Eva DAHLGREN
1960, Sweden
Eva Charlotte Dahlgren-Attling was born the 9th of June of 1960 in Umeå (in the north of Sweden), but was brought up in Lund, Vendelsö and Nynäshamn.
She started to play the guitar when she was a teenager. Bruno Glenmark discovered her when she performed at the TV-program called “Sveriges Magasin”. The result was her debut album “Finns det någon som bryr sig om”, released in 1978 and produced by Bruno and Anders Glenmark. Anders has since then produced all of her albums, except “Lai Lai”.
Eva participated in Melodifestival (where the artist who is going to represent Sweden at the European Song Contest is chosen) twice. First in 1979 with “Om jag skriver en sång”, where she got a third position; and then in 1980 with “Jag ger mej inte”, Eva didn’t want to perform at all, so the song was performed with an angry Eva who didn’t smile at the camara once.
In the 1980's she became famous for a broadther audience. In 1980 she released the album “Eva Dahlgren”, an album where she critisises and explains women’s feelings and the problem they have when wanting to show these feelings to another person. She also sang in the melody for the radio program “Eldorado”, where she could also be heard singing “Sakta vi gå genom stan”. Both these songs are featured in the LP “Eldorado: Stjärnornas musik” (Glimglim/EMI 1982).
In 1981 she released “Får Väntan” and in 1982 “Tvillinsjö”. These albums are a bit more rockier than the previous ones, that were more folk-schlager-music orientated. Between 1981 and 1984 she got three Rockbjärn (a prize given by the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet) as “Best female artist of the year”.
“Ett fönster mot gatan” followed in 1984, with a quite different style from the previous albums. After that, she released a compilation album called “Känn mej”, with songs from her first album till her last one in 84.
She toured around Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. In 1985 she participated in the recording of an album and a concert for ANC. In 1987 “Ung och Stolt” was released. This album is the first that doesn’t feature any song in English and includes a song co-composed with Jonas Isacsson, a Swedish guitar player who has worked with Eva since the beginning and has also played in Roxette, Marie Fredriksson and many other Swedish artists’ albums and tours. This same year she travelled through Sweden together with Ratata and Roxette on a tour called “Rock runt riket” and recorded the song “I want you” with them in order to promote the tour.
In 1989 “Fria Världen 1989″ saw the light and became a huge success, especially due to the song “Ängeln i rummet”. The song was also included – in English – in an album for Greenpeace. Also in 1989 two more compilation albums with songs from 1978-1980 (“Känn mig”) and 1980 -84 (“Fotspår”) were released. The songs Eva composed for the film “G” (directed by Staffan Hildebrants) are included in the first compilation album.
In 1991 she released her most sold album so far, “En blekt blondins hjärta”. This album sold 500.000 copies (5 x platinum!) and gave her five (!) Grammis in the categories Best Song, Artist of the Year, Best Album, Best Female Artist and Best Song-writer. All in all, Eva has won 9 Grammis so far.
In Autumn 91 and Spring 92 she toured Sweden and all the other Scandinavian countries. In summer 92 she went on tour again, this time under the name of “Rocktåget”, together with Tomas Ledin and Lisa Nilsson.In 1992 the compilation “För minnenas skull” (double CD) was released, as well as “Eva Dahlgren”, an English version of “En blekt blondins hjärta”, released in Germany in an intend to go international.
Eva retired from the music-scene for some months and made her come back in December 1993 giving a peculiar concert: she left the guitar home and changed it for a conductor and an orchestra. The conductor was Esa-Pekka Salonen. After this concert she started the recording of a new album together with Esa-Pekka and the composer Anders Hillborg. Esa-Pekka conducted the Stockholm symphonic orchestra, Anders composed the classical music and Eva wrote the poems/lyrics to the music and, of course, sang. The album was called “Jag vill se min älskade komma från det vilda” and was released in 1995. Eva performed with the symphonic orquestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen in Stockholm’s central station and the album sold far more than she expected, resulting in another Grammi as “Artist of the year”. Besides this prize, she also won a Rockbjörn for “Best female artist.”
In March 1999, she released “LaiLai”, an album produced, recorded and performed by herself and written in Sitges, Spain. That same month she went on a tour, which took her to visit many locations in Sweden and Scandinavia. The tour was a success and she decided to tour Sweden again in summer. She played with Bo Kaspers Orkester, Jennifer Brown, Robyn and Ulf Lundell in various locations and at the Stockholm Water Festival, among other summer festivals. In December she released a live album, “LaLaLive”, which was recorded during the Summer and Spring tour. This album was also released as audio-DVD, containing 5 more songs that were not included in the CD.
In 2000, she recorded a song together with Rikard Wolff, “Kvinnan jag drömmer om” and published all her poems/songs in a book “För att röra vid ett hjärta”.
In September 2001 she published her first children book, “Lars, Urban & Pudelstjärnan”, and on 10th December she released the single “Too Many Believes”, which was written after the 11th September attacks and recorded in October while she was in Japan for the “Swedish Style week” in Tokyo.
In spring 2003 Eva’s band Buddaboys, formed together with Mija and Greta Folkesson, released “Lost peoples area” and toured around Sweden, Finland, Norway and Finland. In summer Buddaboys also toured around Sweden, France and Finland, where they performed at the Swedish Embassy in Helsinki for the Swedish King and Queen. In September her second book about Lars and Urban was published under the title “Lars och Urban och faster Los hemlighet”. She also performed at Anna Lindh’s (Swedish Foreign Minister killed in Stockholm) funeral, where she sang a very emotive “Ängeln i rummet”.
“Lars och Urban: Valparna tar över”, Eva’s third book about Lars and Urban, was published in September 2004
Eva performed in Helsinki Festival in August this year and is currently promoting her new album “Snö” and book “Hur man närmar sig ett träd”. The album has been produced by Lars Halapi. “Hur man närmar sig ett träd” is a book with personal thoughts about the creative process behind the album. Eva will go on tour in November-December.
Besides her solo career she has worked with many Swedish artists: she sang in “Vandrar i ett sommarregn” featured in Gyllene Tider’s album “Puls”; composed the music to two songs featured in Rikard Wolff’s “Pojken på månen”, composed the music for the cabaret “Fem smutsiga smÃ¥ flickor” (1989-90, with Marie Bergman). Just to mention a few. You can find a list of all these works in the Discography >> Others section.
Eva released “Snö” in October 2005 and is about to release a new album titled “Petroleum och tÃ¥ng” in November.
Some bits about her personal life:
Eva has a younger brother, Daniel, to whom she dedicates a song, Sand, in her latest album.
In 1996 she made her “coming out” marrying Efva Attling. They fell in love some time back in 1994, and they got married the 25th January 1996.