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Allan Olsen

Folkrock musician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ4730898
Source-derived summary

Allan Olsen (born 18 March 1956) is a Danish folkrock musician and singer-songwriter. His famous live performances combine his songs with satirical anecdotes. The music is delivered either acoustically or with a rock band.

From 1983 to 1992 he was part of Dalton, a supergroup trio made of Olsen, Lars Lilholt and Johnny Madsen.

Career

Allan Olsen was born in Grønholt, Vendsyssel, and grew up enjoying the musical styles of The Who, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks a.m.. Olsen picked up a guitar himself in the 1970s, and hit the road – initially as a low key performer, often playing in the outskirts of Denmark and with a style inspired by Bob Dylan, Bert Jansch and Randy Newman.

In 1989, the then 33-year-old performer signed his first record contract, with an obligation to record a minimum of three albums within the next five years. The debut album "Norlan" hits the style of British and American rock, combined with a lyrical talent for storytelling that sparsely used dialect (north Jutlandic). The album is a success. The following two albums and intense touring consolidate his name and a large loyal following, especially in West Denmark.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Allan Olsen” is folkrock musician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Allan, Olsen and Folkrock, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1956, 1983, 1992, 1989—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1956-03-18. For this dossier, Allan, Olsen and Folkrock is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “folkrock musician” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4730898. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1956, 1983, 1992 and 1989.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Allan Olsen”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Allan Olsen primary sources, Allan Olsen archive and Allan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Allan Olsen”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Allan Olsen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.