Jan Leonard Groth (25 February 1946 – 27 August 2014) was a Norwegian musician.

Biography

Groth was born in the borough of

Greåker Greåker is a borough in the city of Sarpsborg, Norway, located 7 km west of the city centre. Before 1992 Greåker was a part of Tune municipality. It is situated at the river Glomma between Sarpsborg and Fredrikstad. The borough of Greåke ...

Sarpsborg Sarpsborg ( or ), historically Borg, is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sarpsborg. Sarpsborg is part of the fifth largest urban area in Norway when paired with neigh ...

, Norway. He first made his name in the early 1970s as a member of the

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band

Aunt Mary Aunt Mary is a Norwegian prog rock band from the 1970s. They signed a recording contract with Polydor Records in Denmark, to facilitate the release of ''Aunt Mary'' in 1970. The group gradually moved towards progressive rock with the records ''Lo ...

, where he was lead singer and keyboardist. Groth later moved on to

Christian rock Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus, typically performed by self-proclaimed Christian individuals. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Ch ...

, where he most notably sang rock versions of preacher Aage Samuelsen's songs. He was also a member of the band Just 4 Fun. Just 4 Fun participated for Norway in the 1991

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

with the song "

Mrs. Thompson ''Mrs. Thompson'' is a 1919 British silent drama film directed by Rex Wilson and starring Minna Grey, C. M. Hallard and Isobel Elsom. It was released in the United States on 6 April 1923. It was adapted from a 1911 novel by William Babington ...

". In 2007, he released the album ''Sanger fra T.B. Barratts salmebok'' to mark the 100th anniversary of the

Pentecostal Church Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

in Norway. In 2002, he was awarded the Anders Jahre Cultural Prize (). Groth died on 27 August 2014, aged 68, from cancer.Jan Groth er død
NRK

References

1946 births 2014 deaths Musicians from Sarpsborg Norwegian male singers Norwegian keyboardists Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1991 Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Norway Performers of Christian rock music Deaths from cancer in Norway Recipients of the Prince Eugen Medal {{Norway-musician-stub