Sweden Does Indeed Have a Queen: Pop Superdiva Carola

By David Hillier
CSMR Correspondent

Carola Häggkvist

LONDON, UK -- Back in September a prominent London blogger on things Scandinavian noted that the previous week Denmark had elected its first ever female Prime minister. This left Sweden as the only Nordic country which had never had a woman “in charge” but, she concluded, “Sweden has Carola Häggkvist and that beats everything hands down”.

A humorous remark, of course, but most Scandinavians would easily have understood her point.

Carola Häggkvist, generally known simply as Carola, was born in Stockholm in 1966 and has been one of Sweden’s most popular performers since making her television debut in 1977. In addition to recording many top-selling singles and issuing albums ranging from pop and disco to hymns and folk music, she has represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest three times.

On the first occasion, singing “Framling” (“Stranger”) and watched by an estimated 84% of her country's population, she finished in third place.

"Främling" became the title track to her first album which sold over one million copies and became the biggest selling album in Swedish history. Here, demonstrating both her youthful and dynamic performing style and the catchiness of the tune, Carola sings the English version of “Framling” entitled "Love Isn't Love”.



Her success with Framling led to the issue later in 1983 of the first of her many Christmas and devotional albums.

She represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest again in 1991 when her song “Fangad av en Stormwind” (“Captured by a Lovestorm”) was eventually declared the winner after a tense finale involving a count-back. It is not difficult to see from this clip why so many voters were enchanted by the infectious enthusiasm of her performance.



The song went on to become a big hit all over Europe and established Carola as the huge star that she remains today.

In 1995, she made her Swedish debut as a musical actress, playing the lead role of Maria in “The Sound of Music” in 325 performances and winning the prestigious Guldmasken ("Golden Mask") award. She also continued to record her now familiar mixture of pop and devotional music, revealing a particular passion for hymns.

She returned to the European Song Contest in 2006 with the typically Eurovision song "Evighet", (Eternity) (“Invincible”). However, despite being fancied to win and taking an early lead, she was eventually placed only fifth. By way of consolation, this did make her then second highest point scoring artist in the history of Eurovision.

Carola during her winning
'91 Eurovision Song Contest performance

Summer 2010 saw Carola embarked on a very personal project, a tour of Sweden performing the songs of Elvis Presley and Barbra Streisand as a prelude to the issue of a DVD and CD. The influence for this came from her childhood, when her parents played records by both their favourite artists. It received something of a mixed reception from her fans, the general consensus being that the “Barbra” material works by far the best.

Carola’s status as one of the most popular national celebrities in Sweden has inevitably meant that the press takes a close interest in all that she does. She has never made any secret of her Christian faith and much of the coverage has been around her membership of the evangelical church, “Livets Ord” (Life's Word). She was once married to a Norwegian Christian preacher by whom she has a son, Amadeus, which means "Loves God".

This article has included clips from two of the up tempo songs Carola has performed in the Eurovision Song Contest. But she can also perform well in a slower, more intense, mood, as witnessed by clip below of her 2003 song “Nar Loven Faller.”



Still only 45 years old, Carola is likely to continue to entertain her legions of fans in Scandinavia and further afield, and to remain “Queen of Sweden”, for many years to come.