Scandinavia's Rising Star is a Wolf in Sheep's clothing

Name: Fallulah, real name Maria Apetri

Where She’s From: Copenhagen, Denmark

Genre: Folk pop, indie-pop

When They Started: 2oo9

Most Like: Florence and the Machine, Lykke Li

Sounds like: The kind of rainy day that feels good

Joining the ranks of Scandinavia’s alpha femmes is Fallulah, a Danish musician steadily making her way across the world with smoky indie-pop that already topped charts in her country. Armed with a debut album out and one on the way in 2013, Fallulah is easily the world’s next Lykke Li — shared continental region aside.

Growing up, her parents introduced her — Maria — to Balkan folkloric dance, an influence that stuck to her ribs. But, as she told us in an interview during SXSW, it wasn’t until she heard Fiona Apple that she realized music could be so inspiring. “Her lyrics were so personal and I felt she was really brave,” she told us. “I wanted to write about myself and not censor myself. It grew inside me. I couldn’t stop it.”

She recorded her first song in her bathroom on a cell phone, and a self-made starlet was born. She received radio play and buzz in her home country for her singles, and her track “Out Of It” lingered as the #1 download on Danish iTunes for weeks. She has since toured the world, seeking global recognition as a do-it-yourselfer with a breezy, melancholy sound and a strong soprano.

Her new song and album preview “He’ll Break Up With You When Summer Comes” is a lovely ballad with folkloric elements and harsh, scorned lyrics that you’d nearly miss amidst all the pretty.