Continuing our collaboration with Boom Boom Magazine here’s the first of three articles on Danish artists making it outside Denmark these years, presenting soul diva Ida Corr who’s had an international smash hit with the electrohouse single ‘Let Me Think About It’, thanks to a Dutch remixer and lots of hard work – oh, and a little luck too.

‘Let Me Think About It’ (listen below) sold several hundred thousand copies, and crawled all the way up to second place on the UK charts. “Crawled” is the right word too. “It only sneaked in at number 52 in the first week,” Corr explains. “I was very disappointed with that, but I lost track of the UK charts because I was in Denmark at the time. So I never really got to celebrate the fact it made it all the way to number two. It was really only six months later that I realized how big it had been – and then, of course, I was over the moon.”

Even though she’s now fully aware of her success, Ida Corr has no time for performance anxiety. She has toured tirelessly, primarily in Europe, where ‘Let Me Think About It’ never fails to get clubs partying like it’s 2099. The singer has also taken her first careful step into the legendarily daunting American market with the double album ‘One’, which comprises a collection of the best tunes from her first two albums and a disc of remixes.

“I’ll soon be doing some radio promotion work, but otherwise I don’t really know how it’s going. It’s my dream to make it in the USA, but it’s a really difficult market to break into. I have a lot of classic soul in my sound, so it’ll be exciting to see if it goes down well. It’s all about knowing the right people, so I’ll need to try and build up a network over there,” she reckons.

Streetwise
You might think that the big turning point for Corr was her smash hit with the remix of ‘Let Me Think About It’, but the 31-year-old from Aarhus identifies a different point of no return:

“It really all started when I released my debut album ‘Streetdiva’ in Denmark in 2005. I’d played in bands for years and worked as a backing vocalist, but that album established me as a soloist and artist. It was the Fedde le Grand mix that took my music around the world though.”

The Destiny’s Child classics ‘Survivor’ and ‘Independent Women’ could have been about Ida Corr, who is very much self-made. Brought up as a musician, she writes most of her music and lyrics herself. Nor does the music slavishly follow current R&B trends. It’s raw, personal, fun and piquant. “I’ve been riding all night / I’m a country girl / fits the saddle just right / Yee-ha! / There just ain’t no cowboy who can’t be my boy toy,” she sings in the cheeky ‘Country Girl’.

By-passing the censor
Did you get a “Parental Advisory” sticker slapped on your album in the USA?
“No, the record seems to have made it past the censor. I hope they take the lyrics literally, so I don’t run into problems! [laughs] Still, ‘Country Girl’ is unlikely to be released as a single in the USA. It’s from my first album, and right now I’d like to get some fresh new material out there and not end up performing the same old songs over and over.”

You played the drums as a kid. Do you still?
“Yeah, I love them! I’m actually considering buying a digital set, so I can practice at home without disturbing the neighbors. I’ve also considered incorporating them into my show. Grooves, beats and swing are among the most fundamental elements of rhythmic music, so it’s great to hold on to the basics. It’s no surprise that one of my biggest heroes is James Brown.”

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Brought to you in collaboration with:
Boom Boom Magazine – The Sounds & Visions of Denmark