Änglahund is a song written by

Hasse Andersson Hans Olle Lennart Andersson (born 28 January 1948) is a Swedish country singer and songwriter, whose albums had chart success in Sweden during the 1980s. He took part in Melodifestivalen 2015 in a bid to represent Sweden in Eurovision Song Cont ...

, and recorded on his 1982 album with the same name. The song's lyrics asks the question if

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

allows people bringing their

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

into Heaven after death. The song has also been recorded with lyrics in English, as ''Angel Buddy''. The song was also dealt with during a meeting of bishops, where Christian leaders wondered how a non-religious song about the afterlife could make thousands of people listen, while priests in church had problems getting visitors despite dealing with the same issue. Song lyrics reflect a time when

dog licence A dog licence is required in some jurisdictions to be the keeper of a dog. Usually a dog-licence identifying number is issued to the owner, along with a dog tag bearing the identifier and a contact number for the registering organization. If a ...

was used in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Other recordings

* Vikingarna (band), Vikingarna recorded the song in 1983 on the album "Kramgoa låtar 11". Their recording of the song also appears in the 2014 film ''The Anderssons Rock the Mountains'', in a rather humorous way, by being played on the radio after the family worry about a dog that the main character, Sune, feels bad about having hit with a soccer ball. *Swedish rock band Kenneth & the Knutters recorded the song as "Änglabåge", replacing the dog theme with the motorcycle. *Swedish musician and preacher Målle Lindberg also recorded the song. *Swedish rock band Mustasch released a cover of the song in 2017. Later the same year they released the English-language song "Hounds from Hell" with the same instrumentals.

In other languages

A Danish-language-version, ''Himmelhunden'', was written by Calle Sand and became the 1984 breakthrough song for Teddy Edelmann.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anglahund 1982 songs Songs in Swedish Songs written by Hasse Andersson Hasse Andersson songs Vikingarna (band) songs Songs about dogs