Last week, we learned the sad news of the death of Barbro Svensson aka Lill-Babs, Sweden’s 1961 Eurovision representative.

As we said in our tweet at the time:

We were intending to put together a few more words about Lill-Babs, as we did for the likes of Madalena Iglésias, Katie Boyle and Lys Assia. But we’ll be honest – juggling this year’s line-up check series and other commitments, both site-related and otherwise, meant we never quite got round to it.

What a pleasant surprise, then, to find a detailed English-language obituary of Lill-Babs this week in none other than British newspaper The Guardian. As they put it:

She was part of the first Swedish generation to experience general prosperity; the first teenagers to have spending money; the first to be hugely influenced by America. She was also part of the first generation to have its own celebrities, and was the queen of them all.

It’s perhaps something of a mystery as to why a publication like The Guardian should have singled out Lill-Babs for special attention, but it’s a lovely read, if lovely is the right word to use for a piece of writing about a sad occasion. We strongly recommend checking it out, which you can do here – it’s a fitting tribute to a big name of the Swedish scene who will be rightly missed.

title image source: Alamy