Den Danske Sang

Her newest recording, THE DANISH SONG, features Caroline Henderson doing what she does best – this time in the Danish language, for the first time ever in an illustrious singing career that began 25 years ago. The new album arrives February 28th, 2020. Traveling in memories, closing my eyes / And you stand at a busy train station / The language it dances / Right on the tongue in a choreography of a new melody / Minutes become hours as hours become years / And years become life understood by the heart. The year was 1983, and Caroline Henderson had quite literally just hopped on the train from Sweden. Upon arriving at the Central Station in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, she never thought that what was planned as a temporary visit would turn into a sustained and successful career at the top of the Danish music scene. Six years later, she and Maria Bramsen collaborated with pop group Ray Dee Ohh, and when the group later dissolved, Henderson released one of the most notable debut albums in Danish pop history. The songs on CINEMATAZTIC were a vital part of Danes’ pop culture soundtrack of 1995 and have since aged unusually well. The record included several hits, and along with her later album MADE IN EUROPE, Caroline Henderson would go on to receive seven Danish Grammy awards. Her sound would migrate from cinematic pop to a more electronically influenced soundscape to a jazz universe that has manifested itself on several recordings and tours. “I’ve always moved around. After exploring one dimension/direction, I’ve wanted to dive into a new one. My curiosity has propelled me forward. It’s felt natural, like a long, sliding movement, and I feel lucky to have been allowed to try as much and as many things as I have. A couple of years ago, for the first time, I felt the need to look back and make some sort of reflective status update. A pulse-check, for both myself and the musical heritage that has shaped me,” says the singer. As the daughter of a Swedish mother and an American father, and having been raised in Sweden, New York, Philadelphia, and Paris, Henderson was already regarded as somewhat of a foreigner wherever she went. Being a multi-national and growing up in Denmark didn’t mean she had to relinquish any self-identity, however. Henderson wanted to stay in the country she had taken the train to, but didn’t initially plant any cultural roots. She was a Swede with dark skin in Denmark. And then, suddenly, she started falling in love with the Danish songbook and the rich musical tradition of her new home. “Music was the vehicle and difference-maker. To hear Trille’s record and identify with the everyday lyrics about the newly-divorced, busy mother who was supposed to have everything in their life together; to fall in love with Sebastian’s songs, with which all Danes in the eighties had a relationship; to connect with CV Jørgensen’s lyrics and begin to understand the subtext and the unspoken in his universe; or to be touched by the grandeur and beauty of a composer like Carl Nielsen… It all became the key to feeling integrated, for me. To connect with the words, feel the power of poetry, and ultimately let the tonal language creep under the skin,” says Caroline Henderson.