Lisa Ekdahl

Lisa Ekdahl first rose to widespread recognition throughout Scandinavia on the strength of her 1994 single “Vem Vet,” which helped establish her as one of the foremost Swedish pop artists of the decade even as she maintained a separate career performing and recording straightahead jazz. Whereas her pop releases have been issued in Swedish, her acoustic jazz projects have centered on English-language standards. This thin-voiced vocalist, born and raised in Stockholm, began performing jazz in 1990 alongside pianist Peter Nordahl’s trio. Her self-titled debut album appeared in Sweden that same year, and the track “Vem Vet”—Swedish for “Who Knows”—turned her into a regional superstar at age 23. Subsequent Swedish pop albums included Med Kroppen Mot Jorden in 1996 and Bortom Det Bla in 1997. When Did You Leave Heaven marked both her first English-language recording and her debut jazz album, becoming the first of her projects to reach the United States, where it was issued by RCA Victor. The set sold briskly in Sweden, yet American jazz critics largely dismissed it, arguing that her thin, very girlish voice was ill-suited to standards and straightahead jazz and urging her to remain in pop. Her next jazz album, Back to Earth, followed in 1999.