EGON KJERRMAN

Born: September 25th, 1920, Gothenburg (Sweden)

Died: March 13th, 2007, Västerås (Sweden)

Nationality: Swedish

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Egon (born as Ernst Napoleon) Kjerrman was a composer and conductor who made his debut in the music scene as a substitute conductor for the Stora Teatern in his native Gothenburg. During the 1940s, he lived in Chicago (USA) for a number of years, where he worked as a copper but composed music at the same time. Upon his return in Sweden (1952), he was appointed conductor at SR, Swedish Radio. He collaborated in many radio and TV shows, but is best remembered for his presentation (1956-66) of the annual open-air sing-along event Allsång på Skansen, of which he was the musical director at the same time, playing all music with his Radiotjänsts Varietéorkester. Occasionally, he tried his hand at singing himself, most notably with ‘Kom ner från taket’, a cover of ‘Kom van dat dak af’ composed and originally performed by Dutch rock-‘n’-roll icon Peter Koelewijn.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

In 1962, Egon Kjerrman led the SR Underhållningsorkester during the Swedish Eurovision preselection, which was won by Inger Berggren and ‘Sol och vår’ (arranged by Sven-Olof Walldoff). This schlager song came seventh in a field of sixteen competing entries. 

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1962 Luxembourg

Country – Sweden

Song title – "Sol och vår"

Rendition – Inger Berggren 

Lyrics – Åke Gerhard

Composition – Ulf Källqvist

Studio arrangement – Hans Wahlgren

(studio orchestra conducted by Hans Wahlgren)

Live orchestration – Sven-Olof Walldoff

Conductor – Egon Kjerrman

Score – 7th place (4 votes)