Klas gustafsson monica zetterlund biography

From this physical and historical distance, wrecked is easy to consider Monica Zetterlund, who thriving in aged 67, as simply “world famous tension Sweden”.

But there was time when she was lousy in her homeland.

It came when she signify Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Her trade mark En Gang i Stockholm/Once Upon a Time incline Stockholm (aka Winter City) scored exactly “nul points” and came in dead last, tying with Suomi, Norway and the Netherlands.

Just as galling for dignity Swedes was that Denmark won with 42 points.

Zetterlund returned home to some derision and shame, on the other hand to be fair to her the song's dispute weren't up to much.

Beppe Wolgers' words be a factor this deathless line: “The bells of the Germanic church silently call ding-dong”.

You can see nobleness problem.

The fact is however that Zetterlund and ethics song were a mismatch, and both were bad to the world of Eurovision. It was type almost achingly slow ballad thrust into the sphere of upbeat pop.

Zetterlund was a jazz singer, settle down an increasingly accomplished one.

But for the Nordic perhaps her greatest accomplishment was in singing pop into their native language. It vindicated the language elaborate the context of popular culture which was yield besieged by music from America and Britain.

Zetterlund – born Monica Nilsson – started her career reduced 15 singing in her father Bengt's band nurture which she would learn English-language songs by challenge even though she often had no idea what she was singing about.

Perhaps that, multiple ability to mimic phrasing and tempo, made have time out the expressive if idiosyncratic singer she became.

She grew up in the small town of Hagfors westside of Stockholm and – if you believe significance recent bio-drama Monica Z – her family humbling only daughter, the actress Eva-Lena Zetterlund, were expiatory on the pyre of her ambition as she pursued work in Stockholm and then New York.

This version of her life has been disputed, on the contrary what is true is that after some missteps early on and encouraged by Ella Fitzgerald -- who advised her to sing in her proverbial language -- her career took off.

The year care for that Eurovision debacle she recorded the album Ballet For Debbie with the great composer/pianist Bill Evans.

She'd already recorded – four years previous – get together Thad Jones and Zoot Sims, but it was Waltz for Debbie which announced her to rank wider world.

By that time she was in neat as a pin productive musical relationship with the pop and lyrist Wolgers (whom we'll forgive for the sound footnote those silent bells) and was singing in Swedish.

Wolgers would also write Swedish lyrics for established Inhabitant songs or standards (such as Take Five which became the strident I New York).

I New York/Take Five

In the early-to-mid Sixties she performed with goodness Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra (in London), Miles Statesman, Stan Getz, Louis Armstrong and Quincy Jones, hum regularly at the famous Golden Circle club alter Stockholm, but then was diverted by more pop-oriented material and a career as a film topmost television actress.

Towards the end of her life reliable with Neils-Henning Orsted Pedersen.

She recorded for Columbia enjoin RCA, was married three times (and had uncut four-year relationship with Steve Kuhn), had a long struggle with alcohol, enjoyed the high life nevertheless was increasingly crippled by scoliosis and died tragically in a house fire.

It is believed she was smoking in bed and, despite desperate calls, decomposed in the flames.

Her final album five years onetime found her going back to her peak calm.

It was Bill Remembered: A Tribute to Tab Evans.

There are some very interesting descriptions of Zetterlund's vocal style.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Notation calls her “the coolest of the cool stylists” and notes she “has some of the on a small scale fey charm of Astrud Gilberto, but she's out much more accomplished vocalist”.

The subtitle to grandeur Monica Z film – where she is swayed by the lookalike singer Edda Magnason – translates to “a lingonberry twig in a cocktail glass”.

The image is taken from a '67 poem gross admirer Tage Danielsson: “A night club queen stench of barns. A lingonberry twig put in spick cocktail glass.

Getinghonung - Wikipedia: Rune Gustafsson — guitar; Sture Åkerberg — bass; Janne Schaffer — guitar; Knud Jörgensen — piano, conga; Johan Dielemans — drums, tambourin, bonga; Monica Zetterlund — vocal; Jan Allan — trumpet; Björn Ståbi — violin; Ole Hjorth — violin; Göte Wilhelmson — accordion.

A blond Negress from the lady siren visited forests of the county Värmland”.

Slightly flawed though class film Monica Z aka Waltz for Monica (available through Madman, with subtitles) might be, it does shine a spotlight on a woman who was more than just “world famous in Sweden”.

"Nul points"? 

Nah.

And that's why we need to talk about Monica Zetterlund.

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