Musical Musings

Most Scandinavian singers tend to avoid singing in their native language (like Swedish, Icelandic, and Danish). Sigur Rós even made up their own language to avoid singing in Icelandic. You can’t blame them, Scandinavian languages are full of guttural, mouthful-of-bread sounds. Although it’s the only non-English song from their eponymous debut, “Herfra Hvor Vi Står” by Danish duo Quadron is easily the most beautiful. The delivery of the voiced dental fricative makes my spine tingle. Thanks to teamsweeting for getting a translation. 

Speaking of cute female Scandinavian pop singers, here’s a Swedish girl who sings sad songs. At least that’s what it seems Lykke Li does best; all of my favorite songs off of her new LP Wounded Rhymes happen to be the more despondent ones. “Sadness Is a Blessing” gets that point across pretty well. Click below to see how she doesn’t need a big budget to keep you completely absorbed.

Why did no one tell me that Björk is like, really good? I decided that I ought to give her a spin after I biked past her humble little house by the coast in Iceland. Also, fun fact—  Björk (“birch” in swedish/icelandic) isn’t a stage name, it’s just her first name. Her last name is Guðmundsdóttir, which means daughter of Guðmundur, her father’s name. This patrynomic naming system used by all Icelanders puts much less importance on the last name, so most Icelanders just go by their first names (there’s no “Mr.” or “Mrs.”). But this isn’t my abroad blog. Jóga is (partially) about Icelandic beauty. Listen and enjoy.