Austra shares new short film 'Chin Up Buttercup: The Movie'
9th January 2026
After releasing her first album in five years, Chin Up Buttercup—praised by Pitchfork as “a graduation, a moment where years of steadily expanding Austra’s sound has led to a monumental payoff”—Austra, the pop project of Canadian vocalist and composer Katie Stelmanis, returns today with a short film, Chin Up Buttercup: The Movie.
Written by and starring Stelmanis, and directed by Hedia Maron, the short film expands on the emotional world of the album through new visuals, behind-the-scenes footage from the album’s photoshoots, and poetic voiceovers. Featured tracks include “Amnesia” and “Chin Up Buttercup,” as well as an acoustic live snippet of “The Hopefulness of Dawn,” offering a deeper entry point into Chin Up Buttercup.
Stelmanis comments: "I had planned to make a video of some sort using bts footage, and with the help of director/editor hedia maron, the idea spiraled into a wild no-budget movie making adventure."
The release of Chin Up Buttercup: The Movie coincides with Austra’s 2026 tour of North America, the EU, and UK, kicking off with three sold-out shows in Ottawa, Montreal, and Brooklyn. Tickets are available at austra.fyi.
AUSTRA 2026 TOUR
1/9: Club Saw - Ottawa, ON *SOLD OUT*
1/10: La Sala Rossa - Montreal, QC *SOLD OUT*
1/11: Baby’s All Right - Brooklyn, NY *SOLD OUT*
1/12: Baby’s All Right – Brooklyn, NY
1/13: Beachland Ballroom & Tavern - Cleveland, OH
1/14: The Magic Bag - Ferndale, MI
1/16: Sleeping Village - Chicago, IL
1/17: 7th Street Entry - Minneapolis, MN
1/20: 29th Street Ballroom - Austin, TX
1/21: Club Dada - Dallas, TX
1/23: The Roxy Theatre - West Hollywood, CA
1/24: The Independent - San Francisco, CA
1/26: Mississippi Studios - Portland, OR
1/27: Madame Lou’s - Seattle, WA
1/29: Rickshaw Theatre - Vancouver, BC
1/31: The Great Hall - Toronto, ON *SOLD OUT*
2/6: Foro Indie Rocks - Cuauhtémoc, MX
2/7: C3 Rooftop - Guadalajara, MX
2/28: Sala Villanos - Madrid, ES
3/1: La Nau - Barcelona, ES
3/3: L’Epicerie Moderne - Fezyin (Lyon), FR
3/4: La Maroquinerie - Paris, FR
3/5: Le Grand Mix - Tourcoing, FR
3/7: Botanique - Rotonde - Brussels, BE
3/8: Mojo Club - Hamburg, DE
3/9: Hotel Cecil - Copenhagen, DK
3/10: Slatkyrkan - Stockholm, SE
3/12: Kesselhaus - Berlin, DE
3/13: Hydrozagadka - Warsaw, PL
3/14: Subzero - Prague, CZ
3/17: Technikum - Munich, DE
3/18: Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld (CBE) - Köln, DE
3/19: Melkweg - Amsterdam, NL
3/21: Stereo - Glasgow, UK
3/22: The White Hotel - Salford, UK
3/23: Village Underground - London, UK
3/25: The Workman’s Club – Dublin, IE
3/26: Flux – Vienna, AT
Austra Chin Up Buttercup
Album | 14th November 2025
“I’m so chaotic in love,” sings Katie Austra Stelmanis on “Amnesia,” the cinematic opening track of Chin Up Buttercup, the fifth album by her alter ego and longtime pop project Austra. You know Austra’s astonishing voice – singular and operatic, it betrays a fearlessness and sophistication. She’s the woman you’d be afraid to approach in a bar. Her voice draws you like a siren to the dance floor as the beats build toward the hypnotic chorus of “my life is not the same without you in my arms.” Listen closely and you’ll hear a vulnerability that sets this album apart from her earlier work. This is a grief album you can dance to.
Stelmanis and co-producer Kieran Adams shared a mutual love of pop divas, Eurodance and hard-to-find techno. Madonna’s 1998 album Ray of Light, produced by William Orbit, was a key influence in the later stages of album making: “Ray of Light was produced almost entirely on a Juno-106 and a Korg MS-20 which we’d been using, so the reference point was aligned,” says Stelmanis. The album sounds like a mix of hypnotic dance floor anthems and elegant melodies to soothe your broken heart.
Austra Chin Up Buttercup
Album | 14th November 2025
“I’m so chaotic in love,” sings Katie Austra Stelmanis on “Amnesia,” the cinematic opening track of Chin Up Buttercup, the fifth album by her alter ego and longtime pop project Austra. You know Austra’s astonishing voice – singular and operatic, it betrays a fearlessness and sophistication. She’s the woman you’d be afraid to approach in a bar. Her voice draws you like a siren to the dance floor as the beats build toward the hypnotic chorus of “my life is not the same without you in my arms.” Listen closely and you’ll hear a vulnerability that sets this album apart from her earlier work. This is a grief album you can dance to.
Stelmanis and co-producer Kieran Adams shared a mutual love of pop divas, Eurodance and hard-to-find techno. Madonna’s 1998 album Ray of Light, produced by William Orbit, was a key influence in the later stages of album making: “Ray of Light was produced almost entirely on a Juno-106 and a Korg MS-20 which we’d been using, so the reference point was aligned,” says Stelmanis. The album sounds like a mix of hypnotic dance floor anthems and elegant melodies to soothe your broken heart.
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