A Swedish Playlist

Today, I have a playlist with some of my favourite Swedish songs for you! I’ve always had a lot of fun exploring different kinds of Swedish music while I was learning Swedish, so I thought maybe other people would like it as well. Listening to music is a good way of getting to know a language and picking up some culture along the way – but most of all, it’s just nice to get to know some new music! I’ve been wanting to share this with you for a long time, but I somehow never got around to it – probably because most of Laleh’s song’s aren’t on Spotify so I could never make a playlist that I was fully satisfied with. But earlier this week, I saw that Maartje had made something similar (check out her playlist here) and I thought it was time to finally push it through.

The playlist contains a mix of different genres, because that’s just how I am when it comes to music :) Apart from Laleh, who probably is my favourite Swedish artist, not only because her music is amazing but also because of all the stories that are behind it and because she’s just such an amazing person (just check out her interview on Värvet!), my playlist also includes songs by Annika Norlin – or Säkert!, as her music project is called. I love her because her texts are often about feelings and I like the fact that she really exaggerates them instead of trying to be a reasonable person. Furthermore, the list contains songs by Veronica Maggio, because I’ve been listening to her music since 2008 (even before I started to learn Swedish) and I’ve always kind of stuck with her. She makes these delightful pop songs that are just nice to listen to every once in a while. And of course I also added some Håkan Hellström, because how could I not include him? Apart from pop, my playlist also includes some other genres like folk (Cornelis Vreeswijk and Evert Taube) and jazz (Monica Zetterlund), an instrumental folk song by Jan Johansson, and even a Swedish Bob Dylan cover by Lars Fernebring. Oh, and I also added a song by the Norwegian singer Siri Nilsen, because even though she’s not Swedish, she does make really nice music.

Veronica Maggio – Ayahuasca
Laleh – Bara få va mig själv
Veronica Maggio – Trädgården en fredag
Klara & jag – Samma gamla nätter
Säkert! – Honung
Llojd – Inga ord är mer än tusen ord
Veronica Maggio – Verkligheten
Klara & jag – Fake it ’til you make it
Säkert! – Snooza
Håkan Hellström – Brännö serenad
Håkan Hellström – Kom igen Lena!
Veronica Maggio – 17 år
Llojd – Om vi faller
Veronica Maggio – Havanna Mamma
Säkert! – Ditt kvarter
Säkert! – Almunecar
Håkan Hellström – Nu kan du få mig så lätt
Timbuktu – Resten av ditt liv
Timbuktu ft. Seinabo Sey & Beldina – Misstänkt
Laleh – Det är vi som bestämmer (vem har lurat alla barnen)
Siri Nilsen – Alle snakker sant
Cornelis Vreeswijk – Märk hur vår skugga
Ted Gärdestad – Sommarlängtan
Bo Kaspers Orkester- Semester
James & Karin – Den dan då skogen brann
Ted Gärdestad – Come Give Me Love
Cornelis Vreeswijk – Somliga går med trasiga skor
Sofia Karlsson – Moesta et errabunda
Monica Zetterlund – Sakta vi gå genom stan
Lars Fernebring – Men va fan de får gå
Blå Tåget – Den ena handen vet vad den andra gör
Karlsson & Karlsson – Beväpna er
Cornelis Vreeswijk – Felicia adjö
Ove Kohler – Så länge skutan kan gå
Jan Johansson – Visa från Utanmyra

Update 03/2018: I changed the order of the playlist a little, and added some new songs. The first part consists of more pop-ish songs, the second part is more folky.

The playlist is called “Imaginär röd” and you can find it here. Hope you enjoy it!


My love for Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan | rougeimaginaire

In my explorations of the 1960s and 70s for one of my literature classes last semester, I rediscovered Bob Dylan. I was re-watching “Upp till kamp“, a Swedish tv-series that’s set in that period (which I really recommend, but I have no idea if it’s available with English subtitles somewhere), and there was this one scene where one of the characters was listening to “Girl From the North Country” – which reminded me of the fact that the sixties also were Bob Dylan’s initial period. Later on, when I was writing my paper for that class, I decided to listen to some of his albums, kind of to get in the spirit, and then I kept listening for most of June. I also watched a documentary about him (called “No direction home“) and I learned that although he was often seen as a folk singer or a protest singer, in reality, he was kind of opposed to everything and he didn’t want to be labeled as anything.

I know pretty much everyone already knows Bob Dylan, but in case you never really listened to his music and you’d like to give it a try, I made a playlist on Spotify with some songs I really like. My favourites are “Song to Woody”, “Girl From the North Country” and “I Was Young When I Left Home”, but I also added som other ones. You can find it here! By the way, let me know if you prefer me sharing music on Spotify or some other way.


An Early Summer Playlist

An Early Summer Playlist | rougeimaginaire

If you watched my vlog last week, you probably noticed that there was quite a bit of music in there and I got a question if I could make another playlist. So I made a list of all the songs I like to listen to when summer’s on its way! It’s a mix of different genres, some summery songs and some songs that are just always good to listen to, some songs that I’ve loved for years and others that I’ve only just discovered. Songs that reflect the light feeling you can sometimes get around this time of year, but also a couple that are a little more peppy and some that are just perfect for nostalgic summer evenings. Since I couldn’t find everything on Spotify, I made a short list of extras on YouTube. Hope you like it!

Håkan Hellström – Dom Dimmiga Dagarna
Beach House – Zebra
Dirty Projectors – Stillness Is The Move
Nouvelle Vague – Love Will Tear Us Apart
Spinvis – Ik wil alleen maar zwemmen
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – Summertime
jj – Things Will Never Be The Same Again
Aurora – Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) (Acoustic)
Twin Sister – Gene Ciampi
The Beatles – Here Comes The Sun
Nouvelle Vague – Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)
Llojd – Om vi faller
Spinvis – De grote zon
Bob Dylan – I Was Young When I Left Home
Ella Fitzgerald – Cheek to Cheek
Veronica Maggio – 17 år
Domenico Modugno – Nel blu dipinto di blu
Françoise Hardy – Le temps de l’amour
Ted Gärdestad – Sommarlängtan
Lianne La Havas – Green & Gold
Simon & Garfunkel – Old Friends / Bookends
Bob Dylan – Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Ella Fitzgerald – Chew-Chew-Chew (Chew Your Bubble Gum)

extra:
Dodie Clark – One For The Road
Siri Nilsen – Fast Car
Amanda Berg – Sommartid (Summertime cover)

You can find the list on Spotify by clicking here, or by typing “Imaginary Summer” in the search box in the Spotify app, and the YouTube extras here :)


A winter playlist

This week, we had a little Lucia party at my school. Sankta Lucia is a Scandinavian holiday, usually celebrated on the 13th of December (which apparently used to coincide with winter solstice), to celebrate the light. For us, however, it’s more of a pre-Christmas gathering to celebrate the end of the semester and just have a nice time chatting (and having some dessert) with our classmates and teachers. Me and a classmate of mine had volunteered to organise the event, so in the weekends before the party, I had a nice time painting this illustration for the poster, looking for pine branches in the woods and cutting paper snowflakes as decorations, and looking for some nice background music on Spotify.

So I thought it would be nice to share the playlist that I made with you guys as well. I tried to make a nice mix of different genres and different Scandinavian languages, from the Icelandic oldies of Haukur Morthens and the traditional songs performed by Sofia Karlsson to Siri Nilsen’s wonderful songs in Norwegian, the jazzy tunes of Monica Zetterlund and the Finnish folk songs of Hanna Ruuskanen. And some Cornelis Vreeswijk, of course!

Haukur Morthens – Ó, borg mín borg
amiina – Perth
Kaseva – Syksy
Siri Nilsen – Hodet, hjertet eller magen
Cornelis Vreeswijk – Somliga går med trasiga skor
Monica Zetterlund – Sakta vi gå genom stan
Birgitta Ulfsson – Höstvisa
Hanna Ruusakenen – Pieni kukka kasvoi kiven alta
Jens Lekman – The Cold Swedish Winter
Sofia Karlsson – Jul, jul, strålande jul
Vildnis – Hun sagde
Laleh – På gatan där jag bor
Sofia Karlsson – Så mör är natten i midvintertid
Cornelis Vreeswijk – Märk hur vår skugga
Hanna Ruuskanen – Vanhus
Cornelis Vreeswijk – Balladen om Herr Fredrik Åkare och den söta fröken Cecilia Lind
Vera Vinter – Bjärka
Bo Andersson – Syyslaulu
Lisa Rydberg – Härlig är jorden

You can find it on Spotify by clicking here, or by typing “Vi firar Lucia” in the search box in the Spotify app :)


An autumn playlist!

Autumn

Autumn

Autumn seems to have arrived so suddenly this year. One evening last week I was sipping from a cup of tea and enjoying the first autumn feelings all the while listening to some nice music when all of a sudden I thought: wouldn’t it be a nice idea to share some of that with the people who read my blog? So I sat down and I made a little autumn playlist for you, with all my favourite songs to listen to on cosy nights in or when you’re on your way to work or school. It starts very quietly with a song by the Icelandic band Amiina, and then a little folk-y with a Swedish song called Höstvisa (which means Autumn Song) written by Tove Jansson and Erna Tauro. Besides that, there are some more modern songs by London Grammar, Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, Destroyer and many more. Most of them are kind of peaceful and accoustic, but some are a little faster as well. Let me know what you think!

amiina – Hemipode
Cumulus – Höstvisa
London Grammar – Everywhere You Go
Holiday Shores – We Couldn’t Be Together
Twin Sister – White Bread
Timber Timbre – Hot Dreams
Dry the River – History Book
Siri Nilsen – Jeg vet
Grizzly Bear – About Face
amiina – Over and Again
Roth – Kings of the Wild
Destroyer – Chinatown
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
Mando Diao – Strövtag i hembygden
Sigur Rós – Illgresi

You can find it on Spotify by clicking here, or by typing Imaginary Autumn in the search box in  the Spotify app :)