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Death: Philippa Bulgin
"Danser med Drenge", one of the danish rock-music's most popular groups, lost last tuesday its front figure, when the only 26 year old singer, Philippa Bulgin died of cancer - after nearly half year illness.
Bulgin grew up in København as the daughter of the danish Mia Holme Bulgin and the jamaican singer and guitarist Arthur Louis Bulgin, who has performed with Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix and released several records in his own name. Already when Philippa Bulgin was 12-13 years old, she started to sing and accompany herself on the piano, and she showed at an early age to have a deep, strong soul voice - a voice, that stood in contrast to her height of just under 160 centimetres.
Later she attempted to be a singer, for a long row of amateur bands.
Among others, she often performed with her brother's Nico Bulgin's orchestra,
the children rock group "Parkering Forbudt", before she, on Anne Dorte
Michelsen's recommendation, joined "Klaus Kjellerup's Band" in 1990. The
great success and recognition was first achieved by her when the trio "Danser
med Drenge" was formed the year after from the remains of "Klaus Kjellerup's
Band", and achieved a great success with a very danish pop rock, that is
a clear continuation of
song writer Klaus Kjellerup's earlier groups, "Tøsedrengene"
and "Klaus Kjellerup's Band". With the sale of 85,000 copies, the groups
debut LP, "Danser med Drenge" became the highest selling LP in 1993. As
well, Bulgin has performed as guest singer on Martin Hall's latest LP,
"A Touch of Excellence".
When Bulgin, shortly before the new year, was told her illness was incurable, "Danser med Drenge" called off a large country tour and instead stared with the recording of a new album. But Bulgin's illness developed so quickly that the project really did not get started.
P-Juul
22. nd March 1994
It is with great sorrow, that we let it be known that the 26 year old singer, Philipa Bulgin, from the orchestra "Danser med Drenge", departed this life due to cancer at Rigshospitalet in København.
The death was met one week after being admitted to hospital. Before this there was approximately three months of illness, where the doctors and personnel at Rigshospitalet's oncology department worked > at getting the better of a previously unknown, malignant cancer cell.
Philippa's debut with the orchestra "Danser med Drenge" was in the spring of 1993, and achieved, in spite of crises in the record industry, immediate success with the album "Danser med Drenge", which up to date has sold more than 80,000 copies. More over Philippa and "Danser med Drenge" were nominated for four Grammies at the record industry's recent Grammy awards.
She contributed to "Danser med Drenge"'s music a deep and emotional expression in the soul genre with a large, strong voice - especially in the low register. And she showed her colleagues in the record industry a way out of the crisis, in her insistence to sing in her mother tongue - danish. In the autumn of 1993 Philipa Bulgin underwent an operation in the abdomen for cancer, but she managed to struggle her way back to the stage and carry out a Denmark wide tour with "Danser med Drenge" in the months of october and november Here she stood for the first time face to face with her numerous public, who received her enthusiastically - an experience, which touched the young singer deeply and which she carried in her heart until the end.
When Philippa Bulgin became aware that her life could not be saved, she in severe pain called in her closest family, her friends and colleagues to Rigshospitalet, where she took leave of them.
Philipa Bulgin does not leave any children.
It always feels unjust, when someone, whom you know well, dies prematurely. It is worse in Philippa's case: Her death is simple proof that justice does not exist.
Philippa was our close friend and colleague. We knew her and her life. We knew that she carried many burdens on her shoulders, and has done so since her childhood. She was unbelievably generous even though she - if any one - knew about suffering and possessed that insight, suffering brings with it.
At last - after many year struggle to become a professional singer - Philippa got her well deserved break through, with "Danser med Drenge". She received recognition. Praise. Her records were played and she was interviewed on radio and TV. Had success. And she was happy. Our album had been out for four months, when she became ill - shortly before we were due to go on tour. She was operated upon, but got up and carried out a tour, well knowing that the cancer at some time or other would return. Therefor perhaps it was a extra special experience for Philippa to meet a surprisingly delighted and enthusiastic public, that with banners, songs and cheering gave to Philippa an awareness of their love for her.
After the tour, the illness returned. Philippa decided, that we should bring forward the work on a new album, so that she could record as many of the songs as possible, before her illness progressed too far. This became a furious race, which we today are heart-broken about, that we could not win. The illness was simply too strong.
Even so she had the strength to appear at the Grammy awards at the end of february - tonsured. She had been looking forward to this evening, and the doctors had made a great effort to help her to go to the awards night. We thought that Philippa deserved to receive a grammy, but she received none, and the evening became a disappointment to her. Most avoided her - supposedly because of their own fear of death. That evening she showed us how painful it is to be made invisible.
Knowledge of suffering - and an unbelievable voice - made Philippa a outstanding singer. And it is first and foremost Philippa, we can thank for our success. Music and song theory was not her strong point - she never as such became a particularly good backing singer, but she was able to do something else: She could reach deep, deep down in herself and communicate the strongest feelings out in her singing - never affected or overacted. She was the born soloist. Actually she did not need any accompaniment to touch and move her audience. Beyond this Philippa possessed an other quality: She was a fantastic friend, who was always ready to do any thing for you. Behind her back, we often talked about how unbelievable it was to be lucky enough to find in one, an out standing singer and a fantastic person. These qualities only rarely go hand in hand - it wears down the soul to be in the limelight, and one needs to be an egotist and to make oneself hard to protect oneself. This filter, Philippa did not have.
Because of this we, for fun established a "Star School" - with one student - where Philippa among other things had to learn how to commandeer around with technicians and musicians, while she comfortably lay sprawled on a sofa and smoked Mistral cigarettes. That role she always played with great humour and human insight, but never with seriousness - for Philippa was never like that. When it became obvious for Philippa that she was dying, she called her closest to Rigshospitalet to take leave. She was very weak, but still thanked all, for the experiences she had with them. At the same time she expressed a great deal of annoyance, that we did not manage to make one more album. She concluded the gathering by singing a small song and declaring, that she would give us a bottle of cognac. It was a very fine and moving gesture.
We have lost a great singer and a beautiful person. Philippa, we will never forget you.
March, 1994 - "Danser med Drenge"