Monica Zetterlund born 20 September 1938

 

Monica Zetterlund (20 September 1937 – 12 May 2005) was a Swedish singer and actress. After beginning her career as the singer in her father's band, she recorded more than 20 albums from 1958 to 2000.
 

Zetterlund, born Eva Monica Nilsson, was a Swedish singer particularly noted for her jazz work. She began by learning the classic jazz songs from radio and records, initially not knowing the language and what they sang about in English. Hit songs included "Sakta vi gå genom stan" (Swedish cover of "Walking My Baby Back Home"; in Swedish a tribute to Stockholm town), "Visa från Utanmyra", "Sista jäntan", "Trubbel", "Gröna små äpplen" ("Little Green Apples"), "Monicas vals" ("Waltz for Debby"), "Stick iväg, Jack!" ("Hit the Road Jack"), "Att angöra en brygga", "Var blev ni av", "Måne över Stureplan" (cover of Sting's "Moon Over Bourbon Street") and "Under vinrankan!", among many, many others. 

She also interpreted the works of such Swedish singer-songwriters as Evert Taube, Olle Adolphson and Povel Ramel, and all through her life interpreted the works of international and American jazz 
musicians/song writers. She worked with some of the greatest international jazz names including Louis Armstrong, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Steve Kuhn and Quincy Jones, and in the Scandinavian jazz world with people like Georg Riedel, Egil Johansen, Arne Domnérus, Svend Asmussen and Jan Johansson.

 

 

In 1964 she recorded the critically acclaimed jazz album Waltz for Debby with Bill Evans, a record she herself described as "the best I've done" and was most proud of. Her long career also included the song "En gång i Stockholm" ("Winter City"); a jazz ballad with which she represented Sweden in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest. She finished last, however (mainly because the song genre was not suitable for the competition) and scored the infamous nul points, but still managed to remain successful in Sweden. 

 

Her collaboration with the comic duo Hasse & Tage (in the 1960s and 70s) eventually led to a stage career in revues and films. Memorable are her parts in films Att angöra en brygga, Äppelkriget and Jan Troell's Utvandrarna (aka The Emigrants; with Liv Ullman and Max von Sydow in the leads) for which Zetterlund received a Guldbagge Award for Best Supporting Actress. She appeared in more than 20 films and television series throughout her life.

She suffered from severe scoliosis, a disabling disease that twists the spine, making it difficult to move. In the last years of her career, she often had to be helped onto the stage and sang sitting down and as a result was forced to retire from performing in 1999.

 

She made her last lengthy official tour in 1997, and gave one of her last concerts at Sweden's Hultsfred Festival (which usually is a festival for pop and rock bands; but she participated anyway - and the young rock audience loved her).

In the last years of her life she used a wheelchair because of her scoliosis. On 12 May 2005, she died following an accidental fire in her apartment in Stockholm. (Info mainly Wikipedia)

This is from a Swedish produced programme sent on Norwegian television called "Monicas allra bästa". Originally broadcast in 1965 on a show called "En stunds jazz", it was thought to have been lost forever, but some genious thankfully found it in SVT's archives.