Music

If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. This was true for disco group ABBA when they won the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1974 – and it has stayed true for Swedish pop artists ever since. Robyn, Ace of Base, Roxette, Meja, Cardigans, Jennifer Brown and Eagle-Eye Cherry – they are all part of ”the Swedish pop miracle”. Lately, music producers like Max Martin and Jörgen Elofsson made international careers writing top-list songs for Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and Céline Dion. Thanks to the free music education service in the past, Sweden now has a high per capita proportion of professional DJs and musicians – not to mention pop fans. And when checking out new music, they all go to St Eriksgatan – the number-one area for record shopping. Note that most second hand dealers have odd opening hours: call in advance to make sure they’re open.