Ola Salo
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Ola Salo, real name Rolf Ola Anders Svensson, born 19 February 1977 in Avesta, is the Swedish rock vocalist of the Swedish glam rock band The Ark. Salo lived in Rottne, Växjö Municipality, in Sweden when he was a child. It was while living in Rottne, in 1991, that he and his friends Jepson and Leari officially started the band The Ark. Salo is openly bisexual.[1]
Salo and the other members of the band had an international breakthrough in 2000 with the album We Are The Ark, containing the signature song "It Takes a Fool to Remain Sane", a song Salo wrote after watching the Danish film Idioterne (The Idiots).
In October 2006 during a party celebrating the new Swedish embassy in Washington, The Ark was performing on stage. As a plane was flying very low overhead Salo said "In this country, you don't know where those planes are headed. Well, this one seems to be heading in the right direction anyway..." meaning the airport, but then suddenly adding "...to the White House" which happened to be in the same direction.[2] This caused a huge mess because many newspapers colored his words telling that Salo had "wished an airplane to crash into the White House". Salo later said that it was a bad joke, "totally unserious way of being cheeky toward the White House" and not a political statement.[3] [4] The band ended up cancelling almost all of its US tour.[5]
On March 10, 2007 Salo and the band The Ark won Melodifestivalen 2007 and went on to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007.
Salo has recently written a new Swedish version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar and will play the title role of Jesus. In the 1990s he appeared in musical theatre productions Kristina från Duvemåla and Fiddler on the Roof.
[edit] References
- ^ Freeman, Hikaru (2007 May 9), “The Gayest Pop Show on the Planet”, AfterElton.com, <http://www.afterelton.com/TV/2007/5/eurovision>. Retrieved on 2007-11-16
- ^ Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts. "A Swedish Star's Rock-and-Rile Words", The Washington Post, October 24, 2006.
- ^ Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts. "Swamped by a Flood of Criticism", The Washington Post, October 27, 2006.
- ^ Dave Maher. "The Ark Continue Tour Despite Political Controversy", Pitchfork, October 26, 2006.
- ^ Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts. "Washington Intrigue Nabs a Role in an Indie Flick", The Washington Post, November 2, 2006.
