Sölvesborg newspaper 131018
By: Elin Thornberg
There are few people who are not affected by Helen Sjöholm’s voice. Today she is one of Sweden’s most beloved singers, with a large repertoire of most genres. She hardly needs to rehearse these days, the songs are in the back of her mind anyway.
– I practice so extremely little that I’m ashamed, she says.
She sounds a little bit stressed during our conversation. She has just dropped the children off at kindergarden, and as soon as we hang up she will get a moment to herself. In the silence, as she likes to emphasize as her favorite music.
– It’s never quiet in my life. I have three children so there is never a quiet moment. I don’t listen much to music, sometimes I get a whim and listen a lot to classical music or jazz, but right now I just want to listen to the silence.
Already as a child she began to sing. Always and most of the time, she says.
– I was just one of those singing kids, I always sang. But I never thought that I would be a singer and have it as a profession, she says.
To have sung a lot is her recipe for success. Today she rehearses very little, the singing is there anyway. It’s the desire to sing that is important, she says, as long as she feels the urge to sing, she will continue. And it has lasted since then.
– I’ve been singing for so long and so much, so I think the desire to sing is the main thing, to have a lust to sing and want to sing a lot, then it will be fine, she says.
On Saturday, her solo tour comes to Karlskrona Concert Theater. There is no theme, but is simply Helen Sjöholm singing everything between ballads, pop, Swedish hits and musicals. That’s how she wants it.
– Yes, that’s how I work, I have never wanted to chose a special genre, but to do many different things. There are some songs that have accompanied me for a long time, and that the audience wants to hear. I find it hard to choose a favourite.
She doesn’t visit Blekinge very often. She remembers the main square of Karlskrona with many old buildings. But Blekinge still plays an important role in her life.
– It was in Karlshamn the boat departed with Kristina and Karl-Oskar when they were going to America, she says.
Helen Sjöholm was cast as Kristina in Kristina från Duvemåla in the mid 90s. It was her big breakthrough, and it still means a lot to her.
– It became my entire education, it was there I learned the limitations of my voice, and it was there that I became a name, in a way.
Since then there’s been a couple of big musical roles, for example Les Miserables, Fiddler on the Roof, Chess and My Fair Lady. Next autumn there will be another one, in the newly written musical version of Livet är en schlager.
Helen stars as Mona, mother of four. In that musical she also will be reunited with Peter Jöback, who she hasn’t performed with on the musical stage since Kristina från Duvemåla.
– It will premiere in September and we start rehearsing in May. It will be great fun, it’s always nice to work with new material, and the songs are newly written, she says.
Have you ever wished to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest?
– I’ve actually never dreamed about it. I’m rather frightened by the thought to only have three and a half minutes on stage. I’m the kind of person that needs more time.