Lars Olof Gustaf Ljungström came into the world on August 12, 1961, in Vaxholm, Sweden, and later established himself as the Swedish singer-songwriter Olle Ljungström. His earliest recording work took place inside the new wave group Reeperbahn, where he remained active from 1979 through 1983 alongside Dan Sundquist on vocals and bass, Eddie Sjöberg on guitar, and Peter Korhonen on drums, while supplying vocals and guitar himself. The band’s first commercial release was the Mercury Records single “Havet Ligger Blankt” in 1979, followed soon after by the album Reeperbahn that same year. Of the group’s output, Venuspassagen from 1981 proved the strongest seller by reaching the Top Ten, and the 1983 album Peep-Show also fared well, climbing to number 20. Once Reeperbahn disbanded in 1983, Ljungström joined Heinz Liljedahl to form the short-lived duo Heinz & Young, which issued the English-language album Buzzbuzzboys… on Stranded Rekords in 1984. Ten years afterward he began a solo career, releasing his self-titled debut on Telegram Records, a Warner Music subsidiary, in 1993. Although that first effort only reached the Top 40, the follow-up Världens Räddaste Man in 1994 entered the Top Ten, as did Tack in 1995 and Det Stora Kalaset in 1998. En Apa Som Liknar Dig from 2000 came close, peaking at number 12. After the best-of collection Bäst appeared in 2001 and Syntheziser arrived the next year, Ljungström withdrew from recording for seven years. He returned with Sju in 2009, his most commercially successful album to that point, which reached the Top Five and included the single “Försökskanin.”
