Lizel Strömberg

Linnea Henriksson, still going strong!
 
As I've told in previous posts, I'm going to catch up with my content that I've been getting but still haven't been able to publish before. In this post I'm going to make a throwback to one of my dearest moments from last year. A throwback to the day when I saw Linnea Henriksson again after several years of not seeing her. I have been a fan of Linnea and her music ever since 2010 when she made her debut through Swedish Idol. I adore her and it's always such a pleasure to experience her shows.
My previous occassions that I've met Linnea have only been when I've attended her shows as a fan and not as a professional photographer. As I still am a very small media, getting accredition is very hard since a lot of the events/festivals are looking at the numbers. For Linnea's concert in Alingås at the "Sommaronsdagarna", I decided to reach out to her and asking if she could help me out. After some messaging, Linnea helped me out not only for me to come but also for me to bring a friend. It was so sweet of her to offer that and I really appreciate that she went her way to help me. 
To this event, I brought Carol with me since I knew she would appreicate seeing Linnea perform even if photographing concerts are not really her thing. We arrived to Alingsås early enough for us to get familiar to the area and talk with the security by the stage of what the rules were during the performances. More people were arriving and we started to get ready for the first performance which was by Hearts and Colours. Those photos will be in a future posts. It was nice getting to try out the light and the stage before it was time for Linnea. 
It made me so happy to see that Linnea had thought about the whole stage, for example she had her own backdrop which was NOT black. She had thought about the small details in her staging such as having some kind banner where her name stood. To make her mic stand look a bit cooler, she had decorate it with flowers around it. These details are important and it tells a lot of what kind of artist she is. Of course, I had to capture these details in her staging, it's not a lot of Swedpop artists that are making the effort into doing something extra on stage like this. 
Linnea came out on stage as happy and friendly as she always is. She is such a professional and creates this warm and welcoming vibe on stage. It's something about her that I just adore and it doesn't matter what kind of mood I am before the show, but seeing her on stage always managed to get me in a better mood. I was so happy about having a proper opportunity to capture one of Linnea's shows, where I had the opportunity to have different angles to my photography than I ever had before. 
Linnea plays a big part on doing the concerts as great as they are but we should not forget about her amazing band as well. In the picture below you can see Mira Palme, which not only sings but also plays the tambourine and the cello. 
The guitarist of the show is Paulina Mellkvist, not only is she playing great but she looks very cool doing it. 
For some reason, the 3 songs rule didn't apply at this event so I took the chance to get different angles of the show and the audience. It was very nice having the access to not worry about not getting enough time in front of the stage. 
I was aware that a lot of the people who was there that day wasn't neccessarily a fan of Linnea since there was a group of guys performing after her. But despite that, I seemed like the audience enjoy her set as well. I think Linnea connects very well with her audience and the balance of her performing songs and have small talks in between is very well executed which I don't see very often in this scene. 
The drummer of a set is always very tricky to capture in photographs because they often sit way in the back almost invisible, but not in this case. I got very excited that I managed to capture at least a couple of photos of Wille Alin which has been the drummer for Linnea for several years. 
The only person in the band that I didn't captured well was the keyboardist Anton Toorell since he was covered by all the microphones around him and the instruments. I tried but unfortunately didn't managed to execute it well enough. 
One of the things I love about seeing Linnea perform is her energy, her charisma and that she always gives 110% on stage. It doesn't matter what kind of setting it is, she always gives her all and make sure that she shows her appreciation towards her bandmembers but also to the audience who came to see her. 
After the show, I wanted to stick around to say hi to Linnea and to say thank you for helping me getting the access to photograph her show. Did I tell you, Linnea thinks about the whole package? Well, she does and she even had her own merchandise stand ready to go for people to stop by and get which one they liked the most. 
Normally I don't buy a lot of merchandise because it's not something I really need or use since the design usually isn't something I would wear/carry around in public. But I couldn't resist to show my support by buying a canvas bag and because the fact that I really liked the design of it. 
Carol was still there and it was very nice having her with me. I can attend events by myself but it's always so much more fun with Carol because she has such a fantastic personality and I really enjoy her company. We have so much fun together and it was nice being able to give an opportunity for Carol to also get on set, experience something new, create her own content and contacts. 
Linnea came out after a while to greet her fans that was waiting for her. It was very nice seeing all the happy faces and the love between Linnea and her fans. I got to talk with Linnea, thank her and catch up a bit. It's always a pleasure to meet Linnea, she has such a warm and welcoming approach which really makes an impact. Thank you once again to Linnea for helping me out, sorry for the delay with the post but I hope you appreciate it anyway. Thank you to Carol for being a great friend and for coming along with me. 
This was it for this post, I hope you enjoyed seeing my photographs and reading my thoughts about the show. I highly recommend you listening to Linnea Henriksson's music if you don't already do that, and to see her live whenever you have the opportunity to do so. 
 
Until next time, ingat! 
/Lizel