Eva Sylvia Vrethammar (born 22 August 1945) is a Swedish

traditional pop Traditional pop (also known as vocal pop or pre-rock and roll pop) is Western culture, Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

singer. Vrethammar was born in

Uddevalla Uddevalla is a Stad (Sweden), town in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It’s the seat of Uddevalla Municipality. In 2015, it had a population of 34,781, making it the largest town fully in Bohuslän. Uddevalla is located where the river Bäveån ...

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 ...

. She is the daughter of Harald Vrethammar, an education official, and Britta Vrethammar, a musical education teacher, specializing in the piano. In 1969, she released a Swedish-language cover version of

Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), better known by her stage name Dusty Springfield, was a British singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano voice, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, Pop mus ...

's "

Son of a Preacher Man "Son of a Preacher Man" is a song written and composed by American songwriters John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins and recorded by British singer Dusty Springfield in September 1968 for the album '' Dusty in Memphis.'' Springfield's version was produ ...

", entitled "En lärling på våran gård". Vrethammar is also fluent in English. In the 1970s, she occasionally appeared as guest singer with the

Bert Kaempfert Bert Kaempfert (born ; 16 October 1923 – 21 June 1980) was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the music for a number of well-kno ...

orchestra, singing in English. After a series of tribute concerts in Germany in 2006 and 2008, where she returned to the bandleader's music with ex-Kaempfert trombonist Jiggs Whigham and other former orchestra members (playing as the HR Big Band), in 2012, she recorded numbers from the tours. She is perhaps best known for the 1974 release, " Y Viva España," an English adaptation of the

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of languages by total number of speak ...

"Eviva España," first recorded by the Belgian singer Samantha (Christiane Bervoets). It reached #4 in the UK Singles Chart in September 1974, spending over six months in the charts. The song also peaked at number #67 in Australia in 1975. She was known in the UK and Australia simply as Sylvia. Globally her version alone sold over one million copies, and was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. She took part in Melodifestivalen 2002, singing " Hon är en annan nu". She participated again in Melodifestivalen 2013 in the hope of representing Sweden in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2013 The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Euphoria (Loreen song), Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the Europea ...

which was held in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

. She sang her song " Trivialitet" in the fourth semifinal, which was also held in Malmö. She came seventh and was therefore eliminated from the contest.

Discography

* ''Tycker Om Dej'' (Sonet, 1969) * ''Sylvia'' (Sonet, 1970) * ''Dansa Samba Med Mej'' (Sonet, 1971) * ''Gamla Stan'' (Sonet, 1972) * ''Jag Sjunger for Dej'' (Sonet, 1973) * ''Y Viva Espana'' (Sonet, 1973) * ''Pa Nya Bacchi'' (Sonet, 1974) * ''Stardust & Sunshine'' (Sonet, 1975) * ''Somebody Loves You'' (Sonet, 1976) * ''Frei Wie Wind Und Wolken'' (Metronome, 1977) * ''SyLeenden I Regn'' (Sonet, 1977) * ''Als War' Nichts Geschehen'' (Metronome, 1978) * ''Chateau'' (Sonet, 1979) * ''Bert Kaempfert'' (Polydor, 1982) * ''In Goodmansland'' (Sonet, 1983) * ''Rio de Janeiro Blue'' (Sonet, 1985) * ''OM 18 Ar Og Myndig'' (Fair Play Music, 1989) * ''Frau Im Besten Mannesalter'' (Papagayo, 1989) * ''Oppna Dina Ogon'' (Sonet, 1990) * ''Ladylike'' (Papagayo, 1991) * ''Sylvia Vrethammar with Erik Petersens Quartet'' (Music Partner, 1994) * ''Something My Heart Might Say'' (Four Leaf Clover, 1995) * ''Samstag Nacht'' (Papagayo, 2002) * ''Faller for Dej'' (Sonet, 2002) * ''Champagne'' (Sonet, 2006) * ''Musik'' (Papagayo, 2013) * ''Trivialitet'' (EMI, 2013) * ''The Girl from Uddevalla'' (Chaos, 2017)

Charting singles

References

External links

*Sylvia Vrethammar’
Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vrethammar, Sylvia 1945 births Living people Swedish women jazz singers Swedish jazz singers Swedish pop singers Swedish women pop singers Schlager musicians Easy listening musicians People from Uddevalla Musicians from Västra Götaland County English-language singers from Sweden