Ola Salo

Ola Salo
Background information
Birth name	Rolf Ola Anders Svensson
Born	19 February 1977 (1977-02-19) (age 34)
Origin	Avesta, Sweden
Genres	Glam rock Pop rock Electronica
Occupations	Singer Songwriter Keyboardist
Instruments	Vocals, Piano & Guitar
Years active	1991–present
Labels	Roxy
Associated acts	The Ark

Ola Salo, born Rolf Ola Anders Svensson on 19 February 1977 in Avesta, Sweden, is the Swedish rock vocalist of the Swedish glam rock band The Ark. Salo lived in Rottne, Växjö Municipality, in Sweden when he was a child. It was while living in Rottne, in 1991, that 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, 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 because many newspapers colored his words telling 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 ended up cancelling almost all of its US 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.

Salo has recently translated Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar into Swedish for a performance in Malmö this autumn in which he will play the title role of Jesus, and as a resultant he has stated that "2008 will be a very quiet year" for The Ark^[6] after the hecticness of 2007 with the Eurovision Song Contest and the release of Prayer for the Weekend. In the 1990s he appeared in musical theatre productions Kristina från Duvemåla and Fiddler on the Roof.

In 2009 Ola Salo featured on the Empire Dogs record 'Come On You Preachers'.^[7]

References

1. ^ Freeman, Hikaru (9 May 2007). "The Gayest Pop Show on the Planet". AfterElton.com. http://www.afterelton.com/TV/2007/5/eurovision. Retrieved 2007-11-16 
2. ^ Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts (October 24, 2006). "A Swedish Star's Rock-and-Rile Words". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/AR2006102301369.html. 
3. ^ Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts (October 27, 2006). "Swamped by a Flood of Criticism". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102700058.html. 
4. ^ Dave Maher (October 26, 2006). "The Ark Continue Tour Despite Political Controversy". Pitchfork. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/39372-the-ark-continue-tour-despite-political-controversy. 
5. ^ Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts (November 2, 2006). "Washington Intrigue Nabs a Role in an Indie Flick". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/01/AR2006110103498.html. 
6. ^ "YouTube interview on "Nyhetsmorgon", Swedish breakfast show". March, 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhZuNgZ081c. 
7. ^ . http://www.EmpireDogs.com. 

Persondata
Name	Salo, Ola
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Date of birth	February 19, 1977
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