After some 18 months of Flavorpill pining, Ida Maria has finally arrived: on the long-awaited album, Fortress Around My Heart, our number-one Scandinavian sweetheart delivers on the promise of nearly two years of balls-to-the-wall demos, reprising editor-endorsed rock-party picks “Queen of the World,” “Better When You’re Naked,” and the unassailable “Oh My God.”
We first caught her back in ’07 (check out our exclusive CMJ photo set to see her freaking out on the floor), but the singer has since been called out by everyone from Pitchfork and Ohmyrockness to NME and Rolling Stone. Perez Hilton is the latest icon to vie for a piece of the action; he “broke” her last Friday with a characteristically enthusiastic write-up. Nice of him to jump on the bandwagon, but does an artist still count as underground if our mom owns the album?
After the jump, we explore exactly how out of touch Hilton — who has claimed that “even the cynics, or the haters, or whatever you want to call them, have grown to maybe not like me but at least respect me as someone who more often than not has an ear for good music” — really is.
August 9, 2007: Pitchfork briefly reviews Ida Maria’s live set as part of their Oya Festival coverage.
September 5, 2007: The Guardian introduces the band in its “New Band of the Day” blog.
October 17, 2007: Flavorpill does a full-color photo spread on the singer’s performance at CMJ 2007.
October 25, 2007: PopMatters declares Ida Maria the highlight of CMJ 2007.
January 15, 2008: Coolhunting.com declares the band its “next hot-shit-of-the-moment” act.
February 24, 2008: Times Online profiles the singer, calling her “a breath of fresh air for pop”.
February 26, 2008: “Marie,” a commenter on PerezHilton.com urges the gossip hound to check out a singer called Ida Maria. Apparently, he ignores it.
May 15, 2008: Ida’s debut reaches #5 on the Norwegian Music charts. Release dates for the US and UK are set.
June 27, 2008: NME goes backstage with Ida and the boys.
June 30, 2008: Idolator declares Ida Maria’s “Oh My God” one of their “Favorite Songs Of The First Half Of 2008 (As Of Right Now)”.
July 22, 2008: Pitchfork gives the band’s debut a 7.6.
July 24, 2008: Rolling Stone’s Breaking Music Blog adds Ida to their “Hype Monitor”.
July 25, 2008: BBC Radio sits down with the singer.
July 28, 2008: Ida’s debut, Fortress Round My Heart is released in the U.S. and U.K.
September 17, 2008: The band is nominated for the best Rock/Indie Artist in the BT digital Music Awards.
November 1, 2008: Spin Magazine does a one-page breaking-artist profile on the band.
November 21, 2008: Perez Hilton jump on the bandwagon under the usual guise of and in-the-know insider breaking an underground band.