Orup

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Orup
Eriksson in 2014
Born
Hans Thomas Eriksson

(1958-11-29) 29 November 1958 (age 65)
Huddinge, Sweden
Occupations
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1989; div. 1996)​
Pernilla Pettersson
​
(m. 2000)​
Children5
Musical career
GenresPop
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • guitar
LabelsRoxy
Websiteorup.se

Hans Thomas Eriksson (born 29 November 1958), known by his stage name Orup, is a Swedish singer, songwriter and musician who enjoyed major success in his native country and Scandinavia in the late 1980s and early 1990s with songs like "

TV4
.

Early life

Orup was born Hans Thomas Eriksson in Huddinge, Sweden, on 29 November 1958, as the second child of Ann-Marie and Hasse Eriksson; Orup's sister is six years his senior. Eriksson's household was a lower middle class one.

His parents divorced when he was seven. Orup's father died on 24 July 1978.[1]

Eriksson received his first guitar and a tape recorder for his eighth birthday. Orup was introduced to the Beatles by his sister. Eriksson was into sports, playing ice-hockey for Huddinge IK, as well as football and handball, until his early teens when he formed his first band, a Black Sabbath-inspired heavy metal band with himself as the lead singer.

After Orup left school, he worked several temporary jobs as a taxi driver, postman and waiter.

Career

In 1973, when he was 14, Orup formed Magnum Bonum, a band inspired by American prog rockers Styx. At age 16 he wrote his first song, entitled "I Can't Get You Out Of My Mind", for his band MBI, an acronym for, and joint venture of, the two bands Magnum Bonum and Intermezzo.

In the late 1970s Orup grew fond of

the New York Dolls. Although he enjoyed listening to punk, it didn't show in his own songwriting. At this time he also discovered 1960s soul music and Motown
, styles also known for having short and intense songs. Unlike punk, this type of music influenced him heavily, which was evident in his own music from the late 1980s onwards.

After Orup left Magnum Bonum, the band reached number one in the

Cia Soro
.

In 1986 a major-label A&R manager, Leif Käck, came across a demo of Orup's song "Vill du inte ha mina kyssar?" (Don't you want my kisses?) and recorded it with

Warners as a solo artist. In the summer of 1987 Orup's debut single "Är du redo?" (Are you ready?), a go-go ditty, was released, reaching number 19 in the charts. In the summer of 1987 Orup was the opening act for the established acts Roxette, Eva Dahlgren and Ratata
on the Rock runt riket tour.

His big breakthrough came that autumn with the follow-up single "Jag blir hellre jagad av vargar" (I'd rather be chased by wolves), which reached number 4. Orup's eponymous debut album, released in 1988, reached number one, as did the follow up album 2 in 1989. Both albums were produced by Anders Glenmark and contained a string of hit singles.

In 1989 Orup came close second in

Melodifestivalen
, performing "Upp över min öron" (Up over my ears) as a duet with Anders Glenmark.

Orup's third album, Orupean Songs, released in 1991 was his first (and to date only) album with lyrics in English. It failed to garner any interest in the

Anglophone
world, but sold a reasonable 80 000 copies in Sweden, which was nowhere near the success of his first two albums; his previous album had sold a staggering 250 000 copies.

Orup had two big hits in 1992 with "Stockholm", a heavily Pet Shop Boys-influenced dance track about his hometown, and "Magaluf" about the Mallorca holiday resort, both lifted from the album Stockholm och andra ställen (Stockholm and other places).

The summer of 1994 is a fond memory for Swedish sports fans, since Sweden came third in the

GES
, an acronym of the trio's last names, and also released an album that year.

Orup released three more albums – Orup 5 (1993), Teddy (1998) and Elva hjärtan (2000). Orup has reported how difficult it was to get airplay for his music during this period. In 2003 GES released a second album, Den andra skivan (The second album).

In 2004 Orup wrote and produced "Det gör ont" (It hurts) for Lena Philipsson, which won Melodifestivalen that year and came fifth place in the Eurovision Song Contest. Orup wrote all the songs for Philipsson's 2004 album Det gör ont en stund på natten men inget på dan (It hurts a while at night but nothing daytime) and wrote or co-wrote all the songs for her follow up album Jag ångrar ingenting (I regret nothing) in 2005, and their 2008 duet album Dubbel (Double).

In 2006 and 2010 Orup released solo albums. In 2014 he created the successful show Viva la pop, performing hits from his career, interspersed with humorous monologs, for a dinner audience. In Sweden this format is called krogshow (roughly: restaurant show).

In 2017 GES played seven nights at

Globe Arena
, Stockholm.

Personal life

Orup (left) with his former wife, Sofia Eklöf, in 1988

Eriksson married the television presenter

hip hop group Tjuvjakt
. Orup is married to patternmaker Pernilla Pettersson. The couple have four children: daughter Charlie (born 2001) and sons Isidor (born 2001), Seth (born 2011) and Ozzy (born 2014).

They live in the Mariatorget district of Södermalm in Stockholm.

Health

Orup suffers from stuttering.[2][3]

Discography

See also: Glenmark Eriksson Strömstedt discography

Solo

Glenmark Eriksson Strömstedt

Filmography

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2014 Så mycket bättre Himself TV series

Citations

  1. ^ Amster, Harry (21 November 2010). "Pop, kärlek och ilska". Svenska Dagbladet. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  2. ^ "Orup om stamningen: Hela livet förändrades". Expressen. 30 October 2016. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  3. ^ "Orup gav få svar i Så mycket bättre". Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on 2014-10-27. Retrieved 14 July 2021.

External links

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