Part-Time Pop Star
From "Business Göteborg"  
 
When talking about music from western Sweden, one name shines more brightly than all the others. Soundtrack of Our Lives or the Hives? No, with more than 30 million albums sold, Ace of Base is leading the league by at least 29 million.  
 
Jonas Berggren has become a family man. His children, Julia, 3, and Gabriel, one and a half years old, are two reasons he is grateful for shi colleagues in Ace of Base. The current promotion tour for the most recent album Da Capo is being managed commpletely by Ulf Ekberg and Jenny Berggren. "You can't play a re-run of the kids", he says on hte phone from the village San Agostin on one of the Canary Islands. He is currently spending time there with his children and his wife Birthe.  
 
Warhol was right  
Celebrity life doesn't seem to be something Jonas Berggren is particularly fascinated by. He uses Andy Warhol's phrase that in the future every person will be famous for fifteen minutes, something which is quickly becoming reality in this time of docu-soaps.  
"I've had my fifteen minutes, and then some," he says.  
 
But songwriting still calls. Jonas feels that two songs on the new album, The Juvenile and Ordinary Day, are the best he's done so far in his career. He says he's very pleased with them but when asked what he expects for sales of the new album, he hesitates a moment. His answer is a reflection over how the music critics have met with it. "I actually saw a review that was pretty good - that almost makes me worried," he says half-jokingly, half serious.  
 
But he does think it's nice to get a little credit, at least "it's much better than having two full pages of tghe evening paper describe how terrible the music was and how stupid the guy is."
 
Compared with ABBA
The first album the Sign sold 23 millions and was torn apart by teh Swedish critics. The albums have been received in a completely different way abroad. There, Ace of Base is compared with ABBA, which by the way didn't receive any warm welcome on the home courts itself.  
 
Nope, Jonas Berggren doesn't seem especially impressed by life in the limelight. To the question if he's become buddies wtih any other superstars, like Mick Jagger or Madonna, he answers that he has pertty much the same friends he's always had. He likes it like that.  
 
He is more less economically independent, but quitting work and living off the interest isn't quite Jonas' melody. He says he likes to work, that he works approximately one quarter of the time, and that suits him just fine.  
 
It's time to wind up the conversation. Jonas is going to work out, to "trim down the beer belly a bit." With tennis. "I'm starting to get pretty good at it", he says.  
 
THOMAS DRAKENFORS
 
Facts Jonas Berggren
Age: 35
Profession: Songwriter
Lives: in Göteborg
Drives: Chevrolet van, twelve years old
Interests: Geography. "It's easier to understand what's happening in the world if you know where it's happening."