| Scandinavian superstar Carola is an phenomenon. Constantly giving it her all whether on-stage or in the studio, she’s like a vocal blast furnace. Through the years, she’s made pop, hymns, rock, ballads, disco, gospel, folk music, lullabies and AOR, performing in musicals, TV shows, Pan-Nordic Christmas specials and numerous sold-out concert tours all over Scandinavia. In the hands of most artists, this combination of styles could have ended up being too diversified. But somehow every style of music ends up sounding tailor-made for her.
As a testament to that, Carola’s voice is rarely compared to others. If pressed, one would have to describe her as an amalgam between Céline Dion, Barbra Streisand and rootsy rock singer Maria McKee. She has it all: range, energy, sensitivity, presence and power. This also means that she can sing a children’s lullaby or an arena rock song by U2 with the same charismatic conviction.
In her native Sweden, Carola is recognised by everyone. She can hardly go anywhere without being approached by fans. Like the true star that she is, she takes time to write autographs, chat away and show her fans that she knows that she wouldn’t be anywhere without them.
If Carola enters the Eurovision Song Contest, there’s usually a collective sigh of resignation among other contestants. Her break-through came in 1983, getting every jury members highest points in the aforementioned competition. Having started out in local rock bands, she was an immediate superstar at the age of 16. Her first solo album and single, ‘Främling’ (‘Stranger’), sold one million copies while Carolamania hit Sweden. ‘Mickey’ (a Swedish version of the Toni Basil hit) and ‘Säg mig var du står’ was also huge. The two following albums sold 700,000 units together, spawning hits like ‘På egna ben’, ‘Tommy tycker om mig’, ‘Det regnar i Stockholm’ and ‘Tokyo’. Fittingly, she then went to Japan and recorded a single in Japanese, which made the Japanese charts.
In 1985, Maurice and Robin Gibb of The Bee Gees wrote and produced an album with her called The Runaway. The talented twins were mightily impressed with her vocal prowess and provided her with a tougher AOR sound and the hard-hitting title track became a hit. The album was released in 1986 and soon went double platinum.
Never afraid to take chances musically, Carola then decided to realise another of her musical dreams, and made a gospel album. Success followed – once again.
In 1990, Carola returned to pop music with the album ‘Much More’, a great AOR album including the hard-hitting ‘Girl Who Had Everything’. In spite of the long break from the pop scene, it immediately went gold. Carola clearly hadn’t been forgotten.
In 1992, she had another huge hit with ‘Fångad av en stormvind’. She also became the first Scandinavian artist to release an album in China, where she performed on national television in front of more than 600 million viewers.
In 1993, a television special celebrated her 10th anniversary in the business. Always determined not to rest on her laurels, Carola then took on the role as Maria in the musical 'Sound of Music', performing 425 shows and receiving the prestigious Guldmasken Award (the Swedish equivalent of a Tony).
Longing to be backed by guitars, bass and drums again, Carola hooked up with rock producer Lasse Lindbom to make an album in Swedish, ‘Personligt’ (1995). It spawned several hits and showed Carola’s unmistakable ear for new songwriting talent. The song ‘Guld i dina ögon’ was the first song by Jörgen Elofsson to be picked up by another artist. Elofsson has since become one of the world’s most successful songwriters, having provided Britney Spears, Céline Dion, Westlife and many others with hits.
In 1997, the hit single ‘Dreamer’, an energetic disco classic with a rock attitude, lent a voice to proud, hard-working, loving moms out there. The song was a new track on a Best Of double-CD that summed up her career so far.
In 1998, Carola was the Swedish voice of Mirjam, in Steven Spielberg’s first animated movie, 'The Prince of Egypt'.
To end the millennium with a hopeful statement, a delicate Christmas album was recorded in Bethlehem with Swedish, Norwegian and Israeli musicians together with a Palestinian children’s choir. The album oozed class and warmth and showcased Carola’s maturity as a songwriter and lyricist – she co-wrote ‘Himlen i min famn’, one of her best songs ever. Nobody could argue with the quality of the album and it reached sales of more than 350,000 units in Sweden and was huge throughout Scandinavia (with sales around 600,000 units).
At the end of the year, Carola performed in two Christmas shows at The Globe arena and Scandinavium (Sweden’s two biggest arenas), recorded a Christmas concert for TV4 and participated in a long series of other TV shows.
In 2001, Carola released a modern pop album, showing every newcomer out there that her voice was made for 21st century pop as well. As if anyone had doubted that….
She also did major TV specials for both Sweden and Norway.
In 2003, a four-disc box set (a very rare release among Swedish artists) and live-DVD hit the stores.
The album ‘Störst av allt’ was released in April 2005. Containing songs for baptisms, weddings and funerals, it included classics with new arrangements and some new ones written by Carola herself. This album is certified platinum by now. Carola once again toured Norway in the summer of 2005.
A new contemporary pop/rock album by Carola is currently being recorded for release later in 2006, with songs by some of the greatest songwriters available. |
