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WHAT'S ON IN SWEDEN

MUSIC

Five events to get you dancing this week

Sweden's biggest music festival Bråvalla kicks off in Norrköping, south of Stockholm, with Calvin Harris and Muse among the big names on the bill and there are plenty more places to party across the country.

Published: 25 June 2015 06:48 CEST
Five events to get you dancing this week
UK DJ Calvin Harris will headline the Bråvalla festival. Photo: TT
1. Bråvalla, Norrköping, June 25th – 28th
 
More than 50,000 people are expected at Bråvalla festival as it celebrates its third anniversary as Sweden's largest music event. UK dance music darling Calvin Harris tops the bill with other top names including Muse and Robbie Williams. Swedish rock legends Kent will be the biggest homegrown act set to take to the stage. The Local's top tip for the weekend is Norway's all-female-multi-instrument-playing nu-folk ensemble Katzenjammer. Organisers were unable to tell us how many tickets remained on sale by Wednesday afternoon.

2. Midnight Light Tango Festival, Umeå, June 25th – 29th
 
Umeå in northern Sweden doesn't get dark at this time of year and organisers of the Midnight Light Tango Festival are inviting visitors to feast on some Latin-inspired grooves beneath the bright midsummer sunshine. There are five days of workshops plus the chance to watch world-class Tango stars in action at venues including the city's Västerbotten museum and Folkets hus. DJs from Finland, Germany and Argentina are also flying in to provide some of the evening entertainment.
 

Tango dancers. Photo: TT
 
3. Icona Pop, Gothenburg, June 26th
 
Fresh from performing alongside Sweden's hottest DJ Avicii at the wedding of Prince Carl Philip and Sofia Hellqvist, one of Sweden's biggest electro duos head to the west coast on Friday where they will perform at Liseberg amusement park having already played to sold out venues across Europe this spring.
 
 
4. Billy Idol, Stockholm, June 28th
 
Sweden's capital's set to get a slice of punk rock this weekend with veteran British star Billy Idol heading to Gröna Lund theme park on Djurgården. Expect classic anthems such as 'Dancing with myself' and 'White Wedding' from the singer.
 
 
5. I'm on a roof, Stockholm, June 28th
 
One of Stockholm's superclubs Slakthuset is inviting guests to rave beneath the stars every (dry) Saturday this summer, starting this weekend. The #IMONAROOF concept started in New York last year and is set to being old and new hip hip, R & B, soul, reggae, dancehall and afrobeat to the Swedish capital. Partygoers will also be invited to bathe in a hot tub, get their nails done, have henna tattoos and sample a wide range of cocktails. Admission to the venue (subway stop Globen) is free.
 

Photo: Slakthuset

Looking for more things to do in Sweden? Check out our interactive guide 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.

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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