Swedish Music Profiles

Music has become a major Swedish export commodity since ABBA's breakthrough with Waterloo in the Eurovision Song Contest of 1974, and a lot has happened since then. Sweden is now the world's third largest exporter of music, blazing the trail for other nations. It's hard to believe that such a seemingly small country, so out of the way, could have such an impact on the world. Here is a (by no means complete) list of artists that have spawned from this small but great Nordic nation.

ABBA

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 the US. 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

Jenny Lind (1820-1887) was the first Swedish opera singer to become a world star . She made debut in New York City in 1850 and was aptly called "The Swedish Nightingale". She has been honored with her portrait on the 50 kronor bank note.

Ace of Base

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".

Roxette

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 radio station 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 concerts 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".

Komeda

The Cardigans

Caesars

Shout out louds

Mando Diao

KENT

The wannadies

The Sounds

Atomic Swing

The Hives

Moneybrother

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.

Literature about Swedish music

Read more about ABBA; Bright Lights Dark Shadows: The Real Story of Abba by Carl Magnus Palm. More books on Swedish music are listed here on Print Google.