Last year offered many gigs and a pandemic-weary Sweden jumped and danced. It is already clear that festivals, foreign superstars and intimate gigs are competing for the audience this year as well.
During the spring, Sweden is visited by a number of foreign artists such as the beautiful singer Michael Bublé, blues and rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa and South Korean The Rose. In addition, 74-year-old horror rocker Ozzy Osbourne is charging his best to embark on a tour, which kicks off at Friends Arena on May 5.
Domestic talents entering Swedish stages during the year include Melodifestival winner Cornelia Jakobs, veteran Björn Skifs, rapper Petter and Molly Hammar. The Hives, Mando Diao and The Sounds play four gigs together in August and the indie musician and songwriter Lykke Li gives two concerts together with Sweden’s Radio Symphony Orchestra in Berwaldhallen this spring.
The Boss at Ullevi
Rock giants Metallica are coming to Sweden for two concerts at Ullevi in Gothenburg on June 16 and 18. The concerts are part of Metallica’s ‘M72′ world tour and follow the release of the band’s twelfth album ’72 seasons’ on April 14, which is the band’s first record since 2016’s ‘Hardwired… to self-destruct’. During the world tour, the band does two shows in each city, but with completely different songs played at each concert.
Depeche Mode is also embarking on a world tour and on May 23 – almost to the day one year after Andy Fletcher died – the synth icons will come to the Friends arena. The world tour begins in North America with a premiere in March. In the same vein, the group comes with new music, the album “Momento mori”.
Perhaps the biggest talking point ahead of the music year 2023 are the three gigs with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band at Ullevi, in Gothenburg on June 24, 26 and 28. In addition to Sweden, The Boss also makes stops in Barcelona, Dublin, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Vienna during the extensive world tour.
Several musical farewells
Another giant that Sweden has waited a long time for is Elton John, who ends his farewell tour “Farewell yellow brick road” in Sweden, at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm on July 7 and 8. The gigs were scheduled for October 1, 2021 and have been moved several times.
Swedish Gyllene Tider also planned to say goodbye to the fans, already in 2019 during the 40th anniversary, but the pandemic made Per Gessle rethink the future of the band, which he founded as a twenty-year-old. This year, Gyllene Tider embarks on the summer tour “Hux flux”, which premieres on July 7 at home in Halmstad and makes a total of 17 stops.
It may also be over for the American rock veterans in Kiss. They celebrate 50 years with the tour “End of the road world tour” around Europe and have two gigs in the old limestone quarry Dalhalla in Rättvik. This time it is said that Gene Simmons and his colleagues are saying goodbye to the audience for real.
The summer of festivals
It looks like 2023 will be a festival-packed summer, and around twenty both larger and smaller musical folk festivals will visit Swedish cities. The biggest are Lollapalooza and Rosendal Garden Party in Stockholm, Sweden Rock in Sölvesborg, Way Out West and Summerburst in Gothenburg, which offer artists such as British pop icons Blur, Iron Maiden, The Strokes, Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Swedish Ghost and legendary Europe.
Skogsröjet in Rejmyre at the beginning of August has Wasp, Michael Monroe and Eclipse in the artist line-up and world star The Kid Laroi is ready for Brännbollsyran together with Jireel, Tjuvjakt, Hooja and Swedish House Mafia star Axwell, among others.