I’m gonna close my eyes….and count to ten.

This is a book written completely for fans of Tina Dickow. The off-set is her life and thoughts as she formed her music career. It is not a stringent account of her life, but snapshots of various memories; her childhood, her life on tour, being lonely in London, and meeting her husband, musician Helgi Jonsson. At times the jumping around became too disjointed, leaving unfinished thoughts and loose notes hanging in the wind. Other times the jumps worked like the mind works – connecting events across the years in a beautiful way.
The running theme is counting to ten from a song she once did where counting to ten becomes a safe haven, but what happens after you reach ten? She waxes poetic about life for a while, about where to grow when you think you got to where you were supposed to be. She is, as always, skilled at cutting to the core of issues that everyone has and it makes her feel very relatable.
Tina Dickow/Dico sings in English, but the book is written in Danish and it is a stark contrast to her deep, emotional songs that she is very much Danish, feet solidly planted in earth. She is not a sentimental woman. She speaks easily, almost in platitudes, of grand concepts like love and loss without ever bringing them into anywhere that hurts. It becomes apparent that music is where she feels and she really regards it as a job and a profession as much as a creative outlet. She releases her melancholia in her music and that’s where it stays, allowing her to discuss her songs as something separate; once they have been released into the public they no longer belong to her.
This is a cool and interesting book for people that are fans of her, giving chronology and a view into the music business, but there are no tears to be wept on these pages. There are some interesting stories, but mainly it is a pragmatic woman who built a successful career on her emotions.

CBR10 Bingo: Home Something Home. Nothing is more home to me than Tina Dico. I grew up with her music, driving to Germany when I was 18 to attend her concerts and buying all her albums, back when that was still a thing you did. Not only do we share a country, but the city she grew up in is my city as well.