Aftonbladet 131009
By: Jens Petterson
Helen Sjöholm is a master of musical. Now she offers a taste of next year’s ”Livet är en schlager”. Popular songs meet dance band. But she shows many other emotions on the new tour.
Helen Sjöholm has given voice to some of the Swedes’ most beloved songs. She sings both ” Gabriella’s song” and ”You are my man” in this show. But she has plenty of other expressions and musical interests. She goes into the Swedish ballad archive and begins that journey with ”Vårvindar friska”. She sings from the album with Billy Joel tunes, that got Swedish lyrics by Tomas Andersson Wij.
Swaying blues
She chooses more rare numbers like ”The Kiss” by Judee Sill and ”Veronica” which Elvis Costello wrote together with Paul McCartney. She can go from her greatest classic, ”You have to be there” from ”Kristina”, straight into the heavy rocking blues from Depeche Mode. One can feel a community in liking the same songs. It’s nice that she brings out a hidden diamond like ”Fanfar” by Staffan Hellstrand.
Room for humor
One can also find community in laughing at the same things. Helen Sjöholm is good at being funny on stage, and could use humor even more. Here she offers a comical encore in a folk song, and some good stories. Her musical self-portrait also contains Tracy Chapman and Joni Mitchell, and there’s ”Both sides now” as well as ”Big yellow taxi”. A very skilled band and playful arrangements. Jojje Wadenius and Martin Östergren respectively present instrumental pieces they wrote. Beautiful.
But it’s The Voice that sets the senses in motion.