After Dark (1976–2018) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

drag act The term "drag" refers to the performance of exaggerated masculinity, femininity, or other forms of gender expression, usually for entertainment purposes. A drag queen is someone (usually male) who performs femininity and a drag king is someone ...

starring entertainer

Christer Lindarw Christer Lindarw (born 3 March 1953) is a Swedish clothes designer, actor, drag queen entertainer, and the leader of drag group '' After Dark''. Career Lindarw was born in Eskilstuna, Södermanland County. He was educated at Beckmans designhö ...

who eventually also began appearing intermittently out of drag and singing with his own voice.

Show history

The group was put together for a special

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

nightclub called After Dark Club immediately after Lindarw with Roger Jönsson had appeared in ''

Wild Side Story ''Wild Side Story'' is a parody musical that originated in 1973 as a drag show on the gay scene of Miami Beach, soon developed there into an underground happening for mixed audiences, and up until 2004 was performed hundreds of times in Florida, ...

'' at Alexandra's in January 1976 and also in February, with an added co-star Lars "Lasse" Flinckman. Its immediate appeal with Alexandra's clientele has been cited as instrumental to rapid and early success. Since that time, After Dark has been a major ingredient in Swedish

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

culture. Jönsson however left the group for another in 1981 and died in 1984. The Lindarw-Flinckman duo had international success, performing in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. By 2009 Flinckman had retired from the show (he died in 2016) and was replaced for a tour of Sweden by entertainer

Lars-Åke Wilhelmsson Lars-Åke Wilhelmsson (born 8 September 1958) is a Swedish fashion designer and drag artist. Mostly known for his performances as the character Babsan (), he was educated as a typographist and art director. Biography Wilhelmsson was a successful ...

also known as ''Babsan''. Their Stockholm version of the show was broadcast by

TV4 (Sweden) TV4 (''TV fyra'') is a Swedish free-to-air television network owned by TV4 AB, a subsidiary of the TV4 Media AB. It started broadcasting by satellite in 1990 and, since 1992, on terrestrial television. In 1994, TV4 became the largest channel a ...

on New Year's Eve 2011. Dancer Nils-Albert Eriksson remained in the ensemble since its start in 1976 doing male parts. Late in 2016, as his comprehensive biography was published by

Bonniers Bonnier AB (), also the Bonnier Group, is a privately held Swedish media group of 175 companies operating in 15 countries. It is controlled by the Bonnier family. Background The company was founded in 1804 by Gerhard Bonnier in Copenhagen, Denm ...

, Lindarw starring alone began his last big show tour, to be completed at

Oscarsteatern Oscarsteatern (English: Oscar Theatre), also known simply as Oscars, is one of Stockholm's private theatres and is the best-known musical theatre in Sweden. It is located at Kungsgatan 63 in central Stockholm. History The theater was designed ...

in Stockholm during the last few months of 2017, and he then revealed that ''After Dark'' would be discontinued after that.

Eurovision Song Contest attempts

In 2004 After Dark competed in

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song ...

, the annual Swedish preparation for the Eurovision Song Contest. Their song ''

La dolce vita ''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for "the sweet life" or "the good life"Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi) by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcell ...

'' finished third domestically and did not proceed. A single of the song was a hit on the radio in Sweden and was often played at Swedish

day care Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...

centers. After Dark did a new show that year, named for the song, at Stockholm's main amusement park. In a fourth and final televised Melodifestivalen trial in February 2007 After Dark, without Flinckman, did '' (Åh) När ni tar saken i egna händer'', which competed well but did not proceed to the domestic finale. The Swedish lyrics could all be interpreted as relating humorously to

masturbation Masturbation is the sexual stimulation of one's own genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation may involve hands, fingers, everyday objects, sex toys such as vibrators, or combinatio ...

, its repeated title sounding as sung like "onanism, what you have at hand". Four people named as masturbators in it (by their first names only) are recognizable Swedish TV celebrities who according to ''

Aftonbladet ''Aftonbladet'' (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lars Johan H ...

'' gave their consent. The number was performed "elegantly, intelligently and with style" and could alternatively be interpreted as dealing with home improvement.Så fräck är onanilåten
,

, February 23. 2007 ''After Dark'' was in

Melodifestivalen 2016 Melodifestivalen 2016 was the 56th edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen, which selected Sweden's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The competition was organised by Sveriges Television (SVT) and took place over the s ...

with the song "Kom ut som en stjärna" and finished in 7th place in the third semifinal.

Singles

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:After Dark (Drag Act) Swedish drag queens Swedish musical groups Swedish-language singers LGBT-themed musical groups Musical groups established in 1976 1976 establishments in Sweden Drag groups Melodifestivalen contestants of 2016 Melodifestivalen contestants of 2007 Melodifestivalen contestants of 2006 Melodifestivalen contestants of 2004