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The article by Jens Peterson says that Helen Sjöholm and Peter Jöback, for the first time since their breakthroughs in “Kristina från Duvemåla” 20 years ago, will play against each other in a musical. They will be siblings in “Life is a hit song”. For Helen Sjöholm it started by being Jonas’ wedding present to Mark, when she sang “Som skapta för varann”, which she back in 2011 didn’t know was part of a musical.
Helen says she liked the movie, from 2000 with Helena Bergström and Jonas Karlsson, very much, and that Helena’s role performance and the movie made a strong impression. Jonas Gardell wrote the screenplay, and it’s about Mona who loves the Eurovision Song Contest and submits a song, without telling that she has taken it from a man whom she works as an assistant to.
Peter Jöback says he is happy about the arc of his character, Mona’s transgender brother Candy Darling, and that it’s important that they do it right and with respect for those who live that way. He says it’s partly his story but also very far and that it’s exciting to explore the feminine side. In the movie Candy dies from AIDS, but the stage version is different and Candy has a another story.
Helen Sjöholm, who has played burdened women in “Kristina från Duvemåla”, “As it is in Heaven” and “Simon and the Oaks”, says it’s tempting to play a new kind of girl.
– One’s been feeling so incredibly sorry for me all the time. Mona takes hold of her situation, she’s not one to feel sorry for.
Helen remembers from when she was a child how everyone watched the Eurovision Song Contest, and the following week they stood miming to the songs at Funny hour [in school], and praises Eurovision singers like Kikki Danielsson and Lena Ph.
She has been asked to participate a few times, but has declined, saying she wouldn’t do a good job since it doesn’t fit her at all.
Peter Jöback says, – You respond so well to why you’re not in it – “I’m not a sprinter”. I think of that when I relapse and participate. We want to tell a story, that can’t be done in three minutes.
Peter also says that when he first got to hear two of the songs for “Life is a hit song”, it was so good that he cried, and that Fredrik Kempe and Gardell are a match made in heaven.
Due to copyright reasons the interview cannot be translated as a whole and is therefor summarized. The link to the original article is at the start of this page.