Elsa Birgitta Bekman releases new album!

Today the Dutch singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and music video director announced her debut album Once in My Life which is set to release on October 2nd through V2 Records.

The album is a collection of romance, nostalgia, escapism, and melancholia, breezing through the past three decades. Elsa: “All the songs have been written over a period of 12 years. The earliest, Cross That Line, when I was only 15. Each song is in a way a snapshot in time, from when I was a teenager, well into my twenties. It’s typically a time of trying to figure out life and finding your way with it. Once in my Life is an homage to the person I used to be and all the formative events that have taken place so far that made me who I am today.”

Bekman grew up in a small town in the Northern regions of the Netherlands with her parents and older brother. Her mother being French and Swedish, they spent a big part of their time in France and Sweden to be with family. Growing up, little Elsa’s mind was filled with history’s cool kids. The likes of Mozart, Debussy and Satie, battled for headspace with Irish folk and new age music, electronic music like Jean Michel Jarre and Kraftwerk but also Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Kate Bush and Supertramp.

She remembers they only had one video cassette, Disney's Fantasia (1940), that she and her brother used to watch every single day. The theme song was a source of inspiration for the song Once In My Life. From Disney classics to struggling with depression; it turned out to be a small step with Elsa’s parents divorcing when she was 11. It was then that she found an escape through music to be able to deal with her emotions. She continued writing songs about her life, particularly about the struggles and sorrows she experienced throughout her teenage years, but also about falling in and out of love, insecurities and finding her own way in society as a young adult.

Fast forward 2018. With several years of touring with her soul band The Tibbs she had reached success with airplay including BBC 2 and BBC 6 and Dutch national stations like Radio 2 and Sublime FM. The Tibbs performed at many Dutch festivals and clubs such as North Sea Jazz Club and De Oosterpoort in Groningen. They toured Germany, Italy and Spain several times.

However, the songs that covered the span of her youth kept calling. “After years of musical orientation and trying out different genres I wanted to pursue the music that is closest to my heart and truly reflects the person that I’ve actually always been since childhood. I just want to create things that are all me”, Bekman says.

Once in My Life is set to release on October 2nd through V2 Records.