{"id":15261,"date":"2025-10-06T15:20:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T13:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/?page_id=15261"},"modified":"2025-10-06T15:35:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T13:35:35","slug":"helen-and-anna-close-the-circle-back-in-selanger-with-christmas-songs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/press-clips\/interviews-2025\/helen-and-anna-close-the-circle-back-in-selanger-with-christmas-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen and Anna close the circle \u2013 back in Sel\u00e5nger with Christmas songs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sundsvalls Tidning, 2024-11-09<\/strong><\/p>\n

By: SUSANNE HOLMLUND & MARIA EILERSTEN<\/p>\n

This is how it began. In Sundsvall. In churches. And together.<\/strong>
\nThe artists from Sundsvall, Helen Sj\u00f6holm and Anna Stadling, have been friends for 40 years. Twenty-six years ago they performed as a duo in Sel\u00e5nger Church.<\/strong>
\nNow they\u2019re doing it again. On December 7, they\u2019ll return with a Christmas concert.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013 This church is so beautiful,\u201d says Helen Sj\u00f6holm, looking around.<\/p>\n

Unlike her friend Anna, she didn\u2019t grow up in a Free Church family. But she\u2019s still moved by churches.<\/p>\n

\u2013 I\u2019ve always been interested in the big questions, and church buildings are amazing. They have an inherent sense of listening. You notice it when you make music, she says.<\/p>\n

Back in the summer of 1970, no one knew that two future artists had been born just one day apart at Sundsvall\u2019s maternity ward (Helen is the older). It would take twelve years before their paths truly crossed.<\/p>\n

\u2013 We moved from Klockarberget into town. Helen and I ended up in parallel classes, Anna Stadling recalls.<\/p>\n

They both took part in a spring show at school and sang in the same choir at the municipal arts school under Elisabeth Mod\u00e9n Hallgren. They were drawn in the same direction \u2013 and with their different backgrounds they were curious about each other. Anna came from a musical Free Church family; Helen\u2019s family loved theatre and other kinds of music.<\/p>\n

\u2013 I saw your sense of comedy and theatre interest. At home it was more classical music, says Anna.<\/p>\n

\u2013 And I learned a lot from the Stadling family. You took music seriously, and Anna\u2019s father Bertil talked about voice leading and phrasing. That was exciting for me, says Helen.<\/p>\n

When it came time for upper secondary school, Anna \u2013 following her family tradition \u2013 applied to the music high school in H\u00e4rn\u00f6sand, while Helen chose the social sciences track, with no plans then to make music her profession.<\/p>\n

But at 17 the friends were hired to give a concert together in Bj\u00f6rneborg, Finland \u2013 Sundsvall\u2019s twin town. They discovered how well they worked together and formed a duo, Meiram, which led to more engagements. They appeared on Kjell L\u00f6nn\u00e5\u2019s singalong program, sang at music nights in Glasverandan on Spikarna, collaborated with skilled musicians \u2013 and did Christmas concerts.<\/p>\n

When Anna spent a year in the U.S. and then started at the College of Music in Stockholm, Helen kept working for a year and a half with established artists Lars T Johansson and Erling Eliasson. After that experience she decided to go all in on performing, applied to Kulturama in Stockholm \u2013 and the rest is history. The musical Kristina from Duvem\u00e5la<\/em> became her big breakthrough (…)<\/p>\n

As their careers diverged, their friendship became less intense, but it never disappeared. And in 2016, when Sundsvalls Tidning celebrated its 175th anniversary, they were asked to sing together again (…)<\/p>\n

At a lunch in Stockholm a couple of years later they decided to make an album together. It took some time \u2013 and the pandemic delayed it further \u2013 but in 2022 the Christmas album Sn\u00f6 & marchaller (Snow & marshals)<\/em> was finished, followed by a Christmas tour that also visited Sundsvall.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s mini-tour skipped their hometown. This year\u2019s tour is larger. They\u2019re bringing two new songs: ABBA\u2019s The Way Old Friends Do<\/em>, which Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus translated into Swedish for them almost before they had the chance to ask, and Julens r\u00f6ster (Voices of Christmas)<\/em>, which they wrote themselves with Peter Kvint.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Christmas is magical. It\u2019s tradition, and in this stressful world also a time for contemplation and peace. It creates togetherness, says Helen.<\/p>\n

They themselves have strong childhood music memories from Sundsvall \u2013 memories that influence their Christmas repertoire.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Julton with Kjell L\u00f6nn\u00e5, of course. Dad always sang O helga natt (O Holy Night)<\/em> at Elim Church; that\u2019s unforgettable for me. And Advent<\/em> with choir \u2013 that\u2019s very special,\u201d says Anna.<\/p>\n

\u2013 At our house we played Mahalia Jackson\u2019s album and O Holy Night<\/em> says Helen.<\/p>\n

In 2022 they performed at Tonhallen. This year\u2019s concerts will be more intimate and church-focused rather than in concert halls. It will be just their voices and the trio Jesper Nordenstr\u00f6m (piano), Johan Lindstr\u00f6m (guitar), and Dan Berglund (bass). A total of 17 concerts are planned.<\/p>\n

At the moment, Helen is working at Stockholm City Theatre in the musical Company<\/em>. She also tours with an Allan Edwall program together with Bengan Jansson and Lennart J\u00e4hkel. Anna is making her own music and has just finished an intense \u201cpink month\u201d of breast cancer awareness work. Although no longer an ambassador for the Breast Cancer Association, she remains involved in much of its work.<\/p>\n

Next autumn Scenkonst V\u00e4sternorrland will stage “Kristina fr\u00e5n Duvem\u00e5la” in Sundsvall. Will the first Kristina \u2013 the one many still see as the original \u2013 come and listen?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 Absolutely. I know several people involved, including Tuva who\u2019s playing Kristina. She\u2019s fantastic. Of course I\u2019m curious about a new version, says Helen.<\/p>\n

Could she imagine appearing in that musical again?<\/p>\n

\u2013 Well, maybe only as Fina-Kajsa now, she jokes.<\/p>\n

Whatever the occasion, she\u2019s happy to come back home to Sundsvall \u2013 next up, in a month, with her friend Anna Stadling. A friend you can communicate with on a deep level \u2013 naturally about working with music and singing, but also about life\u2019s big questions.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Not everyone you can talk to about those things. But for us, the conversation continues when we sing, says Helen Sj\u00f6holm.<\/p>\n

(The entire article is not reproduced for copyright reasons).<\/em><\/p>\n

Back<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sundsvalls Tidning, 2024-11-09 By: SUSANNE HOLMLUND & MARIA EILERSTEN This is how it began. In Sundsvall. In churches. And together. The artists from Sundsvall, Helen Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":15133,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15261","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15261"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15265,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15261\/revisions\/15265"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}