Just in time for the summer beach season comes Marte Eberson with a new song that sounds like the sort of thing that emerges out of the speakers at those straw roofed beach coffee bars. You know what I mean, the ones that are full of people that look like they just walked out of the pages of Vogue magazine and which appear to be far too expensive for you but they probably aren’t.
And it’s in Norwegian. Is this a first?
Well, there’s a story behind it. It seems that writing in Norwegian felt a little scary for her but during a trip to Stockholm in 2024 to play some concerts with Ane Brun, Marte went walkabout in the city, taking in the delights of the ABBA museum, the old town, no doubt the main shopping district (she didn’t actually say that, I’m just guessing) and listening to artists like Monica Zetterlund, Barbro Hörberg and Cornelis Vreeswijk.
There was something about the atmosphere in the Swedish language that struck her and she began to think about how beautiful a Scandinavian language can sound when sung – close, poetic, and completely effortless.
Ok, I can go along with that. I have to review them after all, and sometimes – as long as I can access translated lyrics – they are perfectly fine. At other times (thankfully very few) I can’t help but think of the Swedish Chef in The Muppet Show.
Anyway, one night she returned to her apartment, sat down at the piano and started singing:
“Baby, I thought you said you and me would be fine.”
That single sentence – which sounds like it belongs in one of her heavier numbers – became the beginning of a song that she wrote and produced the same night, and during that week several Norwegian songs came along. Now, a little over two years later, she releases her very first Norwegian-language single.
‘HaDetBra’ translates as ‘Have a Nice Day’ or ‘Be Well’. A feel-good song to go with the Cointreau Margarita at that beach bar (or a pint of Boddington’s Bitter if you are English along with a copy of the Daily Mirror folded into a beach hat).
A lightweight song for Marte, who can write serious, cutting edge relational stuff, but perfect for the zeitgeist.
You can’t help but imagine that girls in Hawaiian hula skirts are going to appear out of nowhere to dance for you.
And that Norwegian just trips off the tongue.
(Continues after the Spotify link).
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