Laleh (singer)
Laleh Pourkarim (Persian: لاله پورکریم, IPA: [lɒːˈle puːɾkæˈɾiːm]; born 10 June 1982), known mononymously as Laleh (Swedish: [ˈlɑ̌ːlɛ]), is a Swedish singer-songwriter, record producer, guitarist, pianist, and record company manager. Following a short acting career, she entered the music industry in 2005 with her self-titled debut album, which peaked at number one in Sweden and went on to become that country's highest selling album of the year.[2]
Laleh
Laleh Pourkarim
10 June 1982
Bandar-e Anzali, Gilan, Iran
Hammarkullen, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Pop
- folk
- Singer
- songwriter
- record producer
- guitarist
- pianist
- record company manager
- Vocals
- guitar
- piano
- keyboards
- saxophone
- drums[1]
- 2000–2006 (actress)
- 2003–present (singer)
She has since released eight further studio albums. She has sung in both English and Swedish, in addition to her parents' native tongue, Persian.[3] In 2011, she participated in the Swedish television show Så mycket bättre, which sees a number of artists create new interpretations of the others' songs. Her performances on the show were lauded by both critics and the public.[4] Following the show, it was noted in the media that she had been given "a second breakthrough".[5]
Her 2012 album, Sjung, yielded the international hit "Some Die Young", which became closely associated as a song of remembrance in the aftermath of the 2011 Norwegian attacks, and was certified fourteen times platinum in Norway, double platinum in Sweden and provided Laleh her second chart-hit in Denmark and first in Austria, Finland and Germany.[6][7][8] Colors, was released across Scandinavia in October 2013. She signed an international deal with Island Records in January 2014, leading to the release of the Boom EP and a number of songwriting and production credits for artists including Shawn Mendes, Adam Lambert, Demi Lovato, and Ellie Goulding.[9] In 2016 she released the album Kristaller and in 2019 the album Vänta!. Her most recent album, 2022's Vatten, was her first release in conjunction with Universal Music Sweden.[10]
Background and personal life[edit]
Laleh was born in the Northern Iranian harbour town of Bandar-e Anzali, but fled the country in 1983 with her parents to live in Azerbaijan, and later moving on to Minsk and a refugee camp in Tidaholm.[2] Laleh (لاله) is the Persian word for tulip, a popular girl's name[11] as well a common symbol in Iranian culture. She moved to Sweden when she was eight (she has dual citizenship), and in her teenage years moved to Gothenburg to attend school in the multicultural district of Angered.[12]
At Hvitfeldtska High School she was enrolled in the music program, growing up with classical music, ballet and circus music. She was later interested in punk, reggae and jazz music.[13] She also learned to play guitar, and as a teenager formed a jazz ensemble with her music teacher named Bejola. She went on to teach herself to play percussion and saxophone.[14]
She is the daughter of Houshang Pourkarim, who died in 1994. An opponent of the Islamic regime in Tehran, he was an artist, journalist and prominent Iranian ethnologist and rural sociologist from Bandar-e Anzali.[12] During her appearance on Så mycket bättre, she discussed her tough childhood, moving from country to country, and how she witnessed her father's death. At a summer camp in 1994, he tried to rescue a woman who had fallen from her canoe into the water. As Houshang paddled out to help her, the canoe overturned. The woman survived but Laleh's father drowned.[2] Laleh's mother, Atefe, was a refugee from Georgia via Azerbaijan before she went to Iran to study comparative literature at the University of Tehran. Once the family arrived in Sweden, Laleh learned Swedish in eleven days, according to a media account of her biography.[2]
Beginning her career in acting, she had a major role in the Swedish movie Jalla! Jalla!, directed by Josef Fares, which was a big success at the Swedish box office in 2000.[15] Laleh moved to Stockholm in 2010 after living in Skellefteå for two years. Until 2011 she was known for her reluctance to give interviews,[2] but more recently she has been more accessible to the media, including appearing on talk shows and other TV programs, a move that has benefited her career.
Music career[edit]
2003–2005: Early career and Laleh[edit]
Laleh began her music career in 2003.[16] She founded her own production and publishing company 'Lost Army' and signed a recording and distribution contract with Warner Music Sweden before recording her first studio album. The sound of her early songs have been compared to adult contemporary artists such as Sting and Seal.[14] She wrote, performed, and produced her self-titled debut, which was released in the spring of 2005 and saw a percentage of the proceeds go to charity.[17] It became the highest selling album of the year with a recorded seventy-one weeks in the top sixty and reached number one on the Swedish chart.[2][18] Critical praise was heaped on the album upon its release, although some noted that the album was too sprawling and genre-hopping.[19] The first single from the album was "Invisible (My Song)", which peaked at number seven in Sweden in February 2012.[20] Follow-up "Storebror" failed to chart, but next single, "Live Tomorrow" had even greater success than "Invisible" and ended up at the top of Sveriges Radio P3's radio show "Tracks" (Trackslistan) for several weeks.[21] It peaked at number twenty on the Sverigetopplistan and also charted in Denmark.[22] During 2005 she won numerous awards, including at the Swedish Grammis, where she received seven nominations and picked up three wins, including Artist of the Year, Producer of the Year, and New Artist of the Year.[23] She was also nominated four times at the 2006 P3 Guld Awards and won Newcomer of the Year and Best Female Artist.[24]
Studio albums
Extended plays