She had a number one hit in West Germany in 1964 with "Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht" ("Lovesickness Is Not Worthwhile"),[4] and on 18 July 1964 she became the first Swede to have a hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, when "Sole Sole Sole", a duet with Italian singer Umberto Marcato, entered the chart, peaking at No. 58.[5] Malmkwist is notable for having recorded in more than 10 languages, including Swedish, English, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish and particularly German.[6]
Early life
Siw Malmkvist grew up in Landskrona, as one of nine siblings, she is the daughter of Albert Malmkvist (1901–1979) and Sigrid Lind (1899–1988).[7] She is the older sister of singer Lil Malmkvist and aunt to Morgan Alling.[8] Her career started when she was part of orchestras in Skåne, in 1955 she participated in a singing competition which defined her career.[9] She won the first round of competition locally in Skåne, and got to travel to Stockholm Concert Hall where the grand final took place.[9] She won the final and received a clock as an award, and got to record her first grammophone record called "Tweedle Dee".[9][10]
Career
Siw Malmkvist 13 June 1959
Her breakthrough came in 1959 when she was a hostess at Lennart Hylands television show Stora famnen.[11] The same year she won Melodifestivalen with the song "Augustin", but did not get to represent Sweden in Eurovision Song Contest as Brita Borg was internally selected to sing the song in Cannes.[12] With the song "Augustin", Malmkvist got her first hit song, it went on to place fourth in the magazine Show-Business' best seller list on 1 March 1959, and sold over 60,000 copies.[13] Malmkvist would one year later be representing Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 in London with the song "Alla andra får varann", where she ended up placing tenth, in the Swedish Melodifestivalen the same year Inger Berggren and Östen Warnerbring had won with that song, but Malmkvist had been internally selected for Eurovision.[14] Malmkvist again won Melodifestivalen in 1961, with the song ”April, April”, but again SVT internally selected another singer to perform it in Eurovision, this time Lill-Babs.[15]
In 1959, she launched her career in West Germany, where she became very popular.[11] In 1961, she had a hit song with the song "Danke für die Blumen".[16] Already in 1960, she released the song "Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel" under the pseudonym "Die Jolly Sisters".[17] Later she would release the song in Sweden as well with the title "Tunna skivor", which became a hit song and topped the chart for seven weeks and sold over 97,000 copies. Her next song, "Läs inte brevet jag skrev dej", sold over 80,000 copies.[11] In 1963 and onward, she lived in Helsinki, Finland, with her husband Lasse Mårtenson and their daughter. During this time in 1964, she became the first Swedish singer to place on the Billboard hit list.[18] Along with Umberto Marcato she sang the song "Sole Sole Sole" in Italian and peaked at number 58 for five weeks.[19]
Siw Malmkvist in Melodifestivalen 1961 with "April April".Siw Malmkvist and Lee Hazlewood 1968.
Malmkvist had success in the singing competition Schlager-Festspiele in Baden-Baden.[20] At the debut in 1962, she placed second with "Die Wege der Liebe".[20] In 1964, she won the competition with "Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht", which sold 1,000,000 copies and peaked at number one in the West Germany chart for ten weeks, In Swedish the song was named "Kärleksgrubbel".[21] In 1968, she won the competition once again with the song "Harlekin". In 1969, she won the West German selection for the Eurovision Song Contest the same year with the song "Primaballerina" placing seventh in Madrid.[22] To this day Malmkvist's songs remain popular in Germany.[23] In Melodifestivalen 1988, she participated with the song "Det är kärlek".[14]
Siw Malmkvist at Oscarsteatern, 1983.
Malmkvist had an acting career in Denmark as well as Sweden. Amongst other roles she played the leading role in the film Förälskad i Köpenhamn (1960) and as Eivor in Varning för Jönssonligan (1981).[24][25] She soon also showed to have talent on stage; she had the leading role in the musical Irma la douce.[26] She also participated in the Kar de Mumma-revue at Folkan in 1972, and in the Karl Gerhard show Hej på dig du gamla primadonna at Vasateatern.[21] In 1980, she acted as Pippi Långstrump in a play at Folkan in Stockholm.[26] She received acclaim for her role as Luise in the musical Nine at Oscarsteatern 1983–84, where she acted against Ernst-Hugo Järegård. In later years Malmkvist has acted in the musical I hetaste laget at Nöjesteatern in Malmö.[27] In 2008, as Fräulein Schneide in Colin Nutley's version of the musical Cabaret at Stockholms stadsteater.[28]
In 2009, she as a celebrity guest on SVT1's Stjärnorna på slottet, where she told about her life and career.[38] Between 2010 and 2011, she along with Lill-Babs and Ann-Louise Hanson had a show called "Tre damer".[39] In 2010, published her memoirs named Tunna skivor av mig.[40]
In 2011, she performed at Allsång på Skansen performing a medley of her hits.[41] In 2012, she participated in the SVT show Who do you think you are?. On the show she was told about her ancestors being soldiers at the Battle at Poltava and that she had Snapphanar amongst her relatives.[42]
In 2023, Malmkvist was a guest celebrity judge in the episode MARATHON Talent Hunt of the Swedish language reality television series Drag Race Sverige broadcast on SVT1 and SVT Play.[46]
In 2025, the documentary film ”Filmen om Siw” (The film about Siw) premiered in Swedish cinemas. [47]
Personal life
Siw Malmkvist was married to Finnish-Swedish musician Lasse Mårtenson between 1963 and 1969, and the couple have one daughter.[48] Malmkvist was in a relationship with actor Fredrik Ohlsson from 1971 until his death in 2023; the couple have a son together born in 1973.[49]
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