Photo & © Theresia Köhlin
Allas 2022-09-29
By: ANNA OLOFSSON
Photo: TERESIA KÖHLIN
Perhaps it was fate that brought the singers Helen Sjöholm and Anna Stadling together. As newborns, they were in the same nursery, and later a long, common love for both music and each other would emerge. This year they celebrate 40 years of friendship by standing on stage together again, with the album and the Christmas tour Snö och marschaller (Snow and marshals)
Warmth, friendship, humour, laughter, humility, trust and love for life and music – these are some words that characterize the friends Anna Stadling and Helen Sjöholm. Two singers who touch with their voices, and sing in unison where it´s sometimes difficult to distinguish who is who.
Their journey of friendship began in elementary school in Sundsvall. Or as Anna tells, that they actually met for the first time at BB in Sundsvall in 1970. Helen and Anna were born just one day apart, then unaware that in the future they would be on stage together.
This is Helen Sjöholm and Anna Stadling
Name: Anna Stadling and Helen Sjöholm
Age: Both are 52 years old.
Lives: Stockholm.
Family: Anna is married to Pecka and has one child, Helen is married to David and has three children.
Instagram: @annastadling and @helensjoholmofficial
Websites: annastadling.com and helensjoholm.nu
Current with: The Christmas album Snö & Marschaller, which will be released on October 28, and a Sweden tour of the same name between 19/11–20/12 (…)
Both describe the friendship as inspiring, enriching and valuable, where they have always been able and dared to be themselves.
– With you, Helen, I’ve always been able to be who I am, no matter what situation I’ve been in in life, says Anna.
– The same for me, I feel the same way, counters Helen.
Never felt competition or jealousy
We meet at a cafe in Stockholm. Anna is the first to arrive, and a few minutes later Helen arrives. Anna orders a cappuccino and Helen a pot of tea. The first thing that strikes you when you meet them both together is their warm, deep and open personalities.
And there is no mistaking that they know each other well. They fill in each other’s sentences when a word, year or an important event in their history is missing. When one of them makes a humorous comment, the other bursts into laughter.
– It is so valuable to have a friend like Anna, Helen says.
Despite both being in the music business for the past thirty years, there has rarely been competition or jealousy. Instead, they have supported and learned from each other. Helen takes a sip of tea and looks towards her friend.
– I´ve always admired you Anna, how you write your own songs and lyrics based on your life, and how you deliver them. I´ve often wished I could.
Anna meets Helen’s gaze and answers:
– I´ve always been fascinated by your voice, your enormous musical breadth and not least by your delivery of lyrics. I always remember my dad saying, “Oh, Helen can sing the words like no one else can.”
Anna Stadling and Helen Sjöholm showed together
They both have a strong love for their hometown, where it all started 40 years ago.
Anna, then 12 years old, moved with her family from Klockarberget in Njurunda to Skönsmon in the center and started in the same school as Helen. They went to parallel classes and got to know each other more when they started in the same choir in Culture School.
– When we were 14 years old, we started doing shows together. We went to my house after the choir, sat in my room and talked about music, Helen says.
Anna fills in:
– We found each other through music, you could say. Helen inspired me a lot even then. Over time, a strong friendship developed between us.
Both have grown up in families where music meant a lot. Anna’s father was a famous singer in Sundsvall and in Helen’s family it has been about live music and theatre.
– Our families have been committed and supportive throughout our journey, although in different ways I would say, Helen says.
Hanging out around the clock, talking about life
Their paths diverged when Anna decided to study music in Härnösand. She was 16 years old then.
– You´ve been clear all along with what you longed for, you have known that “this is what I should invest in”, I´ve envied you for that, Helen says.
– But at the same time, I’ve been groping my way and trying to understand which genre I belong in, Anna says, falls silent and thinks for a while.
– I remember so well when I heard your voice. Your unique tone and voice was something out of the ordinary, she tells Helen.
When they were 17 years old, they were selected to perform and represent the municipality of Sundsvall in Pori, Finland.
– We hung out around the clock and talked about life at night. We talked about who we wanted to be and what we wanted with the music. Think Anna, that back then we dreamed of being able to live on music, and we can both do that today, it’s fantastic, Helen says.
They started doing musical performances together. They rented churches around Sundsvall and put together Christmas concerts, a time that both remember fondly.
(…)
Helen Sjöholm went to Kulturama
When Anna had completed the music course, she moved to the USA for a year, and stopped over in Sundsvall for a period before moving to Stockholm as a 20-year-old to study at the Academy of Music and devote herself wholeheartedly to music. She wrote songs, sang and performed.
Helen went to high school in Sundsvall, she had been told by her parents that she should invest in an education so that she could then take up music again.
– And I understand what they meant, they wanted me to have a foundation to stand on, and an education to lean on.
When Helen was 18, she was contacted by the former theater manager in Västernorrland county.
– He wrote lyrics and songs and wanted me, him and another musician to try a collaboration.
During the next 18 months, Helen understood that it was music she wanted to work with.
– We toured intensively and I learned so much. My colleagues encouraged me to dare to take the plunge, not to lose the music in my life. They made me believe in myself. Right then and there I decided to apply for a three-month course at Kulturama (a culture school) in Stockholm, and the moving package went to the capital, Helen says and continues:
– I studied three hours a day and worked cleaning toilets and classrooms the other half of the time. I needed to earn money, I remember my accommodation was super expensive, she says with a laugh.
Important to each other both in friendship and careers
After the short education, it was ten years in Malmö. Helen started working with musicals, film and music.
– Here we drifted apart – not as friends, but our meetings didn´t become as frequent. Now we had contact via SMS and letters, in those days there was no email in the same way, Anna says.
Helen returns to the strength of their friendship. How they´ve been able to talk to each other freely about everything, been open with all doubts and concerns.
– We´ve simply been important to each other both in friendship and for our careers. Not to mention the support we had when love challenged, Helen says.
Anna adds:
– Yes, it’s wonderful that I’ve always had you Helen, you’ve been there, in both small and big events in life.
Anna Stadling got cancer at the same time as her husband
Anna falls silent and talks about the tough time she went through when she and her husband Pecka got cancer at the same time in the middle of life, and no one knew how it would turn out. Then Helen was there.
It was in the fall of 2015 that Anna learned after a mammogram that she had calcified areas in her left breast – which required surgery and radiation therapy – just a couple of weeks after her husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The entire breast had to be removed, and samples were taken to see if the cancer had spread to the lymphatic system.
While family and friends cared for Anna and Pecka’s then five-year-old son, they underwent surgery in January and February 2016, respectively. Thanks to early detection of Pecka’s cancer, the operation went well, and when Anna woke up from her anesthesia, she learned that the cancer had neither spread nor a developed tumor been found.
– Today both my husband and I are declared healthy and we are humbly grateful for that. It´s an art to dare to be in it and enjoy life, Anna says.
Do a Christmas tour with the album Snö & Marschaller
In 2018, Helen and Anna did the Christmas tour Sånger i vintertid (Songs in winter time) together, and in 2021 they released the single Julen kan hjälpa (Christmas can help). In connection with that, they played three exclusive gigs in Visby and Vara.
This year, they release the Christmas album Snö & Marschaller and set out again on a Christmas tour through Sweden in November and December. Helen and Anna tell us that they interpret songs and make them their own, and for both of them it’s a process where they get to create and use their creative sides.
– It’s wonderful and enriching to work with Helen, it’s so easy . We never have to think about how the other thinks, here we are so alike, says Anna.
– Yes, sometimes when we make a playlist, then we don’t need to discuss. If I move a song, you immediately agree, it’s like we read each other’s thoughts, Helen says.
(…)
Their similarities are many and easy for both to describe, where, among other things, the key words are creativity, joy of life and curiosity about life. But when I ask about their differences, it stops.
– We have to think about what we are different about, we have to be able to find something, Helen says.
– Well, I’ll come up with something. You´re structured, I´m not, Anna says. You´ve total control at home. I myself need to start creating more order in the home.
Helen laughs and fills in:
– Chaos can express itself in different ways, my time optimism for example?
Friendship is about supporting each other
So how do you keep a friendship alive for this long?
– It’s about supporting each other, but giving each other air and not getting stuck with anyone. It wouldn’t work if I felt someone was holding me down, Anna says and Helen agrees.
Something that characterizes both Anna and Helen is their exuberant joie de vivre, which shines through in both the music and their attitude to life.
– Life has so much to give. I’ve probably come to terms with the fact that things go up and down. It´s both easy and difficult to exist and live here, but every day is unique, Anna says.
– Yes, really, life is here and now. It feels as if we are being reminded more and more not to take anything for granted, Helen says.
(The entire interview isn´t reproduced for copyright reasons)