It is clear that Dina has a broad view of the world, and this can be heard in her music. Over the course of her carrier she has worked with musicians from West Africa, England, Australia and Portugal. And this year she will bring out an album in her own native tongue, Frysk. A language that is spoken by the people who live in the north of Holland, Frylân.
DINA is not afraid to use unconventional instruments in her arrangements, such as the West African Kora or the Didgeridoo. And DINA is also not afraid to take on her role as producer and produce a records herself. She independently produced her third album 'HEART' which she released in 2020, after that, she kept going with her fourth record 'Dina Up Close' where she made a stripped down acoustic EP of 4 of her favorite songs. This year, she will release her first Frisian album with her book 'medisyn'. A beautiful story about how we reflect on ourselves these days in time of insecurity. Every track on this album is an ingredient of her "medicine". DINA invites her listeners and readers to find their own ingredients of their own medicine.
As a singer, composer, lyricist and producer born in The Netherlands, she mostly calls herself a citizen of the world. DINA’s voice is warm and resonates calmth. She creates a moment of peace in the fast-paced world to find out again who you are and how you connect with each other.
DINA makes a countermovement of the fast music industry. These are not songs that are always played in the same way. On the other hand, it is a musical journey in which you can breathe quietly. Furthermore, a song only ends when it is time to stop. Every song that is played is unique in this way. The experience of her music enriches you with an experience that makes you feel better, more open and stronger. DINA believes that this will make the world a little better.
DINA | 'medisyn'
a production of the Popfabryk (Leeuwarden)
“Frisian, healing, heavenly, powerful and grounded”
Singer, musician and producer DINA will release a new album entitled 'medisyn' in the spring of 2023. For the first time, she is making an album in her native tongue, Frysk.
It is October 5, 2022 and Dina Popma (1984) opens the large wooden door of the old Thomas church in Katlijk. The car of technician and producer Bonne van der Wal stops behind her. Instruments and recording equipment are brought in and set up. Together they will spend three days and nights in this beautiful space, in the nave of the church, and record an album there. 10 songs overflowing with power, heavenly melodies, trans-like, and repetitive guitar parts and lyrics that ground the Dina as a woman and as a human being, and can be increased in their musical and poetic form as a universal 'medicine'.
It all started much earlier. Dina had been walking around with questions such as, 'What do we do to reflect? And where are we going then? What are people looking for, and what do people find in the church or in other sacred places? Where did people used to look, long before the Church had an answer to their questions? Where do we find healing, or where can we heal, and do we do it alone or together?
Dina started an investigation. She found out what her way of thinking is. She started writing, and she did so in Frisian; the language that connects her to the depths of herself. And so she made an album: 'medisyn'. And with the album she made a book, in which, in addition to her lyrics, poems and spoken word, interviews can also be found. Dina talked to a herbalist, writer, doctor and she herself tells the story of her research. And, reader and listener are invited to share a recipe, a 'medisyn', and write it down in the book.
The presentation of 'medisyn', of album and book, will take place in 10 small churches spread throughout Friesland. In collaboration with Stichting Alde Fryske Tsjerken and Popfabryk, DINA will tour the entire province in the spring of 2023. Live, DINA merges story and music. She plays with nature sounds, multiple vocal lines and guitar parts, creating a melodic interplay; the construction of different layers leads to a trance atmosphere in which the audience is completely absorbed.
The churchtour came about as a collaboration between Popfabryk; production house for Frisian pop culture and Alde Fryske Tsjerken Foundation. Popfabryk sees the old churches in Fryslân as a special and widespread stage to present its small-scale productions to a predominantly new audience. Together with the Alde Fryske Tsjerken Foundation, the intention has been expressed to do a Tsjerke Tour annually with small productions appropriate to the locations.