I <3 SPOT Festival

Selma Judith, Asbjørn and GRETA.

At the start of this month I went to SPOT Festival in Aarhus, Denmark. SPOT Festival is all about discovering new talent on the Danish music scene. Something I love about this festival is that it gives a taste of what the future of music could look like as well as what it looks like right now. A bunch of artists present their ideas in hopes that the audience will catch them. Some are more established artists and others are doing their first concert ever.

I went to the festival in 2021 as well. Things were different then since it was moved to the fall time because of covid. I remember how exciting it felt to hear live music again after concerts had been cancelled for a long time. SPOT Festival was my gateway to discovering a lot of artists that I still listen to today such as Baby In Vain, Ganger and Pil who are all established on the Danish music scene today.

I want to write about some new music I discovered, as well as an old favourite. At SPOT Festival the concerts are 35 minutes or shorter and which often means they are a taster of the artist’s best material or a new project they’re promoting. The fact that they are all Danish artists is great as well since that means they usually have gigs in Copenhagen in the near future that I can go to if want to see more.

Selma Judith is a singer-songwriter who is known for writing honest and often angry songs. I’ve seen her multiple times and it’s always a treat. Her first album Getting Angry, Baby is about female rage and in a video on Store Vega’s website she says that women and other minorities have a right to be angry. Anger is something I think about a lot, especially in a political sense. Maybe anger is always political. Political movements need rage in order to thrive. Anger is something we discussed quite a lot in my Gender Studies program. I really admire that Selma Judith made a whole album dedicated to female rage.

Selma Judith at SPOT Festival

I’m angry about a lot of things. I’m angry about the horrific genocide in Palestine. Angry that western powers do as they please and leave the most vulnerable to deal with the consequences. I’m also angry that we know the solutions for climate change and there are more than enough resources to implement them, but billionaires choose to hoard wealth instead. I could go on and on and on but I won’t right now. Maybe in a future post.

At this point in time Selma Judith has released half of her sophmore album Half truths from a broken heart. I haven’t listened to it because I want to wait until the whole album is out, but I’m really looking forward to it. She is known for is playing the harp and it’s always super captivating. I really enjoy is when artists incorporate classical elements into their songs. It makes their performances more memorable and in this case the harp is also just an incredible instrument. My favourite songs from Selma Judith are Eat Your Soul, Hollow Grounds and Inner Thigh.

Asbjørn is a queer pop icon who I’ve had my eye on for a long time but never gotten into. Multiple people have told me I would like his music and they were right. I love pop music and especially gay pop. The songs have quite candid lyrics that I started singing along to after the first listen. I’m currently obsessed with He’s Dancing So Well (I’m Better), STB x Boyfriend and Young Dumb Crazy.

I was super impressed by Asbjørn’s stage presence and choreography. The show was super creative and the effort definitely paid off. One moment that stood out to me was when he sang Be Human. Asbjørn shushed the crowd and sang it acappella. Every word felt so important. It's a skill to communicate so clearly what the media likes to complicate and ostracize. I’m sure this songs means a lot to loads of queer people and really just anyone who doesn’t fit into gender roles. We are all so much more complex than the little boxes man and woman:

“I don’t wanna be a man

If man means power, to not empower others

Don’t wanna be a man

I don’t wanna be a woman

If woman means fighting to be an equal person

Don’t wanna be a woman

Can I just be human?

Can I just be me?

Can I just be human?”

Asbjørn also told the story of how he created his own record label at 19 because labels thought he was “too gay” and wanted him to tone it down. He does everything on his own terms and has created a truly admirable career. You can clearly tell that everything is coming from him. Staying true to yourself and your artistry pays off and is especially important as a queer artist. There is no such thing as being too gay, it just used to be less marketable. We need queer artists who push the boundaries, especially independent artists who create their own path. Breaking the rules is crucial if we want things to change and being too gay is really just a plus in my lesbian world.

Asbjørn at SPOT Festival

GRETA managed to turn a classical music hall into a full rave. I was exhausted by the time I got to her set which was at around 1am (not my finest hour) . I’m not into techno at all but her set was so electric that you just had to get up and dance. Her stage presence drew me in right away. The show started by her appearing in the audience and walking down the stairs to the stage. During the show she was running around the stage which made the crowd go wild.

She said that her album Portals is about motherhood and I can’t think of anything more badass to make a techno album about. In general motherhood is a topic that is often not explored in music because of the idea that a woman has to choose motherhood or having a music career and can’t possibly do both. The music industry is obsessed with youth. Female artists especially are expected to dissapear when they have kids. It was super refreshing to get to listen to an album about motherhood and be a part of such a fun rave as well.

I especially liked when she played her song Feel It and asked the crowd to do exactly that. The gig was a massive party where all emotions were welcome and all problems could be solved by dancing, or at least float away for a moment.

GRETA at SPOT Festival

A few other concerts I enjoyed were APHACA, Ninna Lundberg, Aysay, Astrid Engberg, PRISMA, ANYA and Brimheim. I decided to only write about a few so I could go more in depth, but if you want to read about Brimheim I’ve written about her twice this year already (the posts are linked down below) .

I’m fully in concert season mode this month. I went to Adrienne Lenker this weekend and I’ve written something about it that will be published soon. In three days I’m going to The Eras Tour and I can’t believe it’s so soon. I’m also seeing Olivia Rodrigo at the end of the month. There are so many exciting things happening and I’m trying my best to write about all of them.

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Links:

Selma Judith video