Annika Norlin

After making a wealth of cheery indie pop under the monikers Hello Saferide and Säkert!, Swedish singer Annika Norlin reverted to her given name for several projects. In addition to adding guest vocals to various songs by other artists, Norlin collaborated with Jens Lekman on the 2019 album Correspondence. Norlin was born in 1977 and began performing as Hello Saferide in the mid-2000s while working as a music journalist. Norlin split her output into English-sung songs with Hello Saferide and Swedish-sung songs with the similarly styled Säkert!, and released multiple albums and EPs from both projects between 2005 and 2017. In addition to solo material, she occasionally contributed to songs by groups like Vapnet, Dreamboy, and I'm on TV. After collaborating with indie songwriter Jens Lekman in 2015 on a song from his Postcards series, the two artists teamed up again in 2018 for the conceptual album Correspondence. The record found Norlin and Lekman trading songs back and forth once a month for a year, resulting in 12 tracks that grew around their musical conversation. The album was released online in 2019 and got a physical release the next year on the Secretly Canadian label. ~ Fred Thomas