Dagens Nyheter 2023-12-23
By: HANNA MELIN
(…) Here, ten cultural personalities, from artists to comedians, choose the Christmas pieces that give them the most Christmas spirit (…)
Helen Sjöholm, artist
Winter topical: The Christmas concert “Snow and marshals” together with Anna Stadling, which has been played in Stockholm, Västerås and Örebro.
My choice: O holy night, sung by Mahalia Jackson in 1968.
– What is most Christmas to me is the American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson’s recording of O holy night from 1968, just listen and feel Christmas spread like a red blanket around you. My dad used to play her Christmas album Christmas With Mahalia every year starting on the evening of December 23rd. I must have heard it for the first time on Christmas 1970 when I was six months old. Dad still plays it, and it’s been passed down to me. You hear the scratch on the gramophone, the choir, the atmosphere and above all her voice. It’s so beautiful, powerful and waywardly epic. I loved hearing it as a child and I love hearing it now, I remember people and Christmases from the past and kind of feel the presence of my childhood. I get a kind of jittery anticipation that I don’t really carry anymore before Christmas. It’s like pressing a button, when I hear Mahalia Jackson’s incomparable voice, it’s simply Christmas.
Who do you want to give a Christmas present this year?
– To the people who started the soccer team Johanneshovs FF for vulnerable young people. The football team where no one in the club is older than 16 years. I would like to give them lots of sponsors and encouragement for a great initiative.
3 quick Christmas questions for Helen Sjöholm
Christmas presents for adults?
Yes ✓
No
Mulled wine or grog for Christmas?
Mulled wine ✓
Grog
If you have to choose?
All I want for Christmas is you
Last Christmas ✓