Ola Salo

Ola Salo (born Rolf Ola Anders Svensson; 19 February 1977) is the Swedish rock vocalist of the Swedish glam rock band The Ark.

Ola Salo
Background information
Birth name	Rolf Ola Anders Svensson
Born	(1977-02-19) 19 February 1977
Origin	Avesta, Sweden
Genres	Glam rock Pop rock Electronica
Occupation(s)	Singer songwriter keyboardist
Instruments	Vocals, piano, guitar
Years active	1991–present
Labels	Roxy
Associated acts	The Ark

He lived in Rottne, Växjö Municipality, in Sweden when he was a child, where, in 1991, 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" (for which Ola won a Grammis for "Song of the Year"), 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, D.C., 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 controversy as many newspapers reported 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 almost ended up cancelling its entire U.S. tour.[5]

On 10 March 2007, Salo and the band The Ark won Melodifestivalen 2007 and went on to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 with the song "The Worrying Kind", where, in which they came 18th with 51 points.[6]

In 2008, Salo translated Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar into Swedish for a performance in Malmö where he played the role of Jesus, and as a result he stated that "2008 will be a very quiet year" for The Ark[7] after a hectic 2007 with the Eurovision Song Contest and the release of Prayer for the Weekend. In 2009. Salo featured on the Empire Dogs' album, Come On You Preachers.[8] He will participate in Stjärnornas stjärna which will be broadcast on TV4.

In 2019, Salo opened his headline residency It takes a fool to remain sane in the Rondo, (Gothenburg), directed by Edward af Sillén.[9]

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Peak positions	Certification
		SWE [10]
2015	Wilderness	2

References

1. Freeman, Hikaru (9 May 2007). "The Gayest Pop Show on the Planet". AfterElton.com. Archived from the original on 24 October 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2007.
2. Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts (23 October 2006). "A Swedish Star's Rock-and-Rile Words". The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
3. Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts (27 October 2006). "Swamped by a Flood of Criticism". The Washington Post.
4. Dave Maher (26 October 2006). "The Ark Continue Tour Despite Political Controversy". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 6 May 2007.
5. Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts (2 November 2006). "Washington Intrigue Nabs a Role in an Indie Flick". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012.
6. "Eurovision Song Contest 2007". EBU. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
7. "YouTube interview on "Nyhetsmorgon", Swedish breakfast show". March 2008.
8. "Come On You Preachers, Empire Dogs album". Retrieved 28 September 2014.
9. https://www.expressen.se/gt/ola-salo-jag-haller-mina-barn-undan-offentligheten/
10. "Ola Salo discography". swedishcharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 30 May 2015.

External links