The last 18 months has been dominated by female-led Scandipop, a genre so brimming with sugar-spun vocal perfection that it’s the first port of call for producers seeking “features” for otherwise anonymous tracks. Sigrid Raabe could end up as a featured artist at some point, but she is cut from more characterful cloth than many.

The 20-year-old from Ålesund, on Norway’s west coast, marks her first London headliner by noting her origins: Norwegian flags poke out of the synth consoles, and, because today is the country’s Constitution Day, there is a rendition of the national anthem. It is mountain climbing music, bracingly delivered (and sung along to by half those present, giving a clue as to the predominant nationality of the sold-out house). And “bracing” also applies to the rest of the set.

Sigrid’s main attribute tonight is that she packs a punch. She is quietly cut-up during the acoustic ballad Dynamite – a potential companion piece to Adele’s Someone Like You – and rigid with post-relationship distaste on the clattering Plot Twist. She’s capable of gymnastics (perhaps literally: there’s a fluid physicality seen in few pop singers), but reins in her voice until the big build of her best-known song, Don’t Kill My Vibe. Three minutes of side-eye inspired by two older songwriters who patronised her, tonight it’s both a weary sneer and a flexing of muscles: when it abruptly ends and she flits off stage with a terse “Good night”, she leaves behind a pop star-shaped void.

• At Coalition, Brighton, 18 May, as part of the Great Escape festival. Then at Wagner Hall, 19 May. Tickets: 0127-346 8200.