A lot of Skåne for Helen Sjöholm

Skånska Dagbladet 150625

By: YVONNE ERLANDSSON

This year it’s 20 years ago since Helen Sjöholm got her big breakthrough as Kristina at Malmö Opera. It was a role she played for five years and that meant a lot to her. Since then she’s had songs like Hemma and Du måste finnas on the repertoire.
– And an excursion into Duvemåla-land it will also be on my summer tour, she says.

Starting June 26 Helen Sjöholm goes out under the title Music in the summer evening. There will be several stops in Skåne – Bäckaskogs castle, Ystad and Skillinge – and to Skåne she will return with other productions in the autumn and winter. It’s as usual full speed ahead for Helen, who recently finished playing Life is a hit song at Cirkus in Stockholm and throws herself straight into the next project. With her on the summer tour she brings Jojje Wadenius, Martin Östergren, Ulric Johansson and Tomas Bergquist.
– We usually get a great longing for each other about every other year, Martin, Jojje and me. Then we want to get out and play. The love for music keeps us together, Helen Sjöholm says.

A wide progam is offered.
– I find it hard to keep slim in all kinds of ways, ha ha! It’s a bit in the width that our desire lays, these are musicians who are so good and who can step out in every possible direction. We all have things that come from different directions. There can be a four-part a cappella at times, and such things make it so much fun to rehearse for the concerts. Someone gets a whim and off it goes.
Swedish ballads, songs by Billy Joel, a little Benny Andersson, Martin Östergren’s compositions of Shakespeare’s sonnets and a “childish” department with Jojje Wadenius’ music, a little Tomas Andersson Wij, Stefan Sundström and a little Joni Mitchell is what’s on the agenda.

Helen Sjöholm is busy, but always makes sure to get a proper vacation.
– Absolutely, I work until July 9 and then it will be five weeks off. In the autumn it’s a lot of work, but then I look forward to a spring that is calmer. Sure, I have worked a lot and the production of Life is a hit song was intense, but we only played three days a week so the schedule was good. It turns into an everyday trot and not that intense, otherwise it wouldn’t have worked with three small children at home. One must plan and make productions that don’t play four or five days a week, it had become too tough.

Almost exactly twenty years ago the musical Kristina från Duvemåla came to be at what was then called Malmo City Theatre. It was a very intense period of work in Helen Sjöholm’s life.
– That was my education and my breakthrough. Those five years, from the beginning to the last performance, meant a lot of experience and I learned so much about my voice.
During the period it played there was Helen Sjöholm-fever in Malmö, which among other things resulted in that a woman with the same name got a lot of fan mail.
– Yes, that I remember. We got to converge once. Otherwise there’s a lot I don’t remember, I was in a kind of shock fever. Then there really was a lot of work too. It was very crazy, but I wouldn’t like to have those years undone.
In the winter Helen Sjöholm comes to Malmö to sing with Malmö Fire Brigade Orchestra. And then there will be a lot Duvemåla.
– That’s a dear old collaboration, I got to start working with them already when we played Kristina in Malmö and it’s always fun to return.

Helen Sjöholm will come to Malmö also in the autumn with the great production I love musicals, where she and Peter Jöback tour around the country at large arenas. Helsingborg is another stop.
But right now the focus is on the summer tour.
– Yes, we start on Friday and do nine gigs. The finale will be at Skillinge Theatre which turns 20 years old, a theater that means a lot to me. There I have Martin Östergren and Sjöbacka Chamber Choir with me.

Skåne and especially Malmö has a place in Helen Sjöholm’s heart.

So when are you coming back to play musical here?
– I certainly plan to do that later. I can long to return to Malmö and the amazing scene. Now it’s too far to commute with three small children at home, but some time it will happen, Helen Sjöholm promises.

Helen Sjöholm in Skåne
Music in the summer evening, at Bäckaskog Castle on June 28, in the City Hall Park in Ystad on July 5.
With Sjöbackakören and Martin Östergren at Skillinge Theatre on July 9.
I Love Musicals, with Peter Jöback and others, at Malmö Arena September 26 and Helsingborg Arena on October 2.
With the Malmö Fire Brigade Orchestra, Christmas gala at Malmö Arena on December 19, two performances.

Back