Silje Nergaard (born June 19, 1966 in Steinkjer, Norway) is a Norwegian pop… Read Full Bio ↴Silje Nergaard (born June 19, 1966 in Steinkjer, Norway) is a Norwegian pop and jazz vocalist based in Oslo. While her music early in her career (e.g. Si det, si det from 1985) may have had a distinct pop feel, she has since moved on, and virtually all of her later releases consist of jazz-oriented tunes.

Nergaard's musical journey began early. At age 16, she stepped on stage joining a jam session at Moldejazz, Norway’s international jazz festival, with a band comprised of musicians from the band of the late jazz bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius. The country's jazz journalists applauded the young talent. Since that day, she has steadily developed as a composer and become popular for her unique voice and talent for songwriting.

Since her 1990 inaugural jazz album, Tell Me Where You're Going, produced by jazz guitar maestro Pat Metheny, Nergaard has become one among very few Norwegian artists to have had commercial releases in major music markets around the globe - including Brazil, Germany, the U.S., and the United Kingdom - and doing so with great success.

Her later albums, Port of Call (2000), At First Light (2001), and Nightwatch (2003), have all proved resounding commercial successes and received rapturous critical praise. With Nightwatch she also made history: no other jazz artist before her had shot straight into the Norwegian sales charts twice to reach #1 within the first week of release. In 2004 she received a Norwegian music award for Musician of the Year.

With the 2007 release of her critically-acclaimed Darkness Out of Blue, Nergaard finally realized her dream of working with Grammy Award winner and renowned arranger Vince Mendoza, (Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock), who contributed string arrangements to two songs in the album, Paper Boats and Let Me Be Troubled, with his beautiful sound and touch.

A year or two earlier, Nergaard had already decided to make a change in her music, which meant having to change some of her musicians, who had been touring with her for the past several years. As much as the style and 'voice' they had developed together were important to her, she came to realize that "you come to a point where you know you need to have a new challenge."

On October 4, 2007, it was officially announced in the Netherlands that Darkness Out of Blue had garnered Nergaard the Edison Award, the Dutch equivalent of the Grammy. The prize was presented to her by the Norwegian ambassador to the Netherlands at the Edison Music Awards Gala on November 6 in Eindhoven, during which Nergaard also performed the two songs from the album that Mendoza had arranged, backed by The Metropole Orchestra.

The new and promising musical collaboration between them in Darkness led inevitably to Mendoza's involvement once again in Nergaard's latest studio project, A Thousand True Stories, which was released in Norway on February 9, 2009, and will be available internationally in the autumn. The songs from the album were written the previous year and recorded in August 2008 with The Metropole Orchestra from the Netherlands, and arranged by its conductor Mendoza.

Here's a press kit video of A Thousand True Stories, with all interviews in English.

Watch the making of Nergaard's latest project, A Thousand True Stories:
video clip 1 (9:34) | video clip 2 (9:54)

Official website: http://www.siljenergaard.com
Silje on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/siljenergaard
Silje on Facebook: click here

The moon
Silje Nergaard Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Now that you have found her
Just put your arms around her
Talk then of love and that soon
You'll reach out and give her the moon

We move from cold to colder
So draw her near and hold her
Weave moonlight into her hair

Whisper you'll always be there

Stroke away her sadness
With a touch of moonlight madness
A moon can be borrowed at will
Yet come tomorrow it's still

There on high sailing by
You and I

Get wise and not just older
Draw her near and hold her

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Silje Nergaard's song Borrowing Moons are a beautiful depiction of a love that is still in its budding stage. The first two lines of the song suggest that the singer is encouraging someone to take a major step towards the one they love by embracing them, talking of love and letting them know that they will be given the moon soon. This is a metaphorical reference to something that is difficult to achieve but possible with persistence, much like love.

The next verse talks of a desire to be closer to the person they love in the face of the changing seasons. The singer urges the listener to hold on to their love and weave moonlight into their hair, implying the need for an enduring love that will last years. Finally, the last verse of the song suggests that love can conquer all, even sadness, and that the beauty of the moon can offer an outlet for this discomfort. The lyrics indicate that one can borrow the moon at any time, but that tomorrow it will still be there, high in the sky, sailing by.

Overall, the song is a beautiful testament to the power of love, and the lyrics encourage us to keep grasping for the things we desire in life even when it seems unattainable.

Line by Line Meaning

Now that you have found her
After finally finding the person you love

Just put your arms around her
Show physical affection to express your feelings

Talk then of love and that soon
Discuss how you love each other

You'll reach out and give her the moon
Promise to give her anything she wants

We move from cold to colder
Life can be tough and challenging

So draw her near and hold her
Be there for her and provide comfort

Weave moonlight into her hair
Use romance and love to make her feel special

Whisper you'll always be there
Promise to be loyal and dependable

Stroke away her sadness
Comfort her during difficult times

With a touch of moonlight madness
Use the magic of the moon to make her happy

A moon can be borrowed at will
Anything is possible with love