A couple weeks back I had to go out of town but instead of cancelling We Love Songwriters, I had the talented Ida Metsberg be my feature artist of the week as well as take on hosting duties to make sure the event runs smoothly! Although I was not there to see her feature set, I have seen Ida Metsberg perform many other times at different venues in New York City so I thought I would write a blog entry about her nonetheless.  Luckily for us, Ida also showed up the next week as well to sing as part of the open mic segment of the event, so I was able to get some live shots of her!

But before I show you some of those, let me tell you a bit about Ida Metsberg.

After learning a bit more about Ida, I began to understand even more on her songwriting style and the type of vibe she brings to her writing. Ida Metsberg is originally from a small town named Espoo, nearing Finland’s capital Helsinki. She grew up in a musical family, watching her father and other siblings take great interest in music as their passions and careers, so music has always inextricably leaked its way into her ears and always been a big part of her life.

She started learning the classical piano as a child and did so for about ten years well into her teens, where she began to wave goodbye to the classical days as her musical palette expanded to more contemporary sounds. She found herself take a slight musical hiatus, but quickly  thereafter started to immerse herself and want to the more involved in the theater world. Not just the theater world, but more specially she found a great love for musical theater.

Ida was so into musical theater that she moved half way across the world to be where it all was and to be closer to her passion: Broadway. Ida was accepted into and attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) as a musical theater major. It was at AMDA that she actually began writing her own music. There was a writing composition elective class and she took to it quite well. After graduating from AMDA Ida has stayed in NYC and although she still loves musical theater, her career as a singer-songwriter has  began to inch its way to the front lines.

So when did Ida actually start songwriting?

She claims to have written some pretty awful songs (her words, not mine!) as a teenager on the piano, but around age 20 is really when Ida started to write music she says. That was also around the same time that Ida picked up her first guitar and today she finds herself songwriting on both piano and guitar.

Ida’s music:

After learning more about Ida’s background and her love and interests and musical theater, one can clearly see the influence theater has had on her songwriting. If one had to characterize Ida’s music, it might fall under the lines of pop/folk/singer-songwriter. Sara Bareilles is one of her greatest influences, as well as other pianist/songwriters like Carole King herself. Ida is very lyrically witty, comedic, strong, and tells you like it is. Contrastingly, Ida can also be very emotive and heartfelt as she sings about her young niece who lives in Finland, and all of the experiences and milestones she won’t get to experience as she grows up and as the reality of her distance to her home country is a reality. From one moment she’s got you laughing, and the next songs she’s got you crying.

I am actually not exaggerating regarding the tears, as I had one member of our event at We Love Songwriters told me last week how moved he was (moved to tears!) by Ida’s performance. Ida also joined us for We LoveSongwriters open mic segment last Thursday and she continued by impress with her music and performance as others were inspired to sing with her, and share the stage with her. Read more about this on last week’s blog: https://welovesongwriters.com/2017/09/02/we-love-songwriters-the-magic-of-robert-brashear/

Ida’s performances are in no way limited to the Shrine, as she has performed in many a venue in NYC. Some of her staples include iconic spots like Rockwood Music Hall, Caffe Vivaldi, Prohibition NYC and Webster Hall! Ida often performs as a solo artist performing her original music, but she is also on her way towards creating her own band of musicians as she enters the next stage of performing at larger venues, coinciding with the upcoming arrival of her first EP of original music!

Lots of exciting endeavors ahead for Ida Metsberg so be sure to stay tuned for more on that. We were just glad that we were able to be a part of Ida’s journey as she continues to take on NYC with her wit, her voice, and unique songs!

Til’ next time!

Your host,

Cc Eve