Sweden doesn’t stop surprising me

Somethings that happen in life are so strangely beautiful that we keep trying to explain or understand them as supernatural, divine or magic. Who’s me to deny that one such thing that happened to me is neither one of those things? Even if it’s just plain coincidence, I prefer still to believe it was just meant to be that way.

See, the first time I went to Norway, it was in 1996. There, in Drammen, watching the local TV (TV Buskerud), I learned one of my first Norwegian sentences (Katte ville velge Whiskas, or “cats would choose Whiskas). My Norwegian is bad these days, so never mind the wrong spelling. But one thing that never got out of my mind was a CD commercial. It was a CD from a Swedish singer called Cecilia Vennersten. Ok, I could have searched it over the net. And I did it, as soon as I had full access to the net, that same year. But it never occured to me that I was spelling her name wrong. And today, 9 years later, I finally found some of her songs. I will buy her CD, for sure. She’s magic. Her voice is wonderful. Chris, sister, why haven’t you told me about her? Songs like Var mig nära, Det Vackreste and Kaptein Nemo, are just wonderful.

They say Brazil is a very musical cpuntry. And it’s true. But somehow I can’t stop being touched by Swedish music. No matter if it’s Dr. Alban, Abba, Marie Fredriksson, Ted Gärderstad, Ace of Bass or Cecilia Vennersten. They know how to make it.

I also got a bonus on my search. I always wanted some Sami music, that is, music played by the Sami, or Lapps – the people who live in Lapland. So far I only got some rock with joika from a Norwegian band called Intrigue. It’s excellent. But today I found Mari Boine. Superb. Go Norway!!

May you all have a great week.