Jazz Group playing in
Warsaw in 2008 Jazz has been one of Denmark's most important musical developments over the past century. Its origins can be traced to
Valdemar Eiberg's band in 1923 and their recordings the following year. But it was in 1925, when
Sam Wooding brought his orchestra to Copenhagen that the Danish music scene was properly introduced to the genre. Early Danish jazz was influenced by three classically trained musicians:
Erik Tuxen (1902–1957), who created one of the country's first jazz bands,
Bernhard Christensen (1906–2004), a composer of both jazz and classical music, and Sven Møller Kristensen (1909–1991) who wrote lyrics for Christensen as well as a number of books about jazz. As jazz became more popular in the 1930s, one of the rising stars was the talented violinist
Svend Asmussen (1916–2017) who made his first recordings in 1934 at the age of 18 and was still playing with his quartet more than 70 years later. During the
German occupation in the 1940s, jazz was discouraged but many musicians continued to perform while others escaped to Sweden, including drummer
Uffe Baadh. Indeed, the period became known as "The Golden Age of Jazz" as the number of concerts in hotels and restaurants increased and the number of recordings rose from about 180 in 1935–1939 to over 650 from 1940 to 1945. Following
World War II, Danish jazz musicians began to split into an older guard, which maintained the style of older
New Orleans jazz, and newer musicians who favored the
bebop style of
Charlie Parker and
Dizzy Gillespie that was then emerging in America. The former were represented by musicians such as pianist
Adrian Bentzon, trombonist
Papa Bue, and trumpeter
Theis Jensen, while the latter included saxophonist
Max Brüel, bassist
Erik Moseholm, and trumpeter
Jørgen Ryg. Danish musicians also began to explore
free jazz in the 1960s with saxophonist
John Tchicai the most prominent proponent. In parallel, a more mainstream wing evolved, including saxophonist
Jesper Thilo. The organization JazzDanmark, funded by the Danish government, works to promote jazz in Denmark and Danish jazz abroad.
Rock at a concert in
Odense, 2006 In the early days of rock and beat, some Danish artists quickly adapted this new type of music with success. Bands like
Peter og Ulvene,
Sir Henry and his Butlers,
The Beefeaters and later on
Steppeulvene (the Steppenwolves),
Alrune Rod and
Savage Rose were among the popular bands in Denmark throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Still, Danish rock and pop music in those days resembled more of German schlager than American or British rock. The Danish rock scene thrived in the 1970s when groups drew on trends in the United States and Britain. Many consider their style to be Danish although this seems mainly to be due to the language of the songs and the way they fit into the national agenda. The most successful have been
Gasolin',
Shu-Bi-Dua,
Sebastian,
Anne Linnet,
Gnags,
TV-2, and more recently
Magtens Korridorer.
Kim Larsen who had played with Gasolin' went on to become a very successful solo artist in his own right while Sebastian has composed a number of successful musicals for theatre and film. The versatile Anne Linnet is still popular in Denmark today. Until fairly recently, few Danish rock groups had been successful outside Denmark. An exception was
D-A-D (formerly Disneyland After Dark) who had a hit with
Sleeping My Day Away in the early 1990s. Today, however, with the Music Export Denmark initiative, several rock bands are doing increasingly well internationally. These include
Mew,
Iceage,
Volbeat,
Kashmir,
The Raveonettes, and
Blue Van. ,
Roskilde Festival, 2005 Other rock artists worth mentioning are
The Kissaway Trail,
Junior Senior,
Nephew,
Carpark North,
Saybia,
VETO,
Swan Lee,
Dúné,
Volbeat and
Dizzy Mizz Lizzy which has just had a revival. Famous Danish rock and metal musicians include
Lars Ulrich, the drummer and co-founder of
Metallica,
Mike Tramp, the vocalist and co-songwriter of
White Lion, and Kim Bendix Petersen, aka
King Diamond, vocalist of Danish heavy metal band
Mercyful Fate and the eponymous
King Diamond. The annual
Roskilde Festival is held in Danish city of
Roskilde. The festival is the second-largest in Europe with ticket sales normally running from 70,000 to 100,000. The festival has featured many prominent artists (mainly rock), such as
Nirvana,
Guns N' Roses,
Slipknot,
Kings of Leon,
U2,
Bob Dylan,
Black Sabbath and
Green Day, and there has also been an emphasis on world music, alternative genres and Danish music at the festival. In 2000, the festival suffered a terrible accident during a
Pearl Jam concert where nine people were crushed by the wild crowds, making security a primary issue of the following festivals. The festival has suffered no further incidents of the kind.
Pop – one of the most successful Danish artists. performing in
Aalborg, 2009 in concert in Det Musiske Hus in Frederikshavn in February 2008 As with rock music, the Danish pop scene has recently benefitted from the Music Export Denmark initiative. •
Thomas Helmig is one of the most popular Danish pop artists who has won awards at the
Danish Music Awards (DMA) eight times. •
Tina Dico is a Danish singer-songwriter who has won several prizes including awards at the
Danish Music Awards in 2004 and 2006. Her most famous songs are "Welcome Back Colour", "Count To Ten", "Copenhagen", "Warm Sand", "Nobody's Man", "Sacre Coeur", "Open Wide", "On The Run" and "Moon To Let". She is also very popular in the UK when she collaborated with the band
Zero 7 in 2003 with whom she also made the popular song "Home". Tina is also known as the owner of her own record label called Finest Gramophone. •
Medina is currently one of the most successful artists of this country and she is known in most European countries, US and Mexico. She sings both in Danish and English. She has made about ten singles in the top 2 of Denmark. Most famous is the song
Kun for Mig ("Only for me"), other popular songs are
Ensom,
Vi to,
For altid,
Velkommen Til Medina,
Synd For Dig,
Kl. 10,
Addiction and
Gutter. • Karen Marie Ørsted, better known by her stage name
MØ, is a Danish singer-songwriter signed to
Sony Music Entertainment. She has also featured in hit-singles including "
Lean On", which charted number one in over 20 countries, and "
Cold Water", which features Canadian singer
Justin Bieber. •
Oh Land is a Danish singer-songwriter with great success in Europe and the US. She had her TV debut on the Late Show with David Letterman with her song "Son of a Gun" in 2010. She has been touring around the US with stars like
Katy Perry in 2011. Another of her popular songs is
White nights released in 2011. •
Aura is another successful singer who in 2010 reached the top of the charts in Germany and was doing well in the rest of Europe. •
Agnes Obel is a Danish singer-songwriter. Her first album,
Philharmonics, was released by
PIAS Recordings on 4 October 2010 in Denmark, Norway, Germany and other European countries. Since February 2011,
Philharmonics is certified double platinum. In November 2011, Obel won at the
Danish Music Awards five prizes for : Best Album of the Year, Best Pop Release of the Year, Best Debut Artist of the Year, Best Female Artist of the Year and Best Songwriter of the Year. Her most famous song is "Riverside". •
Fallulah is a Danish young pop music songwriter and singer. She is known for her debut single
I Lay My Head which was the prequel to the album
The Black Cat Neighbourhood. Other popular songs from this album are
Give Us a Little Love and
Out of It. Fallulah's music can be accounted to the pop music genre but according to her own statements is a mix of
indie rock and Balkan beats, which adds a hint of folklore to her productions. •
Rasmus Seebach is a Danish singer-songwriter who sings in his mother tongue language. He has had great success in the Scandinavian countries. Among his most successful songs are
Lidt i fem,
Natteravn and
I mine øjne. •
Alphabeat, have been successful in the UK with top 20 hits
Fascination,
10,000 Nights and
The Spell. •
Burhan G is a Danish R&B and pop singer, songwriter and producer of Kurdish/Turkish origin. In 2010 he was certified platinum in Denmark for his album
Burhan G. He has had many singles including two No. 1 hits,
Mest ondt featuring Medina and
Tættere på himlen featuring Nik & Jay. •
Nik & Jay is a popular Danish R&B/hip hop/pop duo which has produced many popular singles such as
Hot! in 2003 and
Mod solnedgangen from Popular in the early and mid 90s was the pop-soft rock band
Michael Learns to Rock, whose brand of ballads made it a popular act in many Asian markets, selling nearly 9 million records in Asia. A Danish band with a big impact outside of Denmark is the
Europop group
Aqua, whose hit "
Barbie Girl" helped the band sell a total of 15 million albums and 6 million singles. Denmark also participates in the annual
Eurovision Song Contest, and holds its own
Dansk Melodi Grand Prix competition to select the song that will represent the country in the Eurovision contest. Denmark has won the Eurovision Song Contest three times: first with
Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann's "
Dansevise" in 1963; the second with
Brødrene Olsen's (Olsen Brothers) "
Fly on the Wings of Love" (from the
Danish Smuk Som Et Stjerneskud, literally "Beautiful as a shooting star") in 2000. And most recently, in 2013,
Emmelie de Forest with "
Only Teardrops" scored 281 points at
Malmö, winning the contest with a margin of 47 points over runner-up
Azerbaijan. Denmark therefore hosted the
Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen. The Danish entrants at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2010,
Christina Chanée and
Tomas N'evergreen with "
In a Moment Like This", were already doing well in Eastern Europe ahead of the contest as their song became the most popular download in several countries. Some hit songs of Danish origin have become international hits after being covered by foreign artists.
Vengaboys covered
The Walkers' "
Shalala Lala",
Jamelia covered
Christine Milton's "
Superstar",
Shayne Ward covered
Bryan Rice's "
No Promises" and
Celine Dion covered
Tim Christensen's "Right Next to the Right One". Different covers of
Rune's "Calabria" have also been international hits.
Electronic music performing in
Aarhus, 2005
Else Marie Pade was a Danish pioneer in
electronic music as early as the 1950s. She knew and worked with
Pierre Schaeffer and
Karlheinz Stockhausen and has continued to make appearances on the Danish electronica scene well into the new millennium. With his Coma parties,
Kenneth Bager brought
acid house to Denmark in 1988 and was active in building a Danish club scene, moving venues from the discothèques to deserted factories and basements. The most successful Danish electronic musician internationally is
Trentemøller while from a very early age
Mike Sheridan has achieved success and been labelled a name of the future. In the more mainstream part of the genre,
Safri Duo also experienced international success with their mixture of tribal sound and electronica; also in the electronic scene adding elements of string and brass instruments is the indie folk/electronic four-piece
Efterklang. A leading Danish venue for electronic music is
Culture Box in Copenhagen which is subsidised by the Ministry of Culture as a regional music venue, enabling it to keep a high artistic profile. The Strøm and
Copenhagen Distortion festivals are also dedicated to the capital's electronic and club music scene.
Jesper Kyd is a famous Danish video game composer, who has been incorporating sounds of
dark ambient, electronic and symphonic music into his music and has won many awards.
Martin Jensen with the UK hit "
Solo Dance".
Folk performing with
Eivør Pálsdóttir at
Tønder in 2006 Traditionally, Danish folk music has relied on a
fiddle and
accordion duo but, unlike its Scandinavian neighbours, Danish fiddlers almost always play in groups with few solo performance. Danish bands also tend to feature the guitar more prominently than the other
Nordic countries. Fiddle and accordion duos play generally rhythmic
dance music, local versions of the
Nordic folk dance music. The oldest variety is called
pols, and it is now mostly found on
Fanø with variants such as
Sønderhoning from
Sønderho. Danish traditional music experienced a renaissance when the Anglo-American folk song wave hit Denmark around 1970. Among the prominent soloists, often composing new songs, were
Sebastian, Poul Dissing and
Niels Hausgaard. The successful Lars Lilholt Band led by the violinist
Lars Lilholt combines the folk music tradition with rock. A new and refreshing combination of techno music and medieval ballads has been provided by the group
Sorten Muld since their first recording in 1996. Curiously, Danish folk music received its biggest boost from the home chart success of Sorten Muld, who used acoustic and electric instruments and
electronica on old songs to create something very contemporary on its best-selling albums. Some of the best-known artists in recent years include
Harald Haugaard and
Dreamers' Circus. == Music schools ==