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Sweden remembers popular folk legend

Swedes are paying tribute to one of the Nordic country's most beloved artists and comedians, Robert Broberg, who passed away in the early hours of Tuesday.

Sweden remembers popular folk legend
Swedish artist Robert Broberg. Photo: Gunnar Ask/Pressens bild AB

Robert 'Robban' Broberg died surrounded by his family shortly after midnight on Tuesday. The 75-year-old artist had been battling an unusual form of Parkinson's disease for years.

“He fell asleep peacefully, with the children around him,” his daughter Ane Broberg told Swedish news wire TT.

Born in Solna north of Stockholm in 1940, the singer and guitarist reached his height of popularity in the 1970s and released more than 20 albums during his long career.


Robert Broberg in 1965. Photo: SCANPIX

Many Swedes, young and old, are still able to recite some of Broberg's most famous lyrics by heart – such as cheeky 'Uppblåsbara Barbara' about an inflatable doll and pun-heavy tune 'Båtlåt' about two boats falling in love.

Stars such as opera singer Malena Ernman were among those leading social media tributes to the popular artist on Tuesday.

“One of our greatest,” wrote Ernman of her friend and colleague.

Meanwhile public broadcaster SVT is set to interrupt its usual schedule with an extra tribute on Sunday in memory of the star, who was widely considered to be one of Sweden's foremost lyricists.

“He was so incredibly special. I have never met such a talented artist. I don't want people to associate him with his illness – he was more than that,” his ex-wife Eva Bolin told the Expressen tabloid.

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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