GOLD The Best Of Sweden 2012

THE BEST OF SWEDEN 2012

p r e s e n t e d

b y …

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Dear friends, Not only since Loreen achieved her clear Eurovision Song Contest triumph with Euphoria we were enchanted by Swedish Music - Pop, Rock and Folkmusic.... This special passion paved the ground for realizing this special special GOLD Edition "The Best Of Sweden": In 2013 the next Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Malmö and we want to show which Swedish artists we had admired the most in 2012. Even if it is our personal view one has to admit that these musicians and actors are the most successful in Sweden - too. But the more we worked on it the more we asked ourselves "Why are the Swedes actually so successful.... why does a small monarchy with only nine million people produce so many hits and artist on such a high level compared to Germany, France and Italy etc. ?“ Yes…. It all started with ABBA. Since then the small music wonderland Sweden produced stars like an assembly line .... Meanwhile the Scandinavians are behind the U.S. and Britain unquestionable one of the big players concerning English pop and rock music - on par with larger countries like Germany or Canada. Measured by gross domestic figures the Swedes are even more successful than the US and the United Kingdom. But it must be mentioned that there are a large number of Swedish singer songwriters who are immensely successful with singing in their native language.

Even in the case of the music wonderland Sweden success has many reasons, respectively fathers. According to the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, its origin lies in the cultural and social development of children and youth. Not only the availability of free music education to the local music and art schools is guaranteed almost everywhere. In comparison to German cities the cost-effective delivery of public rehearsal rooms clearly illustrates the important role that music plays in the everyday life of Sweden .... I have often visited Sweden - not only as a musician - which led to the impression, that every Swede plays at least one instrument and loves to sing. The joy of making music together with family or friends on a regular basis has a long tradition. Especially on dark winter days, of which there are quite a few in Scandinavia, the musical sense of community increases....

The key to the Swedish success also lies in the concentration of the music industry in Stockholm. Nearly the entire music industry is located here. If you go out in the evening, you can be sure that you always meet a lot of colleagues from the industry. Musicians, writers, producers. Here seemingly everybody knows everybody, they exchange informations on a regular basis, learn from each other. And thereby the quality remains at an extremely high level.

The Swedes are musically well-connected. This also applies to international relations. In the music business perfect English skills are an important requirement - and in contrast to the Germans, this is not so difficult for Swedes. English films are not synchronized neither in cinema or television, so that the language is learned at an early age ... .

Which brings us to another thing that we love about Sweden: Their crime series, often produced as an international collaboration. We feature the two most important series in this edition: "Johan Falk - GSI Gothenburg" and the powerful thriller miniserie "Arne Dahl", that is coming to international TV screens.

So this it. Above all we wish you a good read from Agnes to Måns Zelmerlöw and a lot of fun with this interactive webzine and we hope that you remain faithful to our new webpage and blog (coming January 2013) and our page on Facebook …..

Kind regards, Reinhard Schnitzer and the GP Team

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Publishing

Publishing webpage + blog - coming spring 2013 -

This webzine is published on Issuu without any commercial background or interest and is intended only as a practical guide for music aficionados and fans want a quick overview what's happening in Sweden's pop and TV scene. And that is worthwhile in any case.

Copyright Disclaimer: This webzine may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copy-right owner. All photos and video clips are used for entertainment purposes only; the copyrights are held by their respective owners - no infringement is intended or implied. Proper credit has been given when we have access to that information.

THE MANY FACE

ES OF THE ARTIST

THE MAN Y FACES OF THE ARTIST

Sara Varga

Sara Varga grew up in the south of Stockholm and has lived and worked with music as a Singer / songwriter all her life in various forms. She wrote her first song when she was seven years old and has always known what she dreamed about and wanted to do, to really work on and with her music …

♫♩♬

THE MANY FACES OF THE ARTIST ✍

The musical expression and the feeling in her songs have always been in focus, the words have been as important as the melody, because they are all written from her own experience and from the bottom of her heart. Sara Varga has repeatedly been offered to jump on or be involved in other various music projects and commercial contexts, but she declined. For Sara Varga the most important thing was not to become a famous pop star but to deliver something real, music that she can relate to, and not commercial products created for a specific context.

Her songwriting skills earned her the first bits of attention and provided a crucial break for her when she was signed by Warner/Chappell in 2006. Besides her devotion to music she stays comitted to writing books and is an avid painter - too. She writes and paints with the same love, passion and energy that she puts in her music.

In 2007 Sara Varga released her first single Born to Fly. That same year Nordstedts published Sara's debut book "From Frog to Prince," a humorous psychological handbook aimed at guys who want to know how girls think.

THE MAN Y FACES OF THE ARTIST

Sara Varga

“Each and every painting I’ve made has been given a little piece of my soul, all made with love. I paint to express my emotions and feelings, just as I do when I write and sing my music. Some of them are sad, most of them are happy, but again all filled with love. I want you, when you look at them, to feel something as well” - Sara Varga

A book based on fundamental truths. Despite the fact that it was written tongue in cheek the core message of Sara's book leads the readers to a serious knowledge: In most cases the basis of conflicts between guys and girls is the lack of communication.

You should treat others as you wish to be treated yourself. And you should be true to yourself: Be the one you want to be instead of pretending to be someone you are not.

Her first English album Faith Hope n Love (2008) was partly recorded in Woodstock NY with producer Stephen Dwire and the musicians Tony Levin (bass), Jerry Merotta (drums), Larry Satzman (guitar) and Robbie Kondor (keyboard), all accomplished artists who have worked with the likes of Prince, John Lennon, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Hall & Oates and many others. Sara Varga has been touring and singing ever since. In the following years you have seen her in different TV show and programs, read about her in the papers, heard her songs on the radio, and her second single Always Have was a featured video on MTV. After touring and recording her first Swedish album in 2010 Sara Varga competed in Melodifestivalen 2011 for the first time with her self-written song "Spring för livet" (Run For Your Life). Her song made the final in the Globen through the "second

THE MAN Y FACES OF THE ARTIST

Sara Varga

chance" where she has beaten - amongst others - Loreen, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012.

The press gave Sara rave reviews and "Spring för livet" went directly up at the Swedish Top List to the first place and stayed there for 18 weeks, with a total of 35 weeks on the list. On March 30, 2011 Roxy Recording released an incomparable good album with Sara after the year's major breakthrough in Melodifestivalen: Her album "Spring för livet" was produced by Figge Boström, and has been recorded with some really great musicians like Henrik Jansson, Jesper Nordenström, Janne Robertsson and Figge Boström. The album features an overall acoustic sound, a nice natural background for Sara Varga's melodic voice. Both records - her album AND the single sold very well and were certified gold in Sweden.

That same year Designmäklarna – a Swedish design company that works with world's leading designers in interior design - used a variety of Sara's paintings as printed patterns on kitchen boards, tables and trays. All of which can now be purchased at Elextrolux home in a special edition.

THE MAN Y FACES OF THE ARTIST

Sara Varga

Apart from touring Sara Varga worked on her new book " Min inre röst" (My inner voice) and on her new album Ett år av tystnad (A Year Of Silence). Both were released in September 2012.

In her second book (in English "My inner voice“) Sara Varga shares all her talents with the reader: She describes her creative process, explains her thoughts on her paintings and songs and provides an insight look into her eventful life. Her paintings and designs demonstrate the same emotional engagement that she puts into creating her poems and lyrics to her songs. The result is a delightful book which was presented by Sara Varga at the Gothenburg Book Fair on September 30, 2012 - a book filled with artwork, poems, lyrics and life wisdom.

On her new album all songs are written by Sara Varga and Lars Hägglund and produced by Ola Gustafsson. In addition to the first single Hur gör vi nu (How do we know now) and the title track other songs of her album will be featured in the new Swedish movie "Bäst före" (Best before) from Mats Arehns which features Kjell Bergqvist, Ewa Froling etc. . The film will premiere in February 2013.

Sara Varga

on Video

Please click on the pictures to start the videos

Fölåt mig älskling (acoustic version)

Hur gör vi nu (Official Video)

Sara Varga

Spring För Livet (Live Melodifestivalen 2011)

in the Web

Please click on the pictures to access the web pages

Official Facebook Page

Official Website

Swedish Blogg

It‘s The Singer And The Song If artists like James Taylor, Jim Croce and Dan Fogelberg epitomized the definition and the original, 70's incarnation of the term singer/songwriter, Moa Lignell exemplifies the equivalent of that term today at its most highly developed and successful. Moa's journey from an unknown girl from Alingsås to a nationwide successful artist and songwriter began with an audition for "Idol", the Swedish reality competition show that's part of the Idol franchise, originated from the reality programm Pop Idol by Simon Fuller , which was first aired in 2001 in the United Kingdom.

Moa's audition was seen by many over and over again, and it made the hair on most viewers arms to stand for far more than the on the Idol jury. But the most memorable performance of last year’s series of Idol was undoubtedly when contestant Moa performed a self penned track during one of the live shows. It was called When I Held Ya, and it was so popular, that it went on to become the most streamed clip of the year on Sweden's TV4 website. A few weeks later, she ended up finishing third overall. The song was released on iTunes in Sweden at first, with other digital platforms to follow several days later. But on iTunes it shot to number 1 within the first 24 hours – and therefore turning into the smash that everyone has expected it to be. But it was already evident before her single became the number one in the official Swedish Charts that Moa began to approach the idea to produce an album with her own material.

The day after the "Idol" finale in December 2011 she was called to the meeting at the record company Universal in Stockholm. Shortly thereafter, she signed the contract, then 17 years old, a record deal which paired her with several producers and songwriters who previously worked with artists such as Lykke Li, Ane Brun and Robbie Williams. In parallel with building up an artistic career she continued to go to high school in Alingsås and graduated last spring. She wanted to keep her public life low profile as long as it was possible and be able to go to school when she was at home, just to be with friends and all that.

In spring 2012 Moa released her follow-up single to her smash When I Held Ya called ‘Live Your Life’. Moa found herself in a bit of predicament with this one. Released on iTunes a couple of weeks before, it initially did quite well for her. But quickly started to plummet down the iTunes chart. And that was because Swedish radio weren’t playing it. Not because they didn’t like it, but because they were still obsessed with When I Held Ya . The biggest national radio station P3 still played her previous single on a daily basis – leaving no room for them to get on board with Live Your Life.

MOA LIGNELL

A third single Whatever They Do from the upcoming album was released at August 1th and pleased as a midtempo and melodic rocker that wasn't millions miles away from her first two singles. Apart from this she received the Rockbjรถrn award (one of Sweden's most important pop music awards) for the Breakthrough of the Year at the end of August. At the Rockbjรถrn gala at Grona Lund in Stockholm she sang a duet with Plura Jonsson, a singer songwriter who is a very famous musical legend in Sweden.

On September 12th Moa released her debut album Different Path for Sonet / Universal Music. On her album Moa is listed as composer on every song while most of them are songwriting collaborations with John Engelbert from the group Johnossi or with the album's producer Tobias Froberg, who previously produced Ane Brun and Robbie Williams. The album was played in its entirety in the Froberg in his studio in Viklau in the middle of Gotland with a band consisting of Peter Moren of Peter, Bjorn and John on guitar and bass, drummer Lars Skoglund (who is known for his work with Lykke Li and Markus Schulz) and Tobias Froberg himself.

Moa is extremely pleased with the result and proud of her first longplayer.

We think she has every right do so because of it's suprisingly classic sound, which combines folk and rock elements with melodies that will stand the test of time. Moa Lignell is one of the few exceptions in casting shows that breaks away from the proven sincere schemes in pop music and who does not meet the expectations of the media and will prevail thanks to her music and her unique voice.

MOA LIGNELL

Moa Lignell on Video Please click on the pictures to start the videos

When I Held Ya [Live @ Moraeus med mera]

Calling [Live @ TV4]

Moa Lignell in the Web Click on me

Click for press releases on Moa from Universal music

Click on MOA LIGNELL DAILY (fan blog)

What Ever They Do [Live @ Moraeus med mera]

Home Tonight [Live @ Skavlan]

Loreen took Europe by storm with her performance of Euphoria at the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, in May 2012. Many believe that she has revolutionized the contest by her uniquely styled performance that included an 80cm high podium, dim lights, snow, a dancer and a barefoot Loreen dressed in a jumpsuit and a kimono. But who is the woman behind the bangs?

Childhood & her berber roots Lorine Zineb Nora Talhaoui was born in Åkersberga, just outside of Stockholm on an October day 1983. When Loreen was 7 years old her parents got divorced and she moved together with her mother and 5 siblings to the small town Västerås. By being the oldest she had to help take care of her younger siblings a lot and Loreen herself quite often refer to her childhood as being “chaotic”. Music became important to Loreen at an early age.

It was a bit like a sanctuary and a way for her to distance herself from the chaos. She used to sneak into the bathroom, turn the lights off and sing for hours or until someone knocked on the door. Loreen also had a habit of ditching school to visit a nearby church to sing, simply because she was fascinated by the acoustics.

Both her parents have their origins from Morocco or more specifically from Moroccan Berber, the original inhabitants in the country. Her mother made sure that her children were able to experience the Berber culture so the family visited Morocco every summer. Loreen says that she’s been deeply influenced by her Berber roots.

She often talks about that her view on music and the way she sings is connected to the views and techniques found in the Berber culture. More specific examples are the melodies she sings or her ability to somewhere get in trance when she performs. Loreen has later in life connected with a more spiritual way of living and thinking, something that derives from seeing her relative’s way of living in Morocco. In addition to that, Loreen finds comfort in meditation and is also deeply curious to the philosophies around Buddhism, something that she is frequently asked about in the media.

Early career In 2004 Loreen’s sister convinced her to audition for the Swedish edition of “Idol, and it payed off because Loreen ended up being one of the finalists. Throughout the weeks of the show the viewers got to see Loreen take on songs after songs and genre after genre, and the judges kept criticising her for changing the songs too much. She left the competition on 4th place but according to Loreen herself, that’s when the real journey begun.

She often refers to her time at “Idol” as a teaching experience and that it was after the show she realized just how little she knew about the music industry and how important it was to find and develop her own expression.

Seven years later, in 2011, after a journey that had included work as a TV-producer, a new Loreen took place on the stage at Melodifestivalen. She competed with her performance of the song My heart is refusing me. The 21 year old, shy beginner from Idol had transformed to a 28 year old, confident singer that stood on the stage wearing high heels and custom designed fashion. Loreen was eliminated from the contest at Melodifestivalen’s “second chance” but her song became a hit in the Swedish clubs. She later pleased her fans with releasing a second single, named Sober in September the same year.

LOREEN The journey of Euphoria Loreen decided to compete in Melodifestivalen again in 2012, and this time with the song “Euphoria”. She first took the stage in the semi-finals of Melodifestivalen in Växjö in February 2012. Loreen’s voice carried the song to new dimensions and the complete performance left everyone in complete awe. The Swedish audience was completely mesmerized by her performance and they made sure to show it by voting her directly to the finale this time around. She won Melodifestivalen with 670 551 votes from the audience and a total of 268 points, including both voting points from the audience and the international jury. Loreen was now set to represent Sweden in Eurovision Song Contest in Baku. Days and even weeks before her performance in the semi-finals in Baku Loreen’s performance was listed as a favourite to win the entire competition. She easily qualified to the finale from the semi-finals and on the 26th of May 2012, Loreen managed to unite the whole of Europe and made sure that Sweden took home the victory in Eurovision song contest. How come Europe fell in love with Loreen and her performance? Loreen herself said explained her thoughts in an interview for BBC one:

“

I think the people like my performance because it's not usual for Eurovision. Usually they wear glamorous clothes, there’s a lot of lightning and that is maxed, and I had a message there, I wanted everything to be simple because we get so much information, you have to be a certain way, you have to look a certain way. That’s why I didn't wear any shoes, hardly any makeup, my hair was messy and not much lightning, couldn't really see my face. So just to narrow it down, take it down, make it easy, make it simple, we need that ….

After her win she certainly managed to turn her victory into a complete success, with number one placements on music charts in around 21 countries just days after her win. Today “Euphoria” has sold platinum in five countries, including 9 times platinum in Sweden, just to mention the absolute tip of the iceberg. Loreen also released a music video for Euphoria, in which she kept the same aesthetic as her performance in the Eurovision Song Contest.

LOREEN Human

Rights

During her stay in Baku, Loreen stood out from the other contestants with her interest and commitment to human rights. She visited human rights organizations along with some women rights organizations during her stay in Baku, so that she could get knowledge about the situation and also raise awareness of the situation with the help the media coverage. She also did similar work and visits during her short stay in Belarus for a performance at concert conducted by the president Lukasjenko. The money she earned form playing at the concert was later donated to the human rights organisations she had been in contact with. Loreen continues to engage in work with human rights and is currently in a great collaboration with the Swedish organisation called “Civil right defenders” and it seems as is a future work in Russia might be plausible.

Loreen’s work with human rights is something very dear to her and she often speaks out about it if the possibility is given. This is what Loreen said in a recent interview with Metro:

“

I fight a lot for human rights. That’s based in that I’ve been there myself and I’ve lived alongside it all my life. In Morocco, where I originally come from, there is poverty and a humiliation of women in a pretty rough way. It allows me to have humility and an understanding of how defenceless people have it. […] I like to have an open communication with the media. Fame is a tool to communicate widely, and if I don’t have anything to communicate, then I’d rather shut up. In Azerbaijan, for example, I gathered the media and communicated what I wanted and asked if they wanted to support me and help me so that we together could make a difference

LOREEN Europe gets healed Loreen waited five months after her victory to release her album, which after all was her debut album. Many criticised her for not striking while the iron was hot but Loreen wanted to wait because she wished for her album to be elaborated and real. On the 24th of October her album named Heal was released and some days prior to that date two singles were released as well; Crying out your name (Swedish release) and a new version of My heart is refusing me (International release). All the songs on the album tells stories about different aspects in a relationship, can be everything from heartbreaks, to longing and intimacy. The sound is a mix of organic sounds and harder beats, and even though Heal is her debut album it does sound very typical Loreen. The melancholic lyrics mixed with a rough production, something that can be found in her all of her previous singles.

In an interview for the Finnish morning show “Huomenta Suomi” Loreen said the following about her album:

“

All of the songs, or almost all of the songs, tell a story that I think that many can connect to and it’s very emotional. The dream is to be able to influence people, to make them feel and dare to feel a lot.

The album was perceived well by the audience, and specifically in Sweden where it went directly to no.1 on the official album chart. It also peaked at #8 on the WorldWide iTunes chart and had top 10 placements on charts in around 18 countries. Coming up next for Loreen is a release of a music video for her song “My heart is refusing me”, which is a long awaited video indeed. Lastly, considering a Japanese release of an extended version of the album as well as the promotion and performances that have been booked it seems as though Loreen will attempt to reach the Japanese market in 2013.

LOREEN

“

This is what /team L wrote about LOREEN 4 ALL:

“Have you seen this interactive webzine which presents Loreen´s first 4 weeks after winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2012? It is well documented and made by the supporters at LOREEN - International Fanpage - so a huge thanks to them, what an honour!”

Loreen on Video

”Euphoria” @ Grand Final - 2012 ESC Baku

Please click on the pictures to start the videos

„My Heart Is Refusing Me“ @ planet tower (acoustic version)

Loreen Performance on "The Qube“ Full show [HD], 03.12.2012

What we love about

JOHAN

FALK

Anders Nilsson's first trilogy and the more recent series of twelve feature length TV films, about Johan Falk are a fascinating piece of contemporary history on the grossest crime in our time. All movies are fantastic cally action packed and have a heavy social pathos, where we prevailed upon to stop and think a little - what's really happening in the world of today? As a bonus, we get to know the Detective Inspector Johan Falk in Gothenburg (Jakob Eklund) and marvel at his tunnel vision and his grim results-oriented approach to policing. What is it that has shaped him ...?

JOHAN FALK - GSI-GRUPPEN JOHAN FALK Jacob Eklund, born 21 February 1962 in Annedal, Gothenburg, is the son of actors Olof Eklund and Brit Ångström Eklund. He trained at the Theatre Academy in Stockholm and has played in William Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. He is married to Marie Richardson.

Eklund's breakthrough in film came when he starred with Helena Bergström in Änglagård. But he is best known for playing the Detective Inspector Johan Falk in Anders Nilsson films. He also starred in the famous TV series Tousen bröder Season 2 and 3, as Petter Janovski. Eklund runs his own film production company Långholmen Theatre & Film AB.

Helén Andersson Marie Richardson, one of today's best known Swedish actresses, was born June 6, 1959 in Ljusdal in Hälsingland and studied at the National stage school in Stockholm. She has been involved in the Dramatic permanent ensemble since she graduated in 1985. Before she began her dramatic studies she passed her High School Diploma at Castle High School in Ljusdal Hälsingland and then Skara School Scene. She had her film debut in 1987 in Jonas Cornell Lysande landning. She has worked with many prominent directors on stage and in films, such as Ingmar Bergman, Daniel Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Bille August, Oskarson Peter, Bjorn Runge. She has two children, Clara and Leon, with her husband Jakob Eklund.

1993 she received Amanda Prize for her role in the Norwegian film Telegraphy Stone and in 2004 she received the ensemble Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and a Guldbagge nomination for Best Supporting Actress in the film Om jag vänder mig om. 2011 she received the Litteris et Artibus award for her overall work.

Patrik Agrell Mikael Tornving, born 1961 in Ostersund, Jamtland (Sweden), studied at Uppsala University education with a focus on personnel and labor issues and graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts. From 1994 to 1998 he worked as a management consultant.

Today Mikael Tornving is an widely respected actor, comedian and presenter in Sweden, who also writes screenplays for television and stage. He is best known for his works as a comedian, playing a cynical politician in Parlamentets (TV4) series and the angry and tired reporter Rolf Nygård in the Melodifestivalen in 2005. In the Johan Falk series Tornving plays the head of the police force Patrik Agrell.

JOHAN FALK Seth Rydell Jens Hultén, born Dec. 6, 1963 in Matteus församling, Stockholm, started late with acting. He came came from the restaurant world, where he was a doorman and practiced martial arts. He had his own Thai boxing club in and ran the whole macho thing that he thought was his identity. That's maybe the reason he finds it easy to play this kind of guys.

Often he plays criminal roles with a dangerous past Wallander - Innan Frosten and Irene Huss – Guldkalven. Have made a small international appearance as a rogue henchman in the James Bond film Skyfall (2012). But for us his best role is Seth Rydell and we hope to see him acting in this seires for a long time to come.

Fotograf: PA Svensson

Sophie Nordh

Meliz Karlge was born 23 december 1973 in Bankeryd in Småland as the daughter of a Swedish mother and a Greek father and grew up in a commune in Jönköping.

After high school she moved to Stockholm, where she worked as a swimming instructor and the croupier. Later, she participated in the Holiday on Ice and toured around the world. Then she participated at the Kulturama 1-year theater line and spent two years at Scenstudion. She continued her acting training in New York.

Her first major film role she had in 2002 in Susan Taslimis "House of Hell" and since then we have also seen her in the feature film "Livet i Fagervik", "Hjälp!", "183 dagar", "Labyrint", "Världarnas bok" and "Stackars Tom" and the shortfilms "Backyard Suicide" and "Soldier 7" both of which have been shown at the Gothenburg film Festival.

In 2009, she played Sophie Nordh in the "Johan Falk" series for the first time.

Frank Wagner Joel Kinnaman was born 25 november 1979 in the Maria Magdalena church in Stockholm. After participating the Theatre Academy in Malmö 2003-2007 he worked at the Gothenburg City Theatre. In 2007, he received wide recognition for her role as Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment in Backa Theatre in Gothenburg.

For this role he received the 2009 performance Såstaholms price and the set also received the Swedish Theatre Critics Theatre Award.

His first real role was in the film Den osynlige where he played Charlie in youth gang that beat Niklas. Among recent film roles include Frank Wagner in the Johan Falk films, a role he also became Guldbagge nominated for 2010.

The role of John "JW" Westlund in the film Snabba Cash (2010), based on Jens Lapidus selling novel, gave him Guldbaggen for Best Actor in 2011 and opened the way for an international career in Hollywood, including The Killing and Safe House.

Biography After three albums, eight singles and continued touring Veronica Maggio has found a special place in the Nordic music map. With her soul coloured, electro pop songs with Swedish lyrics she manages her successful legacy of urban pop pioneers as Mauro Scocco and Orup.

Veronica thought very early about living the life as an artist. She got her first musical highs in the hometown of her childhood in Uppsala. Her father's bookcase was piled with cartridges from Italian pop legends from the 1960s - and '70s - artists such as Lucio Battisti, Rita Pavone and Adriano Celentano.

When I got home to my father, I used to always pick a cartridge from the shelf. I sang, spun around and around on the living room floor and let myself get engulfed by the music. I think those moments explains my penchant for strings, says Veronica.

When she was eleven years old Veronica spent a year in Gavarrano in Tuscany where she sang hits

by Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson for the neighbors. But Veronica's search for her own musical framework began in high school after she finished sight reading and singing in Uppsala music classes.

After working for a year as a waitress in Oslo Veronica moved to Stockholm. Here she met songwriter and producer Stefan Gräslund and initiated a collaboration that resulted in her debut album.

It meant a lot to Stefan wrote songs with Swedish lyrics. Earlier, Veronica always sung in English language, and the language change was the point when the puzzle pieces felt into place.

For the first time, it sounded good about the music I was doing.

Critics and audience liked what they heard. In the spring of 2006, their debut single Dumpa mig became a radio favorite, and in the fall of the same year the album Vatten och bröd („Bread And Water“) was released and certified gold.

The following year Veronica sang with Petter on the single Inga problem by the hip hop duo Snook which consisted of Oskar Linnros and Daniel Adams-Ray - today separately acclaimed as solo artists.

After that single Veronica was a frequent guest artist at Snooks gigs and backstage they formed thoughts on a new album - the producer role was now handled by Oskar Linnros. The meeting with Snook inspired Veronica to break new ground, and she began writing songs in earnest.

My goal was to do everything differently than the first disc. I wanted to make a "great" record with a flashy title. Instead of writing ten songs of love, we wrote songs on different themes and I tried to vary my way of singing.

Foto: Reinhard Schnitzer

VERONICA MAGGIO - Biography

Foto: Emma Svensson

Innovations proved to be a recipe for success. The singles Måndagsbarn, Stopp, 17 år and Gammal sång were popular hits on radios, computers and mobile phones. The album Och vinna-ren är… (“And The Winner Is”) went platinum, a total of 70,000 copies in the Nordic countries. The success paved the way for more touring, from January 2008 until the autumn of 2010, Veronica performed at over 200 gigs.

I've performed a lot in both Sweden and Norway, but never got sad about it. Playing live is the best thing I know.

Her next single Jag kommer was the forerunner from the last album Satan i gatan. It was produced

by Christian Walz and released on April 27, 2011 almost exactly five years after Veronica's breakthrough debut single Dumpa mig and three years after she released her second best-selling album, Och vinnaren är…

Satan i gatan has emerged in Christian Walz studio in Östermalm in Stockholm. In fifteen overcrowded square meters - over cluttered of pianos, organs and effect boxes - Veronica and Christian had written and recorded eleven new songs for less than a year. The tracks include songs about cracked love, lost friendship and the feelings when you leave the club and walk home at night accompanied by new company.

VERONICA MAGGIO While working on this album Veronica has continued to develop her songwriting skills. Along with Christian she wrote nine of the album's eleven tracks - she with primary responsibility for the texts while he is the music composer. The songs Finns det en så finns det flera and Vi kommer alltid att ha Paris Veronica has co-authored with Markus Schulz.

With Satan i gatan Christian Walz - known for his hits like Wonder Child and Lovin' Is Allright debutet as an producer for other artists. Veronica puts value in working with producers Walz and Linnros who are artists in their own right. She believes that the collegial consensus favors creativity.

Christian has to fantasize about our music in quite the same way that I do. How is it portrayed on stage? How do listeners perceive songs? Such issues fall to natural if you usually stand in front of the microphone singing.

During the recording of her longplayer Veronica became pregnant.... almost unnoticed.

I never really had time to grow into the role of an expectant mother. I had also decided to continue with the work on the album and not let my pregnancy slow down the recording.

But it's clear that I ate my five fruits a day and all that.

The song Välkommen in on the new album is about a house party. In the second verse Veronica sings: "Play daddy's disc from 69 /They are singing Cosa vuol dir sono una donna ormai, O mare nero nero slower pace o ne“. The quotation is from the Italian pop icon Lucio Battistis hit song La Canzone Del Sole one of those songs that Veronica used to listen to inher father's living room floor.

It's a while ago now. But Veronica Maggio's passion for music is just as strong now as it was way back then and she is still very fond of strings, which became very evident in the recording of her last album.

The first single of that album Jag commer ("I'm coming") stayed at the top of the chart for weeks and garnerd over 3 million hits in an audio (!) version on Youtube alone. But not only the single had been record-breaking: Two Weeks after last years release of her latest Longplayer Satan i gatan Veronica held the following positions in the Spotify "Top 100" chart of the most played songs in Sweden: 2, 6, 10, 11, 12, 17, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 41, 77, 95, 96, 99th parallel, while Satan i gatan had been the most widely shared album on Facebook in Sweden of all time. On the Spotify-list of the most played albums in 2011, Veronica hold three positions: 1, 6 and 26. According to Spotify Veronicas blockbuster success is historical: "No other Swedish artists (ABBA and Roxette included) has ever had so many individual songs on the Top 100 list or three albums so high in the Swedish charts at one time.”

VERONICA MAGGIO – Live in Uppsala

Foto: Reinhard Schnitzer

VERONICA MAGGIO - Live in Uppsala

It was a confident and delightfully sassy Veronica Maggio who finished her summer tour 2012 at Uppsala Concert and Congress Hall on August, 25th. I had been lucky enough to get a ticket and a press card and therefore I remained in the first row for the whole 4 hour long concert. And I thoroughly enjoyed it because Uppsala's sweetheart Veronica Maggio was in a great mood and delivered a very spicy homecoming concert. With no fewer than three interesting opening acts, she had a held hand audience in front of her and flirted back, throwing sweet glances while pushing back her long blonde bangs.

With a welcoming "Uppsala - dear lovely lovely hometown" she started singing her very first song Finns det en s책 finns det flera. And her flirting continued with her hit V채lkommen in, a song about about a home party at Rackarberget. Something Veronica's mother had not been so happy about.

Veronica's Uppsala-based 17 책r was of course one of the big crowd favorites. The song could easily be seen as a tribute to the city but Veronica presented it as "my total teenage anxiety".

Cheers and applause when she revealed that she has a new album in the making and she was going to present some samples. She actually felt a little nervous about the experiment. Her brand new song L책tsas Som Det Regnar (Pretend it rains) was actually something of an interlude. A characteristic repetitive phrase indeed, that led to a tense expectant mood, but without a rousing rhythm. Satan i gatan, however, did represent what personifies Veronica the artist at best, a fairy of revenge with a marylinesque image. Sweet as candy but dangerous.

A couple of years ago Veronica had been critized that she had too little song material and appeared

VERONICA MAGGIO – Live in Uppsala too cool on stage. These allegations would not been made today. Few artists offer so many hit songs from just three albums. And other than being cool, she was rather red hot on stage in Uppsala. In recent years, she has developed a playful singing, which of course comes with feeling safe on stage. Her fantastic voice can appear bright, vulnerable, wailing, but always with total presence. She managed to combine phenomenal party hits like Måndagsbarn with wrenching breakup songs like Snälla bli min. Emotional modes changed often, but that changes were welcomed and felt very natural. One of her older songs Dumpa mig appeared almost unrecognizable due to a newer arrangement, but still managed to qualify among her more recent top songs.

And then ...at last...Fans stretched their hands in the air as flashing lights announced the final encore, the climax of the evening : Jag commer.

This powerful performer needs no gimmick to be a total original: Veronica just 'is'. In a world of mumbling contrived music, her songs hit a place deep inside my soul that was just aching to be touched.

Half an hour after the concert she re-appeared - looking fresh and pretty like a young peach - for an autograph signing session. Amidst hundreds of fans she felt seemingly relaxed and at home while I waited with my Nikon on the "sideline" without much hope for getting a chance to shoot some useful photos.

But sometimes miracles happen: Veronica was kind enough to take part in a short private photo session after the last fans had left the hall. While we talked about her new songs I realized what seperates her from most other performers I met before: Veronica embodies what I like most about Sweden, she is friendly, of course, adorable and attractive. And I love her music. She is - without doubt - Swedens "bästar". Nothing more. Nothing less.

VERONICA MAGGIO

Veronica Maggio on Video Please click on the pictures to start the videos

Jag kommer [Live @ Allsång på Skansen]

Snälla Bli Min – with Benny Andersson [Live @ Moraeus med mera]

Välkommen in [Live @ Allsång på Skansen]

Mitt hjärta blöder [Live @ Nyhetsmorgon]

Veronica Maggio in the Web Click on the pics to enter the pages

Official Webpage

Official Facebook

International Fanpage on Facebook

VERONICA MAGGIO – Live in Uppsala

VERONICA MAGGIO

First impressions as my train pulled into Uppsala, located 70 kilometers and less than an hour north of Stockholm, were encouraging. The red-washed castle looms up behind the railway sidings, while the cathedral dominates the foreground. A sort of Swedish Oxford, Sweden's fourth largest municipality (195.000 residents) clings to the past through a succession of striking buildings connected with and scattered about its cathedral and 15th century university. Regarded as the historical and religious centre of the country, Uppsala serves as a tranquil daytime alternative to Stockholm – with an active student-oriented nightlife.

Uppsala's cultural life is characterised both by tradition and history as well as development and innovation. The musical tradition is strong in Uppsala; all kinds of music can be heard and there are over 200 different choirs. Theatre-lovers have much to explore with exciting scenes facing the audience from different angles. Therefore it's not utterly surprising that amongst it's notable natives one find Ingmar Bergman, Håkan Nesser and - of course - Veronica Maggio.

Other older and newer works of art can be viewed at the various museums as well as in public places throughout the city. Östra Ågatan received the architectural Siena Prize in 2005 for the walking path along the Fyris River. Uppsala's library offers books in many different languages along with free access to the Internet, databases, music and film. The library is also a meeting place for many people.

Milano 1969. A Swedish woman is having an espresso at a café in a Milanese piazza. She is wearing a shiny new bracelet around her wrist.

A man sitting at a table next to her catches her eyes and starts a conversation. They talk about the city and the circumstances that brought her to Italy.

The woman asks for his name. He is just about to answer when he suddenly sees the bracelet. “My name is ingraved in your bracelet”, he says with a smile.

Out of fashion “Amore" was born, then followed by marriage and children, and the story of their parents first meeting is the introduction to Rodolfo Maggios silver jewelry launched in Sweden by their children Christian and Veronica Maggio.

All of the jewellery is fully or partially taken from their fathers designs. Some of the jewellery has been influenced by impressions and experiences of Christian ‘s own life. His father often talked about the times he hitchhiked to Sweden to visit their mother.

During the trips the travellers exchanged things. It could be a small insignificant object, a piece of jewellery or an unusual stone.

The value of the object lay in the history of them. There was one story that Christian always loved to hear his father tell. It was about when Rodolfo Maggio, years after having given a gemstone to a fellow traveler, got back the same stone. He was in another country, with people he had never met before. When he opened his hand to see what he had been given, it was the same stone that he had once exchanged with someone else, years ago.

“My father's jewellery is still formed by the people who wear it.

The ingraved name is still the same as that day forty years ago when a silver bracelet gave the reason for my own story. Our jewellery is created during a time influenced by freedom. It is now up to others to give them a story. Through those I leave the stone to be passed on.” - Christian Maggio

MAGGIO ITALIAN JEWELRY -

Corso Garibaldi

Rodolfo Maggio was born in Milan in 1941. During the sixties and seventies he had a studio at Corso Garibaldi, where he worked side by side with the countries most prominent artists and designers. Over the years he became a well known jewellery designer and silversmith. He also worked as a sculptor and restored old churches with his brother, In 2006 he passed away and left a treasure of designs, shapes and sketches behind.

Maggio Italian Jewelry was founded in Milan in the late 60‘s.

The design legacy after Rodolfo Maggio is now managed by his son, Christian Maggio. The jewelry is handmade and designed so that the artist‘s creativity and sense of form is present in every detail.

MAGGIO ITALIAN JEWELRY

Veronicas design of a set, bracelet and ring: But it's nothing we've gone out

with or want to do any more of. She does it because it's fun and she has an interest in the craft. All along the way she has appeared occasionally and helped in both ,production and business. Unfortunately I can not help her to write music in return, because I'm not so talented. But we support each other in our respective roles. “The Italian Way�, laughs Christian.

MAGGIO ITALIAN JEWELRY -

MAGGIO ITALIAN JEWELRY

Veronica & Christian Maggio @ ELLE Galan 2010 on Facebook

in the Web

Benny Andersson (*December 16, 1946) is known and legendary famous around the world as a former member of the Swedish iconic musical group ABBA (1972–1983) and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia!. He is active with his own band Benny Anderssons Orkester (BAO!), and was executive producer for the film version of the musical Mamma Mia!.

After ABBA broke up in 1983, Andersson continued writing music with Ulvaeus. Their first project was the stage musical Chess, written with Tim Rice. The Chess concept album - with vocals by Elaine Paige, Barbara Dickson, Murray Head and Swedes Tommy Körberg and Björn Skifs - was re-leased in October 1984, selling two million copies worldwide. The Paige/Dickson duet I Know Him So Well became a major UK #1 hit, and Murray Head's One Night in Bangkok gave Andersson/Ulvaeus a US #3 hit.

In 1985, Andersson produced and released an album with brother and sister Anders and Karin Glenmark, featuring new songs by Andersson/Ulvaeus. The duo named themselves Gemini, and a second album with more music by Björn and Benny was released in April 1987, containing the big hit Mio My Mio; also to be found on the soundtrack to the film Mio in the Land of Faraway, for which Andersson co-produced the music. In 1987, Andersson released his first solo album Klinga Mina Klockor ("Chime, My Bells"). All the music was written by and performed by himself on accordion, backed by the Orsa Spelmän on fiddles. A second solo album followed: November 1989.

In 1990, Andersson scored a Swedish #1 hit with Lassie, sung by female cabaret group Ainbusk, for whom he also wrote the Svensktoppen hits Älska Mig and Drömmarnas Golv. He decided to produce an album with Josefin Nilsson from this quartet, resulting in the 1993 English-language album Shapes, featuring ten new Andersson/Ulvaeus compositions. From the late 1980s, Andersson had worked on an idea for an epic Swedish language musical based on his affection for traditional folk music, and in October 1995, Kristina från Duvemåla premiered in Sweden. It was based on The Emigrants novels by Swedish writer Vilhelm Moberg. The musical ran successfully for almost five years, before closing in June 1999. An English-language version, simply titled Kristina, was staged in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City for two nights in September 2009, yielding a live recording, and at the Royal Albert Hall for one night in April 2010.

Andersson's next project was Mamma Mia!, a musical built around 24 of ABBA's songs, which has become a worldwide box-office blockbuster with versions in several languages currently being played in many countries, including the UK (West End premiere in April 1999), Canada (Toronto premiere in 2000), the USA (Broadway premiere in 2001), and Sweden (Swedish language premiere in 2005). A film version of Mamma Mia! premiered on 18 July 2008. In April/May 2007, Benny worked on the film soundtrack, re-recording the old ABBA songs with musicians from the old ABBA recording sessions. Mamma Mia! The Movie has now become the most successful movie musical of all time and has been named the number one box office smash of 2008, and the biggest-selling DVD ever in the UK. Benny Andersson currently performs with his own band of 16 musicians, BAO; "Benny Anderssons Orkester"

Foto: Peter Knutson

Tommy Körberg (*July 4, 1948) won a Swedish Recording Industry Award Grammis in the category Best Debut Performance in 1969. English-speaking audiences know him best for his role in the Benny Andersson – Björn Ulvaeus – Tim Rice musical Chess. He was the first to play the role of "The Russian" on the 1984 concept album Chess, and performed the same role on stage in the 1986 world première West End production in London, for which he was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award in category Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Musical.

He represented Sweden in the 1969 and 1988 Eurovision Song Contests. In the 1990s and 2000s, he took time off from other projects in order to recreate the role in subsequent productions of Chess, including the 1994 tenth anniversary concert and the 2002 Stockholm production, for the latter winning national Swedish theater award Guldmasken in category Best Actor in a Musical. He has also appeared in the Swedish productions of other musicals, including The Sound of Music and Les Misérables. Tommy Körberg voiced the Beast in the Swedish dub of Beauty and the Beast, and also sang the Swedish version of the title song on the soundtrack.

He is also a frequent performer with Benny Andersson's band, Benny Anderssons Orkester (BAO), singing mostly dance music and music by Andersson. He recently launched a new solo CD Sjung Tills du Stupar (“Sing until you drop”). On November 26th, 2012 it was announced that Tommy Körberg will be competing in Melodifestivalen 2013 as a member of Black Sheep Boys, a new Superquartett (other members include Johan Rabaeus, Claes Malmberg and Mats Ronander). Tommy Körberg won Melodifestivalen 1969 as well as 1988 and in recent years he has been high on the event producer Christer Björkman's list of dream artists.

Tommy‘s Official Webpage

Meet Tommy on Facebook

Kalle Moraeus (*July 15, 1963) first instrument was a mandolin that his brothers gave him as a gift. They thought it was time that he should start playing an instrument when he was 4. If I remember correctly they cursed the day after a while. Mandolinen became my absolute prized possession and it was not long before his collection of instruments grew. Fiddle and guitar were two favorites and it remained that way.

His two brothers, Perra and Olle, had very strong influence on me, and made him aware of different kinds of music. It could be anything from Beethoven to Frank Zappa to Swedish folk music. His father Erik was also a great tradition bearer of Orsa music and leader of Orsa Spelmanslag. Later, he was also the leader of the Dalarna folk association. So Kalle was surrounded by folk music for free, you can say it was played extensively in the Moraeus home. After studying in Gothenburg Kalle has been employed at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and is member of Orsa spelmän and Benny Anderssons Orkester. Kalle's compositions has characteristics of both Foto: Lina Adamo pop, folk and classical music and is often characterized by the joy of sheer playing. In 2006 he was awarded with Povel Ramel's Karamelodiktstipendium and thus became the last winner who received the award out of Povel's hands, because Povel Ramel died in 2007. Kalle has appeared in numerous television programs, including Allsång på Skansen , Så ska det låta och Körslaget (2010). In Körslaget he won with Team Moraeus. Besides being musician Kalle also appeared in minor roles in a number of films and television series, and since the autumn of 2011 he has his own TV show Moraeus med mera. The show had a second season this year and offers entertainment with music and interviews by Swedish and international music elite, performed in a tent at Orsa Sea beach.

Kalle‘s Official Webpage

Moraeus med mera on Facebook

Helen Sjöholm (*July 10, 1970) started her career as a performer of musical theatre with small-scale concert presentations of Chess, in which she sang the role of Florence. She took part in a number of smaller productions in Enskede and at the Malmö Music Theatre in Malmö. Her big breakthrough occurred with performing the title role in Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus' Kristina från Duvemåla in 1995, which she played on and off for nearly four years (during the musical's entire run). In 1998 she played Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof, taking a break from Kristina.

In 2000, she returned to Malmö Music Theatre to portray the role of Fantine in Les Misérables, and in 2002 she returned as Florence in the reconceived Swedish production of Chess, opposite original London star Tommy Körberg as Anatoly.

Helen Sjöholm has also toured extensively throughout Sweden with Georg Wadenius and Martin Östergren and has released three albums, Visor (2002) (a collection of more or less wellknown Swedish folk songs in new arrangements by Östergren), Genom varje andetag (2003) featuring music and lyrics by jazz pianist Anders Widmark and her latest offering "Euforia" (2010) featuring her interpretations of Billy Joel compositions.

She first appeared on the big screen in 1999, appearing in Där regnbågen slutar by Richard Hobert. In 2004, she returned toto the movies, portraying the role of Gabriella in Kay Pollak's much-debated Så som i himmelen (As It Is in Heaven) and returned in 2010 as Simon's mother in "Simon and the Oaks".

She is also a frequent performer with her musical collegues from Benny Anderssons Orkester (BAO) singing lead vocals on their biggest hits among them Vår sistadans ("If this is Our Last Dance") and Du är min man ("You Are My Man"). Additionally, she has appeared in numerous gala concerts including Rhapsody in Rock.

Helen Sjöholm on Video

Gabriella's Song from the movie "As it is in Heaven” Helen‘s Official Webpage

Please click on the pictures to start the videos

Inte jag from Chess

Meet Helen on Facebook

Euforia @svt1 Billy Joel's "Summer, Highland Falls”

enny nderssons rkester The Benny Anderssons Orkester (BAO) with Benny Andersson as musical leader and composer was formed in mid 2001 by 16 people, some from the folk group Orsa Spelmän, and Helen Sjöholm and since 2004 Tommy Körberg as singers. All members of the band are occupied in external capacities during the majority of the year, some in the theater orchestras in Stockholm. The brothers Moraeus, Leif Göras and Nicke Göthe play together in Orsa Spelmän. During the summers the members of BAO meet up and rehearse, and then go out on minitours, to which tickets are highly sought after. The concept of these tours are “A concert with dance,” so dancefloors are brought along.

By the way: Their single Du är min man ("You are my man") broke the record for the number of weeks in the Svensktoppen charts and remained there for 143 weeks between 2004 and 2009. It had been number one for about 65 weeks !

BAO are: Benny Andersson - conductor, accordion, piano, Synclavier etc.

Göran Arnberg - keyboards, pump organ, spinet Janne Bengtson - flute, piccolo, curly horns, baritone sax Pär Grebacken - saxophones, clarinet, recorders, piccolo, flute Calle Jakobsson - tuba, valve trombone Leffe Lindvall - trumpet, cornet Jogga (Jan-Anders) Ernlund - kontrabass Lars Rudolfsson - accordion Jörgen Stenberg - drums sticcado Helen Sjöholm - vocals Tommy Körberg - vocals, guitar and - occasionaly – drummer Orsa spelmän: Leif Göras - violin, cello, mandolin Nicke Göthe - fiddle, mandolin Larsåke Leksell - accordion, synth Kalle Moraeus - violin, zither, guitar, banjo, etc.

Olle Moraeus - violin, viola, mandolin Per-Erik "Perra" Moraeus - fiddle, mandolin, circus saxophone

It was a unique evening in many ways, but for me a "once in a lifetime"- event. Benny Anderssons Orkester had lined up a for their only concert in 2012 on August, 25 at Vaksala torg, Uppsala. The show was part of the musical festivities set up over two days to commemorate the life and times of nyckelharpa (“key fiddle”) player Eric Sahlström. Sahlström contributed greatly to the renaissance of the nyckelharpa in modern times, devoting much of his life to the instrument before his death in 1986. He would have been 100 years old next year.

Throughout the day Sahlström had been celebrated magnificently in the Concert Hall but in the evening the festival moved outdoors, where the open-air stage was set for an historic BAO concert.

Even hours before BAO appeared on stage it was evident that something strange was going on. Middle-aged couples walked in clusters, hand in hand in the balmy August evening, heading towards the same goal. The seperated audience welled with music lovers of all kinds and the excitement increased rapidly.

There was a noisy festival atmosphere on the square that rarely seen in Uppsala. Some brought folding chairs and chose to listen comfortably from the sidelines. Others chose to stand on the crowded dance floor in front of the stage. But the youngest, most devoted fans,stood in the frontline and made it look like an "Allsång på Skansen" audience.

Benny Andersson opened the BAO show by talking about his last performance in Uppsala.

- The year was 1965. We called ourselves the Hep Stars, and we played in something called Café Palette. The crowd looked much like you are doing now, Benny Andersson suggested that the young pop band Hep Stars music was too loud for the contemporary gray-haired crowd.

BAO – Live in Uppsala Probably they had liked BAO's nostalgia-laden folk and dance music better in 1965. Apart from that neither Benny nor any of his orchestras and bands have visited Uppsala in 47 years and that fact contributed a feeling of exclusivity, an "event of this kind will probably never return to Vaksala Square again" - flair.

Evening's golden sunlight created the right atmosphere for a unique show, which initially consisted mainly of a mixture of folk, waltzes and polkas. With each song the temperatures rose on stage too and Helen Sjöholm got so excited that she spilled mineral water all over her dress.

The concert was relaxed, familiar and unpretentious but also filled with exuberant playing skills and the sheer joy of performing together. Despite the huge size of the event it became clear that after eleven years performing together on stage BAO is still a sort of hobby project based on pure joy.

Despite overcrowding, a lack of good visibility for some parts of the audience and a crowded dance floor, it was impossible to overlook the delight and joy of the audience.

Many fans seemed to send a thought of gratitude to Benny Andersson and his band mates forsharing this unique musical experience with them. But actually this wonderful evening was due to a shy instrument makers from Tobo. Benny Andersson is a board member Eric Sahlström Memorial Fund, and without the humble nation fiddler from Norduppland this festival would have never happened.

Thanks Eric Sahlström.

On the other hand the eclectic mix of musical genres, the wonderful voices of Helen Sjöholm, Tommy Körberg and Kalle Moraeus combined with the band’s seemingly inexhaustible energy and enthusiasm is, not only for me, the ultimate live experience. And therefore it was an evening I will never forget.

Thanks Benny Andersson and BAO. Thank You For The Music.

BENNY ANDERSSONS ORKESTER Bonde söker fru

För dig

Hawaiian War Chant

Gamle Svarten

Fait accompli

Jag hör...

Beatrice

En Dag i Sänder

O klang och jubeltid

Thank You For The Music

Sommaren Du Fick

Kärlekens Tid

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Meet Benny Anderssons Orkester on their homepage

Meet Benny Anderssons Orkester on Mono Music Publishing & Record Company

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Fotograf: Nicho Sรถdling

Summer

Tour 2013

Fotograf: Anna LedinŠ

PETRA MARKLUND Under the stagename September she has conquered the world charts over a decade and in the TV series "Så mycket bättre" she struck her big breakthrough even in Sweden a couple of years ago.

Petra Marklund (*September 12, 1984) started recording in professional studios around the young age of twelve, and when she was in a rock band, she received a record deal. She first came to the music scene with her debut single La La La (Never Give It Up) in mid 2003, which was released from her first sophomore studio album September (2004). In 2004, she released her single Satellites, which became her biggest hit back then, and received many accolades for the single.

Then September released her single Cry for You, which came from her second studio album In Orbit (2005), which featured Satellites too. The song became a huge hit worldwide, charting in countries including Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and the United States. The song remains her biggest single to date. She then released her studio album Dancing Shoes (2007), which also feature big hits including Can't Get Over. The album subsequently won a Grammis for Best Dance Album.

Her first ever Swedish recording was the single Mikrofonkåt which became a huge success in her native Sweden, peaking at one and was certified 8x Platinum in that country. The song was also nominated for a Swedish Grammis award for Song of the Year. With many studio albums recorded, her fourth studio album, Love CPR, is her most successful album, entering straight at number one on the Swedish Albums Chart, being certified 2X Platinum and stayed in the charts for forty-one weeks.

“ I love September but have always had a feeling that one day I would do something more….”

On October 17, 2012 Petra Marklund has released her first longplayer Inferno in Swedish language. is written together with others Jocke Berg from Kent and the expression is more personal than before. Both her album Inferno and the lead single Händerna Mot Himlen reached number 1 in Sweden.

September is still there but the disco diva must accept to be in the other room for a while. Now it is time for Petra Marklund and her songs in Swedish while there are already new songs for another full album in the pipeline.

“Previously, I had high goals and dreams of giant shows but now I have reached a point where it is no longer important to me. I really feel that I landed on this disc. ….”

Petra Marklund is set to go on tour with her five-piece band that will premiere on February 6, 2013. We are confident that she will offer some of the finest pop on that occasion. Therefore we will follow Petra and her band: We are looking forward to their performances in Malmö and Helsingborg on February 22 and 23.

Please click on the pictures to start the videos

Laleh Pourkarim was born on June 10, 1982 in Bandar-e Anzali in Iran and escaped from the country with her parents when she was a baby. Her father, Houshang Pourkarim, was a known socially engaged author, artist and publicist. Via Azerbaijan, Minsk and Tidaholm they ended up in Hammarkullen in northeastern Gothenburg where she studied music at the Hvitfeldtska gymnasiet. Pourkarim grew up with classical music, ballet and circus music.

As a teen she became influenced by The Police, which she thought had the right mix of punk, reggae and jazz. Her Swedish tunes are often playful, dreamingly romantic songs, and she freely admits his great admiration for Cornelis Vreeswijk (a singer-songwriter, poet and actor from the Netherlands who died in 1987): "I often joke that Cornelius is my dad., It's crazy that you can have so much feelings for someone who does not live anymore".

She began her career in Josef Fares movie Jalla! Jalla!. On February 5, 2005, her first single Invisible (My Song) was released by the record company Warner Music Sweden. The single Live Tomorrow became a huge hit, and was at Tracks-list first place for several weeks.

Laleh was nominated for a Grammy in four categories in 2005 and took the prize home in three: the year's Swedish female artist (and thus winning over Robyn, Lena Phillips, Amy and Anna Ternheim), Newcomer and producer of the Year . She was awarded the same year in two categories at the P3 Guld on Swedish Radio P3. P3 listeners voted her as the Year Female Artist and Best Newcomer.

In 2006 Laleh released out their second album Prinsessor. A year later she made the song Snö a Swedish blockbuster. In early 2009 she released her third album Me and Simon.

In 2011 she starred in season two of Så mycket bättre on TV4, where she talked about her tough childhood on the run and about her father, who drowned in 1994 when he was on his way to rescue a distressed woman (more then ten thousand people who came to his funeral of gratitude for his life's commitment) as well as her many years as an animal lover and a vegetarian. She also talked about how she moved up to Västerbotten a few years ago to gain peace and explore a new environment after her early musical successes and where her song Bjurö klubb had been recorded.. She now lives in Tullinge outside Stockholm.

In 2012, she released her last album Sjung, which reached No. 1 on the Top Sweden and she was out on the road for a successful tour in the spring of this year.

It is rare to see an artist with such a sparkling presence as Laleh's. With the first chord, the first note she is able to melt the ice and bring the house down and has the audience, completely in her hands. One moment she takes her fans into a fairy tale world and invites them to fantasy-filled musical excursions, the next, with just a look, a short stop, she can freeze the whole event and is able to share some tragedy influenced compositions.

She's got it all. Like when she performes Eva Dahlgren's Ängeln i rummet, the entire hall vibrates, jumps, boils, and then, in the next moment, Laleh takes us all down in a stripped "Hide away" like mood, with only her voice and her keyboard.

Everyone in the audience is touched by the silence of the atmosphere, as if you are on a secret visit, and you experience a jaw-dropping impressive moment. That voice, that mesmerizing voice that is able to sound so thin, so sensitive fragile that it feels as if it should fail to make any sound and then - all of a sudden - Laleh sings with such a force in the song that you start wondering whether the walls of the hall are stable enough.

Videos Click the balloons to start the videos ….

Call On Me Live tomorrow

Ängeln I Rummet

@ Allsång på Skansen

Big City Love

Some Die Young

@ Allsång på Skansen

Vårens Första Dag @ Allsång på Skansen

Rough. Raw. Real. This is the world of Arne Dahl, whose crime novels are now transposed to the screen in adaptations that follow the high-concept prime-time drama tradition of all bestselling Scandinavian thrillers. The enormous popularity of Dahl’s novels has long since spilled over the borders of Scandinavia. As powerful miniseries, these thrillers are now coming to international TV screens.

Shocked by a series of assassinations within Stockholm’s high society, the Swedish police set up an elite force madeup of officers from different backgrounds recruited from all over Sweden. The A-group is born. The crimes they must solve are brutal, sometimes horrifying, but always sophisticated, with complex riddles and cunning perpetrators from all levels of society.

The unit hunts the most dangerous killers and tries to uncover their inner motives and hidden objectives. It’s a race against time that they sometimes win.

The plots alternate between the grueling demands of police work and the cops’ often no less difficult personal lives.The dangerous world of crime demands unwavering trust between the team members. Teamwork takes on a new meaning, and humor becomes a tool for survival when this group of individuals is forced to fight crime. They face the most existential fear of death, and expose their inner truths to each other. This can lead to friction, but also to friendship – and, in the case of Inspector Paul Hjelm and his attractive colleague Kerstin – to more...

The cases awaiting the A-group require specialized input from everyone in the unit. Imagination complements experience, brawn has to be on a level with brains. In one case, Swedish financiers are being executed in mysterious gangland-style slayings, and the only lead is a jazz piece called “Misterioso.” In another, a serial killer heads from New York to Stockholm, where he begins a killing spree with torture methods last used in Vietnam... In a third case, the A-group braces itself for gang warfare when a violent murder is traced to a restaurant owner.

Danny Saucedo (* February 25, 1986) often presented just as Danny, competed as one of the finalists in Idol 2006 - the Swedish version of Idol where he got to the top 6 before being eliminated.

Danny has released three music albums and eleven music singles as a solo artist. His debut album Heart Beats and the three singles "Tokyo", "Play It for the Girls" and "Radio" topped the Swedish charts. He is also simultaneously a member of Swedish pop trio E.M.D. with Erik Segerstedt and Mattias AndrĂŠasson. The trio has released three albums and eight singles (of which one album and four singles topped Swedish charts). The band won a Grammis for Song of The Year 2008 with "Jennie Let Me Love You".

He has competed in Melodifestivalen three times, everytime as both artist and songwriter. In 2009 E.M.D. finished third with "Baby Goodbye", and as a solo artist he finished second in 2011 with "In the Club", and in 2012 second once again, this time with "Amazing". As a songwriter, he has composed songs for Alcazar and Pulse. Danny is an established artist in Sweden, has been praised by his Swedish colleagues and is described as humble and dedicated to his fans.

Together with Gina Dirawi he will host next years Melodifestivalen in Sweden. Even if Danny Saucedo is one of Swedens most talented pop interprets he admits: "I have always felt uncomfortable talking in front of people".

We don't know if that's a good qualification but we are sure that he will do a good job hosting Sweden's most viewed TV Shows in which Sweden's 53nd song will be selected to internationally represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in MalmĂś. Danny Sauce is talented, charming and he is a perfectionist. What more can one ask for ?

Please click on the pictures to start the videos

In The Club @ Moraues med mera

Tonight @ Sommarkrysset

Cassandra @ V채rldens Barn

Mr. & Mrs. Melodifestivalen 2013: Next years hosts DANNY SAUCEDO and GINA DIRAWI Please click the pictures to enter the pages

A different path About eleven years have gone by since Lisa Miskovsky had her breakthrough. In the first year after of her musical career, Driving one of your cars (from her first album in 2001) brought her many awards and honors.

She received two Swedish Rock Bear awards (“Rockbjörnen”); one for Best Swedish Newcomer and the other for Best Swedish Female Artist of the Year.

The second album Falling Water (Released in 2003, produced by Joakim Berg of Kent) made her the female artist of the year's Grammy Awards 2004th. She had been on top in Svensktoppens with both Lady Stardust and Sing To Me, was certified gold, platinum and received P 3-gold.

In 2006 she received the Norrland League Award Olof Högberg plaque for having made a "popular musical cultural achievement, high impact".

“

It was a strange feeling to stand in the middle of all that. It was of course great to get that attention, but as a person I'm not affected by it. I pull myself rather back. I had not even fun at that Grammy Awards, it was a mediocre night. I might as well have to go home to play video games.

Fact is that Lisa Miskovsky Maria Sommer (her full name) had a solid artistic and musical foundation long before she became known in wider circles. She was about just 11 years old when she first attracted attention at home for her self-composed songs, and she was in high school when she made her television debut in "Cafe Umeå" with the rock band Lipstick, in addition to Lisa consisted of three other girls. Before that, she, with her mature and perhaps congenital ear, chose the long way through the recorder, flute, guitar, and many, many hours at the piano.

When did it start? Lisa doesn’t remember. Music has always been there. Father Karel Miskovsky, trained at the Conservatoire in Prague, moved to Helsinki as a double bass player almost 40 years ago. During the tour in Finland, he met Pirjo. This resulted in a joint move to Vännfors outside Umeå - and three daughters Nina, Lisa and Carolina. Their house was seething with music. Mom listened to Stevie Wonder, Supertramp and ELO. Dad played more jazz but was also an omnivore. But the tough rules in showbiz became a sadly point for his imaginary musical career and he moved on to a completely different mission. He eventually became a professor of geology and started his own business as his wife "mom" Pirjo had become CEO. On the grounds outside the house, he had build a tennis court and when Lisa was not sitting at the piano so you had a great chance to find her there, often playing against her dad.

“

He had it tough, a lonely man with four women in a house. In addition, we had a male and a female cat. So it was girl mob against him….

We see up close that it is difficult to reconcile life when you're a musician and you've got two small children. It feels good that we can be part of both support and relieve a bit, says Pirjo as she is playing with a grandmother's loving care with her grandchildren Elvira, 4, and Elsa, just the second.

In retrospect, one might wonder how Lisa did so well despite her upbringing. She trained hard. Played soccer and tennis. Loved to ski. Practiced on her instruments. Took the bike home to one more year older guy who played drums and gave her mixtape with the passage of heavy metal giants Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe, Saxon and Van Halen.

In many ways, she was an odd existence, on the one hand social, but still a loner. Perhaps it had something to do wither her focus, that she went in for doing all things one hundred percent. Lisa felt like a tomboy, she was

LISA MISKOVSKY – A different path

Foto: Beatrice Lundborg

happiest when she got to hang out with the boys. When she was ten, she got her first electric guitar. The amplifier sounded so bad that she had to sit in the laundry room and play. And she had to struggle hard in school.

“

I was too weird for the normal world, it was as if they knew they had me. I ended up outside, partially by choice. But it was hard to understand. For even though I was the one who sat alone in the dining room, I was the one who threw erasers at people, so I voted to this year's queen in the 9-ball. It was extremely embarrassing ...

Then there was this thing with dyslexia .... The letters would never quite get it right. Lisa could not spell, had difficulty reading. She wa afraid having to read aloud to the class.

“

I developed my own strategy. Read every other line, filled it with imagination and intuition help in what was in between. And I managed it reasonabl but it was difficult for me,and I felt stupid.

“

Just to talk to someone who shares the experience was great ….

When Lisa performed in SVT's "Moraeus med mera" last fall she learned that Kalle Moraeus himself had struggled with the same problems.

Today dyslexia no immediate problem, it just is. Lisa has learned to think in pictures for memorizing things and acquired tools to handle situations that may arise. It may still be wrong, but she can almost always laugh at what gets weird.

LISA MISKOVSKY Lisa was 16 when she left home to attend a music program in high school in Skellefteå. She listened to death metal and ate corn, pineapple rings and crisp. In her little lair she cultivated her independence, her interest in roleplaying and in a "Lord of the ring" magical world. Step to start playing video games was not far, but not the road to the ski slopes Vitberget in Skellefteå.

When the lifts had closed, it was Lisa who came up with her first snowboard under her arm. She could not get enough - and she also began to formulate for herself what it was that made her special:

“

I have always been difficult to control, difficult to adapt to. It was like my surroundings had a hard time to accept that I had so many different inte-rests. I felt a little uncomfortable with my appearance, I saw so kind and sweet, but I did not feel like that. And people did not know in which drawer they could place me.

So Lisa had to continue living in what traditionally was the boys' world. It was easier, somewhere maybe it was that they had less need to question her broad talents and needs. The music, the fascination for both computer gaming and sport - all continued to go hand in hand, but she really did sacrifice something.

“

There were times when I missed having female friends, there was nothing I could myself opted out to.

In retrospect, I realize strictly speaking very early that I was perceived as a threat, especially from girls. I knew who strucked penalty in the World Cup 1994, I had an eye on the top division in hockey and I liked shooting games and poker. For me it was nothing special about it, it was just me, but for many others it was weird.

Lisa entered the Musicschool after high school and thought to be the first music teacher. She was extremely purposeful, chose mostly out partying, kept a little on the edge. After a year, a completely different part took control of her. She needed to settle free. She felt that her time was too tightly scheduled, she might have been a bit too much of a good girl in the middle of it all. Paradoxically, she decided to try to become the best in the world of snowboarding …

“

Well it was some type of resolve. I was certainly never afraid, I just drove. I was looking for something well like - perhaps the meaning of life?

“

It was more that I loved things that completely engulfed me, but also a sense of mastery and control over something so good that I could forget my surroundings.

Lisa is looking thoughtfully into the mirror in the hotel room. Thinking back on those years in the late 90's when there was a period when she broke with her parents to pursue her snowboarding career, she tries to understand herself. No, she was not an adrenaline seeker, it was not what made her travel around the world, boarding monstrously high jumps and just run. She lived on a weekly basis in her car in Riksgränsen, she slept on her snowboard bag in the ski room - uncomfortable but free.

At home in Umeå Karel and Pirjo were concerned about their daughter. They disliked her commitment to snowboarding because they feared that her daughter would get hurt and jeopardize her musical career.

It led to the infected conflict that made them having no contact for more than a year. Lisa even lied to them ,

LISA MISKOVSKY – A different path

Said she was in Stockholm and wrote songs, but in fact she trained snowboarding teams in the same resorts.

“

It was a necessary break. You have to get into complicated relationships and realize that you do not always meet. It was probably harder for them than for me. The important thing is that we now have a fantastic close contact. We talk to each other every day, they are my best life coaches.

In connection with something like a beauty contest Lisa began appearing in the media. In 1999, she ended up at number 24 when Expressen invited their readers to vote for the year's babe. But this was not quite what the snowboard riding, surfing, skatin and playing hockey musician Lisa from Vännfors had in mind. For Lisa did not really want to be seen in public. She was, and is, still, right uncomfortable with being in the spotlight. She was also a thankful icon to portray and exploit, the sandy haired extreme sports spirit beauty.

“

I lived always with a sense of risk that I would not be taken seriously because of my appearance and my interests. Maybe the reason is, that I've been several times been disappointed by beautiful people.

She gave up the idea of becoming the world leader in snowboarding, realized that she did not even liked to race. Just a few years later, she wrote the song Shape of my heart with Max Martin and Rami Yacob. The Backstreet Boys wanted it and their hit song was heard soon worldwide.

The money Lisa earned out of it it was a good base. She and Norwegian snowboard pro Marius Sommer (who she had met two years earlier) could buy a house by the sea outside Umeå where Lisa had built her own studio.

So she ended up in the already mentioned rain of awards. Everything dealt around releases and tours at home and abroad, she could feel that she was sometimes too nice, sometimes too engaged and exposed. Both she and Marius, whom she married on a mountain top in 2003, lived a life out of their suitcase, despite the common house. There were few "together"periods and in 2006, they submitted an application for divorce.

LISA MISKOVSKY It became hot gossip stuff and Lisa became more and more aware of the difficulties of being a "well known" person. They never spoke out about their crisis in papers and kept their secrets to themselves while Lisa released her third album Changes - as she called it the saddest she had done.

“

It is clear that my songs are about how it is to be human, but that does not mean it's all about me and my feelings. True, I have channeled a lot of what I felt through the music, but I want to leave interpretations open to the listener.

And it's clear that I have some sidesthat I decided to never show outward at all. My identity is not based on my career, but I am. So I want to continue to have it.

Lisa and Marius found back to each other, let each other's differences become assets rather than obstacles.

Marius calm vs. Lisa sometimes unscrewing energy, it fell into place. Marius started studying sport psychology, (now a PhD student) and Lisa world continued on various musical projects that succeed one another. She wrote songs for herself and others, and had an outbearst of her hardcore craze when she did Dead End with the Gothenburg band In Flames. 2007 opened a completely different place in Lisa's life when her daughter Elvira was born.

“

It was an insane change in my life. First it was fantastically hard, I had a hard time understanding how I could even survive the first colic period. I was confused and unsure, terrified of making mistakes. Everyone was talking about it is so cozy with children, for me, it was only just about to get her to stop crying.

But that changed. When Elsa arrived in 2010 Lisa was better prepared, albeit equally emotionally dazed.

LISA MISKOVSKY – A different path

“

Foto: Mikael Johansson

Children are so powerful, so honest. It is amazing to see how much they actually perceive and want to convey to us. I find it hard to be away from them and want to know what they like and dislike, what they need, in every moment. They grow up so fast, they change so rapidly.

During the pregnancies Lisa put her own need for snowboarding and surfing in the background, but she continued to compose. She got such a chance to write music for the Swedish-produced computer game ”Mirror’s egde", which led her to the red carpet in Hollywood.

“

That was bizarre. Thousands of people stood and shouted "Swedish Vikings" when I arrived. In front of me was Ozzy Osbourne and behind me Marilyn Manson. And when we got to put Gary Oldman there ... Then I got a little soft in the knees, he's the size of anything.

Lisa smile, as she often does. She feels unpretentious and hearty. As for the "Finno-Västerbotten" melancholy that she claims to carry around there's not so much visible on the outside. For nearly ten years, however, she struggled with insomnia. She has gone through many dark hours at night, some difficult times that sucked the life out of her, but also given her insight that the soul must have it's rest. She is still practicing hockey four times a week, with Björklöven. Without it, she would not stand out, her intense need to get moving has become her only drug. But the picture that she lives a "perfect" life, or at least glorified by others, often feels glued upon her.

“

We all have our things that we struggle with. I can be very sensitive to viciousness and criticism. In periods I am also very tired of adjectives as "homegrown" and "brisk", but I love the writing.

Although her latest album Violent Sky (released in January 2010, on which she almost played all the instruments herself) delivered no catchy radio hit, she is happy with the outcome. However, 2011 was a very busy year with " Körslaget“ in TV 4, two tours, " Pluras kök" on TV3, " Midsommar med Tina Ahlin“, "Moraeus med mera" and her appearance on "Sports Awards" on SVT. And in April 2012 she released her last single so far Why Start a Fire, the song that she had performed at the Melodifestivalen 2012.

LISA MISKOVSKY Please click on the pictures to start the videos

click the pics to enter the pages

LISA MISKOVSKY – A different path

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MALE SWEDISH SINGER OF ALL TIMES

TOMAS LEDIN - SHOWTIME

Tomas Ledin (* 25 February 1952, in Rätan, Sweden) has something in common with fellow European artists like Johnny Hallyday (France), Herbert Groenemeyer (Germany) and Eros Ramazotti (Italy) : Each one of them is a cultural symbol, a folk hero for their respective country.

Just to give you a clue: • His curreent dinner show “SHOWTIME” , that has received a fantastic response from both press and audience, had over 100,000 visitors at Rondo in Gothenburg alone.

• As one of the country's most hitmakers Tomas Ledin has released over 30 albums.

• For nearly four decades, he has sold 2.7 million records and had 7 chart-topping singles in Sweden.

• He toured worldwide with ABBA and won the Melodifestivalen.

But he has a different and perhaps a little unfairly forgotten side too. Along with Mika, he arranged the ANC gala (African National Congress) and was invited to Nelson Mandela's presidential inauguration in South Africa.

Tomas Ledin has also long been active in the organization "Artists against the Nazis".

But it is not for his policies but for music that Tomas Ledin become a folk hero. What is it that makes him so popular? Maybe the answer lies in the many milestones that mark his career. After growing up in the town of Sandviken Tomas Ledin started his career in 1972 when his first single, Då ska jag spela , was a big hit. Other successful songs followed: Blå, blå känslor (1973), (covered by Björn Skifs), Knivhuggarrock (1975), Festen har börjat (1976), and I natt är jag din (1977). At the beginning of the 70s, Ledin was influenced by hippie fashion and demonstrated against the Vietnam war. He also took part in a Swedish stage production of the musical Godspell in 1975 and performed in 140 concerts in the Swedish folkparks in 1977.

In 1979, ABBA member Benny Andersson offered him a chance to record for the group's company Polar Music.

The singer joined ABBA on their 1979-1980 tour as a backing vocalist, but also got the opportunity to sing his

TOMAS LEDIN own composition "Not Bad at All" during the show. Tomas Ledin also appeared on the ABBA Live DVD and on the Super Trouper Video.

He won the Swedish Melodifestivalen in 1980 and represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest that year with Just nu!. The song was a big hit in Scandinavia, but also in Greece and Portugal since Ledin recorded an English version, Right Now!.

In 1982, he released the duet Never Again with Agnetha Fältskog of ABBA fame; the song reached number one in Chile (in its Spanish version Ya nunca más) and was popular across Europe. Ledin also composed Take Good Care of Your Children, which Fältskog released in 1983 on her album Wrap Your Arms Around Me. Another composition by the singer, I Got Something, was released by Anni-Frid Lyngstad of ABBA on her album Something's Going On. In the 80s, Ledin was very successful in Scandinavia but his career abroad failed to reach the same level. He nevertheless toured Germany and the Netherlands on a small scale in 1982, and the following year, he played in front of 60,000 people at the Olympic stadium in Berlin, in a show with other international acts. He decided to put an end to his career in 1984 and started to act as a producer for Record Station, his wife's record company. He discovered other singers and successfully produced artists such as Pugh Rogefeldt and Magnus Uggla. In 1985, he organized a concert for ANC featuring several Swedish artists.

Three years later, Tomas Ledin started to compose again and wrote songs in English. The album Down on the Pleasure Avenue was released but was not successful. He was very disappointed but started to compose again, but this time in Swedish. He started to enjoy success again in 1990 when he released a compilation and a new album, Tillfälligheternas spel, and he has continued being one of the best selling artists in Sweden since then.

In 2000, 260,000 copies of his compilation album Festen har börjat (samlingsalbum) were sold in Sweden, which meant he was awarded three platinum records there. The same year he was also awarded a gold record in Finland for the first time. In 2002, he went on the biggest tour ever planned in Scandinavia and performed in 27 shows in Sweden and 8 shows in the rest of Scandinavia. More than 250,000 people saw this show in Northern Europe.

In 2012 Tomas Ledin released the top selling double CD 40/40 filled with his top tunes. His current record breaking tour proves that he is the male artist of the year and therefore it wouldn’t be a big surprise if he will win the Grammis for "this year's pop / male“.

TOMAS LEDIN - SHOWTIME Videos Please click on the pictures to start the videos

Foto: Mattias Johansson

I must admit that I have something in common with Jill Johnson: No, I never sang with Lionel Ritchie, I've never performed a winning Melodifestivalen song and I'm not as attractive as this sympathetic singer .... but we both love the same kind of music style, we dig the Eagles and Jackson Browne, and I've been in her hometown Ängelholm many times. It's a small town where she was born on May 24, 1973, in the south western part of Sweden, but the surroundings and the media compare Jill Johnson with the biggest stars in the music business. By the age of four, she had decided that she wanted to become an artist, an aspiration towards which she was highly encouraged by her local choir leader. As a 12-year old, she started off as vocalist in a Country & Western band, Tomboola Band, touring in Norway and Denmark. She signed eventually with EMI-Medley in Denmark and recorded an album, produced by top producer Paul Bruun. The title-track, Sugar Tree, became a hit in Denmark. In 1996, she had her first Swedish hit with Kommer tid, kommer vår, a duet with Jan Johansen. She now lives in a hunting lodge in the Western Gothlandic woods of Sweden, but also has a home in Stockholm.

In 1998, she performed Kärleken är at Melodifestivalen, winning the Swedish finals and going on to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest. This established Johnson as one of the prime Swedish artists. The success was followed by the hit album När hela världen ser på and a successful tour.

In mid 1999, Johnson went to L.A. to look for material for her second album. At home, she worked with Andreas Carlsson (ASCAP Writer of the Year 2000), who is known for several massive hits, the biggest, so far, being Celine Dion's That's the Way It Is. She also tried out a few local new-comers and the album Daughter of Eve was released in early 2000. It was very well received and Johnson was compared with some of the world's

JILL JOHNSON best artists. In 2000, she received a platinum-record in Denmark for the sound-track Promise To Love from the Danish block-buster, "Eneste Ene". Later that year, Johnson started to collaborate with other songwriters such as Jenny Orenstein, Charlie Stefl, Mary Green [Biem Writer of the Year 2001]. This resulted in her receiving a Publishing contract in Nashville Tennessee. Consequently, in 2002 Johnson's album entitled Good Girl came to be with the help of producer Scott Bagget and some of Nashville’s top musicians. This album secured Johnson's artistic sound and style and once again she was extremely well received by the press in their reviews where she was described as an artist of International calibre.

In the Swedish finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 she qualified at fourth place (out of 32 entries) but and her song Crazy in Love became a hit and received a great deal of radio play and was followed by a successful tour.

Johnson's collective Discography CD was released in late March 2003. It contains the 20 most popular songs since her debut in 1995. This CD went straight into the sales charts for best selling CDs in Sweden. The single Crazy in Love stayed at No 1 in the Swedish Top Charts (Svensktoppen) 12 weeks consecutively and No 2 for 15 weeks. Discography sold Gold in Sweden and Johnson also got a Grammy for this album.

The next album Roots and Wings was released in November 2003, recorded and produced by Amir Aly in Sweden and by Scott Baggett in Nashville, USA. Roots and Wings sold gold in less than two weeks and platinum a few months later. The album Being who you are was released in Sweden in late March 2005 and sold gold in only a few weeks. Johnson was the host of the 2005 Swedish finals of the Eurovison Song Contest in Stockholm.

Her new album A Woman Can Change Her Mind entered the Swedish album charts at 3 on November 16, 2012.

JILL JOHNSON Please click on the pictures to start the videos

click the pics to enter the pages

Molly Sandén, born July 3, 1992 in Stockholm, grew up in Huddersfield and has been at the elementary school Adolf Fredrik's Music Classes in Stockholm and then high school "Rytmus" until spring 2011. She won the Swedish selection for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the ballad Det finaste någon kan få ("The finest one can get"). In the final, in Bucharest, Romania December 2, 2006 the song came in third with 116 points, which was the best result for Sweden until then. She appeared in BBC1 December 31, 2006 in New Year's program from Skansen. Molly Sandén won the Talent Competition Shooting Stars. She also sang a duet with Magnus Carlsson in the song Julens tid är här ("Christmas Time is Here") on his Christmas album Spår i snön (2006). She also sang with the Markoolios album Snö vid julens rock.In the summer of 2007 she partici-pated in the Diggiloo tour with Lasse Holm, Linda Ronstadt, Lotta Engberg, Lasse Berghagen, Charlotte Perrelli, Thomas Pettersson and many other artists. Sanden has also sung with Ola Svensson Du är musiken i mig ("You are the Music in Me"), which is included in the Disney film "High School Musical 2". They also performed the song in the Swedish selection for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007.

In the summer of 2008 she was a member of the Diggiloo tour again and was a featured singer on a compilation CD containing the songs Hallelujah and her version of Gabriellas sång.

After numerous tours and TV apperances performed in the following years she performed at the Melodifestivalen 2012 with the song Why am I Crying, written by herself along with Aleena Gibson and Windy Wagner.

She took part in the third round of the Tegera Arena in Leksand on 18 February. The song made it straight to the final and ended up with a fifth place. Molly Sandén also performed at the Melodifestivalen 2012 with the song "Why am I Crying", written by herself along with Aleena Gibson, Windy Wagner. She took part in the third round of the Tegera Arena in Leksand on 18 February. The song made it straight to the final and ended up with a fifth place. Shortly after the Melodifestivalen final could see Danny Saucedo and Molly Sanden in a team in That's my, where they met Pauline Kamusewu and Stephen Simmonds.

On May 23th, 2012 Molly Sandén released her second album Unchained. The album includes the songs Why am I Crying, Spread a Little Light and A Little Forgiveness with Christopher Nissen. This summer she went on the road with her so called "Unchained Tour" sponsored by Reliable Productions, EMI Music Sweden and the United Stage. As part of the tour Molly Sandén performed at "Allsång på Skansen" and at the RIX FM Festival in Falun, Gothenburg, Helsingborg, Linköping and Sundsvall. With her new album she intends to move to a new, tougher style, which she feels more at home with, and she has also intensified efforts to further develop the show and the dancing elements of her performances.

MOLLY SANDÉN Please click on the pictures to start the videos

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After all his success with Cara Mia in Melodifestivalen, big hit single Brother, Oh Brother (2007's biggest radio hit), the victorious dance steps in Let's Dance, celebrated stage success on musical stages around the country, special performances in the critically acclaimed show, Ladies Night, Agnes duet All I Want For Christmas, a nomination that year's male artist of the Grammy Awards and the Rockbjörnen award as Newcomer of the Year, as host of the Melodifestivalen 2010, Romeo in the musical Romeo & Juliet, and not at least as a host for the Allsång på Skansen shows in 2011 and 2012, Måns Zelmerlöw managed to establish himself as one of Sweden's most popular artists an entertainers in a very short time.

Due in parts to the support of his parents music has always been an important part of Måns Zelmerlöw's (* June 13, 1986) life. After primary school, he attended a three-year music school in Lund.

In competition with nearly two thousand applicants he managed to get signed for a big role in a production of Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat was played 128 performances in Malmö. A few years later he played the lead role in Little Shop Of Horrors in Lund.

In Spring 2005 Måns was one of the participants in "Idol", where he came in fifth place after he performed among other songs - Robbie Williams' Millenium in front of the Swedish TV audience.

After long hesitation and persistent persuasion, he became one of the contestants in the first "Let's Dance" (TV4) season - and won! Now suddenly two million TV viewers and basically the entire Swedish population knew who he was.

“

I have worked extremely hard over the past few years. But I am passionate about this.

The main role of Danny in the musical Grease (which after 99 sold-out performances at home in Malmö evolved into a larger tour adventures around the country) lifted Måns to the next level. But the real breakthrough and career boost came, however, in Melodifestivalen 2007, where Måns made the final with

MÅNS ZELMERLÖW

the thunderous pop hit Cara Mia and managed to place third place. After finishing an arena tour with Grease Måns toured thoughout the summer of 2007 as a solo artist and made a total of 65 appearances. In the autumn he became a part of the critically acclaimed hit show Ladies Night with Kjell Bergqvist, Mikael Tornving and Martin Stenmarck. He also made the very successful premiere in the role as host on SVT's Lilla Melodifestivalen.

“

For many the concept of "popular" and being "very popular" means anything negative. But not for me!

The winter/spring of 2007-08 Måns Zelmerlöw enteredthe musical stage again with Footloose, at first in Gothenburg and then continued in Stockholm. his summer he went out onto the walls as one of the stars in the Diggiloo-tour for 22 performances. He was nominated for the the Grammis Award 2008 in the category of male artist together with Lars Winnerbäck, Moneybrother, Salem Al Fakir and Timbuktu. A few weeks later, he managed to win the Newcomer of the Year Rockbjörn award.

“

It is still hard to see myself as an established artist….. But I know it's music and entertainment, I want to devote myself to the rest of my life!

Måns was one of the presenters of Melodifestivalen 2010, played Romeo in the musical Romeo & Juliet in 2011, and was honored to take over program leadership as a host of Allsång på Skansen which he shoulderd again in 2012.

As far as we know Måns Zelmerlöw is working on a new album which will hopefully be completed in the beginning of 2013. Besides that we hope that he will continue to host Allsång på Skansen because we are sure that he is the best presenter for this kind of show in Sweden.

MÅNS ZELMERLÖW Please click on the pictures to start the videos

Foto: Frederick-Edwin Bertin

INGMAR BERGMAN

ABBA

INGVAR KAMPRAD

INGRID BERGMAN

ASTRID LINDGREN

GRETA GARBO

AGNES When Agnes’s clubbing anthem Release Me became a huge European hit in 2009, spending ten weeks in the UK top 20, it was a breath of fresh air: shiny, happy, glam-sexy euro-disco was back. With the noughties behind us, and eighties style, fashion and music thoroughly rinsed out, is it too early to talk about a nineties revival?

Perhaps not. The nineties was the decade when the dancefloor ruled the charts, with hits such as Ce Ce Peniston’s Finally, The Nightcrawlers’ Push The Feeling and Show Me Love by Robin S. And there is a connection between the latter and Release Me – both were forged in the same Stockholm studio in Sweden, where the tradition for chart-topping dance-pop goes all the way back to Abba, via Roxette, Ace of Base and the legendary collective of songwriters and producers SweMix, behind everything from hands-in-the-air clubbing anthems to white-label DJ bootlegs of everyone from Human League to Michael Jackson.

Now, with euro-disco back in vogue, Swedish production ace Anders Hansson has helped a new pop sensation, 21-year-old blonde bombshell Agnes Carlsson channel the perfect mix of dance, love and pop through her new album. An artist whose soaring voice matches her smouldering good looks; who describes herself, tongue slightly in cheek, as “feminine, golden and glamorous”; and who is equally at home performing with just her acoustic guitar or taking UK arenas by storm with N-Dubz and Cascada on the Clubland Live 3 tour.

“She is a great singer, an emotional singer: she adds such quality to a song when she sings it,” Hansson says.

“And she is an immaculate live performer, even though she is still very young. It was our intention to make a record for the dancefloor, but not like a house producer with an add-on singer; this is crafted pop music: accessible, danceable, but song-based.”

The effortless power of her voice – which sounds far beyond her years – has evoked comparisons to legendary soul divas, but Agnes is a down-to-earth girl whose talent far outweighs her ego. She remains modest about her career break – winning Swedish Idol in 2005 aged just 17, despite having almost no previous performing experience.

“It was overwhelming,” she says. “Before the competition I had only performed one time on stage. And that first time I was so nervous that my legs were shaking and I couldn’t control my voice. So I had to learn a lot – how to control my nerves and sing live for millions of people. That was really good for me. But then also when you are in the competition you live in a little bubble. After the final you have to start to work hard to see the real world.”

After her televised triumph, at which “even the big guys, the security, [were so moved they] started crying and crying”, Agnes was signed to Sony BMG and released two albums, Agnes and Stronger. “Everything you do, you learn something from it,” she says diplomatically. “I like them, but my first album I recorded in six days. And it was like that for my second one. It can be difficult because when you’re directly signed to a label after Idol…”

But then she reveals that she was able to sign a new deal with the Swedish independent Roxy Recordings – and in the UK to 3Beat Blue/All Around The World.

Freed from the Idol conveyor belt, Agnes gravitated towards her natural calling, a dancefloor-oriented pop sound – and with her new label properly behind her she was introduced to the songwriter and producer Anders Hansson. Agnes recalls when his name first came up for the album “They said maybe you should just meet first and see if you like each other, as opposed to just working together.” They got on – so well that Hansson ended up producing an album that helped Agnes realise her vision, Dance Love Pop – effectively her debut in many countries, including the UK — and break away from the reality-show pop factory. They ended up co-writing four songs together, including Release Me (a top-ten hit in 11 countries peaking at No3 in the UK; the video has received more than 10m views on YouTube.

“A lot of things changed for me when I started to work with this album. I really liked it, because I knew that I wanted to do something totally different to the two others.

I wanted to do uptempo, disco-orientated songs and I really wanted to work with Anders because he felt the same way.

AGNES The songs aren’t complicated – but they resonate the way good pop should. Take the follow-up single to Release Me, I Need You Now. “I don’t think that is a difficult song,” she says. “You’re just putting it all out there: I need you now! But at the same time that is so painful.” The themes are simple, universal, but Agnes’s stunning, soulful vocals and Hansson’s tight, driving production are pop alchemy.

Love and relationships feature heavily. “Yes, but for me love doesn’t always have to be about a boy. It can be about your family and friends; they are the most important people in my life.

Agnes Carlsson was born on March 6, 1988, in Vänersborg, a small, picturesque Swedish town, nicknamed “Little Paris”, which sits on the tip of Europe’s third-largest lake, Vänern. Her father is an environmental engineer, her mother a nurse and social worker. Agnes is the youngest of four children; she has two brothers and a sister.

“It’s a beautiful place. I really liked it. But when you grow up in a small town, some people have a really small view of the world. And when you don’t have the same thoughts as them…. When I was younger most of my friends were girls. But after a while the girls were not, you know, nice to each other. There was one who controlled everything. If everyone didn’t do as she was saying, she got mad. It was when I was 13, or something like that. And I said to them, I don’t like this, it’s not OK. But everyone turned against me. And when you are in a small city, if a group of people don’t like you then it’s really hard to find other people.”

A life that seemed idyllic on the outside was at times anything but. “If you grow up in a bigger city, you have a lot of different kinds of people, and everybody doesn’t have to be the same. But in a small city everyone is so afraid to be different, and to not do what everybody else does. And that was something I really didn’t like.

As a coping mechanism, “it was important to have something to do after school”, so Agnes took violin lessons and joined a choir, even though “I hated singing in the choir because my voice didn’t fit; you have to listen to the others and not stick out too much”. Whenever she was home alone she would play Whitney Houston and Beyoncé Knowles songs “at the highest volume” and sing along. “Whitney’s voice is so emotional, and if there’s one thing I learnt from listening to her, it’s that it’s important to put emotion in.”

It wasn’t until she was 16 that she had one-on-one singing lessons. One year later she won Swedish Idol and was signed to Sony BMG. Extraordinary.

So far being famous has been, well, pretty good actually. “People in Sweden have been happy for me,” she says. “We don’t have paparazzi, and I think other countries are much more crazy when they see a famous person. In Sweden it’s not really like that. When people have come up and said things to me, they have been kind and supportive.”

Dance Love Pop, then, is Agnes’ creative rebirth – and her creativity is flourishing in other ways too. “I have designed some of my on stage clothes,” she reveals. “I love fashion and I think when you’re on stage it’s great to have fun with it. You can have more freedom and I love that.”

“The first time I did it was for the Melody festival in Sweden [in 2007]. I put together a golden catsuit that was like a second skin. I love to be feminine, golden and glamorous. And I did another for a tour, and some dresses too. When I was younger, my mum always said to me, Don’t wear big earrings or really high heels, you see in Sweden you’re not supposed to be too glamorous. I don’t know why. Now I always wear the biggest earrings and the highest heels! And lots of jewellery. It’s my dream to one day design my own jewellery – but that is for the future. Right now I am focusing on the music.”

It’s paying off. Agnes may not have had much me-time this year, but it was still pretty cool when her friends

AGNES

AGNES texted her from Ibiza every time they heard Release Me in the clubs (which was often). “I don’t have much time to hang out. But this summer I had a one-week vacation in Italy, and one evening we were walking past a club and we heard Release Me…” A busman’s holiday, then. “I heard this summer it was the fifth mostplayed song in Europe. It was wonderful to hear that.”

Agnes was recently signed to a mega-deal with A&M/Interscope Records in the US by Ron Fair. He’s the man behind Black Eyed Peas’ and Pussycat Dolls’ success, and he also launched Christina Aguilera’s career. With Agnes’s follow-up singles I Need You Now and On And On storming the charts in Europe, with Release Me firing on all cylinders across the Atlantic – reaching No1 on the US Billboard Dance Chart – the future for Agnes is as golden as one of her slinky catsuits.

“Anders and I were talking about the album title, and it’s always so hard to choose a name for an album,” she says. “So Anders said maybe we should pick three words that describe the sound. Dance, love, pop: we chose them together. I think they sum it up the best.”

- Biography taken from Agnes’ Official Webpage

AGNES Please click on the pictures to start the videos

ULRIK MUNTHER

Ulrik Munther is only 18 years old but already has a lot of experience as an artist. In 2009 he won Melodifestivalen for juniors only 15 years old. Without a record company’s promotion or a booking agent, 16-year old Ulrik got millions of views on YouTube, appeared on several big TV shows and toured constantly over a year. He had written the song En vanlig dag himself. Later the same year he represented Sweden in Melodi Grand Prix Nordic and won again. In 2010 Ulrik finished second in the competition Metro Music Challenge and got signed to Universal Music Sweden during the latter half of 2010.

In fact Ulrik has a simple story: he started writing songs when he was 13 years old, as a 15 year old he won the Melody Grand Prix Nordic with his own song An ordinary day. The year after he came in second place in Metro Music Challenge with his own composition Life (reaching the same place as Erik Hassle the year before).

The producer Johan Åberg got the chance to hear Ulrik’s new songs, saw and heard the potential and started a musical cooperation. At his childhood home outside Gothenburg Ulrik started writing songs on the weekdays and got on the train Friday after school.

“It’s an amazing time in my life. I commute to Stockholm on the weekends to record the songs I write on weekdays. The fact that this is topped by showcases in USA, UK and Germany doesn’t make life less fun so to speak,” were the words of, at the time, 16-year old Ulrik when everything started to kick in.

ULRIK MUNTHER Ulrik’s music got over one million views on YouTube and interest from record labels in other countries was soon a fact. After the song Boys don’t cry was leaked on the Internet a unique journey starts. No less than twenty American and English record companies reached for the phone. Within four weeks Ulrik was flown to Los Angeles, New York, London and other European cities. His music has since then been synched in Skate Films, TV-shows and other ads.In September 2010 Ulrik signed with Universal Music in Sweden (for Scandinavia only). Parts of the album are recorded in Stockholm, but a large portion of the production and recording is done in Ulrik’s own home in Gothenburg.

"Yes, it’s an odd feeling to sit with your guitar, the piano or the drums in my room (it’s true, he has drums at home!) and suddenly think that this will be released all over the world. It’s a bit strange as I’ve done this all my life", laughs Ulrik.

The debut single Boys Don’t Cry, released in January 2011, got great international attention in blogs such as A&R blog Crazed Hits and Perez Hilton and reached gold sales on the charts. The debut album was released in August and went straight to nr one on the charts and singles Boys Don’t Cry and Kill For Lies are played frequently. In the end of 2011 the launch of Ulrik in France starts and leading radio stations (NRJ) immediately started playing his music.

In February 2012 Ulrik competed in Swedish Melodifestivalen (Swedish competition for Eurovision Song Contest) with the song Soldiers that went straight to finals, where he finished third, has over five million views on YouTube and has been intensively touring throughout the summer.

He will compete in Melodifestivalen 2013 with the song "Tell The World I'm Here", written by Peter Boström, Thomas G: son (both had written last years Eurovision Song Contest winner "Euphoria"vor Loreen) and Ulrik himself. We are sure that he has a good chance to win, but even if not, we predict a GOLDen future for this young singer/songwriter.

Ulrik Munther on Video

Sticks and Stones (Grattis Kronprinsessan) Ulrik Munther Official Webpage

Please click on the pictures to start the videos

Soldiers (Grattis Kronprinsessan)

Meet Ulrik on Facebook

Alburn Road

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