![]() She was the DJ for the programme Nattsexa med Babs and played jazz records.Īlice Babs often spent her summers touring the amusement parks across Sweden, and she quite often generated record audience attendance numbers. Alice Babs was also busy on the radio and recorded a series with Olle Helander. In 1952 she recorded Käre John which became Sweden’s first gold record, while the trick recording, Adress Rosenhill, also became a top-selling record. She also got gigs in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.īack in Sweden Alice Babs began to record music for the Swedish record company Metronome and this led to extensive record sales. She was then launched as a schlager artist in Germany where she toured regularly. In 1952 she performed on Woche der leichten Musik for Süddeutscher Rundfunk in Stuttgart, where the audience included representatives from many European radio stations. In order to fund the trip to Paris the musicians had recorded several albums.Īlice Babs also made several radio programmes outside of Sweden. This positive impact of the so-called Paris orchestra was important for the wider reception of Swedish-produced jazz and is often held up as a sign that Swedish jazz had begun to mature. In 1949 Alice Babs and a group of Swedish jazz musicians travelled to play at a jazz festival in Paris where they enjoyed a favourable reception. She also had singing lessons with Signer Rappe, who sang for the royal court. Alice Babs wrote her own material and could accompany herself, as she did in the film Det glada kalaset in which she played her own composition called Uti våra drömmar. In 1945 she gave a concert in Norway and toured Denmark. She sang at Tivoli in Copenhagen in 1940, she toured the Swedish amusement parks in 1942 and gigged in Finland. She continued her singing lessons with Lina Boldemann, and also took lessons in German, English and elocution.Īlthough the Second World War complicated international travel Alice Babs still undertook a series of foreign gigs. This great success and her many singing jobs resulted in Alice Babs leaving school. The film generated several sequels: in 1941 Magistrarna på sommarlov, was released, and in 1952 Swing it, fröken had its premiere. ![]() The magazine Veckorevyn set up ‘Alice Babs’ competitions across Sweden in 1940, and similar competitions were held in Denmark and Norway too. Although most people did not take Westberg’s criticism seriously it still revealed that jazz, and Alice Babs as representative of the new teen-agers’ idol phenomenon, were seen as threats to Swedish morality.Īlice Babs became both the ‘swing girl’ and a film star, which gave rise to so-called ‘Babs mania’. He wrote in Filmjournalen that girls who sang songs with choruses sounded like hussies, and held up Alice Babs as an example. The composer Eric Westberg, who at that time was the director of STIM (Svenska tonsättares internationella musikbyrå, an association for musician’s copyrights) was particularly critical of jazz in general and of Alice Babs specifically. The film was overwhelmingly positively received. The programme became very popular and also resulted in her being employed by AB Radiotjänst (now Sveriges Radio – Swedish Radio) for other programmes.Īfter playing the lead role in Swing it, magistern! in 1940 Alice Babs became one of the first true teen-agers’ idols in Sweden. During the late autumn of 1939 Alice Babs appeared on the radio programme Vårat gang, which aired from 1938-1946 and which played jazz-style music aimed at a younger audience. In the summer of 1939 Alice Babs was hired by the China theatre, performed at school dances, and appeared with Gösta Törner’s band, which also included Gunnar Svensson and Arne Domnérus. The track was Joddlarflickan, which was a song her father had written. They stopped completely in 1940 and the following year Alice Babs’ parents divorced.Īlice Babs made her first recording in April 1939. However, as her parents’ relationship began to fail these performances became more infrequent. She quickly began to perform at various gigs in Stockholm, accompanied by her father. In 1937 Alice Babs met Lina Boldemann, a singing instructor, by chance and subsequently Alice Babs’ family moved to Stockholm in order to enable their daughter to develop her musical talent. ![]() Her father further taught her how to harmonise. When she was younger she and her musician father – who also wrote the lyrics – made several appearances in Västervik. During the 1960s she expanded her repertoire to increasingly include art music.Īlice Babs was born in Kalmar in 1924. Her repertoire included jazz, and particularly swing, as well as schlager (catchy pop music). Alice Babs was a prominent singer who was very popular in Sweden and abroad.
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