One of the hottest bands to emerge in a while is the Danish pop-soul band named Lukas Graham. The band is named after the lead singer, Lukas Graham Forchhammer. Along with the lead singer, other members of the band are the drummer Mark Falgren, bassist Magnus Larsson, and keyboardist Kasper Daugaard. Their first record, Lukas Graham and Then We Take the World, were released in 2012. In April 2016, the self-titled global debut album was officially released in the United States by Warner Bros. Records. Their album was first released by Copenhagen Records.
Lukas Graham grew up in a neighborhood in Denmark called Christiania, a town of about 800 people. It is known as a ‘freetown’ because it has separate laws and a justice system independent of the rest of the country. He didn’t grow up poor, but didn’t really have enough. Luxuries in the neighborhood in the early nineties included running water and flushing toilets. He joined the Copenhagen Boys’ Choir at eight years old. He toured throughout the states and Europe with them. Later, after spending six months in Buenos Aires and time in New York, he brought his style of music home to Christiania in 2010. His music can be described as folk music and classical mixed with soul, rock ‘n’ roll, and rap.
The band was first discovered when they uploaded some videos on Facebook in 2011. They uploaded videos of the songs “Drunk in the Morning” and “Criminal Mind.” These videos were watched over hundreds of thousands of times. In late 2011, Copenhagen Records picked them up. Their first release became certified Platinum five times in Denmark. They were first only released in Europe and select countries. The band put on 107 concerts in Europe in 2012 and sold 40,000 tickets in Denmark alone. During their first year, they sold 80,000 albums and 150,000 singles and also earned 5 million YouTube views and 27 million streams.
The band was signed to Warner Bros. Records in 2013 because they wanted to bring their music to the United States. In 2015, they released their “Blue Album.” It became number one on the Danish charts and also made it onto several other European country charts. On December 10, 2015, they made their United States television debut playing their song “7 Years” on Conan. Since then, they have also performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.