Isak Danielson has always written like someone unafraid to sit with the ache. His songs don’t rush to resolve heartbreak or dress it up—they linger in the quiet, complicated corners of love. With Always You, released today, the Gothenburg singer‑songwriter turns that instinct inward once again, offering a beautifully restrained meditation on the relationship that could have been, and the version of himself that lived inside it.
Always You begins in the soft glow of nostalgia: a video of a former lover dancing to Bette Davis Eyes, sunlight pouring into the room, a moment so vivid it still hums years later. Danielson revisits that memory not to reopen old wounds, but to explore the strange tenderness of the “almost”—the person who wasn’t meant to be forever, but still shaped the emotional landscape that followed.
He describes the song as a kind of Sliding Doors thought experiment. What if he’d stayed? What if the relationship had blossomed into something extraordinary? What if the love of his life had already passed him by? These aren’t questions he believes in literally, but they spark the emotional imagination that fuels the track. It’s the kind of romantic pondering that feels lifted from a film—Danielson even likens it to The Notebook or One Day, only without the tragedy.
That cinematic quality is amplified by the song’s arrangement. Co-written with Simon Strömsedt and produced by Agrin Rahmani, Always You features the Stockholm Studio Orchestra, with Erik Arvinder’s sweeping string arrangements giving the track a warm, widescreen glow. Pianist Litens Anton Nilsson adds a delicate, aching undercurrent that lets Danielson’s voice—soft, soulful, unmistakably vulnerable—take centre stage.
Danielson’s vocal presence remains the anchor of his work. There’s a clarity to his delivery that makes even the simplest lines feel lived‑in. On Always You, he leans into the universality of longing: the way a single memory can hold both gratitude and grief, the way a past love can still echo through the present without threatening it.
It’s this emotional duality that has earned him a billion streams and a global audience who return to his music for its honesty rather than its escapism. Danielson doesn’t write heartbreak songs so much as he writes human songs—raw, reflective, and quietly resilient.
Now ten years into his career, Danielson has carved out a rare space in modern pop: independent, introspective, and deeply connected to his listeners. From early breakout tracks like Ending and Broken to five albums and several EPs, he’s built a catalogue that feels like a diary written in real time. His music balances romance with realism, discovery with doubt, always guided by what feels true in the moment.
Always You is a continuation of that ethos—a song that doesn’t try to tidy up the past, but instead honours the beauty of what once was.
Alongside the single, Danielson has announced a run of European dates for May, bringing his intimate storytelling to some of the continent’s most atmospheric rooms. His London show at The Tabernacle, Notting Hill on 12 May promises to be a standout—an ideal setting for a voice that thrives in spaces where emotion can breathe.
UK & EU Dates
4 May — Berlin, Theatre Im Delphi
6 May — Paris, Café de la Danse
7 May — Antwerp, Kavka
9 May — Rotterdam, Bird
10 May — Amsterdam, Bonneehuis
12 May — London, The Tabernacle
