Johanne (Jepsen) was here twice last year with two songs on a subject that is clearly close to her heart as well as being personal – infertility and childlessness.
Now along comes a third single and accompanying video in advance of an EP and poetry book which will be released on 26th April.
Johanne’s commitment to her battle on behalf of those afflicted by infertility has always held my attention and on this occasion I found an extra reason to come back to her as the title immediately put me in mind of the Norwegians Katastrofe and Sol Heilo and their respective versions of Katastrofe’s ‘Holde rundt deg’ which translates roughly as ‘Hold you’, a similar sentiment even if the topic there (bullying) is dissimilar and the ‘draw on me’ here actually refers to a physical phenomenon of pregnancy.
Johanne’s music continues to focus on the emotional landscape involved for the many who undergo a course of fertility treatment, with the desire to become parents. Her mission is to reflect and recognise others who fight the same battle that she did when she was infertile for a number of years.
She uses quite expressive, graphic and emotive language but then there is no point in doing anything else other than cutting to the chase with this subject matter:
“Linea Nigra, you draw on me
The breast is sore and swollen
It grows for you
Veils, which draws your name
While I wait for you in my arms”
She imagines herself to be in a place where she is buxom, fertile, and carrying a child. But it is only in her dreams.
Fertility specialists had declared her to be inexplicably infertile and offered only an obscure method of overcoming the problem, by gaining weight and reaching the ideal Body Mass Index for fertility.
Johanne wrote ’Draw on me’ during a vacation, where she was waiting to test whether she was pregnant after her sixth IVF treatment. The linea nigra, aka the ‘pregnancy line’, a dark line of skin down the middle of the abdomen, did actually appear along with other signs but they proved to be a false dawn.
It is a very powerful song, especially in the final section and, together with the animated video does purvey the idea of a Nordic version of a fertility dance.
Will there be a happy ending to all this when the EP is released? Is it even fair to ask the question?
I don’t know but the little smile to the camera at the end of the video hints at a ‘yes’.
The music video for ‘Tegner på mig’ is by Julie Montauk and features the dance group Vocazion.
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092618155648
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johanne_musik/?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D
