Winona Oak is the next big thing when it comes to Scandinavian pop. Born Johanna Ewana Ekmark, the singer-songwriter grew up on a Swedish island in the middle of nowhere called Sollerön, which translates quite literally to “island of the sun.” With such a great phrase built in to her own personal mythology, she decided to use the name of her home for the title of her debut album. Island Of The Sun will be out later this year, but for now we’ve got the stunning title track to tide us over.
“This song was created on a sunny evening in Los Angeles when I was going through a really tough time and felt more homesick than ever,” Winona said of the single in a press release. “I grew up on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 5360 miles from LA in the middle of the Nordic forests of Sweden on a small island called Solens ö, aka Island of the Sun. The island works as a metaphor for a place when everything’s peaceful and simple. Like that time in your childhood when the world is only as big and beautiful as you make it, you know as we grow older we tend to complicate things. I want the island to represent a happy place in ourselves or in a relationship, a bittersweet yearning for a place we ache to go again.”
That’s a highly relatable concept in my opinion, check out the icy video up above.
