Lena Anderssons sidor

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Welcome to the Lena Andersson story

California April-2002
Photo:Tobe Hubbard

These pages are made by Lena Andersson Hubbard©
Latest uppdate September-2007

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This is how it all began.....

I was born in Västergötland, , south of Stockholm,Sweden in the year of 1955.
I grew up in a small village called Fritsla,just south of the city of Borås.I started to sing very early, often hiding behind a drapery.One of my favourite songs was a popular schlager of that time. I also remember how I often was standing in front of the mirror, singing and doing faces.
When I was 8, me and my parents moved to a city on the swedish westcoast, called Halmstad. It was a big change for me, coming to a new school and all. Even the dialect was very different,so I had a hard time in the beginning.In my third grade I had to change school again, cause we moved to another area, and from that time on I had no problems with my classmates. I got lots of new friends and I wasn't the "newcomer" anymore.When I was around 12 I got my first guitar. I started to sing folksongs and that kind of music. I found songs in different books and learned how to play them.Joan Baez and Judy Collins were very popular at that time and their type of music suited my voice. I could spend hours and hours playing and singing in my room.Sometimes with one leg up on a chest of drawers, singing into the mirror.

The first time I remember that someone really listened to my voice in a special way, was when I sang to my music teacher Sven Welin. He was teaching at highschool as well, but I was only in my seventh grade.I sensed that he heard something significant in my voice. And he was a professional and highly respected. We called him "grandpa" and he was a very kind and loving man. I also wrote songs together with my best friend Pia. She wrote the lyrics and I the music. We performed our songs at special occasions.Pia had a sister who was hanging out with some of the hip people in town, and we sometimes sang at their parties.They were touched by the songs.I was also very encouraged by the priest that was teaching for my confirmation.He let me sing at one of the church gatherings. I sang, "All my trials soon be over.."
In december of 1970 I recorded 7 songs on one of my best friend's taperecorder. It was just me singing and playing the guitar. We sent the tape to the swedish national radio broadcasting company.They had this special program, where you could send in whatever fun or serious stuff. The phone rang one afternoon at my home. It was the host of the program, asking if they could play some of my songs on the radio. IF they could....?

It seemed like the whole recording industry was listening. Now our phone really started to "go warm". "Everybody" was calling. Quite an overwhelming experience for a 15 year old girl.One of the men calling was more persistent then the others. His name was Stig Andersson and represented a company called Polar. We didn't know so much about him except for that he had written a lot of "schlager". (He's now famous for being the manager of ABBA,AND the founder of "the Polar Music Prize").
The radio broadcast company wanted to do a live recording in Stockholm so my dad and I took the train and met with mr Andersson while we were there.He wanted to do an LP with me right away. We decided to do it on my sports holidays in February.We finished the record in one week, all takes were live with the band and singing in the studio.Some of swedens best musicians played on the record. Among them for example Janne Scaffer, guitar, Janne Boquist, piano. In Mars of 1971, "Lena,15" was released. One of the songs went directly up to number one in the hitchart in April and became one of the greatest hit songs of that year.

In April- 71, the song,"Är det konstigt att man längtar bort nån gång" ,(from the original , "I'm gonna be a countrygirl again",by Buffy Saint Marie,)hit number one on the swedish chart...
Read more about my music

Lena Andersson Hubbard©
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		This is how it all began.....
	I was born in Västergötland, , south of Stockholm,Sweden in the year of 1955. I grew up in a small village called Fritsla,just south of the city of Borås.I started to sing very early, often hiding behind a drapery.One of my favourite songs was a popular schlager of that time. I also remember how I often was standing in front of the mirror, singing and doing faces. When I was 8, me and my parents moved to a city on the swedish westcoast, called Halmstad. It was a big change for me, coming to a new school and all. Even the dialect was very different,so I had a hard time in the beginning.In my third grade I had to change school again, cause we moved to another area, and from that time on I had no problems with my classmates. I got lots of new friends and I wasn't the "newcomer" anymore.When I was around 12 I got my first guitar. I started to sing folksongs and that kind of music. I found songs in different books and learned how to play them.Joan Baez and Judy Collins were very popular at that time and their type of music suited my voice. I could spend hours and hours playing and singing in my room.Sometimes with one leg up on a chest of drawers, singing into the mirror.
		The first time I remember that someone really listened to my voice in a special way, was when I sang to my music teacher Sven Welin. He was teaching at highschool as well, but I was only in my seventh grade.I sensed that he heard something significant in my voice. And he was a professional and highly respected. We called him "grandpa" and he was a very kind and loving man. I also wrote songs together with my best friend Pia. She wrote the lyrics and I the music. We performed our songs at special occasions.Pia had a sister who was hanging out with some of the hip people in town, and we sometimes sang at their parties.They were touched by the songs.I was also very encouraged by the priest that was teaching for my confirmation.He let me sing at one of the church gatherings. I sang, "All my trials soon be over.." In december of 1970 I recorded 7 songs on one of my best friend's taperecorder. It was just me singing and playing the guitar. We sent the tape to the swedish national radio broadcasting company.They had this special program, where you could send in whatever fun or serious stuff. The phone rang one afternoon at my home. It was the host of the program, asking if they could play some of my songs on the radio. IF they could....?
	It seemed like the whole recording industry was listening. Now our phone really started to "go warm". "Everybody" was calling. Quite an overwhelming experience for a 15 year old girl.One of the men calling was more persistent then the others. His name was Stig Andersson and represented a company called Polar. We didn't know so much about him except for that he had written a lot of "schlager". (He's now famous for being the manager of ABBA,AND the founder of "the Polar Music Prize"). The radio broadcast company wanted to do a live recording in Stockholm so my dad and I took the train and met with mr Andersson while we were there.He wanted to do an LP with me right away. We decided to do it on my sports holidays in February.We finished the record in one week, all takes were live with the band and singing in the studio.Some of swedens best musicians played on the record. Among them for example Janne Scaffer, guitar, Janne Boquist, piano. In Mars of 1971, "Lena,15" was released. One of the songs went directly up to number one in the hitchart in April and became one of the greatest hit songs of that year.	In April- 71, the song,"Är det konstigt att man längtar bort nån gång" ,(from the original , "I'm gonna be a countrygirl again",by Buffy Saint Marie,)hit number one on the swedish chart... Read more about my music
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