multi Queen

On 6 May, Haddy N'jie received the Oslo City Artist Award together with the four other Norwegian-African entertainers in the group Queendom. Among other things, they received the award for the performance "Integrated as hell" where, according to Aftenposten, "they have set out to further educate ethnic Norwegians in our multicultural, but rather ignorant Norway – with humor as a lesson". The cheerful queens pulled up on the 8th floor of the Grand at Karl Johan to celebrate. Two weeks later, Haddy had to write an angry post in Aftenposten Aften to point out that the word "Negro village" has nothing to do with a crossword puzzle in the 2000s.
– To be integrated? I no longer know what that means. It must be to function in Norwegian society, and is not about the food you eat and how you smell.

It is considered a bit of a resignation in a voice that has excited enthusiasm among music critics. She believes that there has been a parallel development in the last ten years in the way immigrants are viewed.
– People can tolerate that you are brown if you are Norwegian and Christian – or Norwegian and doubt – and smell Norwegian. Then they can withstand you for quite some time. But in relation to Islam and cultural differences, the development has gone the other way.

Many talents

Queendom is not just a context in which Haddy is given by all his entertainer talent, it is also a community of very conscious women. Haddy constantly expresses how happy she is that she is one of those gangs. Although the 28-year-old stands firm on his own legs, as a singer, songwriter, author, speaker and journalist. As a journalist, she is now only visible every four weeks through her own column in Dagbladet. The news value lies in the angle she chooses to see reality from.

Haddy says that she has always written and always done more than good at school. Almost for fun, she applied to the Norwegian School of Journalism – the study that was most difficult to get into at the time.
– I thought I would at least learn how the media works, she smiles.
But as a journalist, she has experience from, among others, NRK, KK and Aftenposten. The fictional part of her has led to texts published on Gyldendal Tiden. And in the autumn there will be another book release – no, two, because in addition to a reading lion book for young people, Queendom will also come with a book. With lots of humor.

white lies

But now music is her most important way of expressing herself. In 2005 she released the album White lies and in October 2007 came the sequel Welcome Home. She gives concerts both at home and abroad. This week she performed during African History Week at the House of Literature in Oslo. In June, she is on the program for the Moon Festival in Fredrikstad. She also tours with Rikskonsertene around the country's junior high schools. Here she knows she has a message for both those on the first and back bench. It's important to her.
The sun swings over the terrace railing and attacks the right shoulder and upper arm. Will brown her. But the mission has already been completed. By Norwegian mother and Gambian father.
– Yes, I like to call myself brown, she smiles relaxed and playful.

It is just as difficult to imagine that deep and anxious darkness can ravage her, as to see if she is sunburned. But especially when it becomes too much, she can get sick – both physically and mentally. She makes no secret of the fact that this is so.
– I do not think it is embarrassing at all. The society we live in is filled with so many demands, so many impressions – all the time. That you get a breakdown, that is perfectly adequate. Okay!

She says that she wrote 50 letters to see a psychologist.
– 50! It was like writing job applications. Had my mother not been there ready with stamps, I would never have made it. In the end, someone took me in because she had never before received a letter from someone who made the diagnosis herself. It requires you to be resourceful! The doctors only prescribe Vival. Imagine if they had at least learned how to use their breath when anxiety comes.

So no to the Day Review

Haddy is not only diverse, she is also full of contradictions. Fearless but anxious. Fully booked, but seeking freedom. Will take up a lot of space, but also retire. Strong in opinions, but afraid that others will judge her north and down.
– My God, I have just submitted a script for a play for Den Unge Scene which I have written together with my cohabitant, Fredrik. When I did not hear anything for a few days, I was sure they would say it was useless. But then came the mail yesterday….

The thoughts of disaster are never far away.
– The other thing seems simple, I think it is difficult. I am ashamed to say it, but taking a phone call to a public office, for example, puts me on disaster alert. There's something there that has gone through the road.
All his life, Haddy has struggled to make room. Based on what lives in herself. She herself has not had any particular role model. But she sees that it can be important, not least for other young, brown girls.

She had a golden opportunity to become a very visible role model when NRK wanted her as a news anchor in Dagsrevyen. But after a period of training, she said no.
– I felt that I would not live well with it. News journalism is not for me. It's going too fast, too much to take in. I would not sleep. I must have time to digest and understand the connections and the deeper structures.
- But was it not important to be able to be a role model?
– You can not live your life to be a role model. I can not choose something that makes me sick to go ahead. Besides, there are so many who do everything in the world to get there. Then I could not sit there and wish myself away. It does not work.

To demand his place

But through the National Concerts she can serve as a role model. She says that she always opens the concerts by coming singing a capella into the gymnasium. Students are clearly badly affected by the fact that she opens the concert so unprotected. But between the songs, she talks about that fear of what others think must not limit life. That you must dare to come forward with what you have inside you. You have to claim your place. And she tells her own story. How come she's actually standing there, in front of them.
– For me, this is absolutely fantastic. There are always some glances that suck what I say to him.

They long to be seen, and dream of Idol. They have so much inside them that no one sees.
Haddy thinks the strong urge to communicate is related to the fact that she has always looked different. And that things therefore look different to her. When Haddy grew up on Kolbotn, there were not many others who were brown like her, and perhaps not many who had a home where it was allowed to take a place and demand a place, learn a lot, mean a lot and talk loudly.
– But in the world it was not like that. People became insecure, scared, I experienced early on that everyone felt it was too much of me.

She did not fit. She ended up fantasizing about ending up in an office on Blindern.
– Sit and mess with something, avoid meeting so many people.

Too strong

She's smiling now. But the gaze becomes fierce when we get into the role of the school. Until the third grade, she had a wonderful teacher who let her go with everything she could and was.
– Then I changed school, and got there free and free – and got the sledgehammer in my head. I was told to shut up and stick to the reading book. Imagine that teachers really feel threatened by children who ask questions! In retrospect, I see that I became too strong for them. I was a black girl who came from a divorce home. They expected something different. On the whole, I was the host of "Midt i smørøyet" when I was 11. Then they just pushed me even harder. It really was a fight, and it was devastating for me.

Multiple channels

There was no hook in the hallway of Blindern. The change came when Fredrik, Haddy's cohabitant and girlfriend from the age of 19, brought her a guitar. Haddy tells warmly about how she has always experienced that Fredrik really sees her. At that time she had had the short stories published, but he saw that she also needed other channels to express herself through. They were in Spain without having songbooks available. Then her own songs came out. They just came and came.

Still, it scared her to sing for others.
– I needed to know if I was good. But how do you measure music to get an answer to that? The first time I sang with a musician, I had a pocket tag!

Then it loosened. And in 2003, she came in as one in Queendom.
– Then I experienced that I was meant to do this here. It just worked for me!
The face shines.
- You say "meant for" – is it your view of life that things are arranged that way?
– Oh no! I have always believed that life is a struggle – and then we die. That life is to climb and climb. When we come across a mountain top, there are only more. Lately, I have allowed myself to believe that I can float a little, but I have never had a positive life dream in hand. By the way, it is typically Norwegian that you have to struggle so badly.