Carola Häggkvist Totally Explained

Everything about Carola H Ggkvist totally explained

Carola Maria Häggkvist (born 8 September 1966), better known as simply Carola, is a Swedish singer and occasional songwriter. She has been among Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s, and has released albums ranging from pop and disco to hymns and folk music. Her debut album, Främling, sold around one million copies and remains the biggest-selling album in Swedish music history. She has also worked as a songwriter. During her 25-years long career, she's recorded many top-selling albums and singles.
Häggkvist has represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest on three occasions: in 1983, finishing third; in 1991, winning the contest outright; and in 2006, finishing fifth.

Biography

Early life

Carola Maria Häggkvist was born on 8 September 1966 at Södersjukhuset in Stockholm. She grew up in Norsborg, south of the Swedish capital. At the age of eight, she began to perform at Stockholm's Miniteatern; she also attended Adolf Fredriks' stage school. In 1977, Häggkvist won a talent competition and appeared on television for the first time, on Sveriges magasin, performing "Krokodilbarnets klagan".

1981–1989: Early career and Främling

In 1981, Swedish music promoter Bert Karlsson met Häggkvist after she performed on television series Hylands hörna, and offered her the chance to take part in Melodifestivalen, the Swedish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1982. She turned down the offer. Songwriter Lasse Holm offered Häggkvist two of his songs for Melodifestivalen 1983, "Mona Lisa" and "Främling" ("Stranger"). "Främling" was chosen, and with it Häggkvist won the right to represent Sweden at that year's Eurovision Song Contest, in Munich. The song scored eight points, the highest possible mark, from all eleven juries. Häggkvist represented Sweden at Eurovision Song Contest 1983 on 23 April. She finished third in front of 6.1 million Swedish television viewers, 84% of the country's population. This is still a record in Sweden. After Eurovision, Häggkvist embarked on a tour of European television programmes, promoting "Främling", and performing in it several languages: in English as "Love Isn't Love", in German as "Fremder", and in Dutch as "Je ogen hebben geen geheimen". The album contained hits like Mickey, Liv, Gloria and Tokyo. In December 1983, she released her first Christmas album: Julefrid med Carola. Her comback album was released titled Much More, which went gold. On the night, with one voting jury left to announce their scores, three countries remained in contention to win the contest: Sweden, with 146 points; Israel, with 139; and France, with 134. Neither Israel nor Sweden won any points from the Italian jury, but France won twelve, leaving Sweden and France tied for first place with 146 at the conclusion of the voting. Sweden won the contest after a count-back, having received five ten-point scores during the voting, versus France's two. "Fångad av en stormvind" became a huge hit in Europe, Following this came an album of tracks penned by Lina Sandell: Blott en dag ("Just One Day"). "Autumn Leaf" appeared on Häggkvist's next album, Guld, platina & passion, in Swedish as "När löven faller" ("When the leaves fall"). She also recorded her favorite Elvis Presly songs, Walk a mile in my shoes and If I can dream. The following year, Häggkvist released a religious album, Credo, which she described as "an expression of my love for God".. The album peaked at spot 2 on the Swedish album chart. This was followed by Störst av allt, which Dan Backman of Svenska Dagbladet wrote featured "spiritually aimed music…revolving around belonging, love, death and eternity".. Genom Allt became a huge radio hit in Sweden.

2005–present: Return to the contest

Having performed as part of the interval act at Melodifestivalen 2005, Häggkvist confirmed that she'd return to the competition in 2006. She performed "Evighet" ("Eternity"), written by Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström and, which she described as a "true winning song". The song qualified from the semifinal in Gothenburg on 11 March 2006, and was widely tipped to win the festival outright as the final at the Stockholm Globe Arena approached. Despite finishing second with the regional juries to Andreas Johnson, "Evighet" won the competition with 232 points. The song qualified from the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, in English as "Invincible". Although favourite to win the contest, Häggkvist finished fifth out of twenty-four with 170 points.
   Following Melodifestivalen, Häggkvist released a pop album, Från nu till evighet ("From Now to Eternity"). Lennart Wrigholm reviewed the album for Musiklandet; he criticised the amount of new material on the album: "Has this old lady really got such a workload that she can't put more than ten new tracks on her album?" and wrote that the inclusion of the English version of "Evighet" as a bonus track was "an insult to the potential buyer". On the other hand, Expressen's Anders Nunstedt wrote that on "Jag ger allt" ("I Give it All") "the title doesn't lie" and that "Vem kan älska mig" ("Who can Love Me") features a "brilliant refrain". The album topped the Swedish sales chart, Sverigetopplistan. Following the album's release, Häggkvist toured Sweden.
   In late 2007, Häggkvist released another Christmas album, I denna natt blir världen ny ("There is a New World This Night"), a sequel to Jul i Betlehem. The album featured songs in Swedish and English, and was recorded in Jerusalem in June 2007. Stefan Malmqvist of Svenska Dagbladet wrote that, like in previous Christmas albums, Häggkvist is "a saccharine version of herself" when singing Christmas carols.
   Carola entered Melodifestivalen 2008 as part of the duo Johnson & Häggkvist with Andreas Johnson. They sang "One Love", written by Carola, Johnson and Peter Kvint. They were the early favourites to win the whole show, taking part in the second qualifier. They qualified for the Second Chance round, missing out on an automatic final spot. Though widely tipped to qualify for the final after all, they didn't even proceed from the first voting round in the Second Chance programme.

Personal life and media attention

Her status as one of the most popular national celebrities of her country made her more or less constantly followed by the tabloid press. She has often talked about her Christian faith and much of the focus has been around her membership in the church Livets Ord. Some people have criticized her for objecting to giving homosexuals more rights in Sweden, something she's denied saying.
She has been a member of the evangelical congregation Livets Ord. She was married to Runar Søgaard, a Norwegian Christian preacher, with whom she's a son, Amadeus, which means "Loves God".

Homosexuality controversy

In an interview in 2002 for the Swedish gay magazine QX, she alienated many gay and some heterosexual fans by alleging that she knows homosexual persons who have become heterosexual through prayers. She also said that homosexuality would always remain "unnatural" to her.
Four years later, her comment caught up with her when she participated in the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest in March 2006. During a press conference a journalist tried to ask her if she still had the same opinion. According to the Swedish newspaper Expressen, Carola didn't answer the question because her advisors told her to keep quiet because answering questions about her stance on homosexuality could cost her the trip to Athens and could also cause a lot of embarrassment and negative media attention. Rickard Engfors, who is gay and Carola's co-operating partner during the Melodifestivalen and Eurovision Song Contest 2006, said the following in the Swedish newspaper Expressen on March 15, 2006:
During an exclusive interview for one of the Eurovision-related websites before the 2006 contest, Carola was also questioned about this, and stated that she "would love for every gay person to feel that she loves them" and that she doesn't think that "being gay is a sickness". She went on to criticize the tabloids for misinterpreting her original words and making an issue out of it. Later in the interview, she also commented on one of her supporting dancers being gay and his boyfriend being "great".

Discography

Further Information

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