The first bars of the Swedish hit and the first frames of the music video immediately evoke memories. The story, filmed in warm sepia tones, unfolds on the screen: a sad girl seems to remember the events of the previous evening. An episode flashes before her eyes in which one hand pushes away the trustingly extended other. The heroine is darker than the clouds.
After thinking about it enough, she pulls herself together and goes to the party – she puts on thick eyeliner, fluffs up her hair and paints her lips according to the fashion of the time, combining dark contour and light lipstick. At the bar, the girl meets a guy who, judging by the final shots, meets her expectations. Again we see frames with hands – this time they are connected.
The lyrics of the song comment on the video sequence – Ace of Base (all four musicians appear on the screen alternately with the development of the heroine’s story) sings about the one who is tired of “disposable” relationships and dreams of finding “the one”.
The role of the girl in the 1992 video, which became an overnight hit in Sweden and far beyond, went to aspiring Danish actress Christiane Bjerg Nielsen, who was friends with the group’s manager. She was 26 years old at the time and rented the very apartment in which the main events of the video take place. “It was a beautiful old apartment with magnificent black and white tiles on the floor. They came to Copenhagen and came to me to get some things, saw this tile and the piano – and decided they couldn’t find a better place. And I was connected to the apartment,” recalls Christiane.
Ace of Base were very pleased with the result of the effort: the total budget for the video barely exceeded $2,000,000. Christiane received no royalties – only worldwide fame.
Unfortunately, the role of the most recognized girl of the 90s, whose image and makeup tirelessly copied the fashions of the time, did not become a breakthrough for her.
No, Christiane Bjerg Nielsen did not disappear: her life turned out quite well and she even became quite famous as a theater and film actress in her native Denmark. Christiane, now 57, also plays music in the band Labrador and maintains a popular blog.
Her most famous role was the fairy Candace in the cult children’s series Pyrus – several generations of Danish children grew up on her, so Christiane admits that she is often recognized on the streets.
The actress has two sons with her husband Jan Christensen and likes to spend time with them. Christiane philosophizes about the fact that she did not succeed in establishing herself on the crest of world fame.
Bjerg Nielsen fondly remembers his youth and admits that then he was “stumbling for fame” and then it was time for an ordinary adult life and its joys, that’s the normal course of things.