Göteborgs-Posten 201205
By: JOHAN LINDQVIST
Helen Sjöholm is one of the country’s most experienced artists. Still, it was hard to get to the So much better house.
– I became shy in front of the pop stars, she reveals.
2020 is the year of the debuts for Helen Sjöholm. First the album En ny tid med material written just for her and then a first visit to Grå gåsen in TV4’s long run So much better.
That it took so long with a record on her own has had many different reasons, Helen Sjöholm has not directly suffered from a lack of assignments and as a stage artist in large productions, she has often or really always been connected for long periods at a time.
But now the opportunity was here and in collaboration with producer Andreas Dahlbäck and a bunch of meritorious musicians, the album would be recorded. Organic, collective, in studio. The pandemic got in the way of that, as for so much else. The recordings had to be done remotely and when Helen Sjöholm was going to sing on Skavlan, autumn was already here and it was the first time she actually had her whole band in place.
– It was really fun, and at the same time a little strange, Helen Sjöholm says.
(…) Helen Sjöholm states that the years make her voice change in different ways and the songs on this record were right right now, where she is in life.
– I´m used to singing on assignments, going into a role in an ensemble and interpreting another person’s feelings. I always want to do it in a personal way, it has to mean something to me. But recording this record was another kind of experience that I would like to explore further, she says.
Interpreting other people’s music was also the task when Helen Sjöholm spent a few days on Gotland to be involved and record So much better. A dream booking from the production side, you might think, in experienced Sjöholm you got an experienced participant with a lot to tell about. But also a thoroughbred professional when it comes to singing whatever you put in her hands.
– I have done a lot, but when I got there I first felt very shy. I´ve so much respect for the artists from the pop industry and was really nervous, Helen Sjöholm says. She wasn´t alone in that feeling.
Already in the first season of the program, Lasse Berghagen himself testifies that he was “a little scared” of Plura but now regretted that they hadn´t gotten to know each other before.
– Yes, there you see. We artists and entertainers can seem very outward-looking, but there is often an uncertainty beneath the surface. I also met Plura there and he is very lovely just like the others who were there. It was intense but fun and nice to be with colleagues.
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