With radical roots in the Socialist Party of America and the Soviet suffrage movement, International Women's Day is commemorated each year on March 8th, and the weeks around that date have become a time to reflect, celebrate and advocate. Fittingly, in the U.S., March is also Women's History Month. With this in mind, we asked a number of our favorite artists to highlight some of the women who have most inspired them. Up today, Danish folk-metal renaissance woman Amalie Bruun, a.k.a. Myrkur.
My grandmother
She is passed away now, but she was and continues to be an inspiration for me. She had quite a rough start to life. She was adopted and lied to about it by her adoption-parents — who did not treat her well — but later found out the truth. She lived her life on her own terms. When I was around 14 years old, she gave me her old diary, which changed my life. When I was around 20 years old — and felt like I SHOULD go to school for something other than music, a safer life choice — she encouraged me to just go live my life and pursue music.
Kate Bush
Her music is inspiring and she seems like no one really knows her, which I like. She is a walking secret. Her music and voice sounds to me like what it feels like inside a woman's head sometimes. Tempestuous, strong, emotional, focused, chaotic, angry, loving, gentle, wild. I had created a playlist to listen to for when I gave birth to my son and it had several Kate Bush songs on it.
Nina Simone
For similar reasons as above mentioned. She is fascinating and borderline intimidating. There is a strength in her and also fragility — she seemed to be herself for better and for worse, at all times. She is a remarkable singer but also very clearly a musician, too. I have always been more drawn to singers who master other instruments, too.
Astrid Lindgren (Swedish author)
I grew up with her fairytales and I adored her character Ronja Røverdatter, the daughter of the "robber-king" who lives in a forest. Astrid Lindgren is the foundation of so many people's childhood stories and she had quite a tough personal life story. Maybe I am more inspired by her strong female characters than actually her, but I am so close with the stories that I feel that I know her personally, too.
Björk
Homogenic was the first record I bought with my own money as a child and I have been in love with her and so many of her albums ever since. There is no one like her, although many have tried to copy whatever it is that makes her so unique. But you can't. It would be like trying to copy Prince — forget it. Her vocals are actual explosions of sound, like a volcano. Her songwriting is innovative and she has always been herself — the many versions of her. And she beat a paparazzi when they came too close to her child, like a true mother-bear.
