American Singer Challenges Denmark With Pop Song

American Singer Challenges Denmark With Pop Song

Song says "integration, schmintegration". Denmark really just wants you to love it - and leave it

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, October 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --





It is undoubtedly the catchiest immigration policy protest you've ever heard. The
debate around Denmark's foreigner-unfriendly
[http://cphpost.dk/news/making-cut-immigration-dk/danish-cliques-tough-nut-crack ]
disposition has recently resurfaced with some new faces, and now there's a new sound.
Faced with the possibility of being kicked out of the country at the end of the year,
American citizen/singer-songwriter Rapha Bergdis has released the aptly titled "My Visa's
Running Out" with a video on YouTube. The pop tune cheekily challenges the hopelessly high
barriers to both integration and immigration, and leaves the question "who exactly is
welcome here, besides tourists?" hanging in the air.



(Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121009/567568 )




http://youtu.be/Obl6-vP-T0w



Denmark, especially Copenhagen, has been getting a lot of notoriety of late as a
happening place
[http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/18/travel/copenhagen-travel-guide/?hpt=hp_bn10 ] to be,
with recent international hits in cuisine, TV dramas, happiness indexes and fashion. But
foreigners looking to settle in H.C. Andersen's home country beware, the fairy tale
quickly turns dystopian. In comparison to its European neighbors, Denmark presents some of
the toughest obstacles for immigrants to overcome such as social integration barriers,
strict, ever-changing immigration laws, ill-informed bureaucratic immigration service and
a sense of feeling unwelcome. The sharp contrast between foreign visitor versus resident
experience in the image-conscious country has been kept out of the international
spotlight.



(See also:
http://cphpost.dk/news/making-cut-immigration-dk/international-talent-continues-forgo-copenhagen
)



"This song is me reflecting on the possibility of my own mortality as a Danish
resident", Rapha Bergdis explains, "I'm flaunting my 'immigrant resume' to Denmark, saying
'Here is home now. I've become the poster child for your ideal alien. It really will never
be good enough, will it?' It's a song for the thousands of foreigners here whose stories
and circumstances are worse than mine, as further consolation. Even looking the part
doesn't help - on the whole society, these laws make me feel unwelcome too."



Rapha weaves in examples of her personal cultural integration throughout the song and
video. Take the lyrics "Fik tolv i Prove i Dansk 3 / Sing along to 'Nik og Jay'", the
first part of which translates to "I aced the official Danish language test". This refers
to meeting the societal demand
[http://dansk.studieskolen.dk/en/Om%20Danskundervisning/Om%20dansk.aspx ] of speaking with
almost no accent, and singing along with Denmark's glam-rap/pop superstar duo Nik & Jay
[https://www.facebook.com/nikandjay?ref=ts&fref=ts ], whose songs are favorite party tunes
for natives, to boot. The video showcases Rapha psyching herself up for a Copenhagen night
out, proving her Danish-ness to locals.



"'My Visa' is a new, above all entertaining way to reach many with, what is here at
any rate, an old message
[http://cphpost.dk/commentary/editorial/editorial-tell-us-something-we-dont-know ].
Denmark's a party, and you're not invited. Why not have an upbeat anthem to go along with
that notion? Danes can also appreciate the humor there. Who knows, maybe it will even get
stuck in the right people's heads."



Born in a suburb of Buffalo, NY, twenty-something Rapha has lived abroad for the past
ten years and in Denmark for the last four. This isn't the first time she's made a splash
with music overseas: she wrote a song in Brazil for a popular soap opera that became the
female lead's theme. As "My Visa's" opening line states, she legally changed her name to
Raphaelle. The moonlighting singer-songwriter has reluctantly been relying on corporate
jobs to secure her European residence permits. Getting downsized recently put Denmark's
foreigner-aversion, as well as her own priorities, in sharp focus.




Follow-up videos will be coming soon.

For more information contact:
Solomon Lyttle, Telephone: +45-53-52-85-87
Email: rafmusic@blackpop.me
http://www.facebook.com/RaphaElleMusik




Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121009/567568


Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121009/567568
http://photoarchive.ap.org/
Black Pop


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