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everything begins with a song
The Workers’ Songbook 100 years
For 100 years, the Workers’ Songbook has given voice to hope, struggle, and community. This summer at the Workers Museum, you can experience an exhibition celebrating the red songbook and the song culture that has helped shape the Danish labour movement.
Opens June 4, 2026
100 years as a book
Throughout history, singing has played a key role in mobilising workers politically, socially, and culturally. The Danish labour movement got its first official workers’ songbook in 1926, and in 2026, it will be published in its 14th edition to mark the book’s 100th anniversary.
The exhibition Everything Begins with a Song tells the story of how singing has been a peaceful means of political struggle for workers, as well as a way to create a common culture, unity, and stronger social bonds.
Singing came to mean a lot in the everyday lives of ordinary workers. And the exhibition shows how singing has always been – and still is – part of it: from union meetings and parades to communal singing in factories, at home and in the many workers’ song associations.
black, blue, and red
In the 20th century, there were three songbooks in Denmark: the black one with Christian hymns, the blue one with folk high school songs, and the red one with workers’ songs. By publishing the workers’ songs in a common songbook, iconic workers’ songs such as Denmark for the People and Internationale were written into the national songbook and cultural heritage.
In recent years, the Workers Museum has experienced great interest in community singing, for example, in the form of our recurring events Fællessang og Folkets Køkken (community singing and the people’s kitchen). And the exhibition Everything Begins with a Song draws connections to the present day, where singing together, most recently during the Covid-19 lockdowns, is once again used to bring people together and give voice to hope and change.
