Roger Pontare is a Swedish pop singer of mixed Swedish
and Sami (Lapp) ancestry. He was born in Sorsele in southern Lapland. Pontare
is mostly known for his curious stage costumes, who are often freely inspired
by Native styles of dress. When Pontare made a brief promotion tour in New York
City (sic) circa 2000, passers-by assumed he was a Native American shaman!
Pontare represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest the same year with
the song “When Spirits Are Calling My Name” backed up by a Sami, an Inuit and a
Native American on stage. The original Swedish version of the song is
controversial, since its pro-Native lyrics can also be given a nationalist
spin, making the song an underground hit among right-wing Swedish nationalists
and outright Nazis.
“I Vargens Spår” (On the track of the wolf) is one of Pontare's album releases. It includes “När vindarna viskar mitt namn”, the Swedish version of Pontare's ESC entry. I can't say I like the album, though. The songs are very basic pop tunes enhanced with some Sami joik to make them sound more “deep” and “mysterious”. The lyrics are what you except from a guy with a Native image – a lot of stuff about silver moons, beaten tracks, wolves, ancestral altars, etc. Not very deep, if you ask me, but perhaps it can move someone. Personally, I find Nordman's lyrics more convincing…
In the end, I will only give Pontare the Wolf-tracker two stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment