Thomas Helmig

Born on 15 October 1964 in Egå, a suburb of Aarhus, Danish singing star and musician Thomas Helmig established himself among the upper echelons of his country's rock greats with a stash of popular albums in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s that transformed him into Denmark's most-decorated artist. He cut his teeth playing in local bands as a pre-teen during the 1970s, forming the group Heavy Oil and later picking up the guitar and drums. However, it was a fortuitous trip to Detroit as a high school exchange student that became the catalyst for his career, instilling in him a love of Motown that would form the backbone of his soul-drenched blues rock. After spending a year in the iconic music city playing with local bands and honing his style, he returned to Denmark in 1981 upon which he joined the Aarhus group Kaksi Kuggas Band. He was later appointed lead singer of Elevatordrengene in 1983 and his critically acclaimed debut album, Thomas, arrived in 1985, credited to Thomas Helmig Brothers (the name adopted by his band, Elevatordrengene), via the Genlyd label. That same year he appeared on the "Afrika" charity single and he released another three albums during the 1980s: 2 (1986), Kære Maskine (1987), and Vejen Væk (1988), which became his most lucrative to date. He became part owner of the Genlyd label in 1990, which was sold to BMG in 1992, and reached the summit of the Danish album chart in 2001 with the award-winning LP IsItYouIsItMe. His first English-language album came in 1993, Say When, followed by its Stupid Man successor in 1994. The LP won a Danish Grammy and spawned a hit in "Gotta Get Away From You." He continued to release albums at a consistent rate throughout the 1990s, taking a more R&B-accented approach in 1996 with the LP Groovy Day, recorded in the US with producer Timothy Christian Riley. He was crowned Danish Male Artist of the Year at the 2000 Danish Grammy Awards and a compilation of his best English-language songs, Wanted, emerged in 2001, going to number four in Denmark. He mirrored this chart success with El Camino in 2004. 2010's Past Forward compilation topped the Danish charts and in 2012 he won the Danish Music Awards Prize of Honor. He released several charting singles during the 2010s, most notably "Når sneen falder" with Søs Fenger in 2014 (#21) and 2018's "Hele Danmark op at stå" (#20). Saint Hans square in Nørrebro, Copenhagen is unofficially known as "Thomas Helmig's Square" on account of the large population of young people from Aarhus residing in the area. 2022 saw the release of Mike Lowrey's "Stupid Man" single, on which Thomas Helmig was featured along with Gobs.

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