If you understand Spanish or Portuguese, you may recognize the word “madrugada” as meaning “dawn.” If you are Norwegian or are interested in Norwegian music, you will recognize Madrugada as a great Norwegian band that is no longer together. My brother wrote an article about the end of the White Stripes Era and although the White Stripes are much more well-known than Madrugada, it still reminded me of other bands I enjoy that are no longer together as a musical group.
I learned of Madrugada when I was living in Oslo in 2006 and housesitting for a colleague in the mountains outside of Oslo. I stayed for 2 weeks at their cabin/farmhouse/it was just their real house that had elements of a cabin and farmhouse. While I was there, I had a lot of time on my hands as I was about an hour outside of the city and the neighbors were pretty far away. So, I listened to as many of their CDs as I possibly could. Granted much of the music they owned was American, there was still a lot of Norwegian bands represented in their collection. My favorite of theirs was Madrugada.
In 1995, Madrugada formed in Stormarknes, Norway, a small town in Nordland County (the County south of Troms, the county that Tromsø is in). The band consisted of Frode Jacobsen (bass), Robert Burås (guitar), and Sivert Høyem (vocals). They are all extremely talented, but I especially enjoy listening to Sivert´s voice. The band was together just over 10 years-it split up shortly after Robert Burås died in his Oslo apartment on July 12, 2007. After the release of their last album in January of 2008, Høyem and Jacobsen announced they would complete one last tour before they threw the towel in. Their very last concert was at Oslo Spektrum in November of 2008. I would have loved to have been there.
I attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, where I majored in Norwegian and History. During college, I spent almost a year living in Oslo, Norway, where I attended the University of Oslo and completed an internship at the United States Embassy. I have worked for Concordia Language Villages as a pre-K Norwegian teacher and have taught an adult Norwegian language class. Right now, I keep up by writing this Norwegian blog for Transparent Language. Please read and share your thoughts! I will be continuing this blog from my future residence in the Norwegian arctic!
Comments:
kari:
The band is Norwegian.