Showing posts with label Helen Sjöholm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Helen Sjöholm. Show all posts

Thursday, May 8, 2014

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...








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

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. 





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."



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.
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

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

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


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?

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

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 Squarewhere   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

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

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

Sunday, July 5, 2009

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


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



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



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

For more info and prior Jonathan Ross interviews,see

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:

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.


Thursday, July 2, 2009

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!

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.


(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,
and The New Land
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

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,









or Esmée Denters of The Netherlands,
who Oprah loved so much she invited her
to Chicago..



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: