One of the lines from one of the biggest hits of 2010 in Norway goes like this: I took a chance, took a glance on a cookie jar. The song being Bjørn Johan Muri’s Yes Man:
I’m not sure that line actually means anything, other than that maybe young BJ or one of his fellow songwriters was feeling a bit peckish when they were writing the song. There are lots of random English lyrics in the world, so I wasn’t too bothered.
Anyway, a few months later and former Norwegian X Factor participant Rikke Lie has released her debut single, Good Girl. The song is a lovely, well-crafted number, if not immediately catchy. But something struck me. The lyrics: What’s a clueless kid doing with her hands on the cookie jar lid? Rikke wonders, in a rather curious rhyming couplet.
Now here’s the thing. Rikke comes from the same town as Bjørn Johan: Ålesund. Surely it can’t be a spooky coincidence that two Ålesunders are singing about cookie jars? Is it a secret message? Is it some kind of inside Ålesund joke? Or are they just desperate cookieholics crying out for help? I demand answers!
Oh, and it turns out that RIkke’s song is quite a grower. I keep finding myself humming it - and not just when I’m eyeing the cookie jar!
3 comments:
Well, this *is* the same country that sent a song to Eurovision about a popsicle.
(Serious question: does Norwegian-language pop music use a lot of imagery of sweet things the same way former-Yugoslav pop music uses a lot of fatalistic night/day imagery? Because that might be your answer there...)
Haha! But hmm, no, I hadn't really noticed any sweet thing imagery before. Then again, I don't listen to a huge amount of Norwegian-language pop (in part because there isn't very much of it!)
People from Ålesund is known as the most reticent people in Norway. A large proportion of the adult population has its hidden economy stashed in cookie jars and similar innocent objects. It's not very nice for the children who put their hands on something like that.
Growing up in such an environment creates lyrics.
If someone buys records with artists from the region, please pay in cash.
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