Updated 05.38 | Published 05.27
CONCERT Regardless of how things go in the football World Cup, Orup is guaranteed to dig for gold in the Swedish festival summer.
The premiere of the first own summer tour in 14 years is a luxurious parade of downright timeless soul pop.
Orup
Tour premiere: Torsjö Live, Tyringe. Audience: 5,500 in the area, the vast majority see Orup. Length: 75 minutes. Best: “Rain hos mej”, “Then the boys stand in a row” and “Trouble”. Worst: I understand why the set looks the way it does, but something a little bit more odd from the catalog would still have been fun.
TYRINGE. There are worse occasions for Orup to embark on his first own summer tour in 14 years now, when a certain GES-song about football is cranked both back and forth and in different versions.
Several yellow soccer jerseys in the audience at the scenic Torsjö Live family party call for it, but it’s not to be cheerleaders who Thomas Eriksson going out this summer. Also, as you know, the song is not just his, so it wisely gets a rest tonight.
Instead, Orup makes his show just the right length of a cascade of something as rare as it is timeless, genuine popular Swedish quality pop with both style and finesse.
In recent years, he has celebrated his career with both a generous 60-year baluns in the Globe 2018 as the significantly more low-key the solo show “Orup bara” two years ago.
Both of those formats gave room to not only root in the most anticipated boxes, but now it’s a show for mainly larger city festivals and then of course different rules apply: as high a concentration of hits as possible.
The first day of this North Scanian festival offers, among other things Melody Club, Rydell & Quick, Lisa Miskovsky, Hooja and Sweden-Japan on the big screen.
But it doesn’t take Orup many seconds to succeed in reminding us who is the undisputed king of the evening. He does it seemingly easily and casually, with more than 50 years of stage routine and an exceptionally solid nine-person band.
Orup has not released an album in almost 16 years, and the question is whether a retired hit geek sees any sense in making more. So of course it could be argued that this is what it is, old tricks once more.
But if such a careful craftsman is going to bother to do something, it has to be become something.
And it will be.
Mainly, of course, it’s about the songs. There are reasons why the audience sings most of the first verse of “Regn hos mig” all by itself, or that the star makes even the brass chairs at the top of the hill swing their arms in “Vid min faders grav” with almost no effort at all.
The combination of a completely unique feeling for both melodies and lyrics with deep pop historical roots and an unabashed desire to entertain creates pop that feels purely luxurious. Orup knows it himself, tonight it often feels like he is basking in the strength of his catalog.
The elegance of “My mother said to me” or “Like the ice – when it becomes spring”.
The falsetto soul in “Up over my ears”.
The fragility of a solitary acoustic “It hurts”.
The effective James Brown– the stop in the middle of “Magaluf”.
The fun choreography with the band in a closer Booker T & The MG’s-groovy “Trouble”.
An “MB” that starts out country-jazzy with the three winds but develops into pure Elvis in the Las Vegas number with sizzling solos on guitar and piano and almost even sizzler Presley-moves by the singer.
And more. There’s a lot of fun packed into these 75 minutes.
– Do you know how much I love playing in these areas where my name is not Orup but Euuuorup? shouts the singer.
Towards the end, he says that you can’t have a better premiere than this, with a slight crack in his voice that feels completely sincere.
I can only agree.
All the big squares, parks, castles and fairgrounds that are visited by Orup and his orchestra this summer are actually just to be congratulated.
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All the songs
1. Are you ready? 2. My mother told me 3. Stockholm 4. At my father’s grave 5. Like the ice – when it becomes spring 6. Sing hallelujah (and praise God) 7. Above my ears 8. It hurts 9. Rain at my place 10. MB 11. Magaluf 12. I’d rather be chased by wolves 13. Then the boys line up Encore: 14. Stay with you 15. Trouble 16. From Djursholm to Danvikstull
Here you can see Orup: Västerås 27/6, Örebro 3/7, Oskarshamn 4/7, Sundsvall 9/7, Visby 15/7, Furuvik 17/7, Bjärred 25/7, Vadstena 26/7, Halmstad 29/7, Östersund 31/7, Karlskrona 1/8, Öregrund 6/8, Stenungsund 7/8, Nynäshamn 8/8, Malmö (Malmö Festival) 9/8, Falköping 14/8, Uppsala 21/8, Stockholm (Gröna Lund) 27/8
