Grethe Svensen

Grethe Svensen’s comprehensive career has encompassed hard experimental rock, she has taken classical song tuition, she has delighted her audience as a gospel singer, and last but not least, she is renowned as one of Norway’s best soul-pop singers with 6 solo albums and extensive tour performances. In a country with a mere 4 million citizens she has achieved to sell 130.000 albums. Already at the age of 19 Grethe’s singing was awarded with victory in a countrywide singers’ competition. ‘Her voice is deep, husky and the sound is almost negroid’ stated the jury at the time. In the years from 1988 to 1994 Grethe Svensen became one of the Norwegian Oslo Gospel Choir’s leading soloists – on records, in concerts and on TV. In 1992 Grethe Svensen released her 1st solo album and lived up to the accumulated expectations. The Right to Sing was well received and one of the songs Goldmine also became the soundtrack of a popular Norwegian film Pelle & Proffen. One year later, in 1993, Grethe Svensen was ready with the follow up The Love Of A Woman. She delighted her audience and reviewers alike, and further strengthened her position as a powerful soul-pop singer. In 1995 Svensen presented the ‘difficult 3rd’ album. Your Beauty however, surpassed her previous solo albums in popularity, sales and radio time. In 1997 she took one further step with 24 hrs. This time she wrote almost all the material herself. Spearheaded by the radio singles No Matter and Good Moments, the album was hailed by reviewers as an ambitious and successful soul-pop production. In 1998 and 2001 Grethe released 2 albums of a different shade. Sung in Norwegian, the projects were released by Kirkelig Kulturverksted (KKV). The 5th album Catwalk was ‘a gramophone cabaret from the decadent lives’ of the 1930ies. Grethe’s 6th album was a collection of songs by the Norwegian popular artist Bjorn Eidsvag. Summers 2003 and 2004 Grethe Svensen was a leading actress in Claude-Michel Schoenberg/ Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. The play was performed outdoors, in the Norwegian rugged coastline scenery of Moster Amphitheatre and sold 24.000 tickets. In the spirit of her previous CDs, Grethe has again written the music for her coming album. Grethe Svensen now releases the single Promise (Not to Wake Me), a warm acoustic pop ballad co-written by Grethe and Tommy Berre, with lyrics by producer Helge Martin Framnes. The song conveys Grethe’s full voice and strong sense of melody.