Translating into success

Norwegian singer-songwriter Bjorn Eidsvag's songs have been adapted into Mandarin by Chinese singer-songwriters, and released on Dec 15 as a compilation album, Norwegian Special: Northern Lights, through online streaming platforms, including QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo.

The compilation of 10 songs opens with Free Flowers, performed by Chinese singer-songwriter Zhao Zhao. It is adapted from Eidsvag's song, originally titled Evig hvile (Eternal rest). With the song's lyrics and melody both written by Eidsvag, Zhao performed the Chinese version of the song based on the translation by Kim Jarle Wroldsen and Yang Manxi. The song explores issues such as eternity and hope.

Chinese folk singer-songwriter Cao Fang adapted Eidsvag's song, Kan det snu, literally translated as "Can It Turn?" in English, into a Chinese song, called The Place to Rest, which portrays life as a journey.

A day after the album was released, a live event was held at the Norwegian embassy in Beijing. It featured three groups of Chinese musicians performing the songs of Eidsvag in Chinese: Chinese band The CLF performed the song, Vertigo, adapted from Eidsvag's song with the same title, singer-songwriter Yan Zehuan performed the song, The Ending Play, adapted from Eidsvag's song, called Klovnar and singer-songwriter Liu Fengyao performed the song, Lost Memory, which was based on Eidsvag's song, titled Tapte Gylne Stunder (Lost Golden Moments).

"Since all of Eidsvag's songs were originally performed in Norwegian, we had a team doing the translation before inviting the Chinese musicians to adapt the songs into Chinese versions. It was a collaborative project, which promotes the cultural exchange between China and Norway," says Morten Luxhoi, a well-known Danish music producer, who produced the album, Norwegian Special: Northern Lights. "We want to create a platform for artists of the two countries to communicate the work together. Hopefully, this project will enable more Chinese people to look deeper into Nordic culture through music."

Since launching his musical career in 1971, Eidsvag has been one of the country's best-selling artists. Born in 1954 in Sauda, Norway, the singer-songwriter has worked as both a solo artist and behind the scenes with other musicians. As a Christian, and former priest, Eidsvag frequently combines Christian values in his music with thought-provoking lyrics about love and life in general.

"I am very excited to learn that my songs could reach Chinese audiences with Chinese translations, which give my songs new lives," says Eidsvag, through a video broadcast during the event in Beijing.

The album was released under the Tencent Musician, an indie musician program which was launched three years ago by Tencent Music Entertainment Group, a leading online music entertainment platform in China.

Last year, the program launched an album, Nordic Echo, which had Chinese musicians adapt songs of Danish songwriter Knud Torben Christensen, better known by his stage name Sebastian, into Chinese versions.

"The songs deal with topics and emotions, which are universal. Though countries like Norway and Denmark are far from China geographically, we could reach out to each other through music," says Wang Lei, general manager of Tencent Musician, who is also a music critic.

"Compared to the last album we produced, Nordic Echo, we not only asked the Chinese singer-songwriters to perform purely based on translations but also let them re-create based on the original lyrics, to show their own understandings about the songs," Wang says. "When the COVID-19 pandemic goes away, we would love to have the musicians from both China and Norway give live performances together."

Wang adds that the Tencent Musician program has generated 590 million yuan ($76 million) in revenue for original music content creators since its inception. It aims at creating a comprehensive social community to connect and benefit users, record companies, and talented musicians.