No Drive to be a Star

ROSKILDE (Dagbladet): Sissel Kyrkjebø sings with the black-clad Danish rockers at the Roskilde festival. That her new "All Good Things" album has not become an international hit, she takes with crushing calm. "I don't have any desire for star status," she said.

By HÅKON MOSLET translated from Norwegian by ROBERT A JONES
Saturday 30. June 2001

WITH REACH - WITHOUT DESIRE: I don't have any desire for an international career," said Sissel Kyrkjebø. "I don't have need for any other life than that I have." Photo: HENNING LILLEGÅRD

At 1:30 a.m. Sissel walked onto Roskilde's main Orange Stage together with Denmark's gothic band heros, Sort Sol. The duet on Sort Sol's "Elia Rising" is the most recent in a long line of disconnected projects from Norway's great songbird who doesn't necessarily benefit from her career.

"I do that which I want. I don't have any need for an international breakthrough," said Sissel.

We meet Sissel at Restaurant Jacobsen, which lies near Arne Jacobsen's famous Bellavista-development on Strandvejen in the outskirts of Copenhagen. Sissel lives in a large villa in a rural stretch of Årderup, only five minutes away. She's in the midst of a hectic work period, but as always with Sissel, there is no strategic plan for her activities as an artist.

• She has recently been launched as a pop-babe with the album "All Good Things."

• She has recorded a duet with Sort Sol which points in an entirely differrent musical direction.

• In the Fall, she will record a compilation album with the Broadcast Orchestra.

No Plan
Sissel does not have any plan. She admits that herself.

"One never knows what one will do. I never know what I will do next," said Sissel.

"All Good Things" is a pure pop album. Will you continue in that direction?

"I do not know. We will see what happens and what inspiration I receive," she said.

"Prince Igor," "Titanic," Sort Sol duet – you hop around to diverse projects?

"I'm not afraid to try different things. In any case, I'm not a classical artist, I'm not a pop singer, I'm not a musical artist. I am a little bit of everything..."

What are you then?

"I am myself," said Sissel.

Without Desire
"All Good Things" has sold 110,000 copies in Norway, 35,000 in Denmark, 20,000 in Sweden and about 15,000 in Japan. In the Fall it will be released in the Netherlands also, but beyond that the album has not given Sissel any international progress. And is the lady disappointed? No way!

"An international career comes, if it comes," she said.

Hasn't the last year's work on "All Good Things" given you any desire to break out internationally?

"No, I take things still and calm. I don't have any desire for any other life. I have a good life with my family and that which I'm doing. I don't have the drive to be a star. My goal is to sing," she maintains.

The much debated video for the duet with Espen Lind, "Where The Lost Ones Go," has not been a breakthrough, either for Sissel – or for Lind.

"If the timing isn't right, then nothing happens. That's how it goes," she said.

Enough of that.

Exotic
To sing at a festival is nearly an exotic experience for Sissel.

"I have never been to a rock festival. But I did attend the Skjærgårds gospel festival at Kragerø as an 18-year-old. We were four friends who were staying in a tent. When we woke up that first morning, we were suddenly eight in the tent. There were four friends who had sneaked in during the night, who had traveled without a tent," she tells with laughter.