Lill-Babs

• 1. Introduction

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  Lill-Babs was born Barbro Margareta Svensson on the 9th of March 1938, in Järvsö, a town 290 kilometres north of Stockholm. She spent her first nine years in a small cottage without running water, the daughter of Ragnar and Britta Svensson. At age 11, she sang in a church for the first time, accompanied by a colleague of her father on accordion. That modest beginning in a rural Swedish cottage gave almost no hint of what was coming: a career spanning more than six decades, a meeting with the Beatles, and a hit song written for her by two future members of ABBA. How does a girl from a waterless cottage in Järvsö become one of Sweden's most enduring performers? The answer starts with a radio program, a record producer who heard something special, and a stage name borrowed from a more famous singer.

• 2. A Name Borrowed and Remade

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  At Barnens dag in Järvsö in 1953, Barbro Svensson made her first public performance. She soon joined Lasse Schönning's orchestra, and the following year a radio appearance changed everything. When she sang on the program Morgonkvisten in 1954, musician and record producer Simon Brehm heard her voice on air and acted quickly. He brought her to Stockholm, where she made her professional debut at the Bal Palais restaurant. Brehm would manage her career until his death in 1967. He also gave her the stage name Lill-Babs, a deliberate play on words connecting her to Alice Babs, an older and at that time better-known Swedish singer. The name was borrowed, but the career would be entirely her own. Her debut gramophone record, also released in 1954, carried two songs: "Min mammas boogie" and "Svar till 'Ung och kär'". Shortly after that release, she became pregnant and returned to Järvsö, where she gave birth to her first daughter, Monica.

• 3. The Hit That Defined Her

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  In 1959, Lill-Babs recorded "Är du kär i mej ännu Klas-Göran?" a song by Stikkan Anderson, and it became a major hit. The title translates as "Are You Still in Love with Me, Klas-Göran?" and the song's playful, direct question to a named man captured something audiences loved. That same year she had already appeared in the film Fly mej en greve, and her television debut had come two years earlier in 1957. She was also performing folkpark shows across Sweden, eventually visiting every folk park in the country over her long career. Her theater debut in Fly mig en greve at the Nöjeskatten theater in 1958 ran alongside her film work in Svenska Floyd and En nolla för mycket. Stikkan Anderson, the songwriter behind her 1959 breakthrough, would later become famous as the manager of ABBA, a connection that threads through Lill-Babs's life in more than one way.

• 4. Eurovision and the West

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  Sweden's national selection for Eurovision 1961, Melodifestivalen, was where Lill-Babs had entered twice already. "April, april" had actually been performed by Siw Malmkvist in the national final, but Lill-Babs was chosen to carry the song to Cannes for the international contest. She had competed in Melodifestivalen in 1960 and 1961 with her own songs, but neither won. She would enter again in 1973, and in 1969 she also participated in the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix, also without winning. Eurovision, though, opened doors abroad. After the contest she launched a career in West Germany, acting in several films there, and she also released two English-language solo singles aimed at the American market.

• 5. Beatles, ABBA, and the Stage

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  In 1963, Lill-Babs was the main guest star on the teen music show Drop-In, broadcast on Sveriges Television. The band appearing that day was, at that point, unknown outside Britain: the Beatles. They asked Lill-Babs for her autograph. The story flips the expected dynamic entirely. By 1971, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, two of the four people who would form ABBA, wrote and produced her hit song "Welcome to the World". All four future ABBA members sang on the recording. Lill-Babs also took the stage in a Kar de Mumma revue at the Folkan theater in the 1970s, and played Annie Oakley in the musical Annie Get Your Gun at the Scandinavium arena in Gothenburg. She performed shows at Berns in Stockholm, Trädgår'n in Gothenburg, and Kronprinsen in Malmö.

• 6. A Life on Television

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  On the 26th of December 1983, Lill-Babs was the main guest on the Swedish version of This Is Your Life, Här är ditt liv, hosted by Lasse Holmqvist. The producers had arranged for a long line of her ex-boyfriends to appear in the studio. Through the late 1980s and into the 1990s, she hosted several SVT programs of her own: Hemma hos Lill-Babs in 1987, Morgonlust in 1988, Vem tar vem in 1990, and Cocktail in 1991. In 2010 she appeared on Så mycket bättre on TV4, and in 2012 spoke about her career on Stjärnorna på slottet. Her final television role came in the SVT series Bonusfamiljen in 2017 and 2018, where she played a lesbian character named Gugge. Her death meant the writers had to revise the series' script. A two-part documentary called Lill-Babs, Leva livet aired on TV4 in 2017, presenting her full life and career.

• 7. Personal Life and Legacy

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  Lill-Babs was married twice: first to singer Lasse Berghagen from 1965 to 1968, then to Norwegian footballer Kjell Kaspersen from 1969 to 1973. She had three daughters: Monica Svensson, born in 1955; Malin Berghagen, born in 1966; and Kristin Kaspersen, born in 1969. Her younger brother Lasse Svensson drummed for the rock group Tages and subsequently Blond from 1967 to 1969. She published her autobiography, Hon är jag, meaning "She Is I", in 1996. In 2017, she was inducted into the Swedish Music Hall of Fame. Lill-Babs died on the 3rd of April 2018, following cancer and heart failure. Both SVT and TV4 changed their programming that day to broadcast tributes and retrospectives. Her funeral was held at Järvsö Church on the 28th of May 2018, and she was buried in the churchyard there. The town where she sang in a church at age 11, without running water in the family cottage, was where she came to rest.