AceShowbiz - Ten years ago, Maggie Rogers was a senior at New York University struggling to complete a music-production class she was close to failing. At a pivotal moment, Pharrell Williams was a guest critic in her class. She performed a song titled "Alaska," which she had written in roughly 15 minutes. The track blended folk songwriting with the electronic influences she had absorbed while studying in Berlin. Pharrell’s reaction was remarkable—he said he'd never heard anything like it. The performance was captured on video, which quickly went viral, propelling Maggie Rogers into the spotlight and launching her pop career.

Since that breakthrough, Maggie Rogers has released three studio albums and earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Beyond music, she pursued further education, earning a master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School where she explored the spirituality behind public gatherings. In recent months, she has been active both on and off stage—advocating for free speech in Washington, D.C., performing at a massive protest in Minneapolis alongside Joan Baez for an audience of 200,000 people, and delivering a memorable performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert shortly before its conclusion on CBS in May.

This month, I had the opportunity to interview Maggie Rogers in front of a class of NYU music students, reflecting on the song that started it all and how it resonates with her today.

When asked about what "Alaska" meant to her then and what it means now, Maggie Rogers explained the background of the song’s creation. She described a period during her junior year when she was not actively making music and had shifted focus to her English major. Having spent her first two years in bands, she needed a break from music, a cycle she’s come to recognize repeats every five or six years. Her music-production professor, Nick Sansano, encouraged her to re-engage with the class after warning that she was at risk of failing.

With only two months left in school, Maggie Rogers wrote "Alaska"—her first song in two years—and it was just three days old when she played it for Pharrell. She shared that she showed the song to her college roommate, Mary, who remains a collaborator. At the time, Maggie Rogers felt uncertain about the song, thinking it was too pop-oriented and outside her comfort zone. Interestingly, the song that would define her early career was essentially an experiment, a playful exploration rather than a fully formed expression of her artistry.

Despite her rising fame, Maggie Rogers found the situation complicated and even awkward, especially given how much she respected her classmates who had been dedicating themselves to the program. The intimate nature of the program and the close relationships made her sudden burst into recognition feel strange at first.

When discussing performing "Alaska" live, Maggie Rogers shared that she has performed the song many times. She highlighted two lyrical moments in the second verse that continue to hold special significance for her: the line "Learn to talk and say whatever I wanted to," which she often riffs on during live performances, and the phrase "I thought it was a dream," which she has found resonates deeply, symbolizing the surreal experience of being both a student and an emerging artist. She described that feeling as still relevant today, a dreamlike state she continues to navigate.

Reflecting on the media landscape of 2016, which was before TikTok and the rapid viral culture it ushered in, Maggie Rogers considered whether a moment like hers could happen today. She believes it still could, but noted that she took a slow approach after the video went viral in May 2016—she didn’t release "Alaska" officially until September, and her first full record didn’t come out until January 2019. She toured extensively on just five songs from her EP, focusing on building a sustainable connection with her audience rather than rushing to fame.

When pressed on whether she would want such a sudden burst of attention to happen again, Maggie Rogers was candid. She admitted she would not wish that experience on anyone, highlighting the unnaturalness of the internet’s fast-paced attention. She expressed gratitude toward her support system—friends, bandmates, mental health professionals, and managers—who helped her navigate the fear and intensity of that time. While she wouldn’t change her past, she recognized that her ability to cope better came partly because the pandemic later provided a forced pause in her career.