Christer Sjögren

Swedish balladeer Christer Sjögren, a committed disciple of Elvis Presley, built a devoted following through his deep and melodious voice, which suited both the sentimental, light pop/rock dansband style native to his homeland and a parallel career interpreting inspirational material. After beginning his professional tenure in Pelles Orkester, he departed that ensemble in 1978 to replace Stefan Borsch as lead singer of Vikingarna, a group that had originated two decades earlier under the name Jicco and the Vikings. During his years with Vikingarna he appeared on dozens of albums, the majority issued in the long-running Kramgoa Låtar series, with several of the later entries sung in German; numerous tracks across these releases were Presley covers, a practice that began on his debut outing with the band, the 1979 album Kramgoa Låtar 7 -- Djinghis Khan, which featured “Can’t Help Falling in Love” rendered as “Tro På Mej.” In 1989 Sjögren released the successful religious collection Andliga Sånger, credited jointly to Vikingarna; he followed it with a second religious album issued under his own name and several additional projects of the same stripe, among them two Christmas albums, throughout the next ten years. Once Vikingarna disbanded in 2004, Sjögren achieved his first solo chart-topping album with Love Me Tender, a set of Presley interpretations. Two years afterward came the nearly equally successful sequel King Creole, and 2007 brought yet another religious recording.