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Music

by Eve Andersson

Radio-channel-surfing, I found that much of the music was in English. And the music that was sung in Swedish was not stylistically much different from that heard on American radio stations.

What good Swedish music is out there? Of course we all love ABBA and perhaps even Roxette, but how about music sung in Swedish? My friend Johan recommended Lisa Ekdahl, Lisa Nilsson, and Niklas Stoömstedt. I bought CDs by all three and I would have to agree that they are all good.

As far as vocal jazz goes, either the Swedish language is not well suited to the husky, sexy tones that jazz can require, or I just got unlucky with the CD I picked up (Monica Zetterlund: Det finns dagar).

Sweden is not known for its classical composers. The most famous is probably the 19th century Romantic composer Franz Berwald.

Philip and I went to a performace by the Royal Swedish Opera of Otello when we were in Stockholm, and it was quite well done. The only problem, of course, was that the subtitles were in Swedish. You should either (a) know Swedish, or (b) be very familiar with the opera you're seeing, otherwise you'll find it very difficult to follow. Familiarity with the Shakespeare's play, on which it was based, turned out to be inadequate.

Besides the folk songs that Swedes are so well known for singing, they can also be found singing a drinking song once in a while. Before you go, learn this one:

Helan går.
Sjung hopp fadarala lalan lej.
Helan går.
Sjung hopp fadaralan lej.
Och den some inte helan gå
Han heller inte halvan får.
Helan går. [now gulp down your shot of alcohol]
Sjung hopp fadaralan lej.

The song means something like: "You have to drink the whole shot, otherwise you can't even have half a shot."

Readers' Comments


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christel månsson , May 27, 2001; 07:26 A.M.

Hello! What about Hugo Alvén and Wilhelm Pettersson-Berger swedish classical composers? They are famouse in sweden more than Berwal I think. //Christel

Larry Lindström , February 10, 2002; 10:45 A.M.

Hi there

About your CD choice Monica Zetterlund - I think You are lucky to have that CD. Monica was - sorry to say - one of Bill Evans favourites and thats good enough for me. If You want to listen to live jazz in Stockholm try the restaurants Stampen, Kristina or Mosebacke - there are more even better ones - but this is a good start. And remember that swedes urge to train their english, so dont hesitate to ask. Have a nice one

Richard Abrahamsson , August 28, 2002; 09:24 A.M.

English speaking people who would like to join in when the drinking song 'Helan går' is being sung but don't have the interest to learn how to pronounce the strange swedish words in it, you can just as well sing this:

Hell and gore,

Shun hop father Allan lallan lay.

Hell and gore,

Shun hop father Allan lay.

And then some in the hell and tar

and hell are in the half and four.

Hell and gore,

Shun hop father Allan lay

... and noone will ever notice that you're not a native Swede (considering it's a drinking song :) ). This is how foreign students coming to Sweden usually are taught how to join in. Cheers, Richard

E G Paul , April 24, 2003; 05:44 P.M.

Jazz and Blues are alive and well in Sweden. Check out: http://www.gavacraft.com/music.htm and listen to No. 7. It's in Swedish and great! The whole album is great for that matter.

Jean-Benoît Turgeon , February 25, 2004; 03:54 P.M.

Swedish are also very much versed in hard rock and heavy metal (or whatever derivatives you may find). Interestingly enough you may hear live hard rock concerts in Stockholm and Göteborg. There is also a very interesting open air festival in Göteborg at the beginning of August (free of charge)!

Anders Runesson , May 12, 2008; 02:04 P.M.

If you want to hear swedish music I think there are two artists you must check out - Jan Johansson and Cornelis Wreesvijk. Jan Johansson recorded an album called "Jazz pa Svenska" ("Jazz in swedish") which has traditional swedish songs(folkmusic) played on piano and bass only. It is very melancholic and very swedish.

Cornelis Wreesvijk was a Dutch man who lived in Sweden and wrote singer/songwriter style music, mostly very catchy and light-hearted songs with strong lyrics.

And, as has already been said, the swedish metal scene is very alive and successful. In fact, there is a metal subgenre called "Gothenburg-metal"!


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