Sofia Karlsson (born 25 March 1975 in Enskede, Sweden) is a Swedish folk singer.

Biography

Sofia Karlsson grew up in Enskede, Stockholm. She attended the folk music department of the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

in Stockholm. From 1998 to 2002 she was a full-time member in Swedish folk music act Groupa. In 2002 she released her debut solo album ''Folk songs''. In 2005 she made her public breakthrough with her second album '' Svarta ballader'' (Black Ballads). The album contains her interpretations of the Swedish poet

Dan Andersson Dan Andersson (6 April 1888 in Ludvika – 16 September 1920 in Stockholm)Dan Andersson
' ...

, named for his 1917 book. The album was in the charts for more than a year and has to date sold 60,000 copies. It was rewarded with Swedish as well as Danish

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

s. After touring the country for two years she released her third album ''

Visor från vinden ''Visor från vinden'' (Songs from the loft) is the Swedish singer Sofia Karlsson's third studio album as a solo artist. The album was released on 11 April 2007 by Bonnier Amigo Music Group. The album is a collection of songs written by poets ...

'' (Songs from the loft) with its collection of classical songs sung in Swedish, but written by poets and musicians such as

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...

Dan Andersson Dan Andersson (6 April 1888 in Ludvika – 16 September 1920 in Stockholm)Dan Andersson
' ...

, Marianne Flodin,

Mikael Wiehe Mikael Christian Wiehe (born 10 April 1946 in Stockholm) is a Swedish singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer. As the main songwriter and driving force of Hoola Bandoola Band he was also one of the most important people in the progg movemen ...

, Alf Hambe,

Inger Hagerup Inger Hagerup (née Halsør; 12 April 1905, in Bergen – 6 February 1985, in Fredrikstad) was a Norwegian writer, playwright and poet. She is considered one of the greatest Norwegian poets of the 20th century. Life and career Inger Johanne Hal ...

Carl Michael Bellman Carl Michael Bellman (; 4 February 1740 – 11 February 1795) was a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, poet and entertainer. He is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a powerful influence in Swedish music, as well ...

Peps Persson Per-Åke Tommy Persson (20 December 1946 – 27 June 2021), known by the stage name Peps Persson, was a Swedish blues and reggae musician and social critic from Tjörnarp, Scania. Throughout his career he mostly made music in Swedish and was we ...

, and

Evert Taube Axel Evert Taube (; 12 March 1890 – 31 January 1976) was a Swedish author, artist, composer and singer. He is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians and the foremost troubadour of the Swedish ballad tradition in the 20th c ...

. The album also contains

Lars Forssell Lars Hans Carl Abraham Forssell (14 January 192826 July 2007) was a Swedish writer and member of the Swedish Academy. Forssell was a versatile writer who worked within many genres, including poetry, drama and songwriting. He was married from 1951 ...

's free version of

Boris Vian Boris Vian (; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer who is primarily remembered for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sulliva ...

's " Le Déserteur".

Reception

; ''Folk Songs'' Peggy Latkovich, writing on Rootsworld, describes Karlsson as "an artist who deals in nuance and delicate shadings", adding that her voice "has the smoky overlay of

Sandy Denny Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny (6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978) was an English singer who was lead singer of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. She has been described as "the pre-eminent British folk rock singer". After briefly w ...

and the expressive phrasing of

Niamh Parsons Niamh Parsons (born in Dublin, Ireland) is a singer of contemporary and traditional Irish music Irish traditional music (also known as Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland. I ...

". Rootsworld describes ''Folk Songs'' as understated, with "exquisitely subtle performance". Rather than being traditional Swedish folk music, Karlsson and her band produce "meticulously wrought, emotionally satisfying works of art". ; ''Svarta ballader'' Göran Holmquist wrote in

Helsingborgs Dagblad ''Helsingborgs Dagblad'' (''HD'', lit. "Helsingborg's Daily Paper"), published in Helsingborg in Skåne is the largest (circ. 84.000) newspaper in Swedish outside the metropolitan districts of Malmö, Göteborg and Stockholm. History and profi ...

that "With its fingertip-light arrangement, she manages to bring Dan Andersson's poetry about dreams, breakup and longing into the present." The review site Dagensskiva.com gave the album 10/10, writing that "Sofia Karlsson has built a bridge to my childhood experience of Dan Andersson. The romantic, primaeval forest's loneliness and longing for closeness." The review site Rootsy.nu ended its review with the words "'' Svarta ballader'' is hereby designated as 2005's best Swedish ballad and folk music album."

Awards

Karlsson has won the Swedish equivalent of the Grammy, the

Grammis The Grammis are music awards presented annually to musicians and songwriters in Sweden. The oldest Swedish music awards, they were instituted as a local equivalent of the Grammy Awards given in the United States. The awards ceremony is generall ...

, four times, in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011, for her albums ''Folk Songs'', ''Svarta Ballader'', ''Söder om kärleken'', and ''Levande''. In 2006, Karlsson won the "folk/world music" prize at the Swedish Manifest Gala, where the jury said that "With an alloy of Swedish song tradition, folk music precision and playful genre-borrowing, Sofia Karlsson's album has made Dan Andersson indispensable for another generation." In 2008, she won the ; In 2009, ; in 2010, the Ulla Billquist Stipend; in 2013, the Troubadour Prize; and in 2015, Stockholm City's Culture Prize.

Discography

; Albums * ''Folk songs'', 2002 * '' Svarta ballader'' (Black ballads), 2005 * ''

'' (Songs from the loft), 2007 * '' Söder om kärleken'' (South of love), 2009 * ''Norr om Eden'' (EP) (North of Eden), 2010 * ''Regnet faller utan oss'' (Rain falls without us), 2014 * ''Stjärnenätter'' (Starry Nights, with

Martin Hederos Martin Hederos is a founding member of Nymphet Noodlers and The Soundtrack of Our Lives. He is also a member of the duo Hederos & Hellberg together with Mattias Hellberg, as well as ex-Esbjörn Svensson Trio bassist Dan Berglund's Tonbruket c ...

), 2015 * ''Guitar Stories'' (with Mattias Pérez and Daniel Ek), 2019 * ''Sånger från broccolifälten'' (Songs from the broccoli fields), 2022 ; Contributions * ''Jul i folkton'' (Christmas in folk style), 2005 * ''Folkjul'' (A Swedish Folk Christmas), 2007 * ''Dreamers' Circus'' (EP) (with

Dreamers' Circus Dreamers' Circus is a Nordic band consisting of Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (Denmark/Faroe Islands), Ale Carr ( Sweden) and Nikolaj Busk (Denmark). History Dreamers’ Circus formed in 2009 as a result of a jam session at a folk festival in Cope ...

), 2010

References

External links

Official website

Sofia Karlsson's MySpace Page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karlsson, Sofia Royal College of Music, Stockholm alumni Swedish women musicians Swedish songwriters 1975 births Living people 20th-century Swedish women singers 21st-century Swedish women singers