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music

Learning Danish through song lyrics

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.

October 2, 2024 by Kay Xander Mellish

Stories about life in Denmark

Danish Music

If you’ve always wanted to listen to more Danish music, now probably isn’t the time: thousands of Danish songs recently disappeared from YouTube due to a copyright dispute.

Music isn’t one of Denmark’s most famous exports, even when it is available. While Danish housewares and furniture design are popular all over the world, most Danish music fans are local, particularly when it comes to Danish-language rap.

But that doesn’t mean Danish music isn’t deeply loved by its fans.

The overflowing back catalog of “greatest hits” from the past decades’ pop charts will get Danes on the dance floor at any party, particularly if they’ve been drinking.

You can pick out the internationals in the group by noticing who is still on the sidelines, looking a little bewildered and trying limply to catch the beat.

August 9, 2020 by Kay Xander Mellish

Podcasts, Stories about life in Denmark

Danes and Singing: Danish drinking songs, party songs, and foreigners who try to hum along

There have been very few international singing stars from Denmark, and that’s a surprise, because Danish people love to sing.

Joining choirs is very popular, and Danish schoolchildren often start the week with a song – in my daughter’s school, all the grades get together and sing something from the school’s common songbook.

There’s actually a kind of common songbook for all the children of Denmark, called De Små Synger, where you can find classics like Se Min Kjole (See my dress), Lille Peter Edderkop (Little Peter Spider) or Oles Nye Autobil, (Ole’s new car). Ole’s new car is actually a toy car that he uses to run into things, like his sister’s dollhouse.

In general, the Small Songs are a throwback to an older Denmark, a quieter Denmark where most people lived in the countryside. Many of the songs refer to green hilltops, or forests, or baby pigs or horses, or happy frogs that live in a swamp. And of course, all the humans in the Small Songs are entirely Danish – or ‘Pear Danish,’ as the local expression goes. One out of five children born in Denmark today is not an ethnic Dane, but there’s no such thing as Little Muhammed Spider or Fatima’s New Toy Car.

March 8, 2015 by Kay Xander Mellish