Eva Sylvia Vrethammar (born 22 August 1945,

Uddevalla Uddevalla (old no, Oddevold) is a town and the seat of Uddevalla Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. In 2015, it had a population of 34 781. It is located at a bay of the south-eastern part of Skagerrak. The beaches of Uddevalla ...

, Sweden), is a Swedish

traditional pop Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standards ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

singer. She is the daughter of Harald Vrethammar, an education official, and Britta Vrethammar, a musical education teacher, specializing in the piano. In 1969, she released a Swedish-language cover version of

Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, pop and dra ...

's "

Son of a Preacher Man "Son of a Preacher Man" is a song written and composed by American songwriters John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins and recorded by British singer Dusty Springfield in September 1968 for the album ''Dusty in Memphis.'' Springfield's version was produc ...

", entitled "En lärling på våran gård". Vrethammar is also fluent in English. In the 1970s, she occasionally appeared as guest singer with the

Bert Kaempfert Bert Kaempfert (born Berthold Heinrich Kämpfert; 16 October 1923 – 21 June 1980) was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the mu ...

orchestra, singing in English. After a series of tribute concerts in Germany in 2006 and 2008, where she returned to the bandleader's music with ex-Kaempfert trombonist

Jiggs Whigham Jiggs Whigham (born Oliver Haydn Whigham III; August 20, 1943) is an American jazz trombonist. Biography Born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, he began his professional career at the age of 17, joining the Glenn Miller/Ray McKinley orchestra ...

and other former orchestra members (playing as the HR Big Band), in 2012, she recorded numbers from the tours. She is perhaps best known for the 1974 release, "

Y Viva España Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or seventh ...

," an English adaptation of the

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. '' Afrikaan ...

"Eviva España," first recorded by the Belgian singer Samantha (Christiane Bervoets). It reached #4 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in September 1974, spending over six months in the charts. The song also peaked at number #67 in Australia in 1975. She was known in the UK and Australia simply as Sylvia. Globally her version alone sold over one million copies, and was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. She took part in

Melodifestivalen 2002 Melodifestivalen 2002 was the selection for the 42nd song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 41st time that this system of picking a song had been used. Five heats had taken place to select the ten songs for the fin ...

, singing " Hon är en annan nu". She participated again in Melodifestivalen 2013 in the hope of representing Sweden in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2013 The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ...

which was held in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popula ...

. She sang her song " Trivialitet" in the fourth semifinal, which was also held in Malmö. She came seventh and was therefore eliminated from the contest.

Discography

* ''Tycker Om Dej'' (Sonet, 1969) * ''Sylvia'' (Sonet, 1970) * ''Dansa Samba Med Mej'' (Sonet, 1971) * ''Gamla Stan'' (Sonet, 1972) * ''Jag Sjunger for Dej'' (Sonet, 1973) * ''Y Viva Espana'' (Sonet, 1973) * ''Pa Nya Bacchi'' (Sonet, 1974) * ''Stardust & Sunshine'' (Sonet, 1975) * ''Somebody Loves You'' (Sonet, 1976) * ''Frei Wie Wind Und Wolken'' (Metronome, 1977) * ''SyLeenden I Regn'' (Sonet, 1977) * ''Als War' Nichts Geschehen'' (Metronome, 1978) * ''Chateau'' (Sonet, 1979) * ''Bert Kaempfert'' (Polydor, 1982) * ''In Goodmansland'' (Sonet, 1983) * ''Rio de Janeiro Blue'' (Sonet, 1985) * ''OM 18 Ar Og Myndig'' (Fair Play Music, 1989) * ''Frau Im Besten Mannesalter'' (Papagayo, 1989) * ''Oppna Dina Ogon'' (Sonet, 1990) * ''Ladylike'' (Papagayo, 1991) * ''Sylvia Vrethammar with Erik Petersens Quartet'' (Music Partner, 1994) * ''Something My Heart Might Say'' (Four Leaf Clover, 1995) * ''Samstag Nacht'' (Papagayo, 2002) * ''Faller for Dej'' (Sonet, 2002) * ''Champagne'' (Sonet, 2006) * ''Musik'' (Papagayo, 2013) * ''Trivialitet'' (EMI, 2013) * ''The Girl from Uddevalla'' (Chaos, 2017)

Charting singles

References

External links

*Sylvia Vrethammar’
Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vrethammar, Sylvia 1945 births Living people Swedish women singers Swedish jazz singers Swedish pop singers Schlager musicians Easy listening musicians People from Uddevalla Municipality Melodifestivalen contestants English-language singers from Sweden