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WHAT'S ON IN SWEDEN

MUSIC

Five unmissable events in Sweden this week

Eurovision hero Måns Zelmerlöw is performing at Stockholm's most iconic theme park this weekend, while one of Europe's hottest music and tech festivals is making its way to northern Sweden and Malmö is showcasting some of the most talented names on the Nordic theatre circuit.

Five unmissable events in Sweden this week
Sweden's Eurovision hero will be performing in Stockholm. Photo: TT
1. Måns Zelmerlöw's gig in the capital
 
Swedes are set to go wild for Eurovision star Måns Zelmerlöw on Friday May 29th, as he puts on one of his first gigs since winning the contest in Vienna. After filling his Instagram with photos of himself relaxing with his dogs and performing in his home town Lund this week, the 28-year-old heartthrob will be taking to the stage at the iconic Gröna Lund theme park on Djurgården island in Stockholm as part of the venue's series of summer gigs. Look out for other top international names including Noel Gallagher, Marilyn Manson and Lenny Kravitz in the coming months, as well as homegrown upcoming singer-songwriters Elin Ruth and Edda Magnason. Click here for information on how to buy tickets in English.
 

Eurovision winner Måns Zelmerlöw. Photo: TT
 
2. Umeå's Music Tech Fest
 
Billed as an international meeting place for musicians, hackers, artists, creators, music lovers and geeks, Music Tech Fest launched in London in 2015 and gets underway in Umeå in northern Sweden on Friday May 29th, following subsequent events in cities including Berlin, Paris and Boston. Since Sweden is the world's biggest exporter of music per capita, organizers are hoping the free, three-day get-together in one of the EU's 2014 Capitals of Culture will inspire future success stories and create some unique performances and networking opportunities. Read more in English on the event's website.
 

The city of Umeå is a cultural hotspot in Sweden. Photo: Jörgen Wiklund/Image Bank Sweden
 
3. The Stockholm marathon
 
Offering one of the most beautiful running routes in the world, the 37th ASICS Stockholm Marathon takes place on Saturday May 30th, when Sweden's capital is set to welcome 21,500 runners from across the globe. This is one of the biggest sporting events of the year in Sweden and hundreds of thousands of spectators are expected to cheer on the participants. Make sure you bring a waterproof jacket though as rain is forecast during the race.
 

The Stockholm marathon in 2014. Photo: TT
 
4. Malmö's Biennial for Performing Arts
 
Scenkonst Biennalen in Malmö is already underway and brings together some of the most talked about theatre productions in Scandinavia, including a number of shows in English. Running until Sunday May 31st, performances include Our Class, which follows ten children from a Polish school class from the beginning of the 1930s until the present day, Wild Minds, which is a documentary performance about four people who are possessed by their daydreams and The Deepest Place – a contemporary chamber opera about love, lust and loneliness – performed in Danish with an English synopsis. Click here to read more in English and buy tickets.
 

Malmö Opera House. Photo: Charlotte T Strömwall
 
5. Södermalm's first pop-up park
 
One third of Stockholm is made up of green spaces, but there's a new kid on the block on the island of Södermalm this week. The capital's first free pop-up park is set to spring to life, in hipster hotspot SoFo, to the east of the main shopping street Götgatan. Over the next seven days, Stockholmers will be invited to plant flowers, swap seeds and decorate the new space (named Pallis) with street art. Plus food trucks will be on hand to offer a tasty selection of global street foods between 11am and 4pm, or you can eat in one of the area's numerous cool restaurants and snack spots – our favourites are Gossip, il Caffe and Urban DeliMore information on the new park is available in Swedish on Facebook.
 

A selection of snacks at permanent SoFo hotspot, Urban Deli. Photo: Tuukka Ervasti/Image Bank Sweden
 
For more tips on things to see and do across Sweden, check out our interactive table below.

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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.

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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