Steady on now folks it isn’t Mr Kilmister, paying us a visit from the other side, and he spelt it differently anyway, but this young Norwegian lady out of Bergen who calls herself Lemi is making waves of her own with some bold and fearless pop.
Her debut single, ‘Daggers’, was released only at the beginning of March, followed by ‘Baggage’ a few weeks later and her style was established early as one of contrasting childhood nostalgia with adulthood reality and the need to put the worry-free days behind her. As you do when you’re 18.
But there is a more striking explanation behind this third single, ‘Bear’, which was set in motion by a viral debate on TikTok which arcanely asked whether you would let your daughter walk alone in the forest with a bear or a strange man. That’s the choice, plain and simple. One or the other.
My answer would be that she accompanies that charming young man from around the corner, you know the one I mean, the MBA student at Harvard being mentored by Elon Musk who is also an Olympic athlete, is trialing for Real Madrid and who works tirelessly for child and animal charities when he isn’t organising relief convoys to Ukraine and Gaza, some of which he drives himself. He has been seen coming out of a telephone box in a dark blue T-shirt with a large letter S logo.
Unfortunately in TikTok’s bizarre world he doesn’t come into the equation where your daughter is concerned; only bears and strange men.
And so many people that use that infernal device get sucked into its nonsense. It appears she read one comment that said, ”To all the women stupid enough to choose the bear, I hope you get raped”, prompting her to channel her fury and personal heartbreak into ‘Bear’.
To be fair though she turns that weird online debate into a serious issue that demands your attention, zeroing in on women’s experiences of threat and violence.
And the song comes at a critical moment here in the UK. It is not widely know yet in the Nordics, but it soon will be that there is a growing movement here for a national level enquiry into child grooming and mass, multiple gang rape on an industrial scale over at least three decades, across most of the country and with one estimate that 250,000 children, mainly girls, were involved.
When the truth is finally out many nationally known names will find their careers in tatters and that will be the least of their problems.
Inadvertently, Lemi has tapped into this debacle in a foreign country with a song that also raises uncomfortable questions about the treatment of survivors – questions like what she was wearing (or not wearing), whether her actions were responsible for the outcome (that is exactly what happened in the UK) while also acknowledging that the bear, unlike the ‘human’ would not try to gaslight and manipulate her, so would actually be the preferred choice for that walk in the woods for that fact alone.
In conclusion she says that ‘Bear’ is the song she needed to write because it highlights what it feels like to live in a world where you are always calculating danger — and how often the real monsters look just like ordinary folk.
“Torn dress on a summer’s day; should have known not to come round anyway”. I wonder just how many kids here can relate to that. It should be played to M’lud the learned judge and the jury before each of these trials begins. And again at the end, when the convictions are secured.
Musically, it isn’t easy to classify. There are rap-like elements in the verses and a sort of trap beat-lite as if it is giving the finger to gangster rap and its perennial down on women. But it also contains some quite complex dark passages towards the end that might have been lifted from prog or symphonic metal.
‘Creating pop music that doesn’t always follow the rules!’ is her moniker and she can carry on breaking those rules as long as she likes where I’m concerned.
We’ve featured several Norwegian artists recently that are operating at the cutting edge, like Bellefolie and Tulle. You can add Lemi to their number with confidence.
‘Bear’ is released via Made Music (the new imprint from Made Management). She is currently working on her debut EP.
Find her on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lemimusic_
We don’t often advise TikTok links but as that platform initiated the song, on this occasion: https://www.tiktok.com/@lemimusic_
