Eva Therese Margaretha Merkel also known as "Tess Merkel" (born 18 April 1970) is a Swedish singer and songwriter who is one of the original members of the pop group Alcazar.

Career

Merkel was born in

Nyköping Nyköping () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Nyköping Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 32,759 inhabitants as of 2017. The city is also the capital of Södermanland County. Including Arnö, the locality on the ...

, Sweden. She started her career in a number of musicals and soon landed the job as a showgirl at Wallmans salonger in 1991. She also did some choirgirl jobs for Melodifestivalen, in

Melodifestivalen 1993 Sweden entered the Eurovision Song Contest 1993, held in Millstreet, Ireland. At Eurovision, Sweden performed 13th, following France and preceding Ireland. As the close of the voting, they had finished 7th in a field of 25 with 89 points. Befo ...

she did the choir behind

Lena Pålsson Lena or LENA may refer to: Places * Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso * Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada * Lena, Norway, a village in � ...

, in

Melodifestivalen 1997 Sweden was represented by Blond in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 with the song "Bara hon älskar mig". Before Eurovision Melodifestivalen 1997 Melodifestivalen 1997 was the selection for the 37th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision ...

she choired behind her later bandmate

Andreas Lundstedt Björn Helge Andreas Lundstedt (born 20 May 1972) is a Swedish singer, best known as a member of the pop-dance group Alcazar. Biography Born in Uppsala, Sweden, since childhood, Lundstedt had wanted to be a singer. At the age of five, he took ...

and in

Melodifestivalen 2000 Sweden was the host of the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 thanks to Charlotte Nilsson's victory the previous year. Sveriges Television chose to hold the contest in Sweden's capital, Stockholm. They were represented by Roger Pontare with the song ...

she choired behind Avengers during their performance. Merkel herself has participated 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 ...

three times as of 2010: in

Melodifestivalen 2003 Melodifestivalen 2003 was the selection for the 43rd song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 42nd time that this system of picking a song had been used. Five heats had taken place to select the ten songs for the final ...

Melodifestivalen 2005 Melodifestivalen 2005 was the selection for the 45th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 44th time that this system of picking a song had been used. Five heats had taken place to select the ten songs for the final, ...

Melodifestivalen 2009 Melodifestivalen 2009 was a Sweden, Swedish song contest held between February and March 2009. It was the selection for the 49th song to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, and was the 48th edition of Melodifestivalen. Five heats were ...

and in

Melodifestivalen 2010 Melodifestivalen 2010 was a Swedish song contest held between February and March 2010. It was the selection for the 50th song to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, and was the 49th edition of Melodifestivalen. Five heats were held in ...

, all four times as a member of the popular pop group Alcazar. Merkel has also in 2006 hosted the final of

MGP Nordic 2006 The 2nd MGP Nordic was held in Stockholm, Sweden in November 2006. This was the first time in four years that MGP Nordic took place after Denmark, Swedish broadcaster SVT, and Norway pulled out of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest that same yea ...

a Nordic music competition for kids. She also has an interest for Poker and has been a contestant at the

European Poker Tour The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour (WPT), created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Tex ...

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 ...

in 2006. Merkel has won 500.000 (SEK) at the Pokermiljonen in online Poker game. She participated in

Melodifestivalen 2021 Melodifestivalen 2021 was the 61st edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen. The competition was organised by Sveriges Television (SVT) and took place over a six-week period between 6 February and 13 March 2021. Due to the impac ...

solo with the song "Good Life", but failed to qualify from the heats.

Personal life

Merkel lives in

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 ...

with her two children from her ex-boyfriend Greger Andersson: son Neo (born 2003) and daughter Minya (born 2007). Since 2013 Merkel has been dating British actor, model and businessman

Kenny Solomons Kenny Solomons (born 29 July 1986) English actor and model, known for his role as Mason in Brit-flick ''The Rapture''. Solomons lives in Sweden. He owns his own café/barbershop franchise in Sweden, Hammarby Sjöstad, Norra Djurgårdsstaden and U ...

who is known from Bredbandsbolagets commercials. They married in 2017.

Discography

Singles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merkel, Therese Swedish women singers People from Nyköping Municipality Alcazar (band) members 1970 births Living people English-language singers from Sweden Swedish people of German descent Melodifestivalen contestants of 2021 Melodifestivalen contestants of 2014 Melodifestivalen contestants of 2010 Melodifestivalen contestants of 2009 Melodifestivalen contestants of 2005 Melodifestivalen contestants of 2003