In Conversation: Sanna Nielsen

Allsång på Skansen, a singalong with some of the biggest names in Sweden, is broadcast on SVT 1 every Tuesday from 29th June to 17th August. It started on a very small scale back in 1935. Then, only fifty people were in the audience. Today, 10 to 25 thousand come to each performance and millions more watch on television. We chatted to its host, Sanna Nielsen, herself a singer who represented Sweden in Eurovision 2014.

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Sanna, you follow on from seven previous presenters. I presume it was a huge honour to be asked back in 2016.

Oh, yes! I didn’t think I’d be asked at this age… maybe when I was in my fifties. I hosted Melodifestivalen in 2015, together with Robin Paulsson, and I commented on Eurovision twice, including for Sweden’s victory in 2015.

“Coming live from the Skansen open air museum, on a hill overlooking central Stockholm, Allsång på Skansen has its rivals. Since 2004, ‘Lotta på Liseberg’ has been broadcast from Gothenburg on TV4 and, in 2007, Norway started a spin-off called ‘Allsang på Grensen’.”

Tell us about your own music.

I’m in the studio, but Allsång på Skansen takes up a lot of my time in the spring and summer. I usually release one or two songs a year. Not much, but it’s what I can manage. I released my latest single, Tänker på dig, earlier this year. I hope I can release some new music later this year. I love doing it, and I want to challenge myself.

You say you have to find time around Allsång på Skansen. So, it’s not a case of turning up on Tuesday night, hosting the show, then going home again?!

We don’t rehearse the show until Monday, but we have meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. I have to rehearse the script and every song’s choreography. I choose my schedule, but I need to rehearse every day and show up at all the meetings. Everyone needs to know what to do.

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