Have you heard the one about the Swedish woman, the Englishwoman and the Danish woman?
Get ready for the punch line – they’re all the same person!
When you’ve stopped laughing, may I introduce you to (My) Helmner (Smedstrup), of whom you’ve never heard (until today) but who counts the Spice Girls’ producer and Lewis Capaldi amongst her musical acquaintances.
This is her debut song, in Danish. I know Danish and Swedish are similar languages but there’s story here, stick with me.
She was supposed to debut a few years ago in English, when everything was set for an international career with Sony UK, having travelled to the UK as a youngster specifically for that purpose and with great expectations thrust upon her.
But it didn’t work out that way. Now how many times have we heard that, and especially where big labels are concerned (the case of Amy Studt is an exemplar)?
Anyway, she was seized by doubts and sought alternative paths, but eventually rediscovered her love for music and now based in Denmark, where she has lived for almost five years after completing her education in Sweden.
That’s a heartwarming story in its own right but more to the point she clearly is a great songwriter and performer. ‘Langsomt stiger solen’ (‘Slowly the sun rises’), co-written with Jonas H Petersen, is a morbid song about death, and possibly hinting at having suicidal tendencies, but one equally replete with hope as a rising sun suggests.
What’s more she’s still prepared to go for it and take a risk, because Danes do not necessarily take “unregulated variations” in their native language lightly.
(You only have to have watched TV’s finest ever cop drama, The Bridge, to know that. How many times did the Copenhagen Politiet and the Malmö Polis fall out over a misunderstanding while working on the same case?)
She says “I have really found my tone through the Danish language” and I have to agree; and not just vocally. There’s a brilliant juxtaposition of what might be a harmonium, synth, innovative percussion and ethereal voices in the opening bars that sets the scene perfectly.
After that it slowly unfolds into a slow burner of an anthem that is a perfect representation of what it’s like to take off from Manchester Airport (where it is always, cloudy, grey and miserable) and then suddenly burst into clear blue sky and sunshine – while never losing sight of the precious, catchy melody on which it hangs.
I hope she isn’t offended if I say that with just a modicum of tinkering to length and outro I would have been happy to hear this as Denmark’s Eurovision entry this year. It ticks all the boxes. Delightful.
I’d love to hear her singing in English. And Sony needs a revisit.
(Continues after the Spotify link).
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/my.helmner
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myhelmner/
