Silje Nergaard

Silje Nergaard (born on June 19, 1966) is an award-winning Norwegian jazz vocalist and singer-songwriter. Inspired by artists like Al Jarreau and Joni Mitchell, Nergaard started her music career at a very young age, releasing her first single when she was just 18. Her first taste of success came with Tell Me Where You’re Going (1990), whose title track featured legendary jazz guitarist Pat Metheny. The track topped the charts in Japan and entered the Top 10 in Nergaard’s home country. After releasing Silje (1991) and Cow on the Highway (1995), both sung in English, Nergaard came back to her native tongue with Brevet (1995) and Hjemmefra (1996). Following a four-year silence, Port of Call (2000) was released via Universal Music. Largely composed of cover versions, the album marked Nergaard’s return to the Norwegian Top 10 and helped her finally break into the mainstream. Released only a year later, At First Light (2001) was a critical and commercial success, eventually becoming Norway’s best-selling jazz album. Recorded with jazz pianist Tord Gustavsen, Nightwatch (2003) earned Nergaard a Spellemannprisen for Best Musician of the Year. Subsequently, A Thousand True Stories (2009), which featured arrangements by American composer Vince Mendoza, entered Norway’s Top 5 and was a huge success in both Europe and Asia. In the following years, Nergaard released Unclouded (2012), which featured jazz legend John Scofield, and For You a Thousand Times (2017), a more electric-sounding album that found the artist incorporating African rhythms into her songs.