June 6 is National Day of Sweden, which commemorates two historical events that took place on this date: the 1523 election of Gustav Vasa as Sweden’s king, which established Sweden as an independent nation; and the adoption of Sweden’s constitution in 1809.
For Swedes, it’s a day of flag-waving, folk dancing and civic celebrations. For the rest of the world, it’s a day to a) not confuse Sweden with Switzerland and b) remember all of the wonderful contributions Sweden has made to our world. Among them:
Vikings
Meatballs
Pippi Longstocking
Ingmar Bergman and bleak art films in general
August Strindberg and bleak theater in general
Midsummer Festival
Midsommar, which makes Midsummer as appealing as a weekend at Camp Crystal Lake
Volvo
ABBA
IKEA
Flat pack furniture in general
Thanks to Max Martin, Sweden also produced the songs and sounds that have defined 21st century pop music.
Martin (born Karl Martin Sandberg) is the most successful producer in the history of Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart, having scored 26 No. 1s. As a songwriter, he’s in second place behind Paul McCartney. Yes, Sir James Paul Freaking McCartney.
Martin’s string of No. 1s began with Britney Spears’ 1998 debut, “ … Baby One More Time,” and continued with hits for NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry, Pink, Kelly Clarkson, The Weeknd, Coldplay and others. Not bad for the former front-man of middling glam-metal act It’s Alive (not to be confused with It’s Alive from Lake Mary, Fla.).
Martin’s hits are the engine driving & Juliet, a revision of Shakespeare’s tragedy, in which Juliet chooses not to follow Romeo off this mortal coil. & Juliet will be presented at Straz’s Morsani Hall Feb. 10-15.
Max wasn’t the first Swede to top our charts. In fact, for a moment, 1974 saw a Swedish mini-invasion when Swedish pop group Blue Swede (See? Right there in the name) reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with its single, “Hooked on a Feeling.”
(Come on! You know the words! OOGA CHAKA OOGA OOGA OOGA CHAKA OOGA OOGA, etc.)
“Hooked on a Feeling” reached No. 1 on April 6. On that same day – on that very same day – Swedish quartet ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with its soon-to-be-hit, “Waterloo.”
Alas, Blue Swede disappeared and ABBA was left to conquer the world on its own.
ABBA split in the early ’80s. The U.S. charts were Swede free until late 1986 when the band Europe released soon-to-be-stadium rocker “The Final Countdown.” The ’90s brought MTV-ready acts Roxette and Ace of Base, The ’90s also took both groups with it when the ’90s were over, for which we thank them.
Since then, Sweden’s pop music presence on the charts has been near constant as Max and his cohort continue to score hits more than 20 years after first topping the charts. With & Juliet, his music followed ABBA’s to the Broadway stage and onto live theater venues around the country.
Like ABBA, Martin’s pop confections – and the performers who sang them – were derided by critics as substance-free fluff that would disappear once the audience got through puberty.
Instead, as Mamma Mia! did for ABBA, & Juliet recontextualizes Martin’s hits, proving their durability and presenting them to new audiences. Say what you will about Martin or ABBA, but their music is catchier than COVID. In the pop music jungle, the earworm rules supreme.
