Kristianstadsbladet 2021-12-20
By: SOFIA FREIJD/TT
Childhood friends Helen Sjöholm and Anna Stadling love Christmas music. Their Christmas tour in mini format makes a stop in Nederluleå church, where they set the mood for Strålande jul (Brilliant Christmas) from Luleå.
At the concert, in the middle of the world heritage Gammelstads kyrkstad in Luleå, they share the stage with artists such as Bo Kasper’s Orchestra, Tusse and Kalle Moraeus.
– It isn´t a given combination of artists but it was a very nice atmosphere, Helen Sjöholm says.
Tickets for the concert, which was recorded at the end of November, sold out in five minutes.
– It´s a time when we want to gather around the music. When you get to go to a church on the first of Advent, sit on the bench and hear Hosanna, there is something magical about it. A larger arch is formed over us that may be needed sometimes, Anna Stadling says.
The friends sing their new Christmas song Julen kan hjälpa (Christmas can help), which was released in November. It´s a new interpretation of Maybe this Christmas by Ron Sexsmith, with Swedish text by Andreas Mattsson.
– It opens up for both thoughts and reflection. Around Christmas, many get a little more time to gather, maybe call and check the situation with someone you haven´t talked to in a long time or invite for a coffee, Helen Sjöholm says.
Sjöholm and Stadling have known each other since they were twelve years old, when Anna started at Helen’s school and they ended up in the same choir. When they got a little older, they formed the duo Meiram. They´ve kept in touch over the years but haven´t sung together very much.
– Until three years ago, when we did a Christmas tour together. It was amazing and we felt we needed to do more of that.
– Large parts of our collaboration have landed well at Christmas. It includes so much twinkling and the dream of happiness, but there is also darkness and the knowledge that not everyone is feeling so well. That duality is difficult but also a bit exciting, says Anna Stadling.
Next year they´ll follow up Julen kan hjälpa with a full-length album and then there will also be a longer tour. Swedish Christmas music is what counts.
– It´s wonderful to be able to wallow in the Swedish language. I made a Christmas album a few years ago with American Christmas carols. The meeting with that music, but in Swedish, that’s a bit my thought now, Anna Stadling says.
At home in the kitchen, however, everything possible can be played in the Christmas rush.
– Mahalia Jackson speeds up the real Christmas feeling for me. My dad always played her Christmas album Silent night when I was little, it starts something in me, Helen Sjöholm says.
Anna Stadling
Age: 51.
Family: A man and one child.
Wishing for a Christmas present: “I love pajamas and want a new, silky, thin with long sleeves.”
Favorite Christmas song: “O holy night, my dad always sang it when I was little”.
Favorite Christmas movie: “Karl-Bertil Jonsson’s Christmas Eve”.
Helen Sjöholm
Age: 51.
Family: A man and three children.
Wishing for a Christmas present: “In addition to world peace and an end to the corona pandemic, preferably small corn cob holders.”
Favorite Christmas song: “O holy night”.
Favorite Christmas movie: “Love Actually, I usually watch it on the 23rd. And I love Karl-Bertil Jonsson’s Christmas Eve”.