Minnesota's First Singing Superstar: Jenny Lind
There’s no denying that 2023 has been a very good year for Taylor Swift. She is everywhere - like it or not - and she has achieved world-wide fame. She came to Minneapolis and played two nights at US Bank… but Taylor is far from the first female singer to enjoy this much appreciation in Minnesota.
In the 1840s, a a young Swedish opera singer named Jenny Lind was thrilling audiences in Europe. When she came to America in 1850, the marketing machine of her business partner (circus-owner P.T. Barnum) made her a household name. She performed a year of concerts throughout the states and earned the equivalent of $12 million dollars today.
“Lind Mania” swept the country and the “Swedish Nightingale” became a national obsession. And the merch! Jenny Lind hairpieces, fireplaces, beds, tobacco, scarves, anything you can think of were flying off the shelves. Bakeries, ships, towns and more were named in her honor.
In reality, Lind’s partnership with P. T. Barnum was short-lived. After one year of touring America, Lind was exhausted. She married her accompanist, retired from the stage and returned to London to raise a family. The version of her life and “relationship” with Barnum as portrayed in the 2020 movie “The Greatest Showman” is much more complicated and very untrue.
In 1920, Minnesotans (especially the Swedes) threw parties and concerts to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Jenny Lind’s birth. Soon after, an elementary school on the North side bore her name. And then the neighborhood became Lind-Bohanon. (BUT! She never even set foot in our state.)
So if you ever feel like the world has gone mad and this whole Taylor Swift thing is a sign of the apocalypse… I think you need to calm down, at least we haven’t named anything after her, yet.
