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Aftonbladet 200710
By: ANNA & HANS SHIMODA
Photo: CAROLINA BYRMO
25 years ago, She got her breakthrough in Kristina from Duvemåla. Helen Sjöholm, who turns 50 today, cannot point out enough how much the role has meant to her.
– Perhaps it was bigger than I could understand then, she says to Aftonbladet.
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“Party is not to think about”
Today, the singing Sjöholm turns 50, something she doesn´t make a big deal of.
– I don´t think it’s so dramatic. I´m healthy and have a body that works, I feel happy about it and try not to think too much about numbers, Helen Sjöholm says on the phone.
How should the day be celebrated?
– Partying in that way isn´t anything to think about, but it does not feel like it is important. I had a wonderful surprise evening with some friends who showed up that I had no idea about. I feel dizzy and happy about it, all steered up by my husband and it was absolutely amazing. Now we are going to meet my parents in Skåne, I haven´t met them in a very long time. Only that feels like a party so it’s fun.
“Haven’t melted it yet”
You recently recorded So Much Better – how was it?
– I haven´t melted it yet, I´m not very comfortable with having cameras in the face and comment and formulate myself all the time. It’s not my thing, but it was fascinating and moving and awesome. I’m full of very emotions after those days.
Was it what you thought it would be?
– I don´t really know what I had imagined, but that it would be so intense isn´t really possible to prepare for. I didn´t know any of those who were there at the same time. I knew most of them a little, but not all.
Did you bond extra with someone?
– I was only there for three days, but overall this gang was exciting. Loreen and I had interesting conversations. The one you think is most different, maybe you have the most similarities with.
We interviewed Tommy Körberg a while ago and he said that he would wear different glasses with different colors every day to fuck with the TV producers, so they would not be able to cut anyhow. Did you have a similar idea?
– I can damn well imagine that he had! But I had no such draft, no. I had new underwear every day anyway …
25 years in the spotlight
It´s 25 years since your breakthrough with Kristina from Duvemåla, what has that role meant to you?
– A lot, it was my breakthrough and to do it with such a big role was fantastic. People had such high expectations and Kristina was already in the hearts of many Swedes, Björn and Benny did something monumental of their own. It was a leading female role and it was maybe bigger than I could understand then which was probably good, haha! When I look at it with different eyes now, it was no matter how big. I learned so much during these five years, it was five incredible years.
Many artists have a song that is “their own” and that they are strongly associated with. You have impressively three; You Have To Be There, You Are My Man and Gabriella’s Song from As It Is In Heaven.
– You Are My Man was great fun to do, but it was with a back heel I would say. I thought it was fun, like an old tune from the 50’s. We had no idea that it would attach in that enormous way. I´ve really got some good melodies and everyone has been clear in its language. There have been clear lyrics, like Gabriella’s Song which Py Bäckman and Stefan Nilsson made. Of course, I’m grateful to have that with me in life.
– You Have To Be There addresses things that not everyone dares to address, it´s almost like a cry of anxiety. Young girls have come to me and said that it´s fantastic. And Gabriella’s Song has made me get a response like “do you know that this song has changed my life?”
Scouted by Benny
How did you get in touch with Björn and Benny from the very beginning?
– It was crazy, there are an amateur play in Enskede that they have set up for many years. In 1991 I got a tip about it and I got a big role there. Then Benny got there, because his brother-in-law wrote music for that play and then Benny called me, he needed someone who sang some demos for Kristina and he wanted a neutral voice. So I did and I was happy already there. I received a cassette tape that I cared for tenderly. Then Benny called and said that I had to audition, which I had planned to do anyway and got the role.
Have you dreamed of breaking through abroad?
– I have sung in the USA, England, the Nordic countries, but I have never had any driving force to make an international career, I have enjoyed myself and love the Swedish language and feel at home in it.
Postponed tour
If we’re talking about future plans – what are you up to?
– I have been working on a new record so I´ll release new material this fall and it feels great that it can happen this year. Then I would tour, but we’ll see when it happens. But I would like to film more, it´s a dream to have more challenges within that field.
In ten years you will turn 60, where are you then?
– Then I, pepper, pepper, will sit here and talk to someone about it and have the same life. Hopefully we stay in our house and I hope that I still work and that there is room for someone like me, you don´t know.
There has been a lot of writing about various grants in these corona times and we know that your husband David, who is a sound engineer, has been involved in the problem that those who decide don´t know how the entertainment industry works. How have you been doing financially during this time?
– He has had it tougher than me because he has a sole proprietorship. I´ve worked a lot over the years so I manage for a while. Then you get to see how long “a while” will be. Autumn already disappeared for me, everything that existed has disappeared so in the long term it doesn´t look so good, Helen Sjöholm says and continues:
– But I can live on what is available and I´ve had the opportunity to resign so I get a small compensation, but you have to see how long it lasts. But I don´t live a big life so I´ll manage, there are so many others who have it tough.
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(The entire interview is not reproduced for copyright reasons)