Just 14 years ago today: debut single of Håkan Hellström. (Känn ingen sorg för mig i Göteborg.) And now, everyone in Sweden ❤ Håkan -he can do no wrong. :-); video from his Allsång på Skansen show last summer

Today is not just the first day of the 2014 NFL Draft or the second Semifinal of the Eurovision Singing Contest in Copenhagen, you know, it's also...

Just 14 years ago 2day: debut single of Håkan Hellström. And now, everyone in Sweden ❤ Håkan -he can do no wrong. :-) http://t.co/pmEqo4HvzE
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) May 8, 2014

vackragavlestad YouTube Channel video: Håkan Hellström - Känn ingen sorg för mig i Göteborg 

LIVE on SVT's Allsång på Skansen, Stockholm, Sweden. Uploaded July 9, 2013

http://youtu.be/zx4ohWQd_tE

The clip above is from the amazing one-hour LIVE SVT telecast from last July from the stage at Allsång på Skansen in Stockholm that was a special broadcast featuring Håkan and some of his friends and special invited guests, like Helen Sjöholm, Anna Järvinen, Tomas von Brömssen and others.

I watched that LIVE on my computer here in Hallandale Beach and it was, by far, the single most entertaining hour of music I heard all year, especially when you understand what most of the various elements in the show -and costumes in the audience- represent, both symbolically and emotionally to his fans. 

Speaking of @Skansen & "Valborg," from Håkan Hellström's amazing concert last July, here's the sublime Helen Sjöholm http://t.co/LCA85IPX6S
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) April 30, 2014

For instance, speaking of the amazing Helen, so often written about here on the blog the past seven years, here's a sublime Helen singing "Valborg."

http://youtu.be/SNBO0H6ngpQ 

vackragavlestad YouTube Channel video: Håkan Hellström - "Nu kan du få mig så lätt" LIVE on SVT's Allsång på Skansen, Stockholm, Sweden. Uploaded July 9, 2013.

http://youtu.be/u5Oa1LO7_Cw

I call this video above of him singing "Nu kan du få mig så lätt" from the show, "The Adoration" for reasons that are quite apparent.

Years ago, in some of his public performances, Håkan dressed onstage in a white sailor's uniform. It's sort of a common knowledge thing in Sweden.

Anyway, as you can see at 0:08 and 0:27, by the drawing and the girl in the sailor outfit herself, some of the girls haven't forgotten.

I guess there's just something about a sailor, eh?

And I don't mean Sailor Moon.

You can see the whole concert here, which I have watched from beginning-to-end probably a dozen times since last July, with just a brief appearance by Allsång host Måns Zelmerlöw.


Phareed YouTube channel video: Allsångsscenen är din: Håkan Hellström (Live på Skansen 2013) Stockholm, Sweden. Uploaded July 9, 2013. http://youtu.be/0upVoqUXc4Q

Sweet & sublime as always! SVT's 2012 St. Lucia telecast from Uppsala Cathedral -with Astrid Cederlöf as Lucia- was loaded with Swedish goodness, including ABBA's Benny Andersson on piano and Helen Sjöholm singing; There's no substitute for such sheer genius & talent!

sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Benny Andersson on piano, Olle Moraeus on violin - "En skrift i snön" on SVT's Luciamorgon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on Dec. 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/cTatkGocfCY

Sweet & sublime as always! SVT's 2012 St. Lucia telecast from Uppsala Cathedral -with Astrid Cederlöf as Lucia- was loaded with Swedish goodness, including ABBA's Benny Andersson on piano and Helen Sjöholm singing; There's no substitute for such sheer genius & talent!

All screenshots appearing on this page of SVT's St. Lucia telecast are December 13, 2012 photos by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved. 

The sweetness and the utter simplicity never disappoints.

Church choirs singing traditional Lucia and Christmas carols, the reading of the Lucia text, and as always, all done with no self-conscious showboating or self-congratulatory displays -and no distracting applause from the audience.

All done in one hour.

Above and below, my screenshots of 14-year old Astrid Cederlöf as Lucia.

By now, after a few years of watching this, and having gotten into the swing of how things go, there are certain songs that are always performed that are now so familiar to me that I can already hear the upcoming refrain, chorus or key musical notes even before the chyron disappears from the TV screen.

Correct, like hearing the first few notes of an ABBA or Beatles song.



To me, this year's telecast seemed much more subdued than the previous two Luciamorgon telecasts.

Whether that was the plan or just the way it all worked out, I can't say, but it did seem like there was noticeably less energy in the room, maybe almost too subdued.
Was it because I already knew that this year's telecast was NOT LIVE as the last two had been, where anything done LIVE always offers up the possibility of something interesting and unexpected happening?

Or maybe it was just because yours truly was already pretty tired and stayed-up all night thru to watch the telecast, which was 1 a.m. Eastern my time that Thursday morning, 7 o'clock in Uppsala.

When that opening framing scene outside Uppsala Cathedral came onscreen, it looked SO very dark and very cold!
I practically shivered vicariously when it came on and I thought about how mornings like that can make you exhausted even before the day begins.
Thoughts of warm tomato soup and soup crackers went thru my head.

This is what it looked like outside the Cathedral in Uppsala an hour later, at 8 a.m., looking more like 6 p.m. in Bloomington, Indiana, about mid-January.

sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Helen Sjöholm & Benny Andersson - "Vinterhamn" on SVT's Luciamorgon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on the 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/Xqtr219lt40

sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Helen Sjöholm & Benny Andersson: "Nu tändas tusen juleljus" on SVT's Luciamorgoon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on the 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/fsnbicyYNcU

The above was short and sweet, but still my favorite from that day!

The person who uploaded these vids onto YouTube, 

https://www.youtube.com/user/sannasonja/ is also from Florida! 

The video of the entire telecast is on SVT Play's website for another 28 days, as of today, then will be permanently deleted. 
http://www.svtplay.se/video/907512/lucia/?tab=undefined&sida=1

As usual, the SVT audio and video quality is amazing, so be sure to click the opposing arrows in the far right corner of the video and hit fullskärm to enable the full screen, 
And be sure to watch for Olle Moraeus on the violin.

My last two blog posts on the Lucia telecasts by SVT were: 
2010 St. Lucia Day in Stockholm: traditional songs and sweet sentimentality that ring true across the miles; SVT's Lucia program is sublime!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/2010-st-lucia-day-in-stockholm.html

2011 St. Lucia Day in Göteborg is an hour away on SVT; will they strike gold and be sublime yet again?

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/2011-st-lucia-day-in-goteborg-is-hour.html

Sweden.se's Vimeo video: Swedish Lucia for Dummies. Lucia Day - a feast of candlelit processions, saffron buns, mulled wine and talking animals. Here’s how to make the most of it. http://vimeo.com/55253944

http://www.sweden.se/lucia

As a bit of a Lucia bonus, here's a short video of some kids in a Lucia procession who made their way out to the glass cage in the Great Square in Malmö, Gustav Adolf Square, where   this year's Musikhjälpen took place two weeks ago, and where Robyn famously performed in 2010, as I wrote at the time.
Robyn rocks Malmö at Musikhjälpen 2010 as amazed fans watch her like a goldfish in a glass bowl at Gustaf Adolfs Square
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/robyn-rocks-malmo-at-musikhjalpen-2010.html

Below, Kodjo and Gina interact with the kids inside their glass cage studio: 

http://www.svtplay.se/klipp/908558/varldens-sotaste-luciatag/?tab=undefined&sida=1

More videos of the show's dozens of musical guests performing can be found at
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/default.aspx?programid=3946 and
at http://www.youtube.com/user/poriel2

Helen Sjöholm singing Inte jag (with Tommy Körberg) from 2002 Swedish production of "Chess" in Stockholm; Barbra Streisand - I Know Him So Well

Helen Sjöholm - Inte jag (CHESS på svenska)
Someone Else's Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOda9k1sbLs


You'll recall that back on July 20th, to commemorate a posting that day by ABBA super-fan and expert Shay in Dublin of the video of the biggest-selling U.K. single in history by a Female Duo, Elaine Paige (as Florence) and Barbara Dickson (as Svetlana) of I Know Him So Well from 1985, written by ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson along with Tim Rice for the Musical "Chess" I included that video here.

Nothing is so good it lasts eternally
Perfect situations must go wrong
But this has never yet prevented me
Wanting far too much for far too long.

My post was titled, sensibly: Biggest-selling U.K. single by Female (Duo) - Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson: I Know Him So Well (1985); Marie Serneholt http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/biggest-selling-uk-single-
by-female-duo.html

Well, yesterday, Shay posted an excellent audio version -with English subtitles- of the rewritten 2002 LIVE version of Chess that was performed in Stockholm, with the always fantastic Helen Sjöholm interacting on "Inte jag" with Tommy Körberg.
Wow, I would like to have been there for that!

I've seen videos of her singing this song before, obviously, most notably, at the Berwald Concert Hall in Stockholm, a.k.a. Berwaldhallen http://sverigesradio.se/berwaldhallen/index_e.stm, which is the home of the Sveriges Radio Symphony Orchestra, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzyTM2zhpMc but I really think this may be my new favorite.

And because I neglected to think of it in July, I'm also posting here today the Barbra Streisand rendition of I Know Him So Well
It packs a real wallop, too!

Barbra Streisand - I Know Him So Well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsq36ndiEmQ

ABBA's Benny Andersson on BBC One's "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross"; clips of interview & song; Telegraph interview

To better set the stage for the following post and associated

videos, the Telegraph had the following story last Wednesday:

Benny Andersson interview for the Benny Andersson band on Hampstead Heath

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/5711429/Benny-Andersson-interview-for-the-Benny-Andersson-band-on-Hampstead-Heath.html

Reading the article above reminded me of all the

B/W film that I and most other serious ABBA fans

have seen over the years that featured the guys

playing in Skiffle bands, at venues not unlike the

ones described here by Benny in the mid-late

1960's.

"Every town in Sweden used to a have a Volkpark with a stage and a dance floor where in the summer bands would play and people would bring their own booze and dance," says Andersson when we meet in the hotel he owns in Stockholm. "In the Eighties that started to decline, so in 2000 we started to play in Skansen to try and recreate the feeling of those big bands from the forties and the fifties."

This is perhaps the best single example I can think of,

when the music sounds like it was done just right, and

with Helen Sjöholm, you know the problem will never

be with the singer,

From 0:40 to 0:56 of this Rick Steves video of Skansen,

you can get a sense of the sort of folk dancing I suspect

Benny's talking about.

By the time the interview below with Jonathan Ross

concludes, and you combine it with his insightful

earlier comments in The Telegraph, you really can't

help but come away even more impressed, because

it's clear that Benny's positive attitude is undoubtedly

one of the keys to his continued success and health,

because he seems to keep things in their proper

perspective.

He really enjoys the life he has now, believes the other

three do as well, he has the freedom to write whatever

he wants and has the good sense not to want to turn

his life -and his family's- upside-down:

"To have talent is just luck. But you have to take care of your talent by working.

I try to write music every day. I am not an artist. I don't have that drive or ego to

perform. I just want to write music that other people want to listen to. I want to

have a conversation through the music and for it to be as good and meaningful

as it can be."

Benny's so calm and reassuring that I almost think he could play

a shrink in a Woody Allen comedy.

----------

From BBC One, July 3rd, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhu5AEhcpEk

--------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc8VsBaNox4

For more info on other clips of BBC One programs see:

http://www.youtube.com/user/BBC

For more info and prior Jonathan Ross interviews,see

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m99d and

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=72144E4796241B73

His program started airing on BBC America in mid-June,

and based on the schedules of guests so far -I'm watching

it right now with Dustin Hoffman- it would appear that

they're on in the U.S. roughly 2-3 weeks after they first

appear LIVE on his show in London, since for the first week,

the BBC iPlayer has exclusivity with the video throughout world.

His BBC America webpage is at:

http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/377/index.jsp

Closing out this post with Molly Sandén singing the

same song from above, Thank You for the Music

from just over three-and-a-half years ago at Skansen

on New Year's Eve.

ABBA Geniuses At It Again: Story Of A Heart, featuring Helen Sjöholm, Words & Music by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus

They're back!

Story Of A Heart, The Benny Anderssons Band (Orkester)

featuring Helen Sjöholm,

Words & Music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus

Well, as they used to say so often on

Monty Python, "And now for something

completely different..."

For those of you who know me pretty well,

esp. those of you back in the D.C. area,

as well as those scattered coast-to-coast

around Hoosier Nation, you know better

than most that among many other things,

I am and have always been one of the

biggest ABBA fans around, from the very

beginning.

Given that, if you've already heard on

your own via a European newspaper

or magazine or the internet what

Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus

have been up to lately, you've probably

been wondering why it's taken me so

long to finally get around to posting

this catchy new song of theirs called

Story of a Heart, or in Swedish,

Sommaren Du Fick

I guess I should say especially since

the words and music are by Benny

Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, only

the creative musical geniuses behind

not only ABBA, but the international

hits Chess -with Tim Rice- and the

perpetual money-making machine

that is Mamma Mia!

http://www.abbasite.com/

http://www.chessinconcert.com/

http://www.mamma-mia.com/

Yes, especially considering I'm the

very same guy who not only knew

all the lyrics, backwards and forwards,

to every ABBA song ever officially

released in America or the U.K.

-and even some of the Swedish

ones- but who in high school,

even had in a corner of my bedroom

in North Miami Beach, the record

company's lifesize cardboard stand-up

POS promotion of the group for their

upbeat Voulez-Vous album.

That was thanks to my great job over

at Record Shack in North Miami Beach,

just east of the 163rd Street Shopping

Center on N.E. 15th Avenue, a block

south of the Zayre's, to go old-time

NMB geography on you.

The promotional item was literally too

large for the store to handle, so I asked

the promotional guy at Atlantic Records

if I could have it.

Since he knew my whole music story

and knew what was what from our prior

conversations, he gave me the okay.

I was so eager to get it out of the store,

lest some calamity befall it if I waited

a day, that when I got off that night

I pulled the standup cardboard peg

at the bottom which helped keep it up,

and walked the ten minutes to mi casa,

balancing it on my head, so that I didn't

have to fold it to get it into a car.

When my two younger sisters woke-up

the next morning and I showed them

what was standing there in the corner

of my bedroom, they were speechless.

I was so pleased with myself!

(You don't want to know what fate

befell the less-popular record promo

stuff we received there that the record

companies didn't want back, and that

nobody-but-nobody cared for.

It got abused in the worst and funniest

ways!)

By way of explanation, I should also

mention that my music teacher in

high school was one of the top studio

musicians in the country, and regularly

performed at Criteria Studios in nearby

North Miami for all the top groups of the

time when they came into town to lay

down some tracks, or, record an entire

album, and that even included ABBA.

In fact, he was part of this song recorded

at Criteria the month of my 18th birthday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUx4tLPMo50

(I'll talk about that and some other

Miami musical moments in future

posts, including Jon Marlowe of

the late Miami News.)

Now, getting back to this new song

by Benny and Björn, I first meant

to post on it a few weeks ago, when

I first heard it on the BBC, but I got

sidetracked and decided that I'd wait

'til I started seeing some better,

cleaner audio versions of it uploaded

to YouTube.

Over the past weekend, I listened to

the various versions there, noting

what was good and what was bad,

until I selected two that I think best

represent the 'sound' you're expecting

to hear when you know who's behind it.

The song is sung by the wonderfully

talented Helen Sjöholm, who was

the original Kristina in their hugely

successful musical version of

Kristina från Duvemåla, which was

the series of books written by Vihelm

Moberg chronicling the travails of

poor Swedish emigrants journeying

to pre-Civil War America, and their

attempts to fit-in with both their new

surroundings and their new country.

(The early '70's film versions of some

of the Moberg books, especially

The Emigrants,

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067919/

and The New Land

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069035/

starring two film heavyweights,

film/stage legend Liv Ullman, and

the pro's pro, Max von Sydow

-who's actually Swedish- both of

whom are terrific, and well worth

watching if you can ever rent them,

or check them out of your local

library.)

The show will be playing in New York

in September at Carnegie Hall under

the title, Kristina the Musical

See http://kristinathemusical.com/

and http://www.duvemala.com/eng/

Sjöholm also played the key role of

Gabriella in the hugely popular film,

Så som i himmelen"

(As It Is in Heaven), and sang the

now-beloved eponymous song that

every Swedish girl and woman knows

the lyrics to by heart, Gabriella's

Song

Some of you might recall that until

I removed it 2-3 weeks ago, for most

of this year, I had among the handful

of videos of hers here on my blog,

Molly Sandén singing Gabriellas

Sång

What a tremendous voice and talent! From April 11, 2008 on Swedish TV's (SVT's) popular program,

"Så ska det låta," the Swedish sensation who marries Pop Music with a powerful Soprano voice,

Molly Sandén singing "Gabriellas Sång" (Gabriella's Song) from the 2004 motion picture,

"Så som i himmelen" (As It Is in Heaven)

Sadly, Molly didn't fare quite so well

at the Melodifestivalen finals, to get

into the Eurovision Song Contest

representing Sweden, as Malena

Ernman earned that right, but no

serious music lover who knows of

her, or who has ever heard her truly

amazing voice, has any doubt that

Molly is the Real Deal, a star in

the making.

Just as is equally clear with both

Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir,

a.k.a. Yohanna, from Iceland,

http://www.youtube.com/yohannamusic

or Esmée Denters of The Netherlands,

who Oprah loved so much she invited her

to Chicago..

http://www.youtube.com/esmeedenters

Esmée Denters

All three singers clearly have talent to

spare and unlimited futures.

Time to jump on the bandwagon

while you can!

Below I have the two versions of

Story Of A Heart for you, in both

Engelska and Svenka, though for

me, personally, the Swedish version

rocks just a little bit stronger, as the

production sounds slightly clearer

than the version in English.

But maybe that's just me -be your

own judge.

First, in English:

------------

Here's the Swedish version:

And a reminder, the older videos, photos

and materials that I've used here in the

are now at my mirror storage blog site:

http://hallandale-beach-blog.blogspot.com/