The album 20 år med Nanne

In 1985 our first single with the group Sound of Music was released. Back then I never dared to dream that I'd be lucky enough to still work as an artist 20 years later. It has, like so often in this line of work, been a roller-coaster of successes and failures, but looking back it feels incredible to have experienced so much. 35 singles, 11 albums and other songs that has been available only on compilation albums, combined with tours, live appearances, shows and an incredible amount of other things which I have been experienced. Here is a short summary of what has happened during these 20 years.

Sound of Music

During 1985 to 1988 Peter Grönvall, Angelique Widengren and I, who formed the group Sound of Music, released a total of 9 singles and 2 albums. 7 of the singles charted at the radio list Tracks and we were the Swedish group with most hits - five - at Tracks in 1986.

The same year as we partook in the Melofifestivalen with the song Eldorado, we released an album and toured around Sweden. 1987 we partook in Melodifestivalen again, this time with the song Alexandra. Our second Sound of Music album was released and we did a summer and a winter tour. We partook in several TV shows, including the entertainment programme Jakobs Stege (Jakob's ladder). That year Peter and I became more than just colleges - after six years together in different groups it suddenly clicked.

Peter's Pop Squad

Peter and I started the group Peter's Pop Squad, which only released two singles, but there was a complete album recorded. The material was recorded in Dieter Dierks studio in Colonna, Germany, where among others the rock bands Accept and Scorpions made their records.

The group consisted of five people and it was now we worked with Maria Rådsten for the first time. We didn't have any success, but we worked really hard and we learned a lot. A lot of times you grow out of failures as well as successes. We suffered the failures and today we can laugh at what went wrong, and that was not minor things. On top of that this made us so keen on starting our next project.

One More Time

In 1991 we formed One More Time together with Maria Rådsten. Highland became a top ten in several European countries, the record sold gold in South Africa and we were voted Foreign Group of the Year in a reader's vote in the largest Belgian pop magazine.

The coming years we spent travelling around Europe for TV-performances, interviews, tours and other promotion of the records. In 1995 we wrote Det Vackraste for Cecilia Vennersten. The song got a Grammy for Song of the year and the record sold platinum both in Sweden and Norway.

The year after, 1996, we won the Swedish Melodifestivalen with Den Vilda and ended up third in the international final. Den Vilda was nominated for Song of the Year. In the autumn we recorded the English version of the Den Vilda album. For the first time I wrote songs on my own, songs that made it to the Den Vilda album.

So far One More time has released 11 singles and 5 albums, but it's not impossible that there will be more records, because we have not "disbanded" just put the project on ice for the moment.

The solo years

In 1997 I recorded a Christmas single, produced by Michael B Tretow. This was the first solo thing I ever did, and also my first co-work with Michael. He is one of the funniest and sweetest people I've met and with an enormous gift for music.

In 1998 I partook in Melodifestivalen for the first time as a solo artist, with the song Avundsjuk, and I also released my first own record - Cirkus Homo Sapiens. In 2000 I released my second solo single and the same year I did a show together with Gycklargruppen at Hamburger Börs in Stockholm, directed by Hans Marklund.

In Mars 2001 I was in London and competed in the British Melodifestivalen with the song Men. The same summer I was on stage around Sweden almost every day and some days I made double or even triple performances. Incredible hectic but incredibly fun.

In the spring of 2002 I had a show at Nalen together with Bernt Egerblad and Little Mike. Bernt was a great musician and a man with a great warmness. For the first time I sang a bit more jazzy and did songs I had never done before. Even in the summer of 2002 I did a lot of performances on my own at stages from Dalhalla to festivals and grand openings. On top of that I was touring with Den Stora Schlagerfesten.

In January of 2003 I debuted as a musical artist in Hur man lyckas i business utan att bli utbränd at the theatre Intiman in Stockholm and got nominated for a Guldmask award for best supporting female actress. Oh, what a fantastic start of a musical career! The gang I was working with there was absolutely wonderful. Several of them are my best friends today. With as much as six performances a week at Intiman, I had to take leave in the end of February to be able to participate in Melodifestivalen with my and Peters entry Evig Kärlek. There were no final place for this odd schlager-track, but I took the chance to do a spectacular musical-disco-opera-performance.

And then it was time for Håll Om Mig in Melodifestivalen. It was two years later and it became a totally different performance with focus on energy and the joy of making music. Something that was not hard to achieve with the fantastic crew I had with me on stage. By the way, this was the first time I was working with Pling Forsman. It was so incredible inspiring to write lyrics together with her and she is a stand alone pro with words.

Some of the songs

• Håll om mig - To enter the stage in Globen and do Håll Om mig at the same time as when 12.000 people in the audience are singing along and clapping to the beat was an overwhelming feeling. On top of that getting the audience's votes with such a great gap to the runner up, was a feeling of bliss beyond words. Then it's completely OK to loose with three points in my opinion. I want to thank all great people who called and voted for this song in the Melodifestivalen and all of you who have been mailing and writing letters after the competition. Wish I could hug you all to show my gratitude and joy.

• Jag Sträcker Mig Mot Himlen - Peoples scorning and opinions about everything and everybody is something you should take with a grain of salt in my opinion. Life is tough for everybody from time to time. We must believe in both others and in our own capacity and on top of that not being afraid of failures. It's perfectly all right to "crap in the blue cupboard" sometimes. (Finnish say meaning "to screw up")

• Svarta Änkan - This song was sent to Melodifestivalen in 2000, but did not qualify. Instead it won the OGAE's international "Song contest". OGAE is the worlds largest club for Eurovision Song Contest fans. Every autumn they organize their own Melodifestival on the Internet, where 26 nations are competing with one entry each, and all the members of the competing nations can listen to and vote for these songs. The competition is done as a radio-transmitted Melodifestival. This was the first time ever Sweden won that competition.

• Vem som helst - This was the firs single we released with our own record company. It's a song about picking up a mate at some club and how you have this expectation to find Mr Right. Then you're not gonna be desperate enough to go home with just anyone - you stick to that firmly - at least the first hours!

• Avundsjuk - Solo debut! Peter and I was asked to compose a song for the Melodifestivalen in 1988. I was so incredible nervous that I was hyperventilating and was on the brink of throwing up. After the performance it felt like all has been done in a haze and I could hardly remember what had been going on on stage, where I had been running around with my Mr Spock ears and purple-red wig.
  I ended up fourth, but it felt like a great victory for me to even have been able to dare to go on with such a solo and in such a large and media-covered event like this. That the song be became so popular and that so many people appreciated that I as a girl dared to dress up and break the stereotypical image of the women of the music business, made me really happy.
  Still today I enjoy performing Avundsjuk when I'm out performing, and it's always so cool standing there on the stage and hearing how people often sing along until the ceiling lifts. I had never dared to dream such a thing back when Avundsjuk was a new song, because it felt like such an odd schlager song and with odd lyrics.
  This was their first time I worked with Roine Söderlund, who did the choreography. He has a unique and invaluable feeling for combining slick, stylish dance with humour and a theatre nerve. Lars Wallin did my dresses for both this song and for Håll Om Mig.
  T o be able to make fun of the female envy when it comes to looks and such things is an important thing. But few people know that I'm not of the opinion that girls are more envious against each other than men. Girls are fantastic when it come to push each other.

• Om du var min - No matter how green we believe the grass is on the other side it's first when you're going there you'll understand what you really had.

• Nannes Sommarvisa - A happy summer song about how we desperate Swedes want to be able to do EVERYTHING during the short, intense summer months before the cold and darkness take over again.

• Fördomar - this song is about something most of us claim not having, but what I'm convinced we all got more or less off - prejudices. Unfortunately this is how most of us act - we rage when we are met with prejudices, but on the other hand we let out own behaviour pass when we drop some prejudice in a conversation or act based upon prejudices against others.
  In the same way we like to gossip and talk behind other people's backs, but we get pissed when it happens to us. We humans can go to the Moon and transplanting important organs , but we have a looooong way to go when it comes to empathy and understanding ourselves.

• Viktiga små ord - We seldom tell others how much they mean to us in life. Words of appreciation cost so little and mean so much.

• Jag har inte tid - This is about how we stress through life and put priority on the wrong things so often. Personally I feel that I'm working too much. At the same time I want to have time for my family, relatives, friends and even myself once in a while. I have realised that stopping and thinking over what you are up to and learning from your mistakes is necessary for the irrational beings we humans after all are - no matter how much of great things things we wanna do and try to do in this life.

• Evig Kärlek - This was the sixth time I entered the Melodifestivalen as an artist. I was well aware that this wasn't a "by the book schlager track", but it was incredibly fun to do a spacey disco-opera-musical number in this event. Camilla Thulin made the dresses. She's an amazing woman, who is not only a master at creating great clothes, but also a very charismatic person and with a great amount of energy of a kind most of us would need in this life. Roine Söderlund made the choreography once again. Kia Wennberg did the make-up and Peter Wennberg was the hairdresser and did the general styling. We have been working with Peter and Kia since 1989 and they are, just like Roine, invaluable to me both professionally and as good friends. These three also did the choreography, makeup, hair and styling for Håll om mig.

• Men - The 11:nth of March of 2001 I was in London and competed in the British Melodifestivalen with the song Men, written by Kimberley Rew, the guitar player of Kartrina & The Waves. She was also the writer of Walking on Sunshine and the Eurovision Song Contest winner 1997 - Love shine a light.
  I went to England a couple of days before the finals to do promotion for the song. Already before arriving I knew that there is hardly any interest in the Melodifestivalen, and during my stay in England I got that confirmed. Media does not pay the kind of attention it does in Sweden.
  Already in the beginning of the week I got a terrible bronchitis. Was almost coughing my voice to pieces, and when I finally got to a doctor he forbade me to use my voice. The vocal cords were in such a bad shape. I sounded like Gollum when I talked - the voice just cracked all the time. I had all kind of medicines, penicillin, pain killers and cortisone tablets in me to be able to take a single tone on the very day of the Final. If I had been an athlete I would never have passed a doping test at that moment.
  The show was done in the Top of the Pops studio in London and the performance worked even if I normally sounds better and most of all stronger in my voice. I came four. It was great to be a part of this, but as a schlager freak I'm grateful for the great interest for the Melodifestivalen in Sweden.

• Den vilda - Third time around, they say, and this was the third time Peter and I partook as artists in the Melodifestivalen. This time together with Marie Rådsten - and we won! The international final took place in Oslo, Norway, and that didn't feel as exotic as France or Spain first, but it became a fantastic experience. There was a tropical heat in Oslo in the beginning of the week, but then the temperature dropped dramatically and on the morning of the 18:nth of May - my birthday and the day for the finals - it was snowing in Oslo, just like in the lyrics. Because of being so close to Sweden the competition felt like a big national party or a football game against another country. To enter the stage was incredible cool, the concert arena was crowded with enthusiastic Swedes. We ended up third, Ireland won, which wasn't unusual back then.

• Highland - This is still one of my favourite tracks. Highland soon became a hit in a lot of European countries and the years after we did a lot of tours and promotion trips. The video was shot in London. At the same time as Highland was released, our youngest son Felix was born.
  A bit more than half a year later Maria and I decided to enter a make-up class. The reason was that when we ended up in the various make-up chairs around Europe it became a sort of Russian roulette. Sometimes we looked excellent and sometimes we were turned into hard-maked theatre witches like Tyrannosaurus Rexia or pale, over-powdered zombies. These times it became panic in the lodge, to say the least, when we desperately tried to redo our make-up as good as possible and at the same time we heard the call "One More Time on stage now, please!"

• The Dolphin Once again Peter's sound is completely awesome. This song I would like to describe as a fairy tale about strong love. But also as a little reminder about destruction of the seas, the oceans and their inhibitors, which we don't take care of the way we should do. I love to dive and scuba, but it's at these times you discover our negligence with this fantastic world beneath the waves.

• Kvarnen - When I was a little girl I wrote a lot of songs on my own, but later, when I reached my teens and started playing with my first rock band there was no more composing. I concentrated upon writing texts to our songs instead. But the lust for writing melodies on my own returned during the One More Time years, and this was my first own song as a grown-up. That it made it to our OMT record felt incredible fun. And that it became a single on top of that was great.

• A life to live - In the autumn of 1988 Sound of Music was no more and after several intense years we felt the urge to start something new and to find another sound. In 1989-1990 we recorded an album in Germany using the name Peter's Pop Squad. We, and others with us, had high expectations, but as in the tale with the carpenter we didn't "make a thing". The album was never released, but we released two singles.
  We partook in the TV-show "Billys Värld", where we were going to perform our new single "Strangers". But also the next coming single, "A life to live", was recorded, but with a promise that it would be showed in a later programme. We were advertising in the papers to promote the new single "Tonight at Billys Värld: New single with Peter's Pop Squad: Strangers". Yeah right! They had liked "A life to live" so much that they showed that one instead of the single track - which never became showed after all. On top of that they had the wrong name of the group on the marquee: Pete's Pop Squad. And if that wasn't enough the make up lady had forgotten to add powder so we all looked like we had plastic wrapping around our faces. Then some of the members had missed bringing stage clothes, so we had to gather what you found and that showed! In other words a completely normal day with Peters Pop Squad.
  "A life to live" from this unreleased album is one of our favourites during these years.

• Alexandra - That this song was made at all is a mystery. 24 hours before the deadline for handing in the entries for the Melodifestivalen of 1987, Alexandra didn't exist. I guess we had sort of decided to not hand in something, because we had partaken the year before and because we didn't have anything of our new material that would pass the three minute rule and on top of that being in Swedish. But the sight of the other artists closing their envelopes became the grain that tipped the scale. Of course we should try, damn it!
  We started, and after a couple of hours we had a sketch we liked. Then we had to puzzle everything together, to find available musicians, to await some free hours in one of the three studios at Alpha Records, make the text work, do the mixing and then finding someone who writes the sheet music before the plane leaves for Göteborg the next morning. Without realizing how it came to be, the song was mixed and ready in time for the sheath music writer Per Friberg, who came to the studio at half past seven in the morning. Then we closed our envelope and Alexandra was born.
  This was the second time Sound of Music partook in Melodifestivalen. "Enter the stage: a Afghan Sheep Dog and a Poodle" a journalist described our performance, and I could do nothing but laughingly understand what he meant. Angelique and my hair was constantly so generously back combed and sprayed that it was pure luck if our faces showed among all the hair. I was wearing all black and Angelique all white (skin pants and sweaters with enormous shoulder pads) and for the final we changed clothes with each others. We thought that was really clever, but to be true I guess only a few took notice, except for those really into details.

• Love me or leave me One of our biggest Sound Of Music hits on the radio as well as in the lists. We performed this song in Jakobs Stege too, where Jakob Dahlin were interviewing us wearing an enormous, blond, long-haired and unkempt wig. Our large, gel-shaped hairdos was at that moment one of our groups trademarks. We really believed that size mattered back then; back combed hair - the bigger the better. Well.... thinking back I'm not sure that this hair thing has changed that much during the years ... :-)

• Eldorado - 1986 - The first Melodifestivalen with our group Sound of Music and our very own song Eldorado. Extremely shaky but exciting. A great year with a lot of classic songs and performances and an odd festival in many ways. No orchestra, everything was done sing-back (that is - with pre-recorded music). Even the choirs were recorded so there wasn't even an in-house choir. On top of that videos were used for every entry and only the five best songs, who went on to the finals got the chance to perform on location. This meant that half of the artists partook during the rehearsals but never got the chance to be on stage and sing their songs during the TV-performance.
  I had my first-born, Rasmus, less than a week before the festival and when we recorded the video I was very pregnant, so they only did a head and shoulders shooting. I never really understood why. I was really proud of my big belly and thought it to be the most beautiful penance belly in all the world. The video was done with us behind a large aquarium with gold fishes that swam in front of our faces, where we were singing dressed in golden clothes. On top of that every fourth picture was cut away to make an edgier appearance.
  Back then a lot of fun videos were made with more ambition that money, and a video that got cult status is Git Persson's (she went on and became singer in the dance act Kellys), where she sits and hugs a teddy bear singing "You seduce me, you seduce me". And into the picture comes Jan Guillou - as a VAMPIRE!!! I get all amazed every time I see that one. That one must never be forgotten! Jan Guillou has all my respect after that.

• One more lonely night - I was 23 yeas old when we released our first single ever, and it felt extremely exciting. No A or B side, just an English and a Swedish version, the latter named "Underbart är kort". It became the English version that got the airplay and entered Tracks. We were in contact with Povel Ramel concerning the Swedish title, because he had made a song with the same title ages ago. We got a kind letter in return, where he told us it was OK to use the same title and he wished us luck. He also suggested that we cold call it "Underbett är gott" (Under bite is tasty).
  The record cover was based upon Peter and me glaring at each other, Peter with the suitcase in hand and Angelique sat in the sofa looking pleased. I remember that it felt embarrassing to paint a picture that he and I was having something together, even if it was just for a picture. We were really nothing but pals back then. Little did I know that we would fall in love and get together for real. Amazing how life can take unexpected turns sometimes. I'm grateful for that. Thanks fate!

• Once Again - When we performed it on stage during our summer tour in 87 I had a horrifying tight "ballroom dress" with a zipper throughout the side. And during one of our concerts the zipper chose to crack! "splof" and I had to, while holding on to the little fabric I could grab, try to drag myself down from the high podium and move sideways out behind the stage. There I got help to fix the dress with tape (!) and to quickly dress myself in a golden raincoat that was lying around backstage. Back on stage and during the song I felt the tape slowly but firmly cracking up part by part, while I in panic held on hard to the raincoat to hide what was happening underneath it and at the same moment try to look like I was singing the song with my whole heart. Well well!

• Eurovision Song Contest: Nanne considers it as being a really fun event. She uses the word "Buskul", which can roughly be translated into "Naughty Fun". She likes to check out what people wear and how they keep their hair. (Nanne herself has tried almost every hair colour there is). She has made several friends during her Eurosong-years, people she enjoys to get together with before and after the rehearsals before the Eurosong-events.
  – It's the combination between TV-entertainment and competition that makes it so exciting. I'm really not a genuine competition person and you are really in a kind of stressed situation because it seldom happens that you're getting judged so much as as a person, by your looks and as a singer [as in the Melodifestivalen]. It can be hard but it's incredibly funny at the same time.

• Her advice to young artists performing in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time:
  – You must take the festival with tongue in cheek and just try to have as fun as possible. You must be prepared that you can receive great as well as harsh critics. You must be able to handle the whole thing. I have seen so many people who have been really hurt and then lost all their self confidence.

• About winning the Eurovision Song Contest (Said in 2003 when she competed with Evig Kärlek)
  – In fact I've done that once, and that is enough in my opinion. The main thing is to do such a good performance as possible. Everything else is a plus.

• Her song Avundsjuk (Jealous) that became so popular that she is not able to give a performance without doing the song
  – Jealousy is a problem that can halt a complete life. Nanne thinks she has been able to avoid it well. But she has friends who has not. On the other hand if she has been more jealous she could have use it as fuel to achieve more and to dare more.
  – I dared to make fun of my appearance, and I believe that this was one of the factors that made my performance so appreciated.
  – People go mad if they don't get to hear Avundsjuk.

• The lyrics on her debut record Cirkus Homo Sapiens is about things that is important to women. It's about feelings: love, hate, martyrdom, pity and - of course - jealousy. Nanne describes the lyrics as humour with a serious deep in them. She says: The record is a complete ego-trip. I have only done what I like myself considering both music and lyrics. Maybe that is the reason why the record has got excellent reviews. When one trust her own taste and do what she likes things usually turn into great stuff.

• Video making
  – It's a tough job. The shooting of Avundsjuk took 25 hours and was made one Saturday in a cold factory building in the town of Lidköping starting at one o' clock in the morning. It's not a thing you do every Saturday. But Nanne has done it before, so she knows all about it. By the way, Lidköping was a cute town with a pleasant feeling and the view from the hotel room at the hotel Örnen (Eagle) was excellent. A view over water, something Nanne loves.

• If you want a song to end up in the Eurovision Song Contest
  – Write the song just the way you want it. But do pay for a recording in a real good studio where they can help you to make it sound really good. It's important because the competition is hard.

• The entertainment business
  – There is no more misogynic business than the entertainment business, at least the part that is dominated by the great multinational record companies. Here female artist are sold because of their looks. They have to stand semi-naked and lick their lips in the music videos. I want to give girls the opportunity to succeed in music business without just using their looks. When I get the time I'm gonna give girls that opportunity through my own record company, Somco.

• About Men - the song she competed with in the UK Eurovision Song Contest:
  – In a way it's a continuation of Avundsjuk

• All those schlager appearances
  – It have just happened that way. Schlager has been a good way to make my music heard, but those who see me perform soon realises that I'm a girl who like to rock.

  

• Worst tour memory
  – When we premiered in Junsele with Sound of Music in 1987. Technical problems caused my mike to stop working and Peter's synth fell to the floor, and there was an acoustic feedback and noises all the time. some drunk people in the audience started to fight. Everything went wrong.

• What do you demand backstage when you're touring?
  – Nothing really. What you want takes care of itself, the arrangers are always so eager to please. But I do want mineral water.

• Collecting trolls and witches
  – Being beautiful today is in my opinion so much about being shaped in the same way as everybody else. The trolls show with their smiles and expressions that it doesn't have to be like that.

• Original hair colour
  – Almost forgotten ;-)

• Having fun Nanne likes to go out to some club with a whole bunch of friends, and feel like a teen anew.

• Italian food jummy!

• Politics
  – I will soon start my very own jealosy-party with the slogan Everybody else leads a better life. Why is that :-)

• Relaxing
  – I love my work, but sometimes my working tempo is a bit too high. On top of that my work demands that you engage yourself by 100 %. To get all that energy I want while performing - you wanna give it all to the audience - it's necessary that I really can relax when I'm free, to be able to recharge my batteries. I prefer doing that at home and with my family. I love sitting in the sofa in comfortable clothes and zap between the TV-channels, eat candies and just relaxing. Preferably I wouldn't wanna do anything else than being with my loved ones. When I had had these kind of days with my family, I have always more energy to use. I guess that's my major energy source.
  Nanne's ways:
  1. Enjoy that little something extra:
     Do sometimes get something you really want, even if you know it's unhealthy like candies or chips. It might also be a garment, something for your home or something else which makes you especially "drunk with joy". I believe a lot of our well-being depends on if we sometimes enjoys that little something extra.
  2. Take a "spa-day"
     Let yourself be taken care of and enjoy massage, facial treatment and fresh food. Do try to enjoy it together with one or several friends you like being with.
  3. Drink a lot of water
     Cut up lemon, orange, kiwi, cucumber or other fruits or vegetables in pieces and put them in a jar with cold water that you keep in the fridge.

• Keeping herself in shape
  – I'm constantly over-tired in the wintertime. Sometimes I've thought of buying vitamins. And in my mind I go to aerobics-classes, but never in reality.

  

• Flirting
  – I think it's corny to use standard phrases. You have to check out the situation every time and use you imagination. If the guy is stupid and don't get what's going on, make yourself clear! Show him what you want! Don't sit and wait for him to take the first step, but find out if he's interested. If he's not, cheer up and go on!

• Favorite video movie
  – The colour purple with Whoppi Goldberg. A movie I can watch again and again. It is wonderful and terrible at once. An incredibly strong movie with different characters who's fates really move me. And then I like Space adventures like Star Wars and Star Trek. It is action and excitement without a lot of blood and violence, so you can watch them with all of your family.

• When I was a small kid I wanted to grow up and become a medical doctor. And back then I was a really lousy singer. But shame on those who give up!

• Getting older All ages after 30 have been really cool, and now when she's running on 39 she really enjoys it. She don't suffer from aging stress and she feels that it's nice to get a new sense of calmness and that the need to please other people has disappeared. Now she can go out with her girl buddies sometimes and it can be everything from a nice dinner to a night at the bar, and then it's Nanne who is the last one to leave (Listen to Vem som helst to see what she means ;-) )

• Spending time with her family Nanne is the one who always plans time to spend with the family. A day here a week there and at these times the whole family goes away, preferably abroad, to spend time together without being interrupted by ringing telephones. Nanne is firm on that. The family must get the time to be together.
  – Of course I get a bad conscience sometimes because I, as a woman, don't have time for my family during certain periods. But in our family we have solved it by my husband Peter - who mostly works with studio productions - is having his studio at home in Täby. And thus he is home all days. The kids don't ever have to be alone.

• Feminism
  – It's as important as humanism and everything else where changes are needed

• Pointed ears
  – I won't wear them on an ordinary day, only on parties. And I don't wanna be remembered as Nanne Spock.

• God
  – I use to call myself a religious atheist. I believe in life, in mankind and all we carry inside of us.