Helen Sjöholm has not completely left Kristina from Duvemala behind.
But now it´s mainly Billy Joel, who is current.
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Photo: RYNO QUANTZ
Culture & Entertainment | 16 November. She leaves the City Theater in a spaceship, while she invites Billy Joel to Sweden. Kristina has resurfaced, in English, while movie screens are waiting for Simon and the oaks.
– It’s been a busy year, says Helen Sjöholm.
At the City Theatre Helen Sjöholm plays one of the persons of Harry Martinson’s poem Aniara who loses direction on its way to Mars from an uninhabitable Earth. The contrast is big for the soft arranged and translated interpretations of the American artist Billy Joel’s music. They are available at Helen Sjöholm’s first album in eight years, “Euforia”.
In love
She has not been a Billy Joel fan, she says, but some songs have been favorites for a long time.
– When I decided I wanted to do an album with Billy Joel songs, I had fallen in love with She’s always a woman, and started listening more and more.
The songs she chose was translated by Tomas Andersson Wij.
– They are originally written for a male singer and they are quite typical of its time. The songs become more “new” and more “mine”, if they are in Swedish.
– I feel that the songs fit me, they are in a narrated form, but almost always with a twist. The songs have been scaled down and grown up in her band, including guitarist Jojje Wadenius and producer Gunnar Nordén. A concert tour will take place in the new year, with three concerts scheduled in Stockholm.
– A lot has happened with both my voice and expression since my last album. I have learned a lot. It will probably not take eight years to the next disc.
While the disc has been made Helen Sjöholm rehearsed and started playing Harry Martinson’s Aniara at Stockholm City Theatre. It´s theater in which music by Andreas Kleerup has a major role and Helen Sjöholms “poetissa” contributes to the history with two of her songs.
– Aniara is played by a stronger cast than in any other set I’ve done. Everyone has an important part.
Lyrics of poetic rhythm
Martinson’s lyrics have been edited slightly and is multi-layered, but with a poetic rhythm and flow, they have worked well to sing, Helen Sjöholm thinks. She compares the process of Aniara when Kristina from Duvemala was set up the first time:
– Kristina was made entirely from scratch, both text and music. Other sets I’ve done since then have been more ready to play. Aniara has been like a blank slate again.
In previous years, Helen Sjöholm had the same sets over longer periods. This year there have been many new projects.
In addition to the role of Aniara and the CD, the spring was devoted to the filming of the upcoming film “Simon and the oaks” by Marianne Fredriksson’s book. Helen Sjöholm is playing Simon’s mother. She has also returned to Kristina the last year, when a concert version in English was played in both New York and London.
– I´m quite engrossed in doing what I do, but you may want to switch between different things. What I do, I do by my feeling and from which requests I get.
Often at Dieselverkstaden
Helen Sjöholm has lived in Nacka with her family for over two years, a few steps away from Dieselverkstaden, where she often is with her son Ruben, who is three years old.
– I thought I was a hillbilly, but then I liked to live at “Söder” in Stockholm. Now we think it is nice to have a garden, but still be close to town.
She has a lot going on
“Simon and the oaks” will have its première in 2011.
“Aniara” is played at Stockholm City Theatre until December 31.
The album “Euforia” released this week.