Ola

In early-2000s Sweden, a single turn on the talent contest Swedish Idol could catapult an unknown straight into national stardom, and that exact path opened for Ola Svensson, later known simply as Ola, after his run on the 2005 season. An enthusiastic footballer who had long aimed for a professional sports career, Ola was still in high school when classmates, struck by his lead role in a school musical, persuaded him to audition for Idol’s second cycle. Once inside the competition he shared the stage with Agnes Carlsson, Sebastian Karlsson and Måns Zelmerlöw in one of the program’s most competitive editions; his own journey ended in week four when Zelmerlöw and Jens Pääjärvi outlasted him, only to finish behind eventual winner Carlsson.

Producer Jonas Saeed reached out immediately afterward. Over the following two years Ola scored Swedish chart entries with the singles “Rain,” “Natalie” and “Brothers.” His debut album, Given to Fly, arrived in 2006 and topped the domestic chart. The follow-up, Good Enough, reached number two, while the self-titled 2010 release Ola—his first project on the newly founded Oliniho Records—yielded three hit singles, among them the worldwide success “All Over the World.” In 2012 he issued the international single “I’m in Love” to preview a forthcoming fourth studio album.