Tove Styrke Tickets

Tove Styrke In Concert

Scandinavia has become a hothouse of hook-filled pop excitement with experimental leanings. No one attests this more than Swedish singer Tove Styrke (pronounced toovah steerkah), who graduated from Swedish Idol runner-up to sophisticated pop pro over the course of a decade. 

Tove, whose father had his own Swedish hit single in 1975, was born in the wintery Swedish city of Umeå in 1992. When a tape of her performing power ballads at a school assembly got to the producers of reality-TV music competition Swedish Idol, the 16-year-old became the show's youngest competitor. Her third-place finish earned her a record deal with Sony, and she released her self-titled debut album, which she mostly wrote or co-wrote, the following year.

If singing the Swedish lullaby "Byssan Lull" in an IKEA commercial didn't make Styrke a household name, returning to Idol and performing her single "Call My Name" in a platinum wig and platform shoes may have succeeded. In 2015, she released Kiddo, an eclectic blast of fresh electropop. Deemed one of the year's best pop albums by SPIN, Kiddo included the reggae-tinged "Borderline" and confrontational highlight "Even If I'm Loud It Doesn't Mean I'm Talking to You."

Styrke either wrote or co-wrote everything on Kiddo and its critically acclaimed 2018 follow-up, Sway. But where the former found her testing new sounds, styles, and stances ("The main rule was that there are no rules," she has said), the latter displayed a newfound confidence and craft. The eight original songs on Sway, along with a delightful synth-pop cover of Lorde's "Liability," found Styrke in complete control. She sings emotionally about love, lust, and regret in songs that perfectly balance quirk and control. A twangy ukulele line and rubber-band bass dominate single "Say My Name"; "On a Level" starts out as pure psychedelia and ends a banger.

In 2018, Styrke opened for both Lorde and Katy Perry, in whose uncompromisingly individual and confident company she fit easily. She owns her music and words and, unlike many of her peers in pop, refuses to perform music written by committee. "I'm in a place today where I know that I'm good at this," Tove told London's Evening Standard. "That's very reassuring."