Folk wisdom ... Iranian-born Laleh is taking Sweden by storm. Photograph: Laleh.se
Name three Swedish bands, writes Gwladys Fouché.
I'll bet my IKEA bed your first thought was predictable enough: those two wife-swapping couples who sang about Napoleon's lost battles and the evils of capitalist society. If you're a child of the 80s and loved Pretty Woman, on the other hand, you may have agreed with Roxette that It Must Have Been Love. Others may remember Ace of Base or Robyn - or might even have bought the Cardigans' latest album.
What do these people all have in common? Yes, most of them look like the love-children of Ulrika and Sven. But things are changing fast up north. Two of the biggest pop stars in Sweden at the moment aren't blond, blue-eyed giants, but children of Muslim, Middle-Eastern immigrants.
In one corner there's Darin (full name Darin Zanyar), a Swedish-born son of Kurdish immigrants who is making teenage girls weak at the knees with his deep, dark eyes and boyband looks. The 18-year-old's music is typical pop fodder: one hit, Money for Nothing, is a catchy tune that manages to stick in the head even for those, like me, a shade older than the target market.
In the other corner there's Laleh, 23, born Laleh Pourkarim in Iran, who moved with her family to Gothenburg as a child. Her sound is more in the style of poetic folk, equipped with sensitive lyrics of hope and love - typified by her biggest hit so far, Live Tomorrow, with its impassioned statement "I'm taking my life in my hands! ... I don't like to wait!"
Both singers have just been adopted into Sweden's pop firmament after they won the equivalent of the Brit awards, the Grammis, earlier this month. Laleh was named best artist and best newcomer, while Money for Nothing secured Darin the award for best song.
This double success shows that a lot has changed in Sweden. Mass immigration from outside Scandinavia only started in the 1950s and 1960s, but now accounts to about 12% of the population - more than Britain. In government, meanwhile, the schools minister is the son of Turkish political refugees.
Of course, not everything is perfect in IKEA land: unemployment among ethnic minorities is higher than among ethnic Swedes and Malmo's mosque has been firebombed several times. But compare Sweden to a certain Scandinavian country currently embroiled in a huge mess because of a dozen cartoons, and it seems things may indeed be better in Sweden.
