With ten albums behind her and a string of music awards, Norwegian singer and one-time Vienna resident Rebekka Bakken has a huge following in Scandinavia and the German-speaking world, but chose to kick off her 17-date tour here in Budapest.
“I am very much looking forward to coming to Budapest again,” Bakken told We Love Budapest during a break in rehearsals in Oslo.
Wonderful Budapest
“I have listened to so many great Hungarian musicians and singers through the years, and the last time I was in this wonderful city, a small orchestra were playing for us when we had dinner. I remember all the men in my band were crying. It was so beautiful.”
Bakken start out playing in school bands before taking to the stage in a professional capacity from 1988. First performing rock, soul and funk numbers, Bakken found that her unique, wide-ranging voice allowed her to move into jazz – the genre for which she is now best known – but also pop and folk. This broad repertoire means she can avoid being pigeon-holed, as Tuesday’s Müpa show should illustrate.
It was jazz, though, that catapulted Bakken from her native Oslo to the clubs of New York. “My way or genre was not really a choice,” she explains. “I just walked a path that seemed to lay ahead of me step by step and found myself in my surroundings. I met and played with incredible musicians in New York and developed my young artistry through my interaction with them.”
Swayed by jazz
“Most of the people I worked with happened to be jazz musicians so my expression was naturally affected by this genre.”
By then, of course, Bakken was singing in English, but that’s not how it all started. “I wrote my songs in Norwegian until I left Norway,” she remembers. “It was natural to change the language when I moved to the US. Since English has been my main language for so many years and since my audience is international, I stayed with the English language."
Norwegian folk
"I love to sing in Norwegian, though, and occasionally do. I will include a fiery Norwegian folk song at my concert in Budapest.”
On her most recent album, Winter Nights,
Bakken offers her own take on seasonal touchstones by the Pogues and Wham!, interspersed
with her own poignant tunes: “Although I write most of my songs, I do take in
some standards or covers from time to time. I like to interpret other people’s
music if I can create something that I feel is mine”.
Tuesday’s on-stage collaboration with Budapest’s Modern Art
Orchestra, who backed Ennio Morricone on his world tour, and played with the
Harlem Gospel Choir and Bowie pianist Mike Garson, will allow Bakken to expand
her range even further.
“It will be a great night, I’m so much looking forward to it. My band and I will start the concert playing songs of mine and the night will end with a performance with the great Modern Art Orchestra under the direction of Kornél Fekete-Kovács, and the songs of the Tom Waits. It’s a really exciting set from beginning to end and I think we all will have fun on stage making music together."
Rebekka Bakken & Modern Art Orchestra
Müpa
1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell utca 1
Tuesday, 2 November, 8.30pm-10.30pm
Tickets available here
Rebekka Bakken tour details here
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