EVA CASSIDY IN DENMARK
In 2004, the music of Eva Cassidy came to Denmark! This section of the Eva Cassidy Web Site is an archive of items from the "What's New" page concerning the broadcast of the ABC "Nightline" documentary on Danish television, articles and reviews from the Danish media, and other related items. You will see the name "Henrik" repeatedly mentioned in these paragraphs; he is Henrik Thiil Nielsen, an enthusiast fan of Eva's music, a Dane, a marvelous translator, and the webmaster of the "Eva Songs" website at http://www.evacassidy.dk.Denmark is getting ready for Eva (remember, the television profile about Eva from ABC "Nightline" will be shown on DR1 on March 31 at 10 PM). Henrik has sent me several items from Denmark recently:
- 'The Danish women’s weekly Alt for Damerne in the issue for March 11 carries a three page illustrated article on Eva. The article is entitled “Eva Cassidy – A Star after Her Death”. The article is a translation of a piece by Michael Hogan that has already appeared in the English magazine Marie Claire. The article is illustrated with the LABA cover, TAT cover, Eva and Chris hugging outside Chris’s home (with “10615” above the door) and the black and white profile shot of Eva mike in hand from Wolf Trap. 425,000 persons read Alt for Damerne in an average week.'
- "Portræt af Eva Cassidy" -- An article about the coming television broadcast is now on-line (in Danish) at the website of the television station DR. Henrik sent me a translation (how helpful it is to have a professional translator as an Eva fan!). Here are a few excerpts: [About the "Nightline" profile] 'This heartfelt and touching program tells the story of the young woman with the big voice whose repertoire included a version of the Judy Garland classic ”Over the Rainbow” so beautiful it makes the soul shiver in delight.... The show now aired by DR has been shown all over the world – thus Swedish viewers demanded three repeats, and the American ABC channel also had to repeat the profile to satisfy viewers’ demands. The portrait is followed by the only existing recording of an Eva Cassidy concert. Somewhere “Over the Rainbow”, one hopes, Eva Cassidy rejoices in the fact that she, even after she is gone, makes so many people all over the world happy with her truly marvelous voice – the thing she wanted to do most of all.'
- Another Danish article appears on the Danish women's website, Estrogen, which Henrik characterizes as "the web equivalent of a women’ weekly." Lone Gjørtsvang writes (translation by Henrik): 'Your reward comes in heaven as they say with some sarcasm in the music business – for Eva Cassidy this has become the bitter truth. She had a fantastic voice, and her personal and beautiful interpretations of songs such as Over the Rainbow have brought her all the way to the top of the English and Irish charts. This story is both sad and unique, for what better way to be remembered than to have millions of people still buying your records seven years after your death?'
Friday, March 26, 2004: Finn Smed Sahlholdt’s article about Eva appears in the television section of Jyllands-Posten today.
The headline and sub-head read "Catching voice / The American singer Eva Cassidy died a complete unknown outside the area she came from, but CDs of her unique interpretations of classics have since sold in the millions." Henrik has translated the article from Danish into English for us, with his usual generosity and skill; here are a few highlights:
"Predictions are slippery things indeed, but if the Danes react as the Swedes, Norwegians, English and Americans have done, the name of American singer Eva Cassidy will be well-known Thursday morning. Such is the impression this portrait usually makes on the viewers. A year ago when Swedish TV showed the program it was watched by 320,000 viewers, not a very large number, but although the record company was well-prepared and had distributed 10,000 copies of her CDs to the shops, they sold out in less than two days. Before the profile was shown, only a small minority knew her unique voice and music or the story of her life. In Sweden, sustained interest meant that Eva Cassidy’s Songbird CD ended as No. 15 on the annual sales charts for 2003, and the total sales of her CDs now amount to some 150,000. The outcome has been similar in Norway, where the profile has been aired twice...."
Also,
"With British interest as the driving force, total global CD sales are now approaching seven million. Quite a strange commercial success that only took off four years after Eva Cassidy’s death! She died from cancer at 33, but for many music lovers her voice will always live on, pure, clear and heartfelt."
March 28: MORE FROM DENMARK! From the Danish paper Politiken, Birger Thøgersen writes, "Seldom has success been drowned in such a flood of tears as the one that has followed the story of singer and guitarist Eva Cassidy to the tops of the charts all over the world. Fame and sales in the millions came after her death. In her lifetime she was a shy and unassuming creature who did not cause much of a stir and did not attract much attention from outside her local area of Washington, D.C. She herself was by no means hankering for stardom, it is said, but others who were captivated by her and saw the potential of her voice made contacts with various record companies. Contacts were all they could make. No lasting contract was ever signed.
Bruce Lundvall, CEO of legendary jazz label Blue Note, is among those trying to come to terms with this fact in the TV profile that now finally reaches Denmark after occasioning a blizzard of demands for repeats in several countries." Also, "Viewers in Sweden... recently responded with a demand for repeats when the TV profile of Eva Cassidy was shown there. The program offers an introduction to the singer based on interviews with friends and people in the music business. This is followed by the private concert recording from Blues Alley." (Translation by Henrik -- thanks, as always!)
ADDITIONAL DANISH ARTICLES: Henrik has sent me translations of two more articles about Eva from Danish sources. Like the other recent Danish articles, these are mostly notable because they exist, not for any special content (no new interviews were done, etc.). Niels Berg of Hjemmet, a women's weekly, writes "The voice that couldn’t die / Eva Cassidy had the clearest and purest singing voice you could imagine, but was at first too shy to perform in front of an audience. Now - seven years after dying very prematurely from cancer - she has become a world star." In Billed Bladet, Natascha Fink wrote a short piece entitled "Posthumous Pop Success." Both articles focus on Eva's courage in singing "What a Wonderful World" at the tribute concert during her last weeks, and the posthumous popularity of her music.
Oddly, both articles state or imply that Eva longed for stardom, which was not the case....
"Eva Cassidy is a HUGE success in Denmark," Henrik writes. "Today I received an email from Kick Records with tremendous news. I translate:'Finally it happens--Eva Cassidy is a hit in Denmark! And not only has Eva Cassidy’s music now become a hit in Denmark, after the profile was shown last week-—and watched by 450,000 viewers according to Gallup, she also writes Danish chart history! For this is the first time in the history of the Danish albums chart that an artist has seven albums on the chart in the same week!
This is the chart record in more detail:
-> Seven albums among the top 61 on the official Top 100 albums chart!
-> Four albums on the official top 40 album sales chart!
-> All these are new entries!
This is just amazing, especially in view of the fact that these figures are based on just three days’ of sales – and converted into a point score these seven charts positions add up to the equivalent of a No. 2 position. Quite extraordinary!
The seven albums are found on the following chart positions:
#12 - SONGBIRD (CD: G2-10045)
#31 - LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY (CD: G2-10046)
#37 - TIME AFTER TIME (CD: G2-10073)
#39 - AMERICAN TUNE (CD: G2-10079)
#41 - EVA BY HEART (CD: G2-10047)
#52 - IMAGINE (CD: G2-10075)
#61 - THE OTHER SIDE (CD: G2-10066)
So there is going to be yet another marvelous story to tell about Eva Cassidy...this time a story from Denmark!'"
LATEST NEWS FROM DENMARK: Henrik has translated the following announcement from Kick Records in Denmark: "As we were able to tell you a few days ago, the deceased American singer Eva Cassidy writes Danish chart history with seven CDs on the Danish Top 100 this week, four of them being on the Official Top 40 Sales Chart! But this is not all...we have looked a bit further into it, and it turns out that not only is it the first time this has happened in Danish chart history, it is also the first time Eva Cassidy has had so many albums in the charts at the same time anywhere in the world. In several countries Eva Cassidy has had several albums in the national charts at the same time (thus for instance she at one point had no less than five albums on the English Top 150) -- but she has never had seven albums in the charts at the same time, let alone at such high positions. So you have to say that Eva Cassidy has gone straight to the Danes' hearts, even more so, in fact, than has occurred anywhere else; and of course this is not hard to understand. It is impressive to witness not only Danish but international chart history in the making."
On a recent trip to Denmark, Eva's producer Chris Biondo had the opportunity to meet with Henrik Thiil Nielsen, the webmaster of the "Eva Songs" website. The restaurant waiter took their photo -- from left to right, Henrik, Chris, and Eileen White. From all reports, they had a great time.
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