Stories about life in Denmark

One of the first gifts I received in Denmark was a CD by a singer called Carsten Lykke. “I think you’ll like this,” said one of my first Danish friends.

And I did – even though I didn’t speak much Danish at the time, Carsten Lykke’s lyrics made me laugh. A small, awkward guy, who was at that time best known as the leader of a Blur or Pulp-style band called the Ibens, Carsten’s solo work mostly involves him making fun of himself and his treacherous relationship with his mother.

His big hit involved a fantasy of being married to then-Crown Prince Frederik (“If Frederik was into men, I’d be Queen right now”) He’s willing to laugh at the Danish Jante Law, the unwritten rule against celebrating status or success, with songs like “I burde gi’ mig bank“, the chorus of which is, “I’m so successful, you ought to punch me.”

At any rate, I learned a great deal of colloquial Danish from that CD, so much I didn’t realize it until Carsten Lykke, now in his mid-50s, put out a new single earlier this year. I cued up all his old stuff again.

I still remembered almost every line.

Find a Danish lyricist you enjoy

That’s why one of the tips I give to newcomers in Denmark is learning Danish through song lyrics. Find a Danish lyricist who writes songs you enjoy listening to, again and again.

The repetition will give you a sense of how the Danish language fits together and give you something to dance to during the long dark winter months.

It’s hard to compare musical artists, but I’m going to give it shot just to give you something to start with. (I’ve put them all together in a Spotify Playlist and a YouTube Playlist.)

🎵 Hans Philip, a former rapper who now sings and sings well, is a good guy to try out if you like younger singer-songwriters like Dominic Fike. Listen.

🎵 If you’re into female dance artists like Lady Gaga or Chappell Roan, you might like Medina. She has a long string of dance hits and some interesting collaborations. Listen. (Incidentally, Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” was co-written by a Danish guy, percussionist Jeppe Laursen.)

🎵 Swiftie? You might enjoy Marie Key, a singer-songwriter with witty, introspective lyrics and an emphasis on personal relationships. Listen.

🎵 The Minds of 99 are a very popular group that regularly sell out stadiums in Denmark. They have a vibe that’s a bit like The Killers or Arcade Fire, maybe Coldplay. Listen.

🎵 Classic rock fans should get to know the songs of the late Kim Larsen, a Danish icon with a place in the national consciousness that Bruce Springsteen might hold in the USA, or Elton John in the UK. Listen. (Sanne Salomonsen Listen and Anne Linnet Listen are female music icons from the same era; they have a sort of Joni Mitchell or Carole King vibe.)

🎵 Thomas Helmig is another Danish icon, with a bit more of a Motown sound. Listen.

🎵 If you like 60s groups like the Animals or the Small Faces, try out Gasolin´ , who have been called the Danish equivalent to the early Rolling Stones. Listen.

🎵 Fan of Ed Sheeran or Shawn Mendes? You might like Rasmus Seebach, who is extremely popular in Denmark. Danes have watched him grow from a confused young man when he first emerged on the scene to the family man and father he is now. Listen.

Choose artists who sing in Danish

Here, I’m limiting myself to Danish artists who sing in Danish. Plenty sing in English, that’s the way to get more international exposure, in particular in Asia. (A blond, muscular Danish singer called Christopher has made a huge career for himself in China and Korea, and frequently does collabs with K-pop stars. Listen).

And everyone knows the (mostly) Danish group Aqua and their unforgettable hit “Barbie Girl”, although that one’s in English too.

But to really get the full benefit of language learning, you need an entirely Danish song.

Something about music just sticks in your head. I’m sure you can remember advertising jingles back from the time you were very small.

Listen to the music, get lyrics online, and you’ll be on your way to better understanding Danish and Danish culture and values.

He was a highly-educated specialist from Southern Europe, and my assignment was to help him adjust to the business culture in his new role at a large Danish company.

We’d been working together for awhile when I noticed he still hadn’t updated his LinkedIn. According to his profile, he was still in another part of Europe working for a different company entirely.

I asked him – does this mean you don’t like your new job?

He said, no, I like it at lot. But maybe in a year or two I’ll want to work someplace else, and I don’t want my LinkedIn to look flaky, like I’m job hopping.

I told him, job hopping is not a problem in Denmark, which has one of the highest job mobility rates in the OECD. Up to 20% of Danes will have a new job this year.

Danes change jobs more than people elsewhere in Europe

And that’s not just young workers. People in the prime of their careers change jobs at a higher rate in Denmark than they do elsewhere in Europe, and even for people over 55, job mobility is high.

As a matter of fact, if you don’t change jobs regularly in Denmark, or at a minimum change jobs within a company if you’re there for a few years, people might wonder why.

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It’s summertime, the top tourist season in Copenhagen, and the streets and the bike lanes and the harbor boats are full of people from around the world. One of the things they come to look at is Danish design.

I’ve created a new audio tour of Danish design in Copenhagen via Voicemap, but I thought I’d share a few quirks of design in Copenhagen that are not in the tour.

First of all, did you know that Copenhagen has its own color?

It’s called Copenhagen Green, and it’s a dark emerald green, mixed with a fair amount of black. A little like the dark green we see on the leaves of trees here in August. Pantone 3435C, for you designer types.

Green and black blend well

You’ll notice that all Copenhagen benches are this color, and there are thousands of these wood and cast-iron benches around town. They were originally designed more than a hundred years ago by Thorvald Bindesbøll, an art nouveau master also known for the Carlsberg beer label.

You will see Copenhagen Green on many wooden doors and window frames in the old city, as well as lamp posts, railings, even small bridges in the beautiful Ørsteds Park, all painted Copenhagen Green. This was a conscious decision by city leaders in the early 1900s.

They felt the combination of green and black blended well with both natural and urban settings and using it widely would create a sense of harmony. Plus almost everybody likes green.

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Many countries have a fictional character who represents them. Uncle Sam for the USA, Marianne in France, Bharat Mata or Mother India.

Others have a legendary figure, who was real at one point but is now shrouded in myth, like King Arthur in England.

For Denmark, Holger Danske is both.

He was probably real, although he didn’t live in Denmark. He was a Danish knight living in France in 8th century, serving Charlemagne, and he appears in several of the epic poems of the time as Ogier the Dane.

When those poems were translated into Old Norsk, he became Oddgeir danski, which gradually morphed into Holger Danske.

The sleeping hero

He has been a hero for centuries. And he is a sleeping hero.

The legend is that when Denmark is in trouble, Holger Danske will rise from his slumber and come to its defense.

This is why during World War II, when Denmark was occupied by the Nazis, one of the largest resistance groups called itself Holger Danske.

Consumer products

If you’re not Danish, you may have experienced Holger Danske in the form of consumer products.

There is a Holger Danske moving company with trucks all over Denmark, a Holger Danske beer, Holger Danske Aquavit liquor, Holger Danske tobacco. There’s a Holger Danske bar. Holger Danske has appeared on the Danish national football shirt.

And, very famously, there’s a statue of Holger Danske in the basement of Kronborg Castle, often known as Hamlet’s Castle, in Helsingør, Denmark – which Shakespeare referred to as Elsinore.

(I go by the castle in my new audio tour of Helsingør.)

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I’m occasionally hired to do cultural training for international specialists coming to Denmark. This involves four hours of explaining the basics of Danish life – the banking system, the health care system, how to shop for food – for example, the fact that yellow is the color of discounts in Denmark. If something has a yellow price tag, the price has been cut.

And I always include a section on the Danish year.

By the Danish year, I mean the rhythm of vacation weeks and holidays from year to year, from bonfires on Sankt Hans at midsummer to the eating of duck on Morten’s Day in November.

Morten’s Day isn’t as popular as it once was, but if you didn’t know about it you might wonder why there are suddenly pictures of ducks all over the place.

The truck tour

But what always gets the most interest is what’s about to occur over the next couple of weeks – Danish high school graduations and the accompanying truck tour.

If you’ve been in Denmark in June you’ve seen this. Open-backed trucks packed with teenagers wearing fresh white caps and cheering or blowing whistles. Using there’s some pop music pumping at a very high volume.

The sides of the truck are covered with white banners, traditionally bedsheets, on which are painted slogans that are more or less obscene.

Everybody on the truck except the driver is several beers in and shouting at passerby on the sidewalk, who shout back.

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