Jarle Bernhoft (; Jarle Norman Bernhoft-Sjødin; born 21 June 1976), known professionally as Bernhoft (often stylized as Bern/hoft), is a Norwegian singer, musician and songwriter. His best known songs are "Streetlights", " Shout" (a

Tears for Fears Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in Bath in 1981 by Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal. Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, Tears for Fears were associated with the synth-pop bands o ...

cover), "Choices", "C'mon Talk" and "Stay with Me". He has also been in a number of bands, notably Explicit Lyrics and Span.

Career

Explicit Lyrics

Hailing from

Nittedal Nittedal is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality and city in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of ...

, Bernhoft attended Rud Upper Secondary School in

Bærum Bærum () is a list of municipalities of Norway, municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Akershus County, Norway. It forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a populatio ...

where he joined the musical scene. Bernhoft, alongside Fridtjof "Joff" Nilsen, were members of Explicit Lyrics. Within a span of three years, the band released three albums, ''Fleshpulse'' (1996), ''Flow'' (1997) and ''Lipshave'' (1998).

Span

After the breakup of Explicit Lyrics, Bernhoft, a vocalist and songwriter, and guitarist Nilsen, joined drummer Fredrik Wallumrød and bassist Vemund Stavnes to form the rock band Span. After two EPs, ''Baby's Come Back'' (2002) and ''Found'' (2003), Span had two successful albums, ''

Mass Distraction ''Mass Distraction'' is the debut album by Span and features 11 main tracks and 1 bonus track . The album was produced by Gil Norton (who also produced albums by The Pixies). Their song "Baby's Come Back" appeared in several video games, includ ...

'' (2004) and '' Vs. Time'' (2005). The band broke up in 2005. In late 2023, the band announced reunion shows at

Rockefeller Music Hall Rockefeller is a concert venue with audience entrance at Mariboes gate 5B, downtown Oslo, Norway. The building, known as "Torggata Bad" ("Market Street Bath"), used to house a public bathing facility. To this day the surrounding floors of the bui ...

in February 2024, twenty years after the release of their debut album.

Other collaborations

Bernhoft has contributed on a number of recordings and concerts with mostly Norwegian artists, such as

Hanne Hukkelberg Hanne Hukkelberg (born 17 April 1979) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter and producer from Kongsberg, Norway. Hukkelberg started singing and playing instruments at the age of 3. In her youth, she was a vocalist covering genres such as jazz, rock, ...

, Dadafon,

Bigbang BigBang (; stylized in all caps) is a South Korean boy band formed by YG Entertainment. The group consists of three members: G-Dragon, Taeyang, and Daesung. Originally a five-piece band, Seungri retired from the entertainment industry in March ...

and The Køhn/Johansen Sextet. He also played in the band Green Granadas using the stage name Rod Hot.

Solo

Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2011 Bernhoft Harry Wad

Bernhoft released his first solo album ''

Ceramik City Chronicles ''Ceramik City Chronicles'' is the debut studio album by Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Jarle Bernhoft. Track listing Personnel * Jarle Bernhoft Jarle Bernhoft (; Jarle Norman Bernhoft-Sjødin; born 21 June 1976), known professionally a ...

'' on 1 September 2008. In January 2010, he released a double live album called '' 1:Man 2:Band'', where one half is a recording from his solo show at a jazz café in Oslo (Kampen Bistro), and the other half is a recording from his concerts in Rockefeller and Molde Jazz Festival with a full band. His second solo album, ''

Solidarity Breaks ''Solidarity Breaks'' is the second solo album of the Norwegian singer, songwriter and musician Jarle Bernhoft and the first one to be credited to his new adopted name Bern/hoft. Released on Universal Music on 31 January 2011, it entered at number ...

'', was released the next year in January 2011. It topped the

VG-lista VG-lista is the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from Norwegian and international artists. It is presented weekly in the newspaper ''Verdens Gang, VG''. The data is collected by Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Soundscan Inte ...

, the Norwegian Albums Chart, for a total of seven weeks (in July, August and September 2011). The album was credited to Bern/hoft rather than his full name. He was also credited as Bern/hoft in his 2014 follow-up album ''Islander'' that also topped the VG-lista chart in May 2014. In June 2014, Bernhoft appeared for the first time at the

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

and was featured by

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

in a special performance of his song "Wind You Up". His album ''Islander'' was nominated for a

Grammy Award for Best R&B Album The Grammy Award for Best R&B Album is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works on albums in the Contemporary R&B, R&B mus ...

for the

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ceremony, held in February 2015.

In popular culture

In September 2011, Bernhoft appeared on ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The show ran for nineteen seasons from September 8, 2003, to May 26, 2022, in which it broadcast 3,339 episodes. It was produced by ...

'' after producers of the show found his video on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. While on the show he played his song "C'mon Talk". In July 2013 and again in June 2014, he was featured as a musical guest on ''Conan'' on TBS. From 2023 to 2024, Bernhoft served as a coach on '' The Voice Norway''.

Discography

Albums

With Explicit Lyrics *1996: ''Fleshpulse'' (EP) *1998: ''Lipshave'' With Span *2004: ''

'' *2005: '' Vs. Time'' With

Børre Dalhaug Børre Dalhaug (born 29 April 1974 in Ålesund, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz musician (drums), music arranger and music instructor. Career Dalhaug has worked as a musician since 1995 and done around 800 concerts with bands like The Real Thing ( ...

's Bigbandblast *2004: ''

Bigbandblast! ''Bigbandblast!'' (released 24 August 2004 by Real Music Records in Oslo) is an album by the big band Bigbandblast led by Børre Dalhaug. Reception ''Bigbandblast!'' sounds like the drummer of The Real Thing has assembled a hard-swinging bi ...

'' (Real Records) Solo (studio) Solo (live)

Singles

;With Span *2002: "Baby's Come Back" *2002: "On My Way Down" *2003: "Found" *2004: "Don't Think the Way They Do" *2005: "Cut Like Diamonds" ;Solo *2008: "Streetlights" *2008: "Sunday" *2009: "Fly Away" *2011: "C'mon Talk" *2011: "Choices" *2012: "Stay with Me" *2012: " Shout" (France: #187) *2014: "Come Around" (France: #181) *2015: "Everyone's A Stranger" *2016: "We Have a Dream" *2021: "Say It Isn't So" *2021: "C'mon Talk V2" *2021: "Call out Kids" *2021: "Clearly Confused" *2021: "All My Loving"

References

External links

Official website
*
Bernhoft biography in The Guardian

- October 2010
Bernhoft on Ronnie Scott's radio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernhoft, Jarle 1976 births Living people 20th-century Norwegian bass guitarists 21st-century Norwegian bass guitarists 20th-century Norwegian male singers 21st-century Norwegian male singers Norwegian male bass guitarists Norwegian rock guitarists Norwegian rock singers Norwegian jazz guitarists Norwegian jazz singers Norwegian songwriters People from Nittedal Neo soul singers English-language singers from Norway Norwegian expatriates in the United States Norwegian male jazz musicians