13 women share boundary-crossing experiences in the music industry. Five of them have had experiences with the same man. Five women with connections to the music industry come forward in a new DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) documentary and talk about boundary-crossing behavior from a well-known Danish musician. The documentary, which released its first episodes on Monday, focuses on issues of sexism in the music industry. A significant part of the first episodes recounts the women’s experiences with the musician in question.
Stine Bramsen, former member of Alphabeat, shares an episode from 2009 where she was offered to sing a duet with the musician. During a conversation with him, she suddenly was invited to his home to have a glass of wine. “Suddenly it feels like a negotiation, that he should get something in order to sing this duet,” Bramsen says in the documentary. An anonymous woman talks about a secret romantic relationship she had with the musician, which began when she was 16 years old. Singer Signe Svendsen recounts an episode where she and the musician stayed overnight at a third musician’s apartment after a concert, and she woke up to find the musician had snuck under her duvet and was touching her breasts.
In total, 13 individuals from the music industry are featured in the documentary, but DR and the production company Impact TV have spoken with over 150 sources in their research. Pernille Rosendahl, former lead singer of Swan Lee, talks about the general sexism issues in the music industry and points out that there is a harmful culture where “it’s good to be fuckable,” which detracts from artistic abilities. The individuals who the participants have had boundary-crossing experiences with are anonymously featured in the documentary. However, DR revealed in a follow-up article that the man described by the five women is the 61-year-old multi-artist Martin Brygmann. He has not wished to comment, as stated in the documentary.
The documentary has received significant attention prior to its release, as Martin Brygmann tried to obtain an injunction against it. The Copenhagen City Court rejected this over the weekend. Brygmann himself commented on the documentary in a Facebook post on Saturday evening: “I have been blind to the fact that my often crude and flirtatious humor, which is a part of me both professionally and privately, could be perceived differently and boundary-crossing.” His lawyer, Heidi Højmark Helveg, previously stated to Ritzau (Danish news agency) that DR has made undocumented claims that violate her client’s honor.