Håkan Hellström is and will always be completely unfamiliar to anyone who does not speak the Swedish language. Not ever has he recorded a song in English, not counting the live recording of him and a stupidly drunk Plura Jonsson from Eldkvarn, performing ”Fairytale of New York”. Then and there, everyone who ever wondered why Håkan Hellström doesn’t write music in English, they had their answer.
Coming from the west coast city of Gothenburg, Hellström has single handedly created a movement of heartbroken boys and girls, making sure that expressing your feelings is always a good thing even if it can lead to some temporary pain. When the song ”Känn Ingen Sorg För Mig Göteborg” landed in 2000 the music industry of Sweden went completely nuts. Everyone completely loved it, but the question was: Who the hell is Håkan Hellström?
Just before Hellström’s debut was released, he lived as a poor student in Gothenburg, never imagining the album he had made would turn out to be one of Swedish music’s most beloved and high quality albums ever made. Being kicked out of another local band, Broder Daniel, Hellström spent his days pseudo-studying and his nights drinking fancy cocktails with umbrellas in them. In this miserable state he stayed until the album dropped and Hellström was thrown up into the blue. He has yet to come down from up there.
Ever since the debut over ten years ago, Hellström has met nothing but love from fans, music critics and fellow musicians. His particular singing voice is the only thing being critiqued, but looking past that Hellström has been drowned with praise album after album. Now, fourteen years after the debut Känn Ingen Sorg För Mig Göteborg, Hellström is coming to Stockholm and playing Hovet. Be sure to be there if you’ve ever had your heart broken. If you’ve ever been miserably in love with someone without having those feelings returned. Be there if you’ve ever walked home alone in the summer rain, so in love you think you’ve gone completely mad.
Words by David Johansson
Håkan Hellström is at Hovet on 14 December.
