Hans Christer Sjögren (; born 6 April 1950) is a Swedish singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the

dansband (; "dance band"), or in Norwegian and Danish, is a Swedish language, Swedish term for a band that plays (; "dance band music"). ' is often danced to in partner dance, pairs. Jitterbug and foxtrot music are often included in this category. T ...

group Vikingarna.

Early life

Hans Christer Sjögren was born in

Hagfors Hagfors is a locality and the seat of Hagfors Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden with 10,125 inhabitants in 2010. Its history is traced to 1873, when it was decided to build two blast furnaces at the location. The town of Hagfors used to pl ...

, Sweden, on 6 April 1950, as the child of Eivor (née Östling) and Hans Sjögren.

Career

1978–2004: Vikingarna

On 15 September 1978,

Stefan Borsch Stefan Henrik Borsch (born 19 January 1947) is a Swedish singer, songwriter and musician. At first, he sang for Swedish dansband Öijwinds, and from 1973 for the dansband Vikingarna (band), Vikingarna, which he left in 1979. After this, he beg ...

left the band and Sjögren reluctantly became their lead singer. The first album by Vikingarna with Christer Sjögren as singer is " Kramgoa låtar 7", released in 1979.

2008–present

He competed in

Melodifestivalen 2008 2008 was the 48th edition of the Swedish music competition , which was organised by (SVT) and took place over a six-week period between 9 February and 15 March 2008. The winner of the competition was Charlotte Perrelli with the song "Hero", w ...

, the Swedish preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Taking one of the two top spots in the first semi-final, his song " I Love Europe" was qualified for the final in the

Globe Arena Avicii Arena, originally known as the Stockholm Globe Arena and previously as the Ericsson Globe, but commonly referred to in Swedish simply as Globen (; ), is an indoor arena located in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov district of Stockholm ...

on 15 March 2008. He finished in 9th place. In 2018, he appears on

Så mycket bättre Så mycket bättre (, ) is a Swedish reality television show broadcast on TV4 (Sweden), TV4. The basic premise is that each participating musician performs their own version of a well-known song by another artist, with each episode focusing on ...

which is broadcast on TV4.

Personal life

Sjögren is married to Birgitta Sjögren. Since the early 2000s, Christer Sjögren lives in Hammarö, outside

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 67,122 inhabitants in 2020 with 97,233 inhabitan ...

, Sweden.

Legacy

Awards and honours

* 2005:

Royal Norwegian Order of Merit The Royal Norwegian Order of Merit (Norwegian: ''Den Kongelige Norske Fortjenstorden'' (Bokmål) or ''Den Kongelege Norske Fortenesteordenen'' (Nynorsk)) was instituted by King Olav V in 1985. It is awarded to foreigners, Norwegian citizens livin ...

"Christer Sjögren blir ridder"

Discography

Solo * '' Andliga sånger'' (1989) * '' Andliga sånger 2'' (1993) * '' När ljusen ska tändas därhemma'' (1994) * '' Varför är solen så röd'' (1996) * '' Ett julkort från förr'' (2000) * '' För kärlekens skull'' (2003) * ''

Älskade andliga sånger ''Älskade andliga sånger'', released on 17 October 2007, is a Christer Sjögren studio album, consisting of Christian music, Christian songs recorded together with Örebro gospel. Recorded in mid-2007, the album is based on songs performed by hi ...

'' (2007) * ''

40 år med Christer Sjögren ''40 år med Christer Sjögren'' is a compilation album by Christer Sjögren, released on 26 March 2008, during his 40th anniversary year as a recording artist. The album consists of recordings from his days as a solo artists, as well as with diffe ...

'' (2008) * '' Schlagerminnen'' (2009) * '' En stjärna lyser i natt'' (2010) * '' Kramgoa låtar 2011'' (2011) Other * '' Love Me Tender'' (2005) * ''

King Creole ''King Creole'' is a 1958 American Musical film, musical drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and based on the 1952 novel ''A Stone for Danny Fisher'' by Harold Robbins. Produced by Hal B. Wallis, the film stars Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, W ...

'' (2006) * '' Mitt sköna sextiotal'' (2008) * '' Lotta & Christer'' (2012) * '' Christer Sjögren sjunger Sinatra'' (2014)

Filmography

Television

Citations

External links

* * 1950 births Living people People from Hagfors Dansband singers Swedish rock singers Swedish male singers {{Sweden-singer-stub