Kevin Walker (born 3 August 1989) is a Swedish footballer and singer. He is a centre midfielder for Örebro SK in the Swedish first-tier league

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

. Walker was the winner of the 9th series of the Swedish version of '' Idol'' in 2013.

Football career

Club

Walker was born in Örebro,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, and started his football career in Varbergs BoIS. Son of the former Örebro SK manager Patrick Walker, Kevin made his senior debut for

Superettan Superettan (; meaning the super first (division)) is an association football league and the second highest league in the league system of Swedish men's football. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Al ...

team Örebro SK in the 2006 season. Örebro SK was promoted to Allsvenskan and Walker made his Allsvenskan debut in the following season. From 2007 to 2011, Walker was in the AIK organisation, having loan spells to Väsby United, Assyriska Föreningen and

GIF Sundsvall Gymnastik- och Idrottsföreningen Sundsvall, more commonly known as GIF Sundsvall (), Giffarna or simply Sundsvall, is a Swedish professional football club based in Sundsvall. The club is affiliated with Medelpads Fotbollförbund and plays its h ...

. He moved to

at the end of the 2011 season. Walker played for

side

which he vice-captained during the autumn 2013. After the 2014 season, Walker signed a contract with Djurgårdens IF and was presented on 5 November 2014. In March 2016 Walker was appointed captain for Djurgårdens IF. On 10 May 2018 he played as Djurgarden beat Malmö FF 3–0 in the Swedish Cup Final. On 30 December 2020, Örebro SK announced that they had signed Walker to a three-year deal.

International

Walker made eight

Sweden national under-17 football team The Sweden national under-17 football team ( sv, svenska pojklandslaget i fotboll) is the football team representing Sweden in competitions for under-17-year-old players. The Swedish U17 team came into existence following the realignment of the ...

appearances in 2006 and scored three goals. He made two

Sweden national under-19 football team The Sweden national under-19 football team ( sv, svenska juniorlandslaget i fotboll) is the football team representing Sweden in competitions for under-19 year old players. Primarily, it competes to qualify for the annual UEFA European Under-19 ...

appearances in 2008. Walker and his brother Robert are also eligible to represent the Republic of Ireland.

Honours

Club

AIK *

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

* Svenska Cupen:

* Supercupen: 2010 Djurgårdens IF *Allsvenskan:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

*Svenska Cupen: 2017–18

Musical career

Walker has been fascinated with music from a very young age; ever since he heard his Irish grandfather sing.

In ''Idol''

In 2013, he auditioned to the Swedish '' Idol 2013'' with the song "Soldier". The series in its ninth season was broadcast on TV4. His whole ''Idol'' adventure began after a video of him jamming with a teammate at a football club function caught the attention of the show's producers. A few of Walker's football league games for

were moved to avoid a clash with his television commitments during ''Idol''. Walker reached the final alongside

Elin Bergman Elin Johanna Bergman (born 6 August 1995) is a Swedish singer. She was the first runner-up of the Swedish ''Idol 2013'', losing to Kevin Walker. During week 9 of the show, the contestants each composed and wrote a song alongside several establ ...

, with both of them singing the winning song "Belong". Walker won by popular vote. His winning prize included a recording contract with Universal Music Sweden. In the final show, he and Bergman joined Robbie Williams in singing Williams' song, "Shine My Shoes". ;Performances *Audition: – " Soldier" (

Gavin DeGraw Gavin Shane DeGraw (born February 4, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. DeGraw rose to fame with his song "I Don't Want to Be" from his debut album '' Chariot'' (2003); the song became the main theme song for The WB drama series ''One Tree ...

) *Bootcamp heats: – " Use Somebody" ( Kings of Leon) *Week 1 (Theme "Here I am") – " Pride" ( U2) *Week 2 (Theme: "My Idol") – " Say" (

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with ...

) *Week 3 (Theme "Swedish music exports") – " Poker Face" ( Lady Gaga) *Week 4 (Theme: "Gone too soon") – " Behind Blue Eyes" ( The Who) *Week 5 (Theme: "Successful Idol singers") – "Hope and Glory" – ( Måns Zelmerlöw) *Week 6 (Theme: "Big Band Friday") – " It's My Life" (

Jon Bon Jovi John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (born March 2, 1962), known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was formed in 1983. He ...

) *Week 7 (Theme: "Hits in Swedish") – "Till dom ensamma" ( Mauro Scocco) and "Välkommen in" ( Veronica Maggio) *Week 8 (Theme: "Unplugged") – " Don't Look Back in Anger" (

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

) and "

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

" (

The Script The Script are an Irish rock band formed in 2001 in Dublin, consisting of lead vocalist and keyboardist Danny O'Donoghue, lead guitarist Mark Sheehan, and drummer Glen Power. The band moved to London after signing to Sony Label Group imprint ...

) *Week 9 – Final 4 **round 1 – (Theme: "Self written") – "Dreaming" (

Peter Boström Peter Boström (born May 19, 1971) is a Swedish music producer and songwriter. He is also known as Bassflow. Boström wrote his first song at the age of seven. In 1992, at the age of 21, he started Bassflow Productions, a production company near S ...

, Thomas G:son and Kevin Walker) **round 2 – (Theme: "Picked by jury") – " Free Fallin'" ( Tom Petty) *Week 10 – Semi-finals – Final 3 **round 1 – (Theme: "Audition song") – "Soldier" (

) **round 2 – (Theme: "Chart topping") – "

Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

" ( Daughtry) *Week 11 – Final (Top 2) **round 1 – (Theme: "Own choice") – " Where the Streets Have No Name" ( U2) **round 2 – (Theme: "Viewers' choice") – "Say" (John Mayer) **round 3 – (Theme: "Winner's song") – "Belong" (Kevin Walker)

After ''Idol''

After winning the title, he was signed to Universal Music as part of the award, and released his debut single, the winning song "Belong" that subsequently charted on

Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan (, lit. "the Sweden top list") is the Swedish national record chart, formerly known as Topplistan (1975–1997) and Hitlistan (1998–2007) and known by its current name since October 2007, based on sales data from the Swedish R ...

, the official Swedish Singles Chart. Walker's debut studio album, also titled '' Belong'', peaked at number 2 on the Swedish Album chart. In late December 2013, Walker was interviewed in the talk show ''

The Late Late Show ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...

'' on

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

while visiting Ireland.RTÉ Ten: Brendan O'Carroll for ''Late Late Show''
He performed " Where the Streets Have No Name" during the show.

Discography

Album

Singles

References

External links

*
archive
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Kevin 1989 births Swedish footballers Sweden youth international footballers Örebro SK players AIK Fotboll players Allsvenskan players Living people Swedish people of Irish descent AFC Eskilstuna players Sportspeople from Örebro Superettan players Association football midfielders 21st-century Swedish singers Idol (Swedish TV series) winners Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players 21st-century Swedish male singers