Blog by Elinda

I’m having the time of my life. My first video will be recorded on the 19th of June. Please come to Golden Hits at Kungsgatan in Stockholm for an after work drink between 17:00-19:00 and be my audience as we shoot the video. I will be performing my music on stage with dancers and everything. It will be so much fun and I really need you there to get the right feeling on stage. Let me know if you can make it!
Also we are releasing the fourth song of the album "Superwoman"around Midsummer. The song is called “Dance with me” and I really hope you will do so on the 19th. ;-)
It's Co-written with our friend Andreas Aleman who is a magnificent artist and composer.
A groovy uptempo you won't be able to stand still to. I hope! ;-)

So I’m keeping my self busy. Summer is finally here, the kids are doing well and things are developing according to plan. I have decided not to rush anything. In the beginning of the year when I released my first single I just couldn’t wait to get started. Couldn’t wait for my next song, or my next event and checked my numbers and streams every day to follow the development. 
Now I feel that I have taken a step back. I’m looking at all I have achieved in so little time besides from being a mother of five and all the everyday chores. We took this decision a year ago and now we are definitely up and running. Many new contacts are made and we are planning for future events.

I did my first lecture, talking for one hole hour about my journey as an entrepreneur in the music business. About the lessons I have made, reflections over my personality and how other people have reacted. I talked about courage, failures and how to find strength and meaning within yourself. 
I was really nervous and just before I went on I thought to myself that all these women are all entrepreneurs themselves. They have probably been through similar things. What do I have to give them...But I got up and I did it. Afterwards we had a continuing discussion on the subject and the moderator asked if anyone had any questions for me. One girl raised her hand and said that “This is not really a question by my god this was inspiring! I feel like I’ve had an electrical chock.” And the rest of the audience was nodding and agreeing. One man said that he had seen many lectures and presentations but this was really something special. I was moved to tears. I faced my fears, did it anyway and landed on my feet and actually made a difference in someone’s life. That’s just awesome! I was awesome! And so very proud and thankful for the journey I have made and all the lessons I have learned on the way. I hope I can pass them forward to many but most of all my own kids. So that they can “Stand up straight with pride, spread your wings and spread them wide” a phrase from my first single Superwoman. I wish you all a great week when you try to notice and enjoy every single little progress you make, every day. Life is a rollercoaster. You might as well just enjoy the ride.

Spring is finally here! I love the four seasons. After the gray winter you really appreciate every single sunray and when we feel the increase in temperature things happen with us northerners. We start to smile more, say hi to each other on the streets again and suddenly we are a lot more continental in our way of living. But the air is still fresh and crispy in way you will never experience in countries with warmer climates. Love it!
Been working very hard these past weeks. I'm planning my first video! Also the third single was released, my first power ballad. “I don’t want to know”, a strong song that you need to pay attention to while listening and use headphones to get the full experience. Maybe not easy listening but I love it and it brings out a lot of emotions every time I listen to it.

This week something happened that made the song even more true to me. I was on social media and saw a post from the Swedish democrats, the biggest right wing party in Swedish politics. They want a new law where all citizens are forced to inform the police if you think that your neighbour is helping an immigrant that is here illegally. Just like in the old Nazi days! I can’t believe it! It’s a huge step towards the horror that we all feel so ashamed of today. A whole country has been living in the shadow of this shame ever since it happened. No one dares to mention the war when in Germany today. Is that the kind of situation we want for Sweden? Do we want people to look at each other with suspicion? Cause if they are doing something illegal, you could get punished for it. The whole thing is just outrageous and just shows the true nature of the party. Yes, Sweden sucks at immigration and we are not taking good care of all the new comers. They are not allowed to work and the all administration takes forever. The result being that people that initially came here with a strong sence of pride, willing to dig in and contribute to our country, turns bitter and loose all respect to our country. This is something that needs to be addressed immediately by our politicians. But we can’t loose the human perspective. We can’t go there. Never again! Have history really taught us nothing!!!?

That is something I almost wish I had never read because it made me so upset. But in the end off course I have to stay informed. I have to do my part to make my country a country I can be proud of. And I will use my music as a tool.

It's been a while. My trip was really something special so I had to collect my thoughts before I could write them down. And before I went I wasn’t allowed to talk about it at all, for safety reasons. But now I’m back on “safe soil” in the arms of my children and with new perspectives on life.
It’s a long story but I will try to be short. We set off to Denmark and got on a military plane there. We were a bit late and although the plane was far from full I realised quickly that the more experienced soldiers had all taken a row of three seats each. So most of us musicians sat together which was nice in the beginning, but you couldn’t fold the backrest so it was very hard to get any sleep. Also the fact that a couple of Lithuanians were having a loud party in the seat in front of us, did not help.

After a first stop in Georgia to pick up some new soldiers we continued to Kabul and even though I was extremely tired and had finally found some space to sleep, I just had to stay awake and look at the beautiful landscape when we took off. Also I must admit I was a little bit scared since I read so much about terrible things going on in Kabul recently. And it was no use falling back to sleep on the short flight over to Mazar e Sharif either. As a mother of small kids with a cold this was not the perfect start but it was what it was.

On the ground we got well taken care of and where given a short security brief and armour, helmet and a first aid kit was handed out. Suddenly I was standing in the middle of the desert, surrounded by high walls with barbed wires and maybe even hostility in the area. A very absurd and strange feeling it took me a while to digest. 
But we got down to business and started preparing what we were there for. The people, from all nations on the camp, were extremely friendly and seemed very happy to see us as a nice and welcome break from their every day life down there. All musicians in the Swedish armed forces entertainers are trained before we are allowed to go on missions. But most of us are still a bit confused about many things, like all the rules in the military which I think they all found a bit amusing. But our job is to entertain so that’s ok. ;-)

We did a fun interview on the German military radio and sang a few songs outside the mess to let people now that we were there. And the shows went great. That was the easy part and almost the same as home besides from the extremely thankful audience. I saw tears running down and a lot of photos were taken after the big show in the atrium for all the nations.

We visited an Afghan restaurant and a bazaar where we could buy some silk scarves and other souvenirs and on the way home we stopped by the memorial to pay our respect to all the soldiers who had died. There were a lot. Not that many Swedes but many lives of young boys, gone far to early. I will never understand war. I will never understand how the need for power or money can make you go so far as to actually end somebody’s life. I think that what the Swedish soldiers do there now, seems like a good thing, helping the gouvernment to get a more stabile situation and work for women's rights and so on. But I also know that there is always two sides to every story. And both sides have families and loved ones that will miss them when they are gone.

I it was a great adventure but the things I will remember most are all the many inspiring conversations I had with both the Swedish and foreign soldiers. The sacrifice they make, staying away from their loved ones at home, and their everyday struggle down there with language barriers and differences in cultures and so on. They really are true heroes to me.