Västmanlands Läns Tidning 110204
By: ANN LYSTEDT
MUSIC
Euforia. Helen Sjöholm sings Billy Joel.
Where: In a crowded Västerås Concert Hall last night
We had been promised a troika of talent: Helen Sjöholm sings songs by Billy Joel, translated into Swedish by Tomas Andersson Wij. Yes.
But what do we get more on the stage? A complete backing group, with, among others, guitar legend Jojje Wadenius and talanted pianist Martin Östergren, and occasionally a bearing layer string quartet that gives both older and newer material additional strength and power.
Versatile Helen Sjöholm, with both songs, musical and theatrical portraits on her repertoire, seems to enjoy the company very much, with the subtle lyrics Andersson Wij has providet her with.
She released the title song of the Joel-album in November, Euforia, it contains a phrase which also became the focal point of the evening: “Somewhere between discouragement and euphoria …” Gentle ballads, rough blues and love longing songs. Helen Sjöholm is not performing, she gives generously all of herself in the diversity of genres.
Except Joel; the hitmaker of the 1970s – and ’80s, Sjöholm lets Jojje Wadenius in with the beautiful Kärleksmorgon (Love Morning) and pianist Martin Östergren with a Sheakspeare interpretation from Twelfth Night to the strings and Sjöholm singing.
Nick Cave’s Where the Wild Roses Grow gets an astringency of Cohen and when Helen Sjöholm sings Tomas Andersson Wij’s own Ett slag för dig – she actually out do the original.
In this concert, hardly no weaknesses were detected – except perhaps some tentative small talk between songs. But Helen Sjöholm took command of the really generous medley of 80’s songs, which was set to music from her own adolescence in Sundsvall. A mixture of nostalgia and history.
Not completely unexpected she topped the night, facing a crowded auditorium filled with a cheering audience, with Gabriella’s Song, but by that time the audience had already got to see a new Helen Sjöholm.