The Austin 100: Nicklas Sahl

By Stephen Thompson

Published March 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM EDT

Hometown: Copenhagen, Denmark

Genre: Pop

Why We're Excited: Nicklas Sahl's "New Eyes" was a major, award-winning smash in the singer-songwriter's native Denmark, and there's no reason it couldn't cross over here: It's a slippery little pop-and-soul earworm — microdosed with a bit of country — that rides Sahl's falsetto as far as it'll go. It's the kind of song you could easily imagine hearing on the radio 5,000 times, and when it comes on for the 5,001st time, there's still no good reason to change the channel.

Listen to Nicklas Sahl's "New Eyes"

Different Radio Music

Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

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