We review the situation… try not to get your underpants in a twist about our choice.
Starting with this range of achievements and sometimes deceivers, we do our best to pay tribute to those who really stood out in 2021 – even if it was not always for the right reasons.
The human condition
On page 5 it’s the politicians’ turn, on page 7 the pioneering scientists, on page 9 the theatrical world’s pioneering – something of a niche area for us – and on page 11 the athletes of the year.
But before all this, let’s focus less on expertise and more on the human condition. Read on to find out the ten Danes who have really exceeded our expectations… in either a good or a bad way.
TOP FIVE
1 Thomas Vinterberg
When the film director received the Oscar for best international feature film for ‘Druk’ dressed in a nice white suit, his initial laugh offered, “This is bigger than anything I could have imagined – apart from the fact that I have always imagined this”. no idea that he was making the most poignant tribute to his daughter Ida, who tragically died shortly before filming began. “This is a movie about letting go of control in life while I lost control of my own,” he said. “We ended up making this movie for her as a monument. If she had been here today, she would have clapped and cheered. Ida, it’s a miracle that it just happened. This one is for you.” It was as if the whole nation had felt for him, held him tight, and kept him calm while he spoke.
2 Simon Kjær
He has always been a colossus at the back, whether it is in La Liga or Serie A, but in 2021 the true goal for national football team captain Simon Kjær came to the fore when talisman Christian Eriken collapsed with a cardiac arrest shortly before half time. in Denmark’s opening match for the European Championships 2020. Kjær’s actions, when he quickly ensured Eriksen’s air passage was free and then orchestrated a human wall to secure his privacy from the sighted millions, the epitome of Danish empathy and decency, which made a moment of tragedy a moment of enormous patriotism. The nation was also in the wall, each of them was willing for Eriksen to pull through. And the winner was life itself.
3 nurses
They continue to fight in their wards as we retire to our warm homes, in a constant state of emergency, if a drop could give them corona, and how do we reward them: a measly 5 percent pay rise over three years. And when they say no, we will not take what we strike, but cautiously because we care about people, the government vaporizes them as if it is some kind of joke. They have not given up, but every time they strike, their salary is dock. There is no way to treat heroes working in the front line. Forget the police, it’s the nurses who save us. Remember to show your gratitude!
4 René Redzepi
The Noma chef and co-founder is world-class, and 2021 proved to be yet another star career as his eatery claimed his fifth world best restaurant crown after four titles in five years from 2010-14. Everything this man does is at the forefront, whether it’s serving his guests ants, making one of his dishwashers a partner in the business, or completely reinventing his business. He is honored and imitated, but no one can compete with him. Noma is a word for expertise, nothing less.
5 Crown Princess Mary
It has been a good year for the Royal, though it ended up giving her a dose of corona. Her brilliant moment came in August, when she, as patron of Copenhagen 2021, tirelessly supported the great LGBTI + event in both the capital and Malmö. There is no doubt that having Crown Princess Mary as the galleon figure raised the profile of the event, to such an extent that comparisons with Lady Di are becoming the norm.
BUNDFEM
1 Mikkel Borg Bjergsø
One can only imagine that Mikkeller founder Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, once the toasts of the Danish beer scene, spends most of his time with his head in his hands these days. His long-awaited apology on October 18 for “not acknowledging responsibility” for the brewing giant’s toxic workplace environment was finally a step in the right direction, after years of bullying and harassment went unchecked. For years, his brother, Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, had been jokingly portrayed as the evil one – Jeppe even called his own brewery Evil Twin – but now we know differently.
2 Patrick Nielsen
The tragedy of boxer Patrick Nielsen’s downfall, who in early December was sentenced to a year in prison for aggravated violence and threats against his ex-girlfriend, is not so much his crimes, but his choices. Still only 30, the former WBA temporary middleweight title candidate could be at the peak of his career, but instead he does bird. But let’s not have too much pity on the guy. After strangling and punching his girlfriend in the face, he pressed his foot into her throat until she fainted. And then he sent messages to her family and threatened them.
3 Jes Dorph-Petersen
#MeToo continued where it left off in 2020, and after Naser Khader (see opposite page) its biggest victim was TV2 host Jes Dorph-Petersen, who lost his job with ‘Go after live’ after historical accusations that he had harassed sexually two former journalism trainees 20 years ago. However, he would not go quietly and firmly that he had not done anything wrong. But within TV2, it was thought that any kind of relationship between TV host and intern would be unequal. A transcript of a conversation between Dorph-Petersen and lawyer Yvonne Frederiksen appeared, in which the host was told that TV2 could rightly “find the box that its hosts are immaculate in the way they act, because they are its face on the outside” .
4 Cecilie Beck
It seems that #MeToo has finally got a female victim: the 51-year-old TV2 news host Cecilie Beck, who in December let it slip to a ‘friend’ that in 2016 she “blew” an intern on a business trip . “I actually have no idea what the company’s rules say about that kind of thing,” she wrote to her ex-partner according to Ekstra Bladet. “Can you beat the trainees?” ‘Metoo: Sexism behind the scenes’, in which she complained that “the sexualised tone roughly permeated the entire news organization”.
5 Alva Madsen
If the saints like you were looking for someone to unleash their corona anger over, they pretty quickly found one back in January in the form of ‘Father’s Girl’ star Alva Madsen, who happily told DR that she was on holiday in Dubai because Denmark was depressing. Of course, she looked pretty breathtaking in her black bikini in the Dubai sun – just the tonic of furious masochistic trolls to set her fingers in motion. “I was a little tired of the weather at home,” she told the media, in between plugging in her makeup brand. “I have no greater risk of being infected here than in Denmark.”
Source: The Nordic Page