Her songs are about loneliness and grief and sell millions of copies. But Kerstin Ott is not a glossy product, her success breaks the laws of the music industry. Or is that the key to understanding them?
Kerstin Ott takes off her headphones in a recording studio at the port of Husum. “Eavesdropping?” asks her producer, who is sitting opposite. Ott nods. And seems to suspect that what is coming now will be a bit embarrassing.
On this day, summer 2020, Ott records one of six songs for the deluxe edition of her third album. It’s called “Sleepless” and is about the evening hours when the world shuts down. So listen: “The shops are closing, the children are going to bed/The twilight, which slowly awakens my spirits.”