Lill-Babs
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Lill-Babs (born Barbro Margareta Svensson on 9 March 1938) is a Swedish singer and actress.
Lill-Babs was born in Järvsö, Sweden, as the first daughter of Britta and Ragnar Svensson. At the age of fifteen, she sang on the radioshow Morgonkvisten as a "young talent." The Swedish conductor Simon Brehm had listened to the show and contacted her that evening and invited her to audition in his studio in Stockholm. The audition went well, and she remained in Stockholm to begin her career.
In 1954, she recorded her first record Min mammas boogie under the name "Lill-Babs." Just as her fame was beginning to grow, she became pregnant. She continued to work until she was unable to hide her pregnancy, then went home to Järvsö to give birth to a girl, Monica.
After some time at home, she returned to focus on her career. However, Simon had found a new vocalist to take her place and no longer needed her. Lill-Babas received an offer to tour with Kettil Olsson. After the tour and a couple of concerts at Nalen in Stockholm, she received a call from Simon asking for her to come back to work for him. She accepted his offer and went on to perform many concerts at Bal Palais and other tours.
In 1958, she went on her first self-produced tour and was cast in Fly mig en greve with Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt. She made many recordings, such as Klas-Göran and En tuff brud i lyxförpackning, which became hits in Sweden.
In the 1960s, Barbro's own fan-club Splorr was created and became the largest in Sweden with 17,000 members. The number of members became too cumbersome to handle and the costs grew forcing the club into bankruptcy.
During this time Lill-Babs did much of her work in Eastern Germany, where many of her records, television shows, and movies were produced. As a result of this she became a big star in Germany, considered as popular as TV-artist Caterina Valente.
In 1974, Lill-Babs played the lead in Annie Get Your Gun, directed by Åke Falck. The show was performed at Skandinavium in Gothenburg for a total of 12 performances with more than hundred thousand tickets sold. She received great reviews and she received more acknowledgment for her talent as an artist and entertainer.