Emmelie De Forest History Music Video

She’s the Danish girl who went from Eurovision queen to two years of artistic limbo. Thankfully, Emmelie de Forest has now finally released a second album History. And today we get the official music video for the record’s title track.

Scroll down for music video

Emmelie de Forest has firmly reinvented herself since 2013. She’s gone from the golden pixie princess look standing barefoot in a white dress, to a sensual style with black hair and skin-tight blue.

Her music has also changed dramatically. Forget the recorders and banging drums, she’s offering a moodier modern sound. And one thing is for sure, she’s much more comfortable with herself now.

Like “Sanctuary”, the album’s lead single, “History” is a smooth and boppy electronic track. Together, the two singles make for a great opener to the record. The tone is one of subtle reflection, clearly conveying the soul-searching she did during her hiatus.

Writing on social media, Emmelie explains the process and story behind the music video.

We filmed the video in my hometown Mariager, back in January. We also got to film at my old school, in my childhood home and other places around town that has a special meaning to me in one way or another.

I had so much fun filming this video, which is the most personal one I’ve made so far. I think it’s perfect for Easter, a Holliday where many go back to their hometown and spend time with family, remembering ones roots.

Emmelie de Forest “History” (Official Music Video)

Earlier this month, Emmelie treated fans to a live performance of the track during her guest stint at Iceland’s Söngvakeppnin 2018 final.

Emmelie de Forest “History” live

Emmelie De Forest History Album Review

After “Sanctuary” and “History”, the seven-track record switches to a more emotional sound, adding passion to the groovy electro-pop. “Who Loves You” is a five-minute symphony of poignant vocals and delicate production, showcasing how well Emmelie has honed her craft.

By “Going Ghost”, the music develops more power and attitude. “Rabbit” highlights Emmelie’s willingness to experiment with different genres, throwing some dub-step elements into the mix. It also contains her best lyrical work and shows a level of spunk that we never saw during the “Only Teardrops” era.

“Hunting High and Low” ends proceedings on a soft note, nodding towards her old days of hunter and prey metaphors.

It’s important to emphasise that this is most certainly not the same Emmelie de Forest who won Eurovision 2013. Fans looking for rainmaking folk tunes will be disappointed.

But this is Emmelie at her most genuine. It’s clear to see she’s fine tuned her artistry and written music that genuinely connects with her as a person.

Even in the boldest parts of the album, like “Going Ghost”, she never comes off as forced. It’s simply solid innovative pop music made by a very talented musician.

That’s not to say there are faults, a lot of the songs are overlong, particularly “Hunting High and Low” which fails to find traction. And at times, like in “Rabbit”, there seems a messy lack of direction. But it’s wonderful to see Emmelie de Forest coming into her own here, and truly having fun making inspired music.

Emmelie De Forest after Eurovision 2013

Emmelie began hitting the scene hard with her debut album, released through the biggest record label in the world. But even after a second Danish number one with “Rainmaker“, and being named European of the Year, her career took a downturn.

After releasing “Drunk Tonight” and “Hopscotch”, she split from Universal in 2015. Since then, she wrote Anja Nissen’s “Never Alone” (second in DMGP 2016) and Lucie Jones’ “Never Give Up On You” (United Kingdom 2017), but she released no new music of her own.

Behind the scenes, however, she was determined. She described her two year hiatus as an “absolute necessity” to discover herself as an artist. In July, she began a crowdfunding campaign to financially support her new music. In a matter of months, 150% of her requested sum had been collected.

I’m so proud having made this album that I’ve worked on for so long. I wrote some songs, like ”Any Less” and ”Rabbit”, as early as 2015 and I feel as if I’ve had enough time to be able to experiment and decide which songs, out of quite many, to end up on this album. I could determine everything by myself, the length, production, artwork, video – I could be in full control of it all. On the first record, everything went so fast and there was no time for me to consider what kind of artist I wanted to be or how I wanted my debut album to sound like. But I’ve had plenty of time this time and I’m convinced people are gonna notice.

Emmelie de Forest

With her new album out and plenty of support behind her, we’re excited for whatever Emmelie does next.

So what do you think of Emmelie de Forest’s new album? Do you like her new musical direction? Are you hoping she’ll write more songs for Eurovision? What are you hoping she’ll do next? Let us know below.

Follow all of our new music reviews.

6 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Mike
6 years ago

She looks much better as a blonde

she looks very common as a brunette, kind of loses her spark.

Liz
Liz
6 years ago

Don’t really understand that logic- Scott’s great but Mel’s much funnier imo

James
James
6 years ago

Make up

Flow
Flow
6 years ago

https://scorewiz.eu/poll <- VOTE HERE FOR YOUR FAVOURITES

Joe
Joe
6 years ago

Emmelie’s that perfect happy balance: moving in a totally new direction while still acknowledging/playing her song from/writing songs for the contest that launched her career. Looking forward to see what she does next.

Ross
Ross
6 years ago

Thanks for covering Emmelie’s album! Only Teardrops is my favourite Eurovision song of all time (Goodbye to Yesterday and Occidentali’s Karma its nearest rivals), so I’m always keen to follow what Emmelie’s been up to since.

Although I prefer her original studio album and that style, I still enjoy History, and appreciate the variety of sounds on the album. 🙂

You could argue that departures from the style on her original album were apparent even from Drunk Tonight in 2014, and then Hopscotch in 2015.