Hanne Boel

Hanne Boel ranks among Denmark’s most accomplished female vocalists, carving out a distinctive career as a versatile pop artist who sings exclusively in English and commands a devoted following across Sweden and Norway. Born on August 31, 1957, in Bagsværd, a suburb of Copenhagen, she completed her training at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. After receiving her diploma in 1980, she spent an additional year at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Upon returning home she worked as a music instructor while fronting the jazz-rock ensemble Blast throughout the first half of the 1980s.

Her first full-length release, Black Wolf, appeared in 1988 on Medley Records and became an immediate commercial triumph, earning her a Danish Music Award—also known as a Danish Grammy—for Danish Female Singer of the Year. The follow-up, Dark Passion (1990), extended her reach into Sweden and Norway while collecting four additional Danish Music Awards: Danish Female Singer of the Year, Danish Album of the Year, Hit of the Year for the track “I Wanna Make Love to You,” and Danish Producer of the Year for Poul Bruun.

Subsequent studio projects arrived in steady succession: My Kindred Spirit (1992), Kinda Soul (1992), Misty Paradise (1994), the compilation Best of Hanne Boel (1995), Silent Violence (1996), Need (1998), and Strangely Disturbed (1999). Entering the new millennium, she joined forces with Martin Hall for the joint album Boel & Hall (2000) and, two years later, rejoined producer Poul Bruun for the major hit Beware of the Dog (2002). Although Abaco (2004), Private Eye (2007), and A New Kinda Soul (2008) did not duplicate the chart dominance of that earlier blockbuster, each still entered the Danish Top Ten and performed strongly in Sweden and Norway.