Yohanna's trip to Finland in May: Thank You for the Music; Into Your Arms; Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir

I'd been meaning to post this video of Yohanna rehearsing in Kuopio, Finland two months ago, capturing her singing both an ABBA favorite, Thank You for the Music, as well as Nick Cave's Into My Arms.

Though I've spoken of Yohanna more than a few times here in the past, I think even more than the previous videos of hers that I've shared here -the last new one being from a Christmas show in Stockholm that aired on TV3's "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009), where she sang a few songs, including a tremendous version of Don't Save It All For Christmas Day, see my January 1st post, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/wow-yohanna-sings-dont-save-it-all-for.html - you can really see her tremendous earnestness and sense of purpose.
Of, quite literally, wanting to get every note and chord just right

Over the weekend, while I was watching a Marlins-Padres ballgame on TV, a friend from overseas with a good memory emailed to remind me about a couple of posts I'd talked about in the abstract that had yet to materialize in this space yet.

You may well recall some of these as well, from prior posts of mine or thru emails, but as it happens, one concerned Yohanna's trip to Finland -Suomi.
I'd told her previously that my plan was to put this video and some comments up over the Memorial Day weekend, sometime between watching the Indy 500 and the anti-climatic NCAA Lacrosse Mens Championship game between Duke and Notre Dame, but that, well, she hadn't seen it yet.
Oops!!!

Having received that gentle reminder, I'm now sharing the video that Tiia Santavirta first uploaded for Chaos Tube at http://www.youtube.com/user/TiiaSantavirta

More photos of the trip are available at http://teamyohanna.blogspot.com/ and more Yohanna videos can be seen at the TeamYohanna YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/TEAMYOHANNA

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.