Barometern 131028
By: Anna Törnkvist
“You aaare my maaan…! With great enthusiasm and aplomb the man next to me, who visits the concert with his wife, sings along to the chorus.
The audience in the packed Kalmarsalen had to start the concert evening with groping around in the dark in the foyer, for just over half an hour. The light comes back in the end after a power failure and Helen Sjöholm greets her audience, 30 minutes after the appointed time, with open arms.
– Thank you for waiting.
I like Helen Sjöholm and her theatrical style. She makes music drama of most songs and it becomes especially effective in her presentation of Staffan Hellstrand’s ”Fanfare”, which reads:
”This is a song for those who see happiness in what they have near. Those who bring children into the world and make it work”. Her voice is overwhelmingly powerful and the lyrics take up space. The repertoire is also a spectacle.
Helen Sjöholm did the role of Kristina från Duvemåla breathtaking 18 years ago. From the big screen we remember her as Gabriella in ”Så som i himmelen”. In these works she gave voice to some of the Swedes’ most beloved songs, ”Du måste finnas” and ”Gabriella’s sång”, included in this show in Kalmarsalen.
She also offers a taste of newly written music by Fredrik Kempe, from next year’s musical version of Jonas Gardell and Susanne Bier’s movie ”Livet är en schlager”, where Helen Sjöholm plays pop song freak Mona. ”Som skapta för varann”, which offers space for Helen Sjöholm’s registry, has all the potential to become a new hit on the Swedish charts.
Helen Sjöholm goes from her greatest classics to dark and depressed by Depeche Mode. She also takes us on a journey into the Swedish song archive, where she and George ”Jojje” Wadenius found, among others, ”Vårvindar friska”. She also sings from the album with Billy Joel tunes, which got Swedish lyrics by Tomas Andersson Wij.
The concert offers many opportunities to close your eyes and enjoy, such as in Georg ”Jojje” Wadenius’ instrumental ”Kärleksmorgon”, and the performance of Judee Sill’s ”The Kiss” feels like pulling a warm blanket over yourself, you breathe easier.
Helen Sjöholm moves nicely between comedy and seriousness in the small talk, as when she tells about her first appearance in the Housewives Association when she mimed to Lasse Berghagen’s “BH-samlaren Knut”, and then talks about her concerns for the changing rural areas. Her sensitive performance of Tomas Andersson Wij’s ”Ett slag för dig”, which is about rural areas in transition, is the best of this evening.
After a standing ovation, Helen Sjöholm and her band come back on stage and she tells us about an organizer in Skåne who wondered:
– You will sing the song, won’t you? They’ll kill you otherwise.
Helen Sjöholm sits down as if in a starting block and breaks forth in ”Du är min man””which was five years on the Swedish charts. A leap runs into the entire audience in Kalmarsalen and the mood changes from laid-back and relaxed into a kind of revival meeting in the final number, which is a declaration of unconditional love to a man.
Facts
Artist/Group: Helen Sjöholm, med Martin Östergren, Georg ”Jojje” Wadenius, Ulric Johanson and Tomas Bergquist.
Where: Kalmarsalen
Rating: * * * *