Quick Facts
Biography
Siw "Siwan" Gunnel Margareta Malmkvist (born 31 December 1936) is a Swedish singer who has been popular in Scandinavia and West Germany. She had a number one hit in West Germany in 1964 with "Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht" (English: "Lovesickness Is Not Worthwhile"), and on 18 July 1964 she became the first Swede to have a hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, when "Sole Sole Sole", a duet with Italian singer Umberto Marcato, entered the chart, peaking at #58.
Versatility
Malmkvist was born in Landskrona, Skåne County, Sweden. She is a versatile artist, having performed in stage plays, musicals and in films alongside her career in pop/schlager music. She played Pippi Longstocking in the popular children musical production of Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking in 1980, appeared in the musical version of Some Like It Hot (see Sugar) and she played the part of Luisa in the original Swedish - and European - production of Maury Yeston's musical Nine in 1983. In 2002 she appeared as the Mother in Hasse Alfredson's stage play Lille Ronny at Maximteatern. Together with actor Thorsten Flinck, she recorded a popular Swedish cover of Nick Cave/Kylie Minogue's 1995 hit "Where the Wild Roses Grow".
In 2008/2009, she played the part of Fräulein Schneider in the musical Cabaret at Stockholms Stadsteater, directed by Colin Nutley.
Career
Having had some 40 hits on Swedish radio chart Svensktoppen and 20 on the German singles chart, she has altogether recorded about 600 songs (and has made recordings in ten different languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, German, English, French, Italian and Spanish) throughout the past five decades, which makes her one of the most productive and successful Swedish female singers.
In Melodifestivalen
Malmkvist has been a contestant in the Swedish Melodifestivalen several times, most recently in 2004 together with Towa Carson and Ann-Louise Hanson, singing the song "C'est la vie", which finished 10th. She represented Sweden at the international Eurovision Song Contest 1960 in London with "Alla andra får varann", a song originally performed by Östen Warnerbring and Inger Berggren respectively in the Swedish pre-selections. In turn, the following year Malmkvist, who famously forgot the lyrics to the song during her performance, and Gunnar Wiklund both won Melodifestivalen with the song "April, april", but then Sveriges Radio selected Barbro "Lill-Babs" Svensson as the Swedish representative at the international Contest, held in Cannes. In 1969 Malmkvist again returned to Eurovision, but then performing the West German entry "Primaballerina" at Madrid, incidentally finishing shared 9th with the Swedish entry "Judy, min vän", sung by Tommy Körberg.