Swedish Music Profiles
This is one of the hottest pop
group in Sweden. Jonas Berggren and his two
sisters Malin and Jenny named themselves Tech
Noir from the beginning, with Jonas writing all
the material. Since helping them out one evening,
at a concert, Ulf Ekberg has been a member of the
group. They changed their name to Ace of Base. In
1992 they thought that they had enough songs to
get a recording contract. Mega Records signed
them and soon they were climbing the hit-lists of
the world, First in Denmark, and than later in
more than 40 other countries. In the USA they
have been number one on the hit-lists for more
than 14 weeks. Some of their most famous hits are
"Wheel of Fortune", "All that she
wants", "Happy nation" and
"Don't turn around".
The Swedish duo Per Gessle and
Marie Fredriksson formed Roxette, in Halmstad, in
1986. They debuted the same year with "Never
ending love", same fall they released their
first album "Pearls of passion".
Two years later, 1988, Roxette released their
second album, "Look Sharp" and the
album was a big success in Sweden.
The same year an American exchange student
brought the album to his hometown Minneapolis and
the biggest radiostation there and urges them to
listen to "The Look" and suddenly the
Roxette had a hit single in the US.
1989 "The
Look" is released in USA and and it climbs
the charts fast. In March it is #1. It also tops
the charts in 24 other countries. "Look
Sharp" eventually sells 8 million copies
worldwide.
Roxette hit the US first spot three times more
with "Listen to your heart", "It
must have been love" (taken from the
soundtrack "Pretty Woman") and
"Joyride".
1991 The third album
"Joyride" was released and it's so far
the biggest success with 10 million copies sold
so far. "The Join the Joyride World
Tour" rolls around the globe and the band
plays 108 conserts in Europe, Australia, USA and
South America.
1992 Roxette releases
"Tourism", a collection of live tracks
and recordings made during the tour.
1993 Roxette were
invited to play the prestigious MTV Unplugged as
the first non-English speaking band ever.
1994 The album "Crash Boom Bang" is released in April
with hit singles as "Sleeping in My
Car" and "Run to You".
1995 In October Roxette
released a Greatest Hits album called "Don't
Bore Us - Get to the Chorus".
Roxette - Per Gessle & Marie Fredriksson
During their eight years of
fame, ABBA produced nine No.1 singles and eight
chart-topping albums in the UK, although the US
successes was less spectacular. ABBA made its
breakthrough in 1974 with the
song"Waterloo". After that, they
produced hit after hit, and in three years they
had beaten The Beatles in terms of the number of
records sold. The name of the group comes from
the initials of the four members: Agnetha,
Björn, Benny and Annifrid.
Their biggest worldwide hit was "Dancing
Queen" (1976) written for and performed at
the wedding of the King and Queen of Sweden and
become a No.1 hit both in Europe and theUS. In
1977 came the film "ABBA-The Movie" and
it was a success, seen by many of their fans all
over the world.
Greatest hits, Singles / Title
- 1974 Waterloo
1975 Mamma Mia
1976 Fernando
1976 Dancing Queen
1977 Knowing Me Knowing You
1977 The Name Of The Game
1978 Take A Chance On Me
1980 The Winner Takes It All
1980 Super Trouper
Birgit Nilsson
Birgit Nilsson, world famous
soprano, was born in 1918, in Karsup, Skåne.
She made her debut at the
Stockholm Royal Opera in 1946 and her first
important appearance abroad was as Elektra, in
Idomeneo, Glyndebourne in 1951. In 1954, when she
sang in Vienna and Bayreuth for the first time,
her international fame as a Wagner soprano began.
She became the leading exponent of the roles of
Brunnhilde and Isolde in Bayreuth, Vienna, London
and New York, and continued to sing these and
other Wagner roles. Her voice is a ringing
soprano of extraordinary volume and she has had
few equals as Brunhilde, Turandot, and Strauss`s
Elektra.
Jenny Lind
The first Swedish opera singer
to become a world star was Jenny Lind. She was
born in Stockholm in 1820 as an illegitimate
child and she grew up in poverty. When she later
on participated at a singing test at the opera,
she was engaged at once. She went straight to the
top and at the age of seventeen she was playing
the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute. Nineteen
years old she was already a famous star who
earned more money than any other young woman in
Sweden. After some years in Paris she went to the
US. Here, she was presented as the greatest
musical talent of the world.
Christina Nilsson
Christina Nilsson was
discovered at a fair at the age of thirteen.
After that she went to Paris to study. At this
time, competition in the opera world had become
rather stiff, and Christina, although she enjoyed
tremendous success over the years, never reached
the same popularity as Jenny Lind. The success of
Lind and Nilsson paved the way for a whole host
of Swedish opera singers, for example Jussi
Björling, Birgit Nilsson and Nicolai Gedda.
Photo 1: Copyright © Mega Records
Photo 2: Copyright © EMI
Photo 3: Copyright © Kamerareportage
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