Things are certainly looking up for young Swede Ellen Krauss, whose voice suggests she could have hailed from Nashville rather than Nyköping, or that she might be related to Alison Krauss, as they both have pretty-well perfect pitch (she isn’t).
Having released an EP, ‘First Take’ last year, all the songs having been recorded in her bedroom she says, her new single 'Silver Spoon' wis released today.
Ellen, who might still be only 19, has picked up a number of awards already, including ‘Rookie of the year’ at the Denniz Pop Awards in 2018 and ‘Future Artist of the Moment’ in January from P3 radio in Sweden. This puts her up for a possible nomination in this category for next year’s prestigious ‘P3 Guld Award’.
'First Take' has earned over 10 million streams so far and her single 'The One I Love' is certified gold in Sweden.
I’ve come across Ellen a few times in the last year or so. She’s still learning her trade but is blessed with a fantastic voice which bursts with more Americana than Donald Trump giving a State of the Union address.
Pick of the bunch of her initial songs to me is ‘Criminal to Love’, which you can easily picture her singing at the Country Music Awards. Or at least it was before this one. But she’s had some forgettable ones as well, notably ‘On the Bus’, which she should have left to Reg Varney.
As for Silver Spoon the first thing you notice is that she has that ability, which all great country singers have, of being able to raise the volume and tempo dramatically, just like that, and she does it on this song in the first 17 seconds. If you aren’t expecting it, you’ll jump out of your chair.
After that it morphs into a pure pop song about love bridging social divides, a sort of ‘Parasite’ to music, but of the highest quality, melodically, and with a lot going on instrumentally. For some singers there would be too much instrumentation to contend with but she has the voice to rise above it.
If push came to shove I’d have to say she’s getting close to becoming the complete package. That will be decided by the quality of her debut full length album, and I‘m looking forward to that.
You can find her on Facebook.