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WHAT'S ON IN SWEDEN

MUSIC

What’s on in Sweden: May 7th – 14th

The most colourful race on the planet is coming to Sweden, so get your running shoes (and smiles) on. We've also picked out two great gigs for you this week, as well as a fascinating exhibition on Sweden's role after the Second World War.

Published: 7 May 2015 07:30 CEST
What's on in Sweden: May 7th - 14th
Colour me impressed! A very special race is coming to Sweden this month. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

A rainbow of colours is set to explode in the central Swedish town of Jönköping this weekend, when thousands of runners hit the street to take part in The Color Run. Known as the happiest five kilometre race on the planet, the technicolour race started in the United States in 2011 and has travelled around the world since, with more than a hundred global events and a million participants last year.

The Color Run is not timed and there are only two rules: you must wear white when you turn up at the starting line and not be afraid to have your outfit ruined, as colour powder paint is thrown at participants as they run past. The event will also head to Stockholm, Malmö, Gävle, Göteborg, Lund and Uppsala later this summer, so keep your eyes peeled for more information.

Swedish soft pop artist Jens Lekman kicks off his tour of rural parts of his native country this weekend, with the series of performances starting in Fengersfors near Åmål in west-central Sweden. He became known to the wider public more than a decade ago when his single 'Maple Leaves' quickly spread via the internet in 2003 – followed by acclaimed debut album 'When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog' – and has since gained a loyal following worldwide. This is a rare opportunity to see him perform on home turf and there are still tickets left to snap up for some of the gigs if you hurry.

Here's another great gig. The voice of British electronic music group Ladytron is starting her new tour in Stockholm on Tuesday, May 12th. Helen Marnie founded the Liverpudlian band in 1999 with Daniel Hunt, Reuben Wu and Mira Aroyo and climbed to international fame with hits such as Seventeen, Playgirl, Destroy Everything You Touch and Ghosts. Marnie's pop has been described as "witchier and mythier" than Ladytron's music and she is sure to go down a storm when she takes the stage at the trendy Debaser Strand club at 8.30pm (doors open at 6.30pm).

A new exhibition about Sweden's role after the Second World War opens on Friday, May 8th, in Malmö. Seven decades after the war ended, the exhibition 'In the Shadow of the War' ('I skuggan av kriget') tells the story of how Malmö Museum was turned into a refugee centre to accept refugees arriving on the Red Cross' white buses. Visitors will be able to see some of the paintings drawn by Polish artists Jadwiga Simon-Pietkiewicz and Maja Berezowska during their time in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Check out our interactive calendar below for more tips on what to see and do in Sweden this week.

 

 

 

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CULTURE

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

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
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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