Niklas' blog

As I’m longing to revisit Göran Olsson’s brilliant documentary on Swedish artist extraordinaire Leila K, entitled “Fuck You, Fuck You Very Much“, I’m watching the following clip from it and am thinking back to 1996, when Leila K competed for album of the year in the Swedish Grammy awards against some quite plain characters – like Dilba.

To say Leila was a sore loser is an understatement much in the same way as stating that Morrissey writes fairly good lyrics.

Leila K out-sold Madonna in Europe at one point, that’s how big she was. If you think Leila’s odd when watching the start of the clip, just wait until she meets said Dilba; it’s like watching the most clean-cut, makes-you-want-to-hurl Disney character meet The Devil. And then there’s a really smarting part at the end of the clip where Leila K reveals her dark side that has seemingly always shadowed part of her person. I remember reading an interview with her a long time ago, where she told the reporter about how her family had disowned her for being herself, and despite her loving her family, she couldn’t just not be herself. It made for a very harrowing read.

Leila K, a person who defied pop music by doing everything the opposite and sometimes wrong way was barred from basically every hotel in Sweden and sold millions of records. She probably upset more people in Sweden than John Lydon and is today homeless in Stockholm. The likes of hers are yet to be matched.