Volvo Releases "Vintersaga", The Longest, Most Beautiful TV Ad Ever Made in Sweden

The ad is more like a song with a beautiful melancholic tone, not unlike the one they made with soccer legend Zlatan.

Vintersaga is sung here by Amanda Bergman, a folk and indie music artist. We did a bit of digging and found that it's not actually a new song, but an older ballad from the 1980s. We've managed to find the English translation of the lyrics, which you may find below the video, just in case YouTube's embedded version stops working.

Swedish carmaker Volvo says it's thankful to the cold, darkness, wind and rain. Without them, their cars would not be the same. Everybody can make something that will take you from point A to point B in sunshine and beautiful weather. But to do that and still keep you happy during a blizard is an entirely different thing.

What they've done definitely doesn't feel like a commercial in the traditional sense, but if you're really careful, you may notice hints of high beam assistance, automatic emergency braking and blind spot warning systems. But they are very subtle so as not to distract from the experience.

The work of film director Gustav Johansson is not to be neglected either. He clearly wanted to visually express the meaning of the word "vemod", which has no direct translation in English, but expresses the sadness or melancholy mixed with a feeling of longing Swedes get during their long winters.

From IKEA to Robyn – people say "vemod" helps both the creativity and the problem solving side of the Swedish people.

(1 verse)

A coastal tanker stomping through the pack ice in the Quark,
a workout at Ullevi in haze.
Border station in Tornio an old woman on a kicksled,
Landsort lighthouse where the snow storm sweeps in.
Dense snow and sleet in the hills of Mariaberget,
hot and sweat at Statt in Härnösand.
A truck in the whirling snow between Kiruna and the distant,
flickering lights in Visby harbour.

(chorus)

It is then that the great melancholy rolls in
and from the sea blows an icy bleak wind.

(2 verse)

In Malmö the mist is scratched by the ferries sirens,
and on the other side of the strait the world begins.
A lonely Volvo rips in the headwind on the Tjörn Bridge,
the cinema in Pajala gives "Deliverance".
Lapplandspilen bellows like a wild beast through the night,
the farms turns off their lights.
A storm-beaten Marstrand says its Pater Noster,
Stockholm City sways in drunkenness.

(chorus)

It is then that the great melancholy rolls in
and from the sea blows an icy bleak wind.

it is then that the great melancholy rolls in
and from the sea blows an icy bleak wind.