Barbro Svensson
| Barbro "Lill-Babs" Svensson | |
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Lill-Babs in 2013
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Barbro Margareta Svensson |
| Also known as | Lill-Babs |
| Born | March 9, 1938 |
| Origin | Järvsö, Sweden |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Years active | 1954–present |
| Website | www |
Barbro Margareta Svensson, known professionally as Lill-Babs (born 9 March 1938) is a Swedish singer and actress.
Lill-Babs was born in Järvsö, Gävleborg County, the first daughter of Britta and Ragnar Svensson. At age 15 she sang on the radio show Morgonkvisten as a "young talent". Swedish bandleader and talent scout Simon Brehm heard the show and contacted her that evening, inviting her to audition in his studio. The audition went well and she moved to Stockholm to begin her showbusiness career.
In 1954, she recorded her first record "Min mammas boogie" under the name "Lill-Babs", a combination of the Swedish word 'little' and the Anglicized nickname for Barbro/Barbara. However, the unmarried Lill-Babs then became pregnant, a potential public scandal in mid-1950s Sweden. She continued to work as long as she was able to hide her pregnancy, then went home to Järvsö to give birth to daughter Monica.
After some time at home she returned to focus on her career, but by then Simon Brehm had found a new vocalist to replace her. She received an offer to tour with Brehm's competing bandleader, Kettil Olsson. After the tour and a couple of concerts at jazz club Nalen in Stockholm, Simon asked her to return to work for him. and she went on to perform concerts at dance palace Bal Palais and other tours.
In 1958 she went on her first self-produced tour and was cast in the movie Fly mig en greve with comedian Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt. Her recordings, such as the novelty song "Är du kär i mej ännu Klas-Göran?", "Leva Livet" and "En tuff brud i lyxförpackning", were big sellers, Svensktoppen entries and schlager standards in Sweden. "Är Du Kär I Mig Ännu Klas-Göran" was composed by the then relatively unknown Stig Anderson. Anderson wrote several of Lill-Babs' hits in the 1960s before becoming the manager of ABBA.
In the 1960s, Barbro's own fan-club Splorr was created and became the largest in Sweden with 17,000 members.
During this time Lill-Babs did much of her work in West Germany, where many of her records, television shows, and movies were produced. As a result of this she became a big star in Germany. In 1961 she represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest with "April, April" in Cannes and participated in the national preselections for the contest both in Sweden and Norway.
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Wikipedia