Ebba Forsberg

A singer, songwriter, and actress from Sweden, Ebba Forsberg's musical inspirations include some of the most iconic North American singer/songwriters to emerge in the '60s and '70s. Mixing acoustic reflection and the grittier side of adult contemporary, she released her solo debut, Been There, in 1997. Subsequent albums included tributes to Tom Waits (2015's Om Jag Lämnar Dig), Leonard Cohen (2009's Ta Min Vals and 2017's Take My Waltz), and Bob Dylan (2007's Dylan på Svenska and 2019's Med Kropp och Själ).

Born Ebba Maria Knigge Forsberg in Stockholm, Sweden in 1964, Forsberg and her family moved to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands when she was five years old. Her older sister Kajsa Ribbing returned to Sweden after a year, but Forsberg stayed in Tortola until she was 12, when the family relocated to South Africa. Over the next eight years, Forsberg took in South African culture, including its jazz and pop music, and taught herself how to play the piano and sing. As a young adult, she returned to Sweden, where she worked as a supporting musician and vocalist for several popular Swedish acts, including Eldkvarn, Ulf Lundell, the Nomads, and from 1993 to 1995, Traste Lindéns Kvintett.

Eventually, Forsberg reunited with her sister and, with Forsberg writing the music and Ribbing writing the lyrics, the two collaborated on songs that formed the core of her solo debut. A demo tape led to a deal with Maverick Records, which released the Mats Asplen-produced Been There in 1997. It was reissued by Warner Bros. the following year. Forsberg followed it up with True Love in 2001, the same year she made her television acting debut in the series Anderssons Älskarinna (Andersson's Mistress), playing the title role. She returned to screens in the 2003 thriller series Talismanen. Forsberg then collaborated with Tobias Hylander on music for the 2005 film Mun Mot Mun before issuing her third solo album, 2006's Ebba Forsberg. An intimate English-language set, it charted at number 26 in Sweden.

Her next album was a collaborative one with singer/songwriter Mikael Wiehe; Dylan på Svenska (Dylan in Swedish) saw release in 2007. Two years later, she followed it with Ta Min Vals: Ebba Forsberg Sjunger Leonard Cohen. The Dylan album reached number 22 on Sweden's albums chart, and the Cohen album marked her debut in the Top Ten. In 2011, Forsberg provided the score for the crime drama Happy End and released Falling Folding Flipping Feeling, an album of original songs. It also charted, reaching number 18. She climbed to number 12 with 2015's Om Jag Lämnar Dig: Ebba Forsberg Sjunger Tom Waits, ten Swedish-language covers of Waits' songs. In 2017, Take My Waltz revisited Leonard Cohen's music, this time in English, and she returned to Dylan for 2019's Med Kropp och Själ, another collaboration with Wiehe. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi