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WHAT'S ON IN SWEDEN

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What’s on in Sweden: February 13th – 19th

One of the world's leading electronic music festivals, Sonar, is warming up Stockholm this weekend, while Malmö is celebrating childhood and Umeå's Symphony Orchestra puts on its winter concert.

Published: 12 February 2015 06:00 CET

What's on in Sweden: February 13th - 19th

Stockholm hosting Sonar in 2014. Photo: Sonar

Leading names from the global electronic music scene are set to get Sweden's capital dancing on Friday and Saturday as Stockholm's Waterfront venue hosts the Barcelona-born Sonar festival for the second time. SBTRKT and Jamie xx are among the headliners.

"We really focus on artists that use technology in different ways, for example making their own instruments or using technology as the key tool for what they do – not just on the sound and production of their music but also in the visualisation of their own shows," Sonar's Co-director Enric Palau told The Local.

Elsewhere in Stockholm there are plenty of singles events if you're looking to meet new people on Valentine's weekend. Iconic venue Cafe Opera is hosting a huge club night, while you can expect a slightly older crowd at Fasching's soul and disco offering.

Stockholm's Cafe Opera. Photo: Cafe Opera

Sweden's most northerly city, Umeå preparing for a more classical weekend with music from composers Bernstein, Copland and Gershwin set to feature in the city's Symphony Orchestra's annual winter concert.

Our pick of this week's exhibitions is in Malmö, with what loosely translates as 'Life is childsplay' showcasing toys from different eras and looking back at the history of how children have amused themselves.

For plenty more tips on things to see and do around Sweden over the next seven days, click on the interactive calendar below. Have fun!

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New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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