Jørgen Ingmann (born Jørgen Ingmann Pedersen; 26 April 1925 – 21 March 2015) was a Danish

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

and

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

ist from

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. He was popular in Europe and had a wider international hit in 1961 with his version of " Apache". He and his wife Grethe Ingmann won the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "

Dansevise "Dansevise" (; ) was the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1963, which took place on 23 March in London. It was performed in Danish by husband and wife duo Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann, representing . This was the first entry performe ...

Career

Jørgen Ingmann Pedersen was born in Copenhagen, and first performed as a guitarist with Svend Asmussen, the jazz violinist, during the 1940s and early 1950s, in a group known as the Unmelancholy Danes.Biography
Allmusic.com; retrieved 23 March 2015. He was influenced by American guitarist and

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large en ...

pioneer Les Paul. In the mid-1950s he set up his own studio where he developed techniques of multi-tracking and distortion, using his own accompaniment on bass and drums, and began recording under the name Jørgen Ingmann & His Guitar. Under this name he recorded a version of " Apache" in the fall of 1960; "Apache" was originally recorded in June 1960 by the British group

the Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richar ...

. Ingmann's

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

charted in 1961 at #1 in Canada on the CHUM Chart, #2 in the United States on the ''Billboard'' pop singles chart, #9 on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart, #4 on ''Cashbox'', and #6 in Germany. He remade Silvana Mangano's "Anna" with moderate US chart success. In the first half of the 1960s he had many hits in Germany, including " Pepe" (1961 #15), "Anna" (1961 #19), "Violetta" (1962 #16), " Drina Marsch" (1964 #5) and "Zorba le Grec" (1965 #14). ''Billboard'' magazine reported that he charted at no. 2 on the Denmark pop singles chart with his recording of " Marchen Til Drina" on 7 December 1963. His recording reached no. 1 on 17 December 1963.Danish Top 20 Chart.
Other recordings of his included "

Tequila Tequila (; ) is a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands (''Los Altos de Jalisco'') of the central western Mexican state ...

" (which he also recorded during the 60s, with the Champs) and a version of Pinetop Perkins' " Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" (from 1962). He also worked as a member of the duet, Grethe og Jørgen Ingmann, together with his wife Grethe Ingmann. After winning the

Dansk Melodi Grand Prix Dansk Melodi Grand Prix (), also known as Melodi Grand Prix or simply DMGP, is an annual music competition organised by the Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR) since 1957, which determines the for the Eurovision Song Contest. The f ...

competition in 1963, they went on to represent Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 where they won with the song "

" (Dance Ballad), music by

Otto Francker Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded ...

and lyrics by

Sejr Volmer-Sørensen Sejr Volmer-Sørensen (7 February 1914 – 11 May 1982) (also known as Volmer-Sørensen and Win Volmer-Sørensen) was a Danish lyricist, actor, director and television host. Born in Kristianstad, Volmer-Sørensen was adopted by a family of leat ...

. His best jazz work is to be found on the LP ''Guitar in Hifi'' which, apart from "Margie", the first track, has many songs written by Hoagy Carmichael. It was issued in England on a 10-inch LP and in other places as a 12-inch LP. In the USA it was called ''Jorgan Ingmann Swings Softly''.

Personal life and death

He and Grethe met in 1955, married in 1956, and divorced in 1975. Grethe Ingmann died 18 August 1990 from cancer, age 52. Jørgen Ingmann died on 21 March 2015, aged 89.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ingmann, Jorgen 1925 births 2015 deaths Danish male singers Danish guitarists Eurovision Song Contest winners Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Denmark Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1963 Atco Records artists