The King of Summer: If a season were to describe Vidar Villa, summer would be the obvious choice. His songs are made to fit late summer evenings. Photo: Petter Alnes-Bonesmo
The songs the music director has faith in this summer
Sverre Vedal has been working on hits for 25 years and Vidar Villa has been making hits for years. Both have clear ideas about what makes a good summer song.
/ 25/06/2024 / Audun Fegran Kopperud– It's not always the song itself that makes it a good summer song, but the experiences or memories you associate with it, says Sverre Vedal.
He is the music director at Bauer Media, the media house that includes Radio Norge, Radio Topp 40, Radio Rock and Radio Vinyl. Since the late 90s, he has had various jobs as a music director on radio, so he knows a lot about hits.
Vedal believes that a good summer song is likely to be catchy and happy, but that it doesn't necessarily have to be upbeat. Many calm songs have also been a hit in the summer.
– I've been doing this for so many years now that picking out one particular summer song that I remember well is difficult, he says.
Nevertheless, Vedal gives several examples. Like in 2010, when Norway hosted the Eurovision Song Contest and the Madcon hit "Glow" had its breakthrough. This lasted throughout the summer. According to Vedal, it was often the case that songs that were released in the spring became big and raged throughout the summer. This was to build the song up towards the summer, so that it stuck with people.
Now, however, music is released all the time and a summer hit can easily be released in January or June, or even the year before.
– An example of that was "When Love Takes Over" by David Guetta and Kelly Rowland, which was released in April 2009. It was huge that summer, and also marked the beginning of when urban music really began to collaborate with dance music, says the music director.
Something he has also experienced several times is discovering songs on summer vacation in southern Europe that only become popular in Norway in late summer and autumn.
– Summer is not as clear a season as Christmas is. Often summer songs can work well in the winter, but Christmas songs cannot be played in the summer, says Vedal.
He finds that people associate the expression "summer song" with Norwegian-language songs where the theme is actually summer, but that it doesn't have to be that way.
– We think that songs that have made it big in the summer are the songs that people associate the most with summer memories. It doesn't have to be because they're about summer, he points out.
If the strategy were the same as last Christmas, songs like "In The Summertime," "Next Summer," and "Idyll" would have almost replaced the songs that are already doing well on the charts. It's more like these blend into the mix when the sun starts to warm up, according to Vedal.
The music director believes that the songs that are currently streaming a lot will most likely continue to do so this summer, especially among young people. There will always be new hits, and young people will continue to discover "old" hits and give them new life, according to Vedal.
– There is so much good Norwegian music now. It has been a nice trend for several years. Many artists and groups are returning. The party music is working very well this year as well. To name a few, Golfklubb, Bausa and Beathoven are regulars, but there will certainly be more, he says.
Vedal thinks carefully before answering the question of whether there are any of today's hits that will be picked up again in the summer in five or ten years.
– Maybe it was easier to think like that before, but when you hit big, it will last. Maybe Ballinciaga with "Dance on the Table" will stick, he predicts.
A man many associate with summer is Vidar "Vidar Villa" Mohaugen. Every summer he tours with his boat "MS Bjørvika" along the coast of Southern and Eastern Norway, playing hits like "One Night Stand", "Your Mother" and "The Same Damn Song".
– I've always released songs before the summer, and then I take them with me on a summer tour. It's always worked well. I make music to make people happy, and then the timing is perfect, he says.
Like Vedal, Mohaugen believes that summer songs don't necessarily have to be about summer, but that they happened to be released just before summer is an advantage. His biggest hit, "One Night Stand," was released in February 2017 and isn't about summer at all. Since then, it has received almost 40 million streams and is played at every concert.
“When it was released, it had time to build up before the summer came. It's fun to see how people still jump to that song, year after year,” says Mohaugen.
Songs still have a greater chance of being featured summer after summer if they are about things that people surround themselves with in the summer, Mohaugen believes.
– Then you must not hold back on the clichés. This can be about beer, rocky mountains, sun and cute girls with flowers in their hair. Just look at how the Postgiro Building appears on the top lists every single year, he points out.
Another quality Mohaugen likes is when summer songs are versatile. They should work both on large concert stages, but also with the acoustic guitar around the campfire. This is something he tries to achieve with his own music.
– I am very impressed with the career and position Postgirobygget has achieved. They travel around and tour the biggest stages in Norway every summer, even years after their breakthrough. That is definitely something I want too, he says.
Mohaugen strongly believes in a traditional band setup, and is cautious about jumping on trends. He believes that timelessness is part of the reason for both Postgirobygget's and his own success.
This summer he will be seen in his boat, along the entire coast between Drøbak and Mandal. The program includes the old classics, of course, but also something new.
– In June I will release one new song every week, which together make up the EP "Sommerfugl". I'm really looking forward to performing them live this summer, Mohaugen concludes enthusiastically.
Do you want to play music that enhances the experience in your premises?
Yes, I want to play the familiar music.