Marie Synnøve Skagemo to give her full name is from Kristiansand on the southern tip of Norway, a town I’ve flown over on numerous occasions en route to or from Oslo but from where I do not believe we’ve featured an artist previously.
Time to put that right.
A tender 25 years of age it was on her birthday last Friday that she released this single which is also the title track of her forthcoming debut album, set for release in June.
A birthday is one of those days in the year when you find yourself recollecting, even if you don’t really want to and the subject matter of ‘Jeg hadde elsket å elske deg’, which translates as ‘I would have loved to love you’ – a nice blend of verbal tenses – is being with someone who is perfect on paper, yet realising that it still doesn’t work.
In other words it’s going to end badly.
Marie has hit the nail on the head. That’s something just about everyone can relate to at some time or other and in my case all too recently with a young lady (I’m being gracious) who has since converted to Islam.
I know how to pick ‘em.
So I was particularly attracted to her lyrics, which read like a poem, or even prose in places, like a Jane Austen or Brontë novel.
Try this:
“Tell me, did it really turn out like you imagined? An everyday life just with me?
I could do anything
So I pray to a god I don’t believe in
Because I would have loved to love you
Is it possible to find another one like you,
Who is also right for me?
Because I gave it time, gave it faith and hope that all my love could be yours,
Could be ours, could be something we shared.”
To my mind that is genuinely multi-media by which I mean it could be conveyed in any media and the impact would be the same: sung, spoken, mimed, sign languaged, shouted from the rooftops – take your pick.
There isn’t much of a tune to go with it, just a gently plucked and strummed acoustic guitar courtesy of Jørgen Johan Stykket and her rather angelic voice.
But there doesn’t need to be…
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marie.skagemo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marieskagemo/
