Helene Blum (born 1979) is a Danish singer and musician who specializes in

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

. Since 2005, when she won the Danish Music Awards Folk prize for her album ''En sød og liflig klang'', she has performed widely in Denmark, North America and Germany, frequently appearing with her husband Harald Haugaard.

Biography

Born in 1979 in

Gelsted Gelsted is a small town and parish in northwestern Funen, Denmark. Gelsted is located roughly halfway between Ejby, Middelfart Municipality, Ejby and Aarup, 28 kilometers west of Odense. The parish is located in Middelfart Municipality, and a sma ...

on the Danish island of

Funen Funen (, ), is the third-largest List of islands of Denmark, island of Denmark, after Zealand and North Jutlandic Island, Vendsyssel-Thy, with an area of . It is the List of islands by area, 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in th ...

, Helene Blum was the first singer to graduate from the folk music department at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (after Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2025, the city proper had a population of 185,480 while Odense Municipality had a population of 210, ...

when she received her diploma in 2004. Together with her husband, the fiddler Harald Haugaard, she has given over 700 performances in Denmark, Germany and North America. Composing most of her songs herself, she combines folk, pop and

chanson A (, ; , ) is generally any Lyrics, lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval music, medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of ...

. Singing soprano, Blum has also performed in the ballet ''Medea'' at the Schleswig-Holsteinische Landestheater in

Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish language, Danish and ; ; ) is an independent city, independent town in the far north of the Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. After Kiel and Lübeck, it is the third-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg's ...

and in the opera ''Konsuma'' in Odense. The composer, Rasmus Zwicki, wrote a special part for her. She went on to perform in the Helene Blum & Harald Haugaard Quintet, singing and playing the violin. The other players are Kristine Elise Pedersen (cello), Mattias Perez (guitar), and Sune Rahbek (percussion). In 2017, the Helene Blum and Harald Haugaard Band also included Mikkel Grue (guitar) and Mathæus Bech (bass). Now averaging a hundred concerts a year, they have performed together in Germany, the United States, Austria, Norway, Canada, Japan and Denmark. ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' included her ''Men med åbne øjne'' as one of the best folk music albums of 2013. Calling the album "an unexpected treat", the critic Martin Chilton praised Blum's "haunting voice", even if nearly all the lyrics were in Danish.

Discography

Helene Blum has released the following albums: * 2006 ''En sød og liflig klang'' * 2009 ''En gang og altid'' * 2010 ''Liden sol'' * 2013 ''Men med åbne øjne'' * 2016 ''Julerosen'' * 2017 ''Dråber af Tid'' * 2020 ''Strømmen'' * 2023 ''Den store summer''

References

External links

Helene Blum's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blum, Helene Living people 1979 births People from Middelfart Municipality Musicians from the Region of Southern Denmark Danish pianists Danish sopranos Danish folk singers Danish women folk singers Danish violinists Danish women violinists 21st-century Danish women singers 21st-century Danish pianists Westpark Music artists 21st-century Danish women pianists