Simon Lynge (born 22 January 1980) is a singer-songwriter who was raised in
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
and Denmark.
Lynge is the first solo musical artist from Greenland to have an album released across the United Kingdom, and the first Greenlander to play the UK's
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 ...
. Lynge has performed extensively across Europe and the United States, and he accompanied
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and activist. She is considered one of the leading music artists behind the country rock genre in the 1970s and the Americana (music), Americana genre ...
as support act on the American singer's 2011 tour of Europe.
Lynge's 2010 debut album, ''The Future'' reached the top of the
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
UK Rock Charts in the week of its release. Lynge's music has variously been compared by writers to that of
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...
,
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the single "Fi ...
,
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...
and
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
. Since 2008, Lynge has lived in
Jefferson County,
Washington.
Biography
Simon Overgaard Lynge was born in
Holstebro
Holstebro is the main town in Holstebro Municipality, Denmark. The town, bisected by Storå, Denmark, ''Storåen'' ("The Large Creek") and has a population of 37,487 (1 January 2025).[Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...]
, but grew up in
Qaqortoq
Qaqortoq (), also known as Julianehåb, is the capital city of the Kujalleq municipalities of Greenland, municipality in southern Greenland, located near Cape Thorvaldsen. With a population of 3,050 in 2020, it is the most populous town in sout ...
, Greenland.
[
] His father was a theatrical performer and an accordionist who played with the Greenlandic musician Rasmus Lyberth. Lynge has said that he had no formal schooling as a child, but worked as a shepherd and hunter, living in a village of fewer than 40 residents that was an hour's boat ride from the nearest town.
As a teenager, Lynge worked as a delivery boy for a supermarket in Qaqortoq. Shortly afterwards he moved back to Denmark, where he enrolled in the Holstebro Music School to study opera, piano, drums and music theory. While in Denmark, he became part of the young
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
music scene, performing his own compositions as a singer and guitarist at a range of venues. Around this time he also travelled to London,
Nashville
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
and Los Angeles to perform and write his own music.
''The Future''
In 2008, Lynge played a concert in the
Hollywood music venue Highland Grounds and impressed the producer Matt Forger (engineer on
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...
's
''Thriller'' album), who suggested recording his songs. Shortly afterwards, Lynge began the intensive series of recording sessions at Bright Orange Studios in Los Angeles that resulted in his debut album, ''The Future''. The co-producers were Forger and
Jon Mattox.
[
Released on the independent London-based label Lo-Max Records in 2010, the album caused a wave of media interest, leading to appearances on ]BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
television and Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...
in the UK, an appearance on Swedish television, and press features in Europe. The album was nominated in the Independent Music Awards of 2010. It has been released in Sweden, Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, Denmark, Germany, Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, Switzerland, Ireland and New Zealand, in addition to the UK.
Lynge usually performs live with the multi-instrumentalist Richard Lobb, with whom he wrote the song London Town on his debut album. As well as his band Simon Lynge & The Martial Hearts. Lynge's larger concerts have also seen him accompanied by a full string section.
International exposure
Lynge spent much of 2010 touring across Europe, in addition to accepting a request to perform at the Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023.
The festival has acted ...
in Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
. In July 2010 he headlined the music festival in Tivoli Gardens
Tivoli Gardens, also known simply as Tivoli (), is an amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. The park opened on 15 August 1843 and is the third-oldest operating amusement park in the world, after Dyrehavsbakken in nearby Kla ...
, Copenhagen, playing to an audience of more than 25,000.
His song "The Future" was featured in a 2009 advertisement for the world's most northerly four-star hotel, Hotel Arctic in Ilulissat, Greenland. The advertisement won the Gold award at the 2010 Golden City Gate competition in Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. Lynge's songs have also featured on US television shows including '' Lie to Me'' and '' Brothers & Sisters'' and the film American Pie Presents: Beta House.
''Deep Snow''
In February 2018, Lynge and long-time musical collaborator Richard Lobb isolated themselves in a house in Trallong, Wales
Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
, to record the album ''Deep Snow'', later completed in Narcissus Studios in London. He later announced his signing to Integrity Records and, following two singles ''Age of Distraction'' and ''Paper Thin'', the album ''Deep Snow'' was released on 23 November 2018.
Discography
Albums
*2010: ''The Future''
*2014: ''The Absence of Fear''
* 2016: ''The Map of Your Life''
* 2018: ''Deep Snow''
Singles
*2011: "London Town"
*2011: "If You Go"
*2011: "Infinitely You"
*2013: "The Absence of Fear"
*2016: "The Map of Your Life"
*2016: "Hallelujah"
*2016: "Drum Beat"
*2018: "Age of Distraction"
*2018: "Paper Thin"
References
External links
Official Website
Lo-Max Records
Integrity Records
*
*
*
*
Interview on BBC Breakfast News, 7 June 2010
Interview on Sky News, 11 June 2010
Interview on More Radio, 26 July 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynge, Simon
Greenlandic Inuit people
21st-century indigenous writers of the Americas
21st-century Inuit people
Greenlandic male singers
Greenlandic people of Danish descent
Inuit musicians
English-language singers from Greenland
Living people
1980 births
Danish emigrants to Greenland
People from Holstebro
Musicians from the Central Denmark Region
People from Qaqortoq
Danish male singer-songwriters
Danish singer-songwriters
Danish guitarists
21st-century Danish male singers
21st-century guitarists
21st-century Greenlandic people