Who is Sigrid and Why is She the Next Big Thing in Music?

[BillTre]

For Thanksgiving Day:

 

[DennisN]

I still love this song so much... and it is an awesome, intimate live performance.
She sings her heart out .

 

[DennisN]

I am not that much into Coldplay, but this one seemed really good:

I love the way you look at me

I like Coldplay, they've done some great songs. Here are three of my favorites, Speed of Sound ,God Put A Smile On Your Face and Talk:

Coldplay - Speed Of Sound (Official Video)


and a live version of it:

Coldplay - Speed Of Sound (Live From Austin City)


Coldplay - God Put A Smile Upon Your Face


And "Talk", with a vintage science fiction feel in the video:

Coldplay - Talk


Edit: By the way, Chris Martin, the singer in Coldplay is a very funny and charming guy, I've seen quite many interviews with him. And I posted a hilarious sketch Coldplay did in collaboration with Game of Thrones regarding doing a musical of the tv series. Here's the post.

 

[DennisN]

If I had top 10 songs list (which I don't), this one would most likely be on it:
(the audio is actually mastered by me, the video quality is regretfully not the best, but I haven't found any better source video yet)

David Bowie - Life On Mars? (Live, mastered)

 

[DennisN]

This is another song (instrumental) that I have loved ever since it was released in 1998.
This is an awesome live version which gets funky and eventually quite rocky even though it's electronica/downtempo. Also audio mastered by me (today actually) and the video is great quality (HD).

Air - La Femme d'Argent (Live at Canal+ 2016, HD, remastered)

 

[DennisN]

I am actually not very fond of much Swedish music, I am much more into UK and US music.
Musically I feel like I should have been born in UK , there are VERY many UK bands and artists that I like a lot.

Though we have some great artists in Sweden like ABBA of course, Robyn, Kent, Lisa Miskovsky and Veronica Maggio. I don't know if Veronica Maggio is well known outside Scandinavia, but if she isn't, she should be. She is a great composer, singer and performer.

Here is a Swedish pop song I like very much, by Petra Marklund. I like both the alluringly simple lyrics and the composition, which have great hooks and a very good chorus. The verse is a bit sad, thoughtful and cynical, but then the chorus comes in and cleans the sadness away with daredevil happiness, basically saying that this night we can forget the past and live in the moment instead.

The song also has a strange feeling to it, sounding both old fashioned and modern at the same time. I like that a lot. Here is a video of it with both Swedish and English lyrics shown side by side:

Petra Marklund - Händerna mot himlen (Eng: Hands to the sky)

 

[WWGD]

I am actually not very fond of much Swedish music, I am much more into UK and US music.
Musically I feel like I should have been born in UK , there are VERY many UK bands and artists that I like a lot.

Though we have some great artists in Sweden like ABBA of course, Robyn, Kent and Veronica Maggio. I don't know if Veronica Maggio is well known outside Scandinavia, but if she isn't, she should be. She is a great composer, singer and performer.

Here is a Swedish pop song I like very much, by Petra Marklund. I like both the alluringly simple lyrics and the composition, which have great hooks and a very good chorus. The song also has a strange feeling to it, sounding both old fashioned and modern at the same time. I like that a lot.
Here is a video of it with both Swedish and English lyrics shown side by side:

Petra Marklund - Händerna mot himlen (Eng: Hands to the sky)

All other things being equal, UK has around 70 million people to Sweden's 10, so you'd expect to get 7x better bands from the UK . In the US the ratio is around 32x. Would be nice to see if ratio holds.

 

[DennisN]

All other things being equal, UK has around 70 million people to Sweden's 10, so you'd expect to get 7x better bands from the UK . In the US the ratio is around 32x.

True. But I think my personal ratio differs significantly from the expected ratio .

I just did a check on my facebook page for fun and counted the music artists I've listed as favorites.
This was the result:

UK: 17
(The Beatles, Rolling Stones, ELO, Dire Straits, The Cult, Radiohead, Portishead, Nothing But Thieves, Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey, David Bowie, The House of Love, The Verve, Zero 7, Massive Attack, Coldplay, Muse)

Ireland: 1 (U2)

US: 14
(Iggy Pop, Khruangbin, Cigarettes After Sex, Beach House, Monster Magnet, Guns N' Roses , Infected Mushroom, Börns, R.E.M., Billie Eilish, Greta Van Fleet, Tycho, Queens of the Stone Age, Pixies)

Sweden: 3 (it fits with your calculation*) (Cult of Luna, Eggstone, Vibrasphere)
France: 2 (Air, Jean Michel Jarre)
Norway: 2 (Amethystium, Sigrid)
Canada: 1 (Grimes)
Germany: 1 (Booka Shade)
Greece: 1 (Keep Shelly In Athens)
Australia: 1 (AC/DC)
Netherlands: 1 (Easily Embarrassed)

* It fits approximately with your ratio calculation of 7x for UK, since 3x7 = 21, and I counted 17 artists from the UK. Though what I have listed on facebook is far from all artists I like, I have a HUGE music library, quite dominated by the UK and US .

 

[WWGD]

True. But I think my personal ratio differs significantly from the expected ratio .

I just did a check on my facebook page for fun and counted the music artists I've listed as favorites.
This was the result:

UK: 17
(The Beatles, Rolling Stones, ELO, Dire Straits, The Cult, Radiohead, Portishead, Nothing But Thieves, Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey, David Bowie, The House of Love, The Verve, Zero 7, Massive Attack, Coldplay, Muse)

Ireland: 1 (U2)

US: 14
(Iggy Pop, Khruangbin, Cigarettes After Sex, Beach House, Monster Magnet, Guns N' Roses , Infected Mushroom, Börns, R.E.M., Billie Eilish, Greta Van Fleet, Tycho, Queens of the Stone Age, Pixies)

Sweden: 3 (it fits with your calculation*) (Cult of Luna, Eggstone, Vibrasphere)
France: 2 (Air, Jean Michel Jarre)
Norway: 2 (Amethystium, Sigrid)
Canada: 1 (Grimes)
Germany: 1 (Booka Shade)
Greece: 1 (Keep Shelly In Athens)
Australia: 1 (AC/DC)
Netherlands: 1 (Easily Embarrassed)

* It fits approximately with your ratio calculation of 7x for UK, since 3x7 = 21, and I counted 17 artists from the UK. Though what I have listed on facebook is far from all artists I like, I have a HUGE music library, quite dominated by the UK and US .

It would be interesting to figure out the factors. It may be too that English-speaking bands have an additional advantage bevause there are way more speakers worldwide. But I suspect that Rock music is more intrinsically part of Anglo culture than others, but that is just a (slightly)-educated guess.

 

[DennisN]

I am actually not very fond of much Swedish music

Though we have some great artists in Sweden like ... Kent,

Here is another Swedish song, "999" that I wanted to share with you... if you are not from Scandinavia it is very likely you have never heard it (and never will, unless you click it below in this post ).

It is in my opinion one of the best songs composed in Scandinavia ever, by the Swedish alternative rock band Kent. They sing in Swedish, but they tried to do some English versions of some songs, but they did not break through internationally.

This song is called "999" and it is musically a great composition, but what really makes this song great is the very thoughtful, deep and introspective lyrics;

It is about so many relatable things. It is about growing up and seeing that all the things you remember from the past has now disappeared and are only in your memory. And it is also about not being quite true to yourself; that there are some things you now realize you have done, which you once promised yourself to never do. The words in the chorus are simple, but say so much:

(my translation to English)

The 999 things I said I would never do
Are balanced by the 999 worse things I've done

The 999 things I said I would never do
Are balanced by the 999 worse things I already have done

Here is a video with the entire great lyrics, with Swedish and English lyrics side by side:
(don't miss this one if you are interested in deep, introspective lyrics )

999 - Kent (Swedish & English lyrics)
And here is an awesome live studio version:

Kent - 999 (liveversion)
If this song was ever recorded in English, I think it would have a great potential for success.
At least in the UK. Maybe in the US too, I don't know.
It is one of my absolute all time favorite songs from Scandinavia.

Cheers!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: I found an entire translation of the lyrics to English here.

English lyrics: (I modified it into better English)

All my life I have heard a song
A lullaby you once sang
All my life I have relied on myself
But now I need your help
All my life I have heard a song
A song my mother once sang
All my life I have tried to think for myself
But I won't get any further without your help

All my thoughts are revolving around sick things

Those dreams we dreamt came from bordering countries past the barbed wire
Where the trenches were dug when someone else built the country while we slept
Now we are awake but we don't recognize ourselves
They have torn up our streets, burnt down the playgrounds
Where we hung out as kids
How ever far you have come
There is always longer to go

There was a light that never burned out
In the songs from my childhood
For my whole life I have relied on my luck
But I can never wriggle myself out of this

And all of our ideals come from a pink Eighties

Now we are thinking of travels, White Nights, Ian Curtis
Are you Michael Jackson? Or Michael Bolton?
Are you Pepsi? Do you have Coke?
Are you lonely in your nakedness, your bruises and calluses
You have goosebumps because you are freezing
Is this the best that life have to give?
How ever far you have come
There is always longer to go

All my thoughts are revolving around expensive things

Oh baby where have you been
We have already lit the grill
We have waited here in the rain for something that is not happening
And never will happen
It is just a vague feeling
That something has been lost
That we wasted our best times on envy
This is as far as we have come

The 999 things I said I would never do
Are balanced by the 999 worse things I've done

The 999 things I said I would never do
Are balanced by the 999 worse things I already have done

 

[DennisN]

Sweden: 3 (it fits with your calculation*) (Cult of Luna, Eggstone, Vibrasphere)

And here is another recent song released by the Swedish band Eggstone. I actually know them. When I was in a band once, we recorded a demo in their studio Tambourine Studios. This song is a great composition with very relatable lyrics in English.

Eggstone - The Late:
And here's another good Swedish band, The Cardigans, which I actually have shared rehearsing studio with once a long time ago. I remember that the bassist in the group was a huge fan of The Verve, just like me. This is a video with The Cardigans, heavily influenced by the first Star Wars movie :

The Cardigans - Erase & Rewind:

 

[Spinnor]

 

[DennisN]

The Cardigans did some great songs, here's an early one:

And this one "You're The Storm" is probably my favorite with them, I like the chorus very much:

 

[DennisN]

I audio mastered and uploaded this classic song today, it was a pure joy to do .
He was an awesome performer...

Jimi Hendrix - Johnny B. Goode (Live, remastered)

 

[Spinnor]

Live version,



The studio version,



Pretty sharp lead guitar in the studio version.

 

[fresh_42]

One for the holidays:

 

[DennisN]

From the White Album, one of the best albums ever made in my opinion.

 

[Spinnor]

 

[Spinnor]

 

[pinball1970]

Something a bit xmassy for the non Maria Carey fan

 

[pinball1970]

I think this was released at Xmas

 

[pinball1970]

And this

 

[pinball1970]

He fluffs a note at the end on the solo but still a lovely little tune

 

[pinball1970]

I knew was something nice going on with chords on this but could not work them out as the sound was very synth watery like.

 

[Spinnor]

Summer began in the southern hemisphere and the days are getting longer "up" here.

 

[Spinnor]

Like the lead guitar starting at 2:22.

Edit, first result of search below, The Youngbloods, Darkness Darkness.

https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=darkness+darkness



lyrics from, https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/138931/

Darkness darkness, be my pillow
Take my head and let me sleep
In the coolness of your shadow
In the silence of your dream

Darkness darkness, hide my yearning
For the things that cannot be
Keep my mind from constant turning
Towards the things I cannot see now
Towards the things I cannot see now
The things I cannot see now

Darkness darkness, long and lonesome
Is the day brings me here
I have found the edge of sadness
I have known the depths of fear

Darkness darkness, be my blanket
Cover my with the endless night
Take away away the pain of knowing
Fill the emptiness of right now
The emptiness of right now
Fill the emptiness of right now

Darkness darkness, be my pillow
Take my head and let me sleep
In the coolness of my shadow
In the silence of my dream

Darkness darkness, be my blanket
Cover my with the endless night
Take away away the pain of knowing
Fill the emptiness of right now
In the emptiness of right now
In the emptiness of right now

 

[Spinnor]

 

[DennisN]

I just heard this song and I think it was awesome, I instantly fell in love with it!
It's a Scottish band called CHRVCHES. I got the suggestion from one of my subscribers (who is a big fan of Sigrid like me) on my live music youtube channel.

The vocals here remind me a bit of Kate Bush, actually, @pinball1970 ...

CHVRCHES - Never Ending Circles (lyric video)

 

[DennisN]

And here's another good and quite suggestive song I recently discovered (it was another one of my subscribers who suggested it)...
I like it a lot:

CLOVES - Don't Forget About Me (Official Video)

 

[DennisN]

It's a Scottish band called CHRVCHES.

Darn, this Scottish band is just great, how can I have missed them before?
I just now discovered this song by them, great songwriting, and sublime, heavenly vocals:

CHVRCHES - Heaven/Hell