Dagbladet 110131
By: KJELL-OVE CEDERQVIST
HELEN SJÖHOLM
Musicians: Martin Östergren, George “Jojje” Wadenius, Gunnar Nordén, André Ferrari, Fredrik Jonsson, Hanna Helgegren, Johanna Tafvelin, Åsa Stove Paulsson and Anna S Wahlgren.
Location: Tonhallen.
Rating: 5
This is good as it gets. Helen Sjöholm “came home” to Sundsvall and gave a concert, which is essentially based on the music of Billy Joel, the New York-born musician and pianist born in 1949 who still writes music. What a great concert it was! The audience stood up in their seats, giving Helen and her musicians a standing ovation. The performance in Sundsvall was also the opening night of her tour.
With a certainty that shows that she knows who she is, knows what she’s doing and knows what she is capable of, Helen took the stage without any glitz or sweeping gestures. She shines with her voice. And there is a certainty in her way she moves on stage and take care of the small talk between songs.
Helen has chosen to sing Billy Joel in Swedish. The texts are translated by Tomas Andersson Wij. “My grandmother told me to sing in Swedish, and I like to sing in the Swedish language”, Helen says.
Helen is mixing successfully in her choice of songs. Billy Joel, in many cases, low-key songs were appreciated by the audience. Helen Sjöholm showed both in her track selection and in her small talk how much she likes the music that he created and still creates. She has recently released a new album, “Euforia”, which has become very critically-acclaimed, which contains songs by just Joel.
However, she also performs songs by other musicians. Among other things, a nice ballad with “Joje Wadenius”, “When the wild roses grow ‘, which is written by Nick Cave. She sings even something as unusual as Shakespeare, music by Martin Östergren, and we heard a song by Elvis Costello, “I had Almost a Weakness” accompaniment by a string orchestra. She also tackles a piece of Harry Martinson’s “Aniara”.
Her story about when she was 13-14 years, lived in Sundsvall, and went on gray, large and gloomy Höglunda School was ingenious. The first kiss, first crush, teenage rebellion and a little bit more were fun elements, which she combined with singing snippets of popular songs from these 1980’s.
Helen Sjöholm is a strong performer with strength throughout its conduct. Her voice is so impressively strong and she has an energy that is contagious. Helen lets the audience know that she is highly appreciative of the musicians that surround her.
There is a group of fabulous musicians, that tours with her. For many years, “Jojje” Wadenius was a talented musician. Today though he is a thoroughbred professional on the guitar that few can match and he gets room in the show for his guitar playing.
Interestingly in this context is that Helen Sjöholm also brings four female string players with her. During the premiere screening she also called her childhood friend Anna Stadling on stage and the two friends sang a track by “Jojje” Wadenius.
The ending, including a strong performance of “Gabriella’s Song”, almost brought the audience into ecstasy. The nice thing here is that Helen comes back to the town where she grew up, on April 14 we will see her again in Tonhallen in Sundsvall.