IF YOU LIKE the Swedish pop singer Robyn, it’s difficult not to like her a lot. After scoring a pop hit in America in 1997 with “Show Me Love,” Robyn unexpectedly reemerged in 2005 with a self-released, self-titled album full of smart, irresistible electro-pop. The album begins with an impossibly grandiose introduction called “Curriculum Vitae” in which the pintsized Robin Miriam Carlsson is described as a “two-time recipient of the Nobel Prize for super foxiest female ever and wartime consigliere to the Cosa Nostra.” This toughness—in pictures, she seems to be staring you down—is both compelling and charming, but Robyn doesn’t see herself that way, necessarily.
“I think of myself as kind of a soft person,” she says. “Sometimes it’s easier to start with toughness, you know? It’s a good frame for an emotion. It’s a good starting point for when you want to describe something that’s complicated. It gives you a bit of protection when you go into really emotional stuff.”
This appeal, along with pop gems like “Be Mine!” from Robyn and “Dancing on My Own” from this year’s Body Talk Pt. 1, have slowly built her an audience here in America, garnering her appearances on MTV’s Video Music Awards and Gossip Girl. But Robyn says she has basically the same audience across the world.
“Wherever I go, it’s the same kind of vibe from the audience. A really mixed, very open and queer crowd. And to see all those different kinds of people in the room, it’s a great feeling every time.”
That crowd is attracted, in part, to the way Robyn takes pop music and pitches it on a slight slant. She’s described her music as “unexpected pop,” but she says it was never a surprise to her.
“I feel like what I’m doing now is what I was always moving toward. I never felt like pop music and quality contradicted each other. They were always part of the same thing for me, growing up with people like Kate Bush and Cyndi Lauper and Prince. I just think that for a while there in the ’90s, pop music became more like an industry phenomenon than a real expression. So not unexpected to me, no. Just to a newer generation that wasn’t exposed to that as much as I was.”
Robyn loves to play with contrasts, throwing sadness into a bubbly pop tune, and trying to address the dissociation we sometimes feel at living in a world full of metal and plastic by singing love songs to robots. She doesn’t see that as a problem, though.
“Real doesn’t mean it’s how it actually happened, but how it felt. I think what we always do, whether it’s in film or music or any kind of expression, is recreate reality. I think robots are the most extreme form of that. It’s like recreating a human being but in a more simple version. And that’s why it’s so easy to use them—you can put your finger on what’s really human.”
In the end, Robyn sees herself as another one of the contradictions she likes to sing about. “I’m tough,” she says, “and soft, as well.” And that’s why we love her.
I’ll be there! Woot!
Well pop music sucks, no matter what country it’s from.
I went to the Robyn show tonight. Words are not able to describe that. After an excruciating wait following the last opener, Robyn’s band took the stage in white lab coats. After a minute or two of heavy electronica buildup, Robyn storms on wearing a hoodie over a body suit to stobes, light show and smoke. She lays into the set. By this time I’m shoved front and just left of center, in what I had no idea was going to be a mosh pit. This is a pop show right? Mosh pits do not happen at pop shows. Wrong, this was not a pop show, this was epic.
The crowd (including yours truly) goes nuts. Robyn realizes this, and I was close enough to see her nipples go hard right through her sports bra and body suit. Robyn goes nuts. Which causes her band to go nuts as well. A mosh pit erupts where I am standing, and Robyn is throwing punches in the air. This continues for a few songs. I’ve got a middle aged lady to my left, and a small sweet portland-style woman in front of me. I’m trying to protect them from the damage of the mosh pit. I’m getting tired, because some of the people shoving me have the fake invincibility of drugs on there side. Even a 200Lbs ex-marine gets tired.
Then Robyn launches into “Invincible”. At that moment, I am like, all right Robyn, I am going the distance with you.
She hits “Dancing on my Own” and the crowd is actually singing along louder than the huge PA system. By this point she has ditched the hoodie, and is jumping and flailing in a green bodysuit, four belts, and most incredibly, platform work boots.
Robyn pounds through some more obscure songs, and the Wonder Ballroom is like a hurricane. At this point everyone, including me, Robyn, the band, and even the more delicate ladies in the crowd is drenched head to toe in sweat. And even with all that body heat it is probably less than 80 degrees. We are all bouncing with our arms in the air (and occasionally fists). I have a couple moments coughing when I’m losing my voice from screaming along.
All this time, in the back of my head, I am thinking Robyn hasn’t even pulled out most of her big guns yet. So true.
A half hour to 40 minutes in, and frankly we should all be exhausted, and we kind of are. Then Robyn pulls out one of her big guns “Dream On”.
And it is like we all just jumped off a repel tower or snorted a thumb thick like of the purest cocaine. Adrenaline just blows the roof off.
It is worth mentioning at this point, that nothing I can find on the web or in her recordings is as good and intense as the music she and her band performed tonight. I wish I had a recording of tonight’s concert, because good as her other stuff is, this was miles better. It is also worth mentioning, that while I’m sure her synth/keyboard players had some pre-recorded stuff to work with, it was very clear this was absolutely live, and her band was having a jam session. And a very excited jam session at that.
Robyn did two encores, of somewhere between 4-6 songs a each encore. I am not sure, because although I was completely physically sober at that point, I was so high on the experience it is a little blurry.
At a few points Robyn waved the flag of Sweden. I have never seen a crowd of Americans roar for another country’s flag before.
Robyn finished her final encore with a medley of “Dancing Queen” with her own “Show me Love”. Was the only (partial) cover of the night. But it fit, and put a really sweet end on a really intense over two hours.
Have you ever had sex so awesome that you kind of felt traumatized afterwards? That is how I feel after the Robyn show.
200 lbs ex-marines go to Robyn shows!?
2011 is going to be a weird year…