NANNE EMELIE grew in rural Denmark. She would sit at the kitchen table and draw pictures, or hum a tune, while her mother cooked or was busy baking muffins. The singer and song writer says, “I sang when something important was on my mind and words were too small.” She still does that. Once Upon a Town is her debut album. It’s a continuation of her childhood music experience, and a way to say the unspoken. Nanne Emelie says that music was her private sanctuary as a child. She can be found walking through fields and woods singing a tune or sitting at the kitchen table. She has never stopped singing the song. Nanne Emelie presents nine new English songs, all produced by Stephan Grabowski. The soloist also wrote the songs with the help of her songwriter colleges. These include resident American singer-songwriter Neill C. Furio who was the poetic and moving spirit on Marie Frank’s first albums. The album features Niels Thybo and Lars Emil Riis, pianists, Cuban Yasser morejon Pino on bass, acoustic guitar, Rolf Hansen, percussionists Tira Scamby, Cuban Eliel Zazo, cellist Soma Pass, and Lars Hartvig, who plays flute and sax together with Cuban Alexander Abreu. Donna Cadogan sings the chorus, while producer Grabowski plays the drums. Although it is a long distance from her village Kollund to Cuba for Nanne Emelie Andersen, she found it not too far. She was part of her music education and was offered the opportunity to study at the beautiful, but shabby, Caribbean pearl. She knew, intuitively, that she and Cuba would both benefit from this friendship. She says that her older brothers had dreams of becoming police officers or fire fighters. But she knew as a child that singing was an important part of her. She did not hesitate to take all her child savings with her. She left Denmark without having learned any Spanish, but she now speaks it fluently. The singer describes her stay in Cuba as an educational experience. There was not much dancing but there was a lot of singing, drumming and musicstudies. It also allowed for interaction with unknown local musicians. Many of them are on the album’s list of performers. 1″I made an agreement early in my life that I would follow my heart as a musician and private person. To develop my artistic side, I took music lessons in Cuba, where I studied with an opera singer and took piano lessons. Nanne Emelie is a cheerful, contagious person who laughs as much as her reflective songs. At the beginning of the new millennium, she returned to Denmark with a new perspective and an inspiration for new compositions. She made a promise to her self to follow her heart. Nanne Emelie was a carer for disabled people to help her realize her dream. Nanne Emelie also found a new compassion dimension through this job, which she believes is evident in her music. People often tell me after a concert that they have a hard time forgetting something. “I love Billie Holiday, and Norah Jones. I don’t see it as a problem that people recognize my music. My music is cross-over and reaches more people. Nanne Emelie says that the jazz I like isn’t the nerdy kind where musicians are playing to one another with their backs towards the audience.” My music is very melodious. My music is very melodious. Melodies are spontaneously created by me in a sophisticated manner that can be enjoyed and listened too without preconceived notions. My songs are better if more people find themselves in them. Nanne Emelie didn’t listen to Danish music as a child – Anne Linnet and Lis Sorensen were her stereo friends in Kollund. But she also worked with international songwriters during her time in California and Cuba. While she considers herself a global citizen, she says that she feels more Danish the further away from Denmark she travels. She needed the English words to match the English, so she teamed with Neill C. Furio. They felt like they were close friends from the moment they met. “He added that extra touch of language to make sure the language is perfect. Some of the lyrics were written together. “Girl Talk” is one of the most important songs on the album. It’s a self-ironic way of solving the world problem over a cup of coffee with the girls. She says that our society is becoming “more plastic-like.” We would rather go on Facebook than walk in the woods, and the presence and impact of digital media is everywhere. We feel more distant if we don’t nurture our relationships. We used to know each other’s numbers by heart a few years ago. It’s not so anymore. It’s now the mobile that remembers who we are. Nanne Emelie practices and teaches yoga, meditation, but she doesn’t want it to sound like sacred hocus-pocus. “In the end,” says she. “It’s all about protecting our inner self.” It is essential to look within ourselves when we are so involved in outside activities. She believes that only then can we discern what is important from what is not. She is trying to convey this in the song “Stay Beautiful”, which she sings. from http://www.nanneemelie.com
