Svea Jansson

Finnish-Swedish traditional singer of Swedish folk songs, born 30 September 1904 on the Nötö (Nagu) island, Finland, died 1 December 1980 in Skövde, Sweden. She moved to Sweden in 1959 and became a Swedish citizen in 1967. She is considered one of the foremost traditional singers in the Nordic countries in modern times. Her song was first documented in 1923. She grew up in a fishermen's home on Nötö in the Åboland archipelago. Music researcher Greta Dahlström recorded poems for Jansson and her grandmother in 1923–29 for the Swedish Literary Society. In 1939 she sang on lacquer board and on the radio, in 1957 she was discovered by Swedish Radio and in 1959 she moved to Sweden. Before Matts Arnberg (2)'s recording trip to Finland in 1957 (for Swedish Radio), they had lost contact with Jansson, and then took help from the Mariehamn police to find all the people with the name of Åland, where they thought she was, and finally found her in Andersböle, Jomala. In 1964, she was awarded the Nordic Museum's Arthur Hazelius medal in silver. She became a Swedish citizen in 1967. Jansson's repertoire included 1,000–1,200 songs, ranging from medieval ballads to modern percussion. Jansson had learned several of the songs from his grandmother Eva Gustava Jansson, born in 1842, who in turn learned them from her grandmother Caisa Eriksdotter, born in 1786, and could thus represent the 18th century song tradition via only an intermediary. She helped to spread knowledge about the Finnish-Swedish song tradition. Recordings with her can be found on the CDs The Medieval Ballad (1995) and Lena, Ulrika and Svea (1996) which are part of the series Musica Sveciae (Caprice Records).