Music of Denmark
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Denmark is a Nordic country that has long been a center of cultural innovation. Its capital, Copenhagen, and its multiple outlying islands have a wide range of folk traditions, while an extensive recording industry has produced pop stars and a host of performers from a multitude of genres.
Pop
The Danish band that have had the biggest impact outside of Denmark itself, is the pop group Aqua, even though the vocalist, Lene Nystrøm, is Norwegian. Aqua is the most famous Danish pop-act through time with their worldwide hits Barbie Girl, Doctor Jones, Turn Back Time etc. which made them a part of the Europop scene. Other Danish exporting pop-artists/bands that have attained international popularity, due to at least one international hit single, are:
Inez, Lazyboy, Laid Back, Bent Fabric, Laban, Sir Henry and his Butlers, Clifters, Nina & Frederick, Jan & Kjeld, Singing Dogs, Brigitte Nielsen, Gitte Hænning, Jørgen Ingmann, Filur, Funkstar De Luxe, Infernal, DJ Aligator Project (born in Iran), E.T.A., Dr. Baker, Lucas, Toy-Box, Daze, Tiggy, Jay-Kid, Zididada, Musikk, Viro, Mirah, Trolle & Siebenhaar, Anna David, Natural Born Hippies, Los Umbrellos, Hit 'N' Hide, JamPack, Little Trees, Creamy, Cut 'N' Move, Whigfield, Juice, Safri Duo, Outlandish, Alphabeat, Junior Senior, Cartoons, S.O.A.P., Nice Device, Kristine Blond, Bryan Rice and Natasha Thomas. Artists/bands such as Thomas Barsøe, Maria Montell, The Walkers, Bombay Rockers, The Pockets, C21, Me & My & Michael Learns to Rock (MLTR) have also enjoyed great success in the East.
Also Enur feat. Natasha, Dj Encore feat. Engelina, Brother Brown feat. Frank'ee, Morjac feat. Raz Conway, Trentemøller feat. Ane Trolle, Marly, Mike Polo, Barcode Brothers and Hampenberg have had dance hits outside of Denmark. In 2007 the Danish singers Camille Jones and Ida Corr each had an international hit after being remixed by the Dutch house DJ Fedde le Grand. The Danish musicians Sanne Salomonsen, Lis Sørensen, Hanne Boel, Kim Larsen, Gasolin' and the Four Jacks have had hits all over Scandinavia. Popular Danish musicians locally are Søs Fenger, Anne Linnet, Birthe Kjær, Tommy Seebach, Michael Falch, Poul Krebs, Lars Lilholt, Bamse, Dodo & The Dodos, Tøsedrengene, Lars H.U.G., C.V. Jørgensen, Sebastian and Nik & Jay. Perhaps the most popular and longest-standing Danish musicians locally are Kim Larsen, Shu-Bi-Dua, TV·2, Gnags and Thomas Helmig.
The perhaps most famous football anthem in Denmark is "Re-Sepp-Ten", which was the anthem of the Denmark national football team for the 1986 FIFA World Cup. The anthem was a big hit in both Denmark and in Norway. Ever since there has been made a football anthem for the Denmark national football team each time they have qualified for either the World Cup or the European Championship. However, none of these anthems have made an impact outside of the country.
Denmark also participates in the annual Eurovision Song Contest, and holds its own Dansk Melodi Grand Prix competition to select the song that will represent Denmark in the Eurovision contest. Denmark has won the Eurovision Song Contest twice: first with Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann's "Dansevise" in 1963; and won again with Brødrene Olsen's (Olsen Brothers) "Fly on the Wings of Love" (from the Danish Smuk Som Et Stjerneskud, literally "Beautiful as a shooting star") in 2000.
Some hit songs with Danish origin have becomed international hits after being covered by foreign artists. Vengaboys covered The Walkers' "Shalala Lala", Jamelia covered Christine Milton's "Superstar", Shayne Ward covered Bryan Rice's "No Promises" and Celine Dion covered Tim Christensen's "Right Next To The Right One". Different covers of Rune's "Calabria" have also been international hits.
Underground Music Scenes
In the largest cities of Denmark, the underground music scene flourishes. On the main peninsula of Jutland, the underground music scene is based around a variety of genres ranging from electronic music to more extreme genres like Death metal and Black metal, which are particularly prominent in the city of Aarhus. Copenhagen has a somewhat more typical spectrum of genres, most notably various forms of metal music, experimental music and punk rock. Because of the anti-solemn spirit of the Danish underground, fusions between different types of music continuously take place. However, unlike the neighbouring country of Sweden, Danish underground music is little known outside of Scandinavia, few token bands aside.
See also
