why the album sounds so honest. Writing the album became very therapeutic and important to be able to move forward and heal.”
That emotional honesty comes into sharp focus on “Hurt.” Beginning with lonely keys and a fractured vocal loop before building toward a pulsating, bass-heavy release, the song captures the painful moment when heartbreak begins to give way to acceptance.
“We were absolutely crying in the studio,” Caroline remembers. “It’s written from the perspective of letting go and starting to move on. It’s a vulnerable track about the process of saying goodbye. The message is, ‘Even though you hurt me, I’m still alive. I can look back at memories and think they were beautiful. I wonder if you see it the same way. I hope you do’.”
She continues: “‘Hurt’ is not an angry song about revenge. It’s a song about brutal acceptance of being left by the one you love. It hurts, but you’re realizing that you’re going to be fine and you’re letting go. When the song reaches climax at the end, it almost feels like you’re out on the other side dancing with your friends again still hurt—but also happy.”
“Hurt” joins previously released tracks “Yellow Top,” “Ritual” featuring Daya, “Dance To This,” and “Butterfly Feelings,” each revealing a different dimension of the album’s emotional and sonic world. Throughout Ritual, Icona Pop transform deeply personal experiences into expansive, dancefloor-ready pop without sacrificing the emotional honesty at the heart of the record. The album captures the duo at their most authentic—celebrating resilience, friendship, vulnerability, and the freedom found on the dancefloor.
The title track itself distills the album’s philosophy into its simplest form: the small rituals we use to survive, reconnect with ourselves, and move forward.
Ultimately, Ritual is both a celebration of where Icona Pop are now and a reaffirmation of what has always connected them: friendship, movement, and the transformative power of music.
“It’s okay to not be okay, but still go out and dance,” Caroline says. “It’s okay to be where you are right now. Find your rituals, find your friends, and find your energy.” Aino adds, “Go dance, move your body, meet people, hug, kiss, and don’t hide.”
This fall, Icona Pop will bring Ritual to the stage with a run of U.S. headline dates, including shows in Brooklyn, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, before continuing on to Scandinavia.
2026 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
09/25 – Baby’s All Right – Brooklyn, NY
10/02 – Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL
11/20 – TBA – Las Vegas, NV
11/21 – Moroccan Lounge – Los Angeles, CA
2026 SCANDINAVIAN TOUR DATES:
10/23 – Pustervik – Göteborg, Sweden
10/24 – Mejeriet – Lund, Sweden
10/30 – Vulkan Arena – Oslo, Norway
11/06 – Arbis Bar & Salong – Norrköping, Sweden
11/07 – Berns – Stockholm, Sweden
11/13 – Pumpehuset – Copenhagen, Denmark
#iconapop