Lights Went Out is debut single from Aurora’s Fortini

July 23, 2026 · 0 Comments

Relationships can be a challenge to navigate at the best of times, but when everyone around you has an opinion, no matter how well-intentioned, things can sometimes get away from you.

Aurora’s Laura Fortini was just 15 years old when she found herself lying in bed one Labour Day weekend with a few “what-ifs” on her mind.

At the time, she was thinking about rekindling a romance, but wondered how different things would be if they could simply focus on themselves rather than everyone around them.

“How would that go? What would that look like?” she recalls.

Fortini, now 23, explored the answers to those questions, as she centres many things, around music and the result is the local singer-songwriter’s debut single, Lights Went Out.

“The thought was extremely exciting to me because, at the time, I was more of a reserved, slightly nervous individual because I had dealt with some past trauma, socially,” says Fortini of pondering the what-ifs. “I was daydreaming about this, got the lyrics in my head, opened my journal and started writing them down and, as I was doing that, I got an entire soundscape for just the song in my head. I didn’t have a producer or anything at the time, I was just able to write it on my guitar, put the lyrics down in my notebook. I waited until I had a producer, which was years after the fact, to be even able to think about possibly recording it – and now that it’s out, I love it and it’s so much fun.”

Fortini’s love of music has been a long-running, consistent passion in her life.

By the age of six, she was actively taking piano and voice lessons, going on to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music, where she continues concurrently at York University where she is now studying English, History and Humanities.

While she’s actively hitting the books and pursuing her post-secondary degree, she says music is still the best way she can fully express herself.

“I’ve been song-writing for a little bit over a decade now and genuinely since I started it was just this revelation,” she says. “You never know what other people are going to say about it, you can’t really predict or guarantee any of the responses you’re going to get. Every time I would play something that I wrote, or showed somebody a lyric, it always seemed like my position, circumstance, and sentiment on how I felt, whatever the situation was, whether they knew about the situation previously. It always felt like people understood me the most without having to make me change anything about myself in the process. It was allowed to be raw, honest, and open, and it’s always been the most cathartic and therapeutic. It entirely shapes the way I approach all types of scenarios – and even people.

“It has always felt like the most fully-fledged, multifaceted kind of opportunity for me to just kind of lay everything on the table and sort of examine it and make myself aware of it, as well as make other people aware of it if I want to share it with them. It’s just felt like the most helpful modem, and honestly, it’s really just the best thing on earth.”

One of the people who had advance knowledge of Lights Went Out was dropping was the man at the other side of what Fortini describes as “the situation” within the song. She says he’s been fully supportive of the journey and all it represents.

“This song is definitely a little bit more outside my normal kind of area of writing – it’s a lot more outgoing and it’s what I call my version of a ‘flirty’ song. I wanted this to be put out in the summer because I feel this song has the most energy that can relate to people the most and, for a radio song, if we want to put it there, it’s most similar to the romantic vibes of other people’s songs that are popular right now. It’s definitely energetic, reflective, and nostalgic, so I hope other people can see themselves and that sort of light when they’re listening to this.”

To take in the official music video for Lights Went Out, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDv1lnqIYKI.

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter