Three years ago I attended a small festival in Sweden and chanced on a number of artists who have featured here previously such as Melby and SoLBLoMMa.
I also came across a couple of younger artists with quite exceptional talents such as the then 18-year old Johanna Brun whose career has been held up by a number of factors and hopefully she can get it back on track this year.
Another was the then 12-year old (yes, twelve) Ingrid Fröderberg who is quite extraordinary. She is a member of a young peoples’ singing group, Helges All Stars, where professional tuition is provided to youngsters who want to sing for the joy of it or perhaps with a view to a career. They’ve already unearthed Zara Larsson so they’ve a good track record.
Ingrid is 15 now and getting closer to the point where she could be unleashed onto an unsuspecting public. One of her performances on that night was of Beyoncé’s ‘Listen’ and it was staggering. It has become her signature song. But this article isn’t about Ingrid so I’ll just urge you to seek out both Beyoncé’s and Ingrid’s version (age 13) on YouTube and see if you can spot the difference.
It is through contacts with Ingrid’s parents that I learned of Signe Lindbäck, another Helges member, and one who writes her own songs and here is one of them, ‘If I try’. I don’t know how old Signe is, Helges members tend to be from 10 to 18 but I guess she’s a similar age to Ingrid.
A lovely song and what stands out is the maturity of the vocal. This could easily be a seasoned professional artist in her 20s and I hear similarities with Ellen Krauss who will feature later this week. And some nice backing from, I guess, other Helges girls.
While I‘m writing about Helges, check out their take on Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound if Silence’.
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