Margaret Debay Rogers (born April 25, 1994) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer fromEaston, Maryland.^[1] After her song "Alaska" was played to artist-in-residencePharrell Williams during amaster class at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at theNew York University Tisch School of the Arts in 2016, she gained widespread recognition.^[2] She has released two independent albums,The Echo (2012) andBlood Ballet (2014), and three studio albums,Heard It in a Past Life (2019),Surrender (2022) andDon't Forget Me (2024). She was nominated for theGrammy Award for Best New Artist in 2020.

Maggie Rogers
Rogers in 2019
Born	Margaret Debay Rogers (1994-04-25)April 25, 1994 (age 31) Easton, Maryland, U.S.
Education	New York University (BFA) Harvard University (MRPL)
Occupations	Singer-songwriter record producer
Years active	2012–present
Musical career
Genres	Pop folk art pop indie pop folk-pop
Instruments	Vocals guitar piano banjo harp
Labels	Debay Sounds Capitol
Website	maggierogers.com

Maggie Rogers grew up on theEastern Shore of Maryland along the banks of theMiles River inEaston, Maryland. Her father is a retiredFord Motor Company dealership owner and her mother, a former nurse, is an end-of-lifedoula.^[3] She began playingharp at age seven and loved the music ofGustav Holst andAntonio Vivaldi. Her mother would playneo-soul artists such asErykah Badu andLauryn Hill. By the time she was in middle school, Rogers had added piano and guitar to her repertoire and began songwriting in eighth grade.^[4] For high school, she attendedThe Gunston School before attending and graduating fromSt. Andrew's School, aboarding school inMiddletown, Delaware. At school, she played harp in the orchestra, sang in the choir, joined a jazz band, learned banjo and became interested in folk music, and taught herself how to program. Rogers saw many of her first concerts atMerriweather Post Pavilion inColumbia, Maryland, includingMumford & Sons and theBlack Eyed Peas.^[5] She also spent many summers at a rural camp in Maine.^[6]

The summer after her junior year in high school, Rogers attended aBerklee College of Music program and won the program's songwriting contest, which spurred her to focus on writing.^[4] During her high school senior year, she made her television debut atDelmarvaLife and recorded what became her first album,The Echo (2012). Rogers included herdemos as part of her application to the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at theNew York University Tisch School of the Arts, was accepted, and started in 2012.^[3]

AtNYU, Rogers considered a career inmusic journalism, and in her first year, Rogers interned for music journalist Lizzy Goodman for whom she transcribed and edited hundreds of hours of interviews with major musicians and journalists, which were compiled into Goodman's 2017 bookMeet Me in the Bathroom.^[7] She formed a band calledDel Water Gap with singer-songwriter S. Holden Jaffe.^[8] They later split so that each could explore more solo work. Their song "New Song" appears onNotes from the Archive: Recordings 2011–2016 (2020).

Rogers released anotherfolk album,Blood Ballet (2014), during her second year at the school. Folk blog EarToTheGround Music explained that the album "...begs for listeners to confront deep personal emotions."^[9] Buzzkill Magazine explains that Rogers "really starts to find her folksy feet" with "Little Joys" fromBlood Ballet.^[10] Rogers studied abroad in France while at NYU and after friends convinced her to go clubbing while they were in Berlin, she discovered a love for dance music. When she returned home, Rogers started distilling elements of dance music into her work.^[11][12]

In 2016, after two years ofwriter's block,^[7] Rogers wrote "Alaska", a song she wrote in fifteen minutes about aNational Outdoor Leadership School course. She played the song forPharrell Williams, an artist-in-residence who visited her class to critique student work.^[13][14][3] Williams said of the song: "I've never heard anything that sounds like that."^[15] A video of a visibly moved Williams listening to the song wentviral that June, resulting in millions of views as well as hundreds of thousands of plays ofThe Echo andBlood Ballet.^[3][16] Rogers graduated from New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in May 2016 with a degree inmusic engineering and production and English.^[17][6][18]

In September 2021, Rogers tweeted that she had started graduate school atHarvard Divinity School, where she was "studying the spirituality of public gatherings and the ethics of power in pop culture" and to learn "how to keep art sacred".^[19][20][21] She graduated in May 2022 with a master's degree in religion and public life, writing a thesis which "examined cultural consciousness, the spirituality of public gathering and the ethics of pop power". Her 2022 studio album,Surrender, was a component of the thesis.^[19][22] From December 1, 2023, through May 31, 2024, Rogers was a Religion and Public Life Fellow at Harvard Divinity School. She spent this time expanding the writing and research of her MRPL degree, which explored the relationships of religion, spirituality, and pop culture from her vantage point as a performing artist.^[23]

After the Pharrell video went viral in 2016, several record labels tried to sign Rogers.^[3] She signed arecording contract withCapitol Records where "she licenses her music to them through her own imprint, Debay Sounds." As a result, she has more control over her sound and image than many artists at a similar place in their music careers.^[7] Rogers'EP,Now That the Light Is Fading, was released on February 17, 2017. She released her major-label debut studio album,Heard It in a Past Life, on January 18, 2019. The album debuted at No. 2 on the USBillboard 200.^[24][25] Rogers made herThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon debut on February 15, 2017,Saturday Night Live debut on November 3, 2018, andToday Show debut on July 12, 2019.^[26]

In April 2019, Rogers covered theTaylor Swift song "Tim McGraw" as aSpotify Single.^[27] On November 1, 2019, she guested withDead & Company, a rock band consisting of formerGrateful Dead members, performingcover versions of the latter's "Friend of the Devil" andthe Band's "The Weight" atMadison Square Garden in New York.^[28] Also in November 2019, Rogers earned a nomination forBest New Artist at the62nd Grammy Awards.^[29] Rogers performed during the2020 Democratic National Convention, appearing remotely fromScarborough, Maine due to theCOVID-19 pandemic in the United States. She was introduced bySpeaker of the Maine House of Representatives and2020 United States Senate election in Maine candidateSara Gideon.^[30]

On November 13, 2020, Rogers collaborated withPhoebe Bridgers on a cover version of theGoo Goo Dolls' 1998 single "Iris", which Bridgers said she would make ifDonald Trump lost the2020 United States elections.^[31][32] The song was released as a one-day exclusive onBandcamp and was downloaded 28,000 times at apay what you want cost, with all proceeds going toFair Fight Action.^[33][34] Despite only being available for purchase for one day, the song debuted at number one on theDigital Songs chart and No. 57 on theBillboard Hot 100, making it both artists' first entry on the latter chart.^[35] The song also charted inAustralia,New Zealand, andScotland.^[36][37][38]

On December 18, 2020, Rogers releasedNotes from the Archive: Recordings 2011–2016 via her label Debay Sounds. The album is a compilation of songs she wrote and recorded in the previous ten years of her recording career. Some of the songs are from her first two independently released albums:The Echo (2012) andBlood Ballet (2014). Other songs are from her previously unreleased 2016 rock EP and a band she was previously in with Holden Jaffe,Del Water Gap. The album was released along with a deluxe version in which Rogers provides an auditory commentary talking through each stage of her music career that the songs in that section reflect.^[39] Her second studio album,Surrender, was released on July 29, 2022. It includes the singles "That's Where I Am", "Want Want", and "Horses". The track "Shatter" featuresFlorence Welch ofFlorence and the Machine providing additional vocals and playing tambourine, and "I've Got a Friend" featuresClairo andClaud speaking.^[40]

On January 27, 2023, Rogers collaborated with American country starZach Bryan on the single “Dawns”.^[41] The single peaked at 42 on theBillboard Hot 100.^[42] On June 24, 2023, Rogers playedGlastonbury Festival, inSomerset,UK.^[43] On August 5, 2023, Rogers played atLollapalooza, inChicago, Illinois. On January 24, 2024, Rogers announced the February 8, 2024, release of "Don't Forget Me" as the first single of her third album. On April 12, 2024, Rogers released her third album,Don't Forget Me. The album was written over five days in December 2022 and January 2023. Rogers said of the album, "Some of these stories on this album are mine. And for the first time really, some of them are not. The moments that are mine feel like memories—glimpses from college, details from when I was 18, 22, 28 (I'm 29 now). In writing the album sequentially, at some point a character emerged."^[44]

Rogers citesCarrie Brownstein,Patti Smith,Kim Gordon ofSonic Youth, andBjörk as her musical inspirations,^[2] while prominent singersBrandi Carlile andSharon Van Etten — whom she calls her "musical big sisters" — have become mentors.^[45][46]

Headliner

• Heard It in a Past Life World Tour (2019)(supported byEmpress Of,Jacob Banks,Melanie Faye, andNow, Now)
  • Included stops atCoachella,Shaky Knees Music Festival,Forecastle Festival, andNewport Folk Festival^[47]
• The Feral Joy Tour (2022)(supported bySamia &Del Water Gap)
• Summer of '23 Tour (2023)(supported bySoccer Mommy &Alvvays)
• Don't Forget Me Tour (2024)(supported byThe Japanese House &Ryan Beatty)

Opening act

• Haim —Sister Sister Sister Tour (2018)
• Kacey Musgraves —Oh, What a World: Tour II (October 25, 2019)^[48]
• Mumford & Sons —Delta Tour (2018)
  • Leg 1 in Europe and Leg 2 in North America
• Coldplay –Music of the Spheres World Tour (2024)
  • Munich, Vienna and Dublin

Rogers has performed at festivals including:^[49]

• United States:All Things Go,Coachella,Governors Ball Music Festival,Lollapalooza,South by Southwest,Boston Calling Music Festival,Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival,Firefly Music Festival,Newport Folk Festival, andShaky Knees Music Festival.
• Europe:Glastonbury Festival inPilton, Somerset, England;Rock Werchter inWerchter, Belgium;Latitude Festival inHenham Park, UK; Citadel Festival inLondon;Down the Rabbit Hole inEwijk, Netherlands; and at the Main Square Festival inArras, France
• Canada:Osheaga Festival inMontreal, CanadaSommo Festival inCavendish, PEI, Canada
• Australia: Splendour in the Grass Festival inByron Bay,New South Wales

Rogers has stated that she hassynesthesia, a benign condition where two or more senses are perceived at once. In her case, she is able to perceive colors as a response to hearing music.^[50] Rogers says that she isspiritual, but not necessarily religious.^[51] In October 2019, Rogers purchased a 1,034 square-foot home in Los Angeles for $1.29 million.^[52]

Her song "Give a Little" was penned on the same day theNational School Walkout demanded congressional action ongun control. She was inspired by the activism of students across the nation, and wrote "Give a Little" about empathy and unity.^[53] Rogers has donated proceeds from certain merchandise and shows to theAmerican Civil Liberties Union andPlanned Parenthood. She has raised funds by chargingpay what you want for certain song downloads, including a cover of theGoo Goo Dolls'Iris withPhoebe Bridgers, with all proceeds going to charities such as the pro-choice Brigid Alliance andFair Fight Action, which supportssuffrage.^[54] She has stated that she is "proudly, loudly and distinctlypro-choice".^[55][56]

Rogers performed at the2020 Democratic National Convention.^[57] In a post on Twitter that night, she endorsedSara Gideon, who introduced her performance, in the2020 United States Senate election in Maine.^[58] While on her Don't Forget Me Tour, MarylandGovernorWes Moore proclaimed June 16, 2024, as Maggie Rogers Day in the state, citing her work registering voters, championing women's reproductive rights, and fighting for fair concert ticket pricing.^[5] Rogers endorsedKamala Harris for the2024 election, and performed for her at a rally inAnn Arbor.^[59][60]

•   Media related toMaggie Rogers at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website
• Maggie Rogers atAllMusic
• Maggie Rogers discography atDiscogs 
• Maggie Rogers atIMDb
• Rogers' 2011 performance at Berklee of "Anybody," winner of 2011 Berklee Songwriting Contest
• Rogers playing "Alaska" in 2016 for Pharrell Williams at NYU, full 31-minute version of video – Pharrell Williams Masterclass with Students at NYU Clive Davis Institute – Rogers starts at 18:12
• Rogers' 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Concert