Py Bäckman

Py Bäckman
Py Bäckman in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Py Marie Elisabet Ulrika Bäckman
Born	(1948-07-05) 5 July 1948 (age 68)
Origin	Sweden
Genres	Pop
Occupation(s)	artist singer songwriter
Instruments	Piano harmonica
Years active	1973–present
Website	pybackman.se

Py Marie Elisabet Ulrika Bäckman Wennborn (born 5 July 1948 in ) is a Swedish musician. She is a singer and songwriter of pop and rock for musicals and films. She also plays piano and harmonica.

Bäckman grew up in Iggesund (Gävleborg County) and started her career as a nine years old when she was discovered by a touring radio show. After that, she was called up by the Swedish TV show host, Lennart Hyland, and came down to Stockholm, where she made her TV debut in 1957. After the television appearance, she toured around and sang songs in various public parks. As a teenager she thought it was frivolous with songs and began instead with rock music.

In 1973 she began touring across Europe as a lead singer with Sweden's girl rock group NQB. During the late 1970s and 1980s, she worked a lot with her formerly cohabited Dan Hylander. The couple shared the backing band Raj Montana Band with whom she had a breakthrough album, Sista Föreställningen. After the split in 1985 she continued as a solo performer. During her solo career she has, among other things, worked with producers as Clarence Öfwerman (former member of the Raj Montana Band and later producer of Roxette), Mats Wester and Micke Wennborn.

In addition to her solo career Bäckman has also been very active as a songwriter for others and has worked with numerous artists. For example she wrote "Stad i ljus", which Tommy Körberg won with in The Swedish preselection for Eurovision Song Contest 1988, and since 2006 also is a Swedish hymn. 1993 began the collaboration with Mats Wester where the successful Swedish folk music group Nordman was created, and Bäckman were from the first beginning text writer in the team until 1998 when the group split. At a reunification in 2005 she turned down to continued cooperation, and was replaced by another songwriter.

Bäckman also wrote the text to the Swedish big hit "Gabriellas sång" ( Gabriella's song) in the Kay Pollak film As It Is in Heaven, Stefan Nilsson made the music (2004). She has also translated musicals such as Chicago, Evita, and Garbo. 2004 Bäckman wrote new hymns, an addition to the Swedish hymn book on behalf of the Swedish Church. She also made a Sweden-Finland tour for some time with the jazz legend Jukka Tolonen.