Facts: Elov & Beny
Name: Oscar “Beny” Kilenius
Age: 32 years
Lives: Örebro
Family: Partner Isabelle, children Ben, Vincent and Melissa.
Name: Mattias “Elov” Elovsson
Age: 33 years
Lives: Örebro
Family: Spouse Elin
Background: Started recording music together in 2008 and released the song “Single and looking” which they shared with friends via Msn. The band was a hobby project until 2015 when Elov & Beny decided to invest in music full time.
The biggest success so far is “Bubbel på balkongen” together with the singer Sofie Svensson, which ended up two on the top lists in both Sweden and Norway in the summer of 2022.
The latest single is called “Cheva on a Friday”. They have also released songs such as “Supa sova sex och likes” and “Blåser upt till grogg”. Also had a “secret DJ project” which was also on the top charts.
At the betting sites, Elov & Beny are far down on the list of who will go to the final in Melodifestivalen. Which the duo sees as an advantage.
During the Zoom interview, they sit in their studio in Örebro and drink an energy drink with a foam Santa flavor to calm their nerves before the Melodifestival debut.
“We got ten flats in sponsorship and now there is only this flavor left,” says Oscar Kilenius.
— …and it’s disgusting, adds Mattias Elovsson.
Mattias “Elov” Elovsson and Oscar “Beny” Kilenius found each other in 2008, via a group playing the game “Counter-strike” together. They tried recording a song half for fun and then sent around the finished result to friends. They were soon picked up by a producer in Karlstad and had a minor hit with “Singel och søgde”, at least in party circles.
— It has been a niche target group: the party crowd and the raggar audience. Our songs have also lived a long time, as people have been listening to them at pre-parties for years. Then we reached a whole new level with “Bubble on the balcony”, says Elovsson.
Elov & Beny often let the fans help decide the direction of the music, which resulted in the biggest hit song to date and the collaboration with singer Sofie Svensson.
— She posted a clip on Tiktok where she played the chorus on guitar and asked what the song should be called. We suggested “Bubble on the balcony” and then people wrote “shouldn’t you make it together?”. In fact, we had already booked a meeting with her to write songs, says Oscar Kilenius.
The collaboration resulted in one of the summer’s big party songs, second on the top charts in both Sweden and Norway. The text about “stroking” (driving a raggar car) in “Løga” (area in Västerås) is typical of the epa-dunk genre. Elov & Beny themselves grew up in Örebro and were not particularly familiar with raggar culture from the beginning.
— That’s really what “Raggen goes” is about. We have learned that culture from our fans. This summer we got gigs at car meets and went around Löga in Västerås. It’s a rather lovely, problem-free culture – and by problem-free I mean that you live for the moment in these cars, says Oscar Kilenius.
— The times I’ve been invited to drive around Örebro with a raggar car and blast loud music, everyone has looked for one when you drive by. I notice how they think that “there goes a real bloody cowboy” and I love that feeling, says Mattias Elovsson.
The performance in Melodifestivalen is the first on television in 14 years, the duo calculates. It will also be the first gig where they don’t drink beer before entering the stage.
— This will be a sober gig, which is new for us. Since we often play in festive contexts, there is usually one or two berries that slip down. Now you have to look into different cameras and be focused. Alcohol helps to calm the nerves so maybe we will shake like aspen leaves. But we’ve still done over 100 gigs so you should be able to do it, says Oscar Kilenius.
Had surgery
The music may be about the good things in life, but Elov & Beny’s career also contains less sunny sides. In 2015, Mattias Elovsson was diagnosed with cancer, something that put the question of his music career on edge.
— It was real chaos and I was about to miss out. They operated to remove a large piece of the colon, where the tumor was. Then I was fine for almost five years and the doctor said that “now it’s almost champagne mode”. But at the next check-up, I had a new tumor and there was another operation in 2019, he says.
— That’s what made us say that now we have to invest in this, quit our regular jobs and just go with the music, adds Oscar Kilenius.
Since then, the duo have been working on music full-time, even as producers for others to make ends meet.
— People seem to have a new view of what is important after such an event. But I was probably very much like that even before I said yes to everything. Immediately afterwards, I became extremely humble about life, but that disappeared quite quickly…
— … now he’s as good as usual again, says Oscar Kilenius.