On a little trawl last night through some of the regular blogs I follow, I came across an article about Scopitones - those fabulous 1960s predecessors of the music video. I have been a great collector of various Scopitones over the years, on the whole featuring long-lost starlets from France or the USA.
Imagine my joy when I delved into the catalogue on the Scopitone Archive website and picked at random a marvellously kitsch Swedish pop star by the name of Lill-Babs, and just had to share!
I had never heard of her before, but apparently everyone in Sweden loves her. At the height of her fame, she was more popular than the Beatles. In Sweden.
She had a bit of a wild life by the sounds of it, marrying several times and having three daughters by different husbands (or lovers, for I don't think all of them were born within wedlock). A bit Ingmar Bergman, but with sequins. She is obviously a camp icon - according to her Wikipedia entry she appeared at Stockholm Pride in 2008.
Here (appropriately) is the Scopitone of her version of Poetry in Motion [Wo Find Ich Den Mann] in which she gives us some clues why that may be...
However, another very good reason for her popularity with the gayers may be this record - a big hit in 1971 and contender for the Eurovision Song Contest - for the lady's backing singers were none other than a certain popular folk combo known as "Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid"! I think they may have gone on to bigger and better things.
These days she appears to have morphed somewhat - into a larger version of Annie Nightingale, perhaps? Or Marianne Faithfull after a particularly heavy night..?
Lill-Babs on Wikipedia
I already have the Frida / Agnetha backed-track in my collection. In actual fact they did lots of backing for the in-house Polar studio artists. You should try Lena Anderson, Ted Gardestad and Finn Kalvik. Thanks for a great blog hun. XX
ReplyDeleteGreat post. And yes, she is still very loved in Sweden.
ReplyDeleteOr one of Motley Crue?
ReplyDelete