


As such, she may be regarded as a less conspicuous or controversial, yet perhaps for that very reason also more widely accepted, example of swing culture as the main symbolic expression of youth culture, celebrity culture and fandom during the Second World War. This turned her into a role model for numerous young women who responded to her success by they themselves performing as “Babses,” whether by participating in the numerous local talent shows for Danish “Babses” or by simply emulating her style of clothes, hairdo and dance movements. And by achieving success through her musical talent and image of “naturalness,” she bypassed the conventional heteronormative sexualization of female film and music stars.
#Alice babs swing it magistern text license#
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Schamyl Bauman won a commendation at the 1941 Venice Film Festival for Swing it, magistern and Magistrarna på sommarlov. Being the first truly successful adolescent star in Denmark during this era, she personified a distinct youth culture and its acceptance by large sectors of the public. Alice Babs: Cinematography: Hilmer Ekdahl: Edited by: Rolf Husberg: Music by: Thore Ehrling Kai Gullmar. While not contesting traditional racial stereotypes head-on, her version of Nordicness incorporated elements of African-American culture as unproblematic.
#Alice babs swing it magistern text movie#
Hence, the young Alice Babs introduced in the movie Swing it, magistern came to represent, in non-rebellious and seemingly depoliticized forms, a discrete but significant readjustment in mainstream Danish approaches to several constituent elements of an imagined Danish, Nordic or European social order as independent of Nazism. In this situation, a young, talented female swing singer from unoccupied Sweden provided Danish audiences with the best possible replacement for American products while, at the same time, reformulating old feelings of Nordic identity as an alternative and subtle challenge to Nazi attempts at monopolizing Nordicness in openly racist forms. Occupied by Nazi Germany, Danish audiences demanded light entertainment as never before but were cut off from their favorite British and (particularly) American cultural products. The successful launch of her career established her as the leading youth idol not only in her native Sweden but also in neighboring Denmark. Swedish jazz singer Alice Babs, these days primarily known for her role in the virtuoso trio the Swe-Danes around 1960 as well as her later collaboration with Duke Ellington, experienced her first big breakthrough as a teenage singing star in 1940–41. In 2002 she was awarded a Swedish Jazz Prize.Alice Babs, popular culture, Denmark, swing, 1940s Abstract In 1975 she performed at the Newport Jazz Festival. Det var en sensation och inte illa för 'slynan' som sjöng swing. 1972 utnämndes hon till hovsångerska, en titel som tidigare enbart utdelats till artister vid operan. She recorded an album with Duke Ellington and toured Sweden with him in 1973. Hon fick de flesta utmärkelser, hon hyllades på alla sätt, och hon var den första som sjöng för Sverige i Eurovision 1968. Her trademark: onomatopoeic imitations of instruments. Better remembered than her German hits are the recordings she made with Svend Asmussen and Ulrik Neumann as the'Swe-Danes'. In 1958 she took part in the Grand Prix for Sweden and reached the fourth place. Together with Paul Kuhn she even revived the old Fred Raymond title In a small pastry shop. Alice Babs' discography also contains the typical cover versions of American songs like Lollipop, Nur du, du allein (To Know Him Is To Love Him) and Darling, you know! (You Send Me). In the first part of the song she sings about Nils and Ulla, who, like the lyricist Hans Bradtke put in her mouth, dance through Stockholm - and find: "Oh, life is beautiful", and in the second part she performs her scat singing, which has become famous in Sweden. Ole Dole Dei shows the two sides of the Alice Babs: the German pop singer and the Swedish jazz entertainer. Another parallel with Bibi Johns, who worked with Lehn for a long time. Already as a teenager she played a role in the movie'Swing it magistern' (1940), and despite her cheerful, girlish image she turned the older generation against her with her jazz singing.Īlice was welcomed with open arms in Germany, an economic wonderland, when she made her first appearance with Erwin Lehns Südfunk Dance Orchestra in Stuttgart in 1954. The first name Alice, which also sounds like a pseudonym, is real: Hildur Alice Nilsson was born on Januin Kalmar (Sweden). When Alice Babs came to Germany, she had already established herself at home as a jazz singer. Bibi and Babs - only from the names one could confuse the two'Swedish girls' of the 50s hit, but not in vocal style.
