Thomas Helmig
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Thomas Helmig (born 15 October 1964) is a Danish rock singer and musician, and has been one of the most popular singers in Denmark since the middle of the 1980s.


Biography

Thomas Helmig was born and grew up in Egå, a suburb of
Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwe ...
, where his father was a doctor. His parents divorced when he was quite young. To escape from the feelings associated with his parents' divorce, Thomas took refuge in music, most notably he spent much time teaching himself to play the
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
. At the age of 10, inspired by the Danish Band Gasolin, popular in the 70's, Thomas formed his first band and named it Heavy Oil. The following years he also learned to play the
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
and
drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...
s. He entered the gymnasium but, with his parents' approval, he left during the first year to pursue his musical interests. To this end, he went to the United States as a
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
exchange student A student exchange program is a program in which students from a secondary school (high school) or university study abroad at one of their institution's partner institutions. A student exchange program may involve international travel, but do ...
. It was here that he first discovered
Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...
, playing with local
soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...
musicians in
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
. Upon his return to Denmark in 1981, he joined an Aarhus-band called Kaksi Kuggas Band, with which he gigged in a number of local venues. He had become part of the rather narrow local music scene. By 1983 he became the lead singer for a band called Elevatordrengene (The Elevator Boys). They enjoyed a measure of success, touring the country for the next two years.


Breakthrough

In 1985 Helmig was invited to contribute to the Danish Africa Aid song ''Afrika'', leading to his discovery by the record company Genlyd who subsequently produced his first self-titled solo album, ''
Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...
,'' which became a huge Danish success and for which he also received considerable critical acclaim. He was especially praised for his empathic expression, notable because of his still tender age. He married another popular Danish singer,
Søs Fenger Charlotte Fenger (born 2 December 1961), known by the stage name Søs Fenger, is a Danish vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter. Since the mid 1980s she has been one of the most successful names in Danish music. She has released numerous albums, bot ...
, that same year. In 1986 the album '' 2'' was released. By now Helmig had formed his band, Thomas Helmig Band, which included some of the musicians from Elevatordrengene. The third album, '' Kære maskine'' ("Dear Machine"), was more rocking than the first two, while the following one '' Vejen væk'' (The Path Away), released in 1988, was much gloomier, reflecting his turbulent split from Fenger. The album became his greatest success to date, selling more than 160,000 copies. It features hits such as ''Nu hvor du har brændt mig af'' ("Now That You've Dumped Me") and ''Det er mig der står herude og banker på'' ("It's Me Out Here, Knocking"). Although divorced, he recorded a few duets with Søs Fenger, one of which, ''Den jeg elsker, elsker jeg'' ("The one I love, I love"), released in support of the Danish
AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
-foundation became a huge commercial success. This period in his life also marked a turn in his musical style as he returned to his soul and Motown roots, inspired by
Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...
. His next album "Say When" became the first he recorded in English. This change opened the prospect of promoting Helmig abroad. Singing in English in no way diminished his popularity in Denmark, and he had another huge hit with the song ''Stupid Man'' from the 1994-album of the same name, which also included the hit, ''Gotta Get Away From You''. This album sold 250,000 copies. Throughout the 1990s, Helmig attempted to make a name for himself abroad, but met with little success. However, he managed to maintain his position at the absolute top in Denmark for more than 20 years. He writes nearly all his own songs and he contributes prolifically as a songwriter to other artists like Søs Fenger,
Hanne Boel Hanne Boel (born 31 August 1957 in Bagsværd, Copenhagen) is a Danish singer. Boel covers in her songs a range of styles including pop, soul, gospel, rock, and jazz. Over the course of her career, she has sold over 2.5 million records, and has ...
,
Sanne Salomonsen Sanne Salomonsen (born 30 December 1955), is a Danish singer. She has been performing since 1973, and various songs by her band Sneakers were on the charts continuously from 1979 to 1985. She was also a member of the Anne Linnet Band. Salomonsen ...
, TV-2, Malurt and many others. Additionally, he has produced many recordings for different artists. He is the Danish pop musician with the largest collection of
Danish Music Awards The Danish Music Awards (DMA) is a Danish award show. The show has been arranged by IFPI since 1989, and was originally called ''IFPI-prisen'' ("IFPI-Award") until 1991, when it changed its name to ''Dansk Grammy'' ("Danish Grammy"). It was chang ...
, including several "Singer of the Year", "Hit of the Year" and "Album of the Year". In 2012 he was awarded the Danish Music Awards Prize of Honor. Saint Hans square in Nørrebro, Copenhagen has been unofficially dubbed "Thomas Helmig's Square" in honor of the large population of young Aarhusian people residing in the vicinity.


Private life

Thomas Helmig has been married three times: * 1985–1988: Singer Søs Fenger * 1995–1997: Model Heidi Andersen * 2000–2013; 2013–present: Renée Toft Simonsen, former
model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...
, psychologist and writer


Discography


Albums

Studio albums * ''Thomas'' (1985) * ''2'' (1986) * ''Kære Maskine'' (1987) * ''Vejen Væk'' (1988) * ''Løvens Hjerte'' (1990) * ''Rhythm'' (1992) * ''Say When'' (1993) * ''Stupid Man'' (1994) * ''Groovy Day'' (1996) * ''Dream'' (1999) Compilation albums


Singles


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helmig, Thomas 1964 births Living people 21st-century Danish male singers Danish male singer-songwriters Singers from Aarhus