Ola Svensson
Ola Nils Håkan Svensson (born 23 February 1986) is a Swedish artist and songwriter, known professionally by the mononym Ola until 2014, and as Brother Leo from 2018 to present. Born in Lund, Skåne, his career began in 2005, when he finished eighth on season two of Swedish Idol. Since then, Ola has released four studio albums. Eleven of his singles have reached the top five on the Swedish singles chart, with six achieving number one, and nine attaining gold and platinum certifications. After being signed to Universal Music for many years, Ola founded his own record label Oliniho Records for the Swedish market, keeping distribution arrangements with Sony Music in Europe and internationally. Following a four-year break, he returned in 2018, recording under the stage name Brother Leo for Columbia Records.[1][2]
Ola Svensson
Early life[edit]
Ola was born to Swedish parents, and has two adopted brothers from El Salvador, Jonas and Daniel, both his elders. His second single "Brothers", deals in part with his relationship with his brothers. From the age of 5, Svensson has played piano, and a strong musical influence came from his grandfather who died when he was 8. After he died, Ola decided to sing in a boys choir in memory of his grandfather.[3]
By age five Ola began playing the piano at Lund's Municipal School of Music, and at nine he joined a boys' choir in his hometown Lund. Ola Svensson is an avid football (soccer) fan. Ola played for a long time for Trelleborgs FF before moving to the first-division team Vasalunds IF.
As an 11-year-old, Svensson had a starring role in the opera The Magic Flute at the Malmö City Theatre, directed by Philip Zandén.[4]
Idol[edit]
Encouraged by his friends, Svensson tried out to the Swedish Idol auditions. In 2005, Svensson auditioned for season 2 of the Swedish edition of Idol.[5]
In the initial audition in Malmö, he sang "This I Promise You" from 'N Sync and later "Mandy" from Barry Manilow / Westlife and finally "Against All Odds" from Phil Collins as a duet. Just 19 and coming from Lund, he performed his qualifying audition "Show Me Heaven", a song from Maria McKee. The audition was broadcast on 21 September 2005 on Swedish TV4 channel.
In the live shows, he sang "My All" from Mariah Carey (Live Show 1, theme "My Own Idol"), "True Colors" from Cyndi Lauper (Live Show 2, theme: the 1980s) and "Kom igen, Lena" from Håkan Hellström (Live Show 3, theme: Swedish Hits) going to the next round on all three performances.
But he was eliminated on Live Show 4 broadcast on 21 October 2005, after performing Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River", receiving the lowest votes from the public. He finished the competition as eighth overall for the season.[6]
Record companies[edit]
In June 2010, Ola bought himself out of his Universal Music contract after two albums with Universal, Given to Fly (2006) and Good Enough (2007) and started his own record company, Oliniho Records.[11][12][13] His first album on the label, sef-titled as Ola reached number 3 on the Swedish Albums chart. The singles "Unstoppable" and "Overdrive" both became number one hits in Sweden. the single "All Over the World" was later awarded best Scandinavian pop song by the British music site Scandipop.[14] On the Ola album, he collaborated with Alexander Kronlund and the English artist and songwriter Labrinth on the track "Let It Hit You"
During 2011 his company signed several international deals, amongst them, Europe, the US and UK. He is currently releasing music in mainland Europe with Sony Music. The newly established company said that after five years on a major, Ola [had] decided to start his own record company, Oliniho Records. Ola was quoted saying: "Why not try to do this myself. With the freedom I have today I think it's easier to follow my own direction and I can develop both my artistry and my songwriting in a more natural way."
In February 2016, Ola joined label Warner/Chappell and will release forthcoming albums through this label.[15]
Television and radio[edit]
Since 2006, Ola has performed regularly and given interviews on Swedish television shows such as Gomorron Sverige, Förkväll, Vakna! Med The Voice, Sommarkrysset, Faddergalan, Celebration of the National Day, Bobster, and the morning shows on SVT1 and TV4, amongst others.
In 2007 he recorded the song "Du är Musiken i Mig" with Molly Sandén, which became the Swedish language version of "You Are the Music in Me" for the film High School Musical 2.
He took part in a short documentary My Life as Ola about his experience as an artist and as an individual. He also appeared in several programs including the Swedish series Så ska det låta.
Outside of Sweden, he has also taken part in the Polish "Sopot Festival" and "Hity Na Czasie" in August 2009 with the hit song, "S.O.S". Ola has also performed acoustic versions of his singles on radio stations such as RixFM, NRJ, Sveriges Radio and Mix Megapol.
In 2010, he recorded with Danish singer Mohamed Ali and Norwegian singer Endre Nordvik the song "Fire" for the Scandinavian Nordic version of the film Camp Rock 2. The song appeared on the soundtrack album Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam.
He has also performed on televised concerts outside of Sweden such as Europa Live in Russia in 2013. His song "Rich & Young" was used on 9 May 2014 in the eight episode of Italian television series Colorado broadcast on Italia 1 (Italia Uno), further reinforcing his popularity with Italian listeners.