Sissel Dropping USA Album

Three year's commuting to the USA and approximately 15 million crowns spent: Sissel Kyrkjebø scraps her entire prestige-filled, USA CD-project.

HIGH STAR FACTOR: Sissel Kyrkjebø has traveled steadily the last three years to the USA to work on her album. Transport, hotels and studio rents alone cost her and Universal/PolyGram chiefs around 7 million Norwegian crowns ($900,000). But of that, there came no album. Photo: Espen Forsberg

The reason: The songs were not commercial enough for an international breakthrough for Sissel. In addition, all of Sissel's supporters within PolyGram disappeared when the record company was purchased by international giant, Universal.

Now the songbird from Bergen is recording an entirely new album in Norway. The album's release is planned before Christmas this year.

According to what VG has learned, there is only one song -- which is nearly unrecognizable from the original -- that is left from the album in the USA, which was supposed to make Sissel an international star.

Sissel traveled around 25 times roundtrip from Copenhagen to New York to record her album in 14-day blocks at Glen Cove on Long Island with her super producer Rick Chertoff.

But the result was neither good nor commercial enough, decided Sissel, Svare and Universal Music director Petter Singsaas together.

Money In

The accounting is such:

* Sissel & Co. have definitely spent 8 million Norwegian crowns ($1 million) just in production costs alone.

* In addition there are other costs -- plane tickets for Sissel and Arne Svare (40,000 crowns roundtrip -- $5,000), lodgings at a first class hotel (Fitzpatrick), rented transportation, studio rental, several trips for then PolyGram Norway chief Jørn Johnsen to USA and the East, hired publicists in the USA and Canada, rented photo studios and much more. Sources to VG report these costs as at least 7 million crowns ($900,000).

* If the entire project had been fulfilled with marketing and pay to all the participants, the total costs would have come up to about 25 million crowns ($3.2 million), according to VG's understanding.

But there has also been income during this time period -- through Sissel's work on the Titanic soundtracks, Christmas in Vienna album, Prince Igor duet with Warren G. Also SAS (Scandinavian Air Systems) has been an important travel sponsor.

Entirely Norwegian Album

Now there is optimism in the Sissel camp. Sissel is now found these days in the DiscLab studio of Jørn Dahl and Hans Olav Grøttheim. In the middle of September there will be a single and if everything goes well, the rest of the album in the middle of November.

The album will be a completely Norwegian production. Not only are the producers Norwegian, the songwriters are also Norwegian. Since January, Sissel's management has invited numerous competent Norwegian songwriters, among others both Morten Abel and Espen Lind, to contribute to Sissel's Norwegian album.

All the PolyGram heads -- both in Europe and the USA -- who waited anxiously for a Sissel album before the record company was sold and merged with Universal Music a couple of years ago, are today gone.

Suddenly all of the supporters around Sissel had either quit or were fired. That means also that the foundation for a big, international release are gone -- until further.

Verdens Gang and The Sissel Website -- 30. July 2000

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