Sommar (radio program)

Sommar (Summer) is one of the most popular shows on Swedish radio. It has been broadcast every summer on P1 since 28 June 1959.^[1] The concept for the show came from Tage Danielsson, who was the then head of radio entertainment at Sveriges Radio and producer Jörgen Cederberg, who was also the first host.^[2] Hosting the show has been compared to receiving a knighthood in Sweden.^[3]

Each episode is presented by a different host, who plays music of their own choosing, and talk about a topic relating to them personally. The hosts range from celebrities to politicians, scientists, authors, athletes and royalty. Several Prime ministers from Sweden and several other Nordic countries have been hosts on the show. High-profile celebrities such as actresses Anita Ekberg, Liv Ullmann and director Ingmar Bergman have all hosted their own Sommar-show. Other hosts from the film industry include Academy Award winners and nominees such as Malik Bendjelloul, Kay Pollak, Tomas Alfredson and Paul N. J. Ottosson.^[4]

Members of ABBA and modern music stars such as Robyn or Maja Ivarsson from The Sounds, as well as authors such as Astrid Lindgren, Håkan Nesser and Karl Ove Knausgård have been hosts of their own shows. Other hosts include industry leaders such as IKEA-founder and one of the wealthiest persons in the world, Ingvar Kamprad, legendary Volvo CEO Pehr G. Gyllenhammar. Niklas Zennström and Daniel Ek of Skype and Spotify fame, respectively, have also hosted their own shows.^[5]

As the show is broadcast on Swedish radio, the host needs to speak Swedish (or a Scandinavian language in some cases). However, in 2014, an English-language version of an episode with YouTube celebrity PewDiePie (Felix Kjellberg) was also produced due to intense international demand.^[6]

In June 2014 Athena Farrokhzads Sommarprat received over 70 complaints.

The show's theme tune, "Sommar, sommar, sommar" was composed in 1951 by Sten Carlberg, with lyrics by Eric Sandström. In the early days of the show's history, each of the hosts so-called Sommarvärdarna - Summer Hosts - in Sommar was also the DJ and the same presenters returned many times in the first year. In common usage, a host is often called "Sommarpratare" (Summer talker).^[7]

All of the episodes are available for download, from the Sommar website directly after broadcast. Since 2005, the show has been available as podcast, and more than 800 of the episodes that have been broadcast are available for download from an archive covering 1963 to present.^[8] The announced presenters always wear a midsommarkrans at the press conference for the radio show.

Sommar is broadcast on P1 daily between Midsummer's Day until the middle of August at 1 pm, a time slot it has held since 1959.

Since 2009 some of the annual participants of the show appears in the SVT show Sommarpratarna.

References

External links

• Sommar i P1's website
• List of all the hosts 1959-2014