Scan Magazine | Culture Feature | Jesper Jenset
Photo: Eric Matthew Cannon aka @barecannon
Jesper Jenset — finding his groove From a fifth place in Norway’s Idol in 2014 to a collaboration with Grammy-nominated H.E.R and over 30 million plays of the top-five hit, One Last Time, with Polish DJ Gromee, Jesper Jenset has most definitely found his groove. Scan Magazine spoke to the Norwegian pop singer and producer about learning, trusting, and having fun. By Linnea Dunne
It is all so familiar: that tender background music, a close-up shot of a nervous face, the first trembling notes, then one of the judges shaking their head in disbelief at the discovery of such a raw gem. Swedes Agnes and Tove Styrke both did it, as did Norwegian Margaret Berger. Both Måns Zelmerlöw and Astrid S competed and ended up in fifth place in their respective seasons of Idol – and so did the next rising star on the buzzing Norwegian pop sky: Jesper Jenset.
‘I just wanted to have fun’ Perhaps Jenset’s story is a tad different, though. Idol very much served as a 124 | Issue 122 | March 2019
springboard for greater things for him – but he maintains that he never really harboured any dreams of pop stardom. “I didn’t really know much about music,” he begins, answering the phone at the record label headquarters in Oslo. “I always enjoyed music as a kid, listened to pop music in the car on road trips and loved catchy melodies – I’ll regularly have flashbacks to listening to Stevie Wonder or Michael Jackson now when I’m writing – but I was a lot like any other kid, just wanted to have fun.” He grew up in a small town in Norway and learnt to play the guitar at an early age, alongside a gymnastics hobby that saw him represent Norway as part of
the national squad. “I learnt a lot from the gymnastics as well,” he reflects. “It’s a very competitive sport, and you have to be incredibly focused to keep learning and growing. I use that in music making too.”
Press photo, Sony Music