Once mocked and bullied for her sister’s activism, Bea Ernman is now no stranger to taking center stage with her powerful vocals.
The 19-year-old singer, until a few years ago, was mostly known for being Greta Thunberg’s little sister.
But today, she is popular for singing in corsets and fishnets and performing impressive splits with an unapologetic flair.
Once known only as Greta Thunberg’s little sister, 19-year-old Bea Ernman is now making headlines in her own right
Bea has been following in the footsteps of her opera singer mother, Malena Ernman. Her father, Svante Thunberg, is a film producer and screenwriter.
The younger sibling often shares clips of herself on Instagram, belting powerful vocals as she works to build a career in music.
This week, she continued posting performance videos, even as her sister Greta, 22, made global headlines for being detained while carrying aid aboard a ship in international waters.
Bea, previously known as Beata Thunberg, appears to have dropped her father’s surname in a possible attempt to distance herself from her controversial older sister.
She is now using her mother’s maiden name to write her own story.
Bea appears to have dropped her father’s surname “Thunberg” and now uses her mother’s maiden name
Her “voice was built from pain,” Bea recently said on social media after performing at Stockholm’s Musikaliska.
She said some members of the audience “looked scared” during her performance, while others “covered their ears.” But she declared that won’t stop her.
“I don’t care if people love my artistry or hate it, as long as I make them feel something,” she added. “Not pity. Love or hate. That’s the point of being an artist.”
The rising singer stuns fans with her powerhouse vocals and theatrical performances
Years back, climate activist Greta touched upon how her protests put the lives of her family members, especially her sister, in danger.
“The one who suffers is my sister,” Greta told Swedish news outlet Dagens Nyheter back when she was 16 years old.
“She has been subjected to systematic bullying, threats and harassment,” she continued. “The people who write threats and hate to me do it to the whole family, even to her.”
The Swedish protester acknowledged at the time how she was always traveling and that people wouldn’t know where she was sleeping every night.
“I have no daily life. But for my sister at home, who tries to have a daily life … she is much more reachable,” she said.
Greta once admitted that her activism subjected her sister to bullying
Bea and her mother Malena, a former Eurovision contestant and mezzo soprano, were cast together in the musical Forever Piaf in 2020.
The teenager played a young version of French cabaret singer Édith Piaf, known for the song Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.
Malena, meanwhile, played the adult version of the late singer.
“As long as I can remember, I have danced and sung,” Bea told German news agency dpa at the time. “To be able to perform [Édith Piaf’s] immortal music is a dream come true.”
Bea was called the “heroine” of the family by her mother in one of Malena’s books.
“Every family has a heroine or a hero. Beata is our heroine,” the mother-of-two said
“Every family has a heroine or a hero. Beata is our heroine,” she reportedly wrote in her 2018 memoir Scenes from the Heart, written before Greta Thunberg became a household name across the world.
After Bea released her song Bara du vill (Only if you want) on Spotify, her older sister gave her “talented” sister a shoutout.
“So proud of my super talented sister, Beata Ernman. Listen to her new song on Spotify,” she wrote in a 2019 post.
The mother-of-two also wrote the 2020 memoir Our House Is On Fire and has spoken about her neurodivergent family in her books.
Malena and Bea were diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and both daughters were diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome (a developmental disorder that’s part of the autism spectrum disorder).
Both Greta and Bea were diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome when they were younger
She called her daughters’ “differentness” a “superpower” and not a “handicap.”
“Autism and ADHD and all the other neuropsychiatric functional impairments are not handicaps per se,” the mother wrote.
“In many cases, they can be a superpower, that out-of-the-box thinking you so often hear performers, artists and celebrities talk about,” she added.
Netizens had mixed reactions to the sisters charting their own different paths.
“[Bea] looks happy or traumatized depending on how you see it,” one commented online.
Another wrote, “I get the sad feeling Greta’s sister is being seriously exploited.”
“The irony of her sister wanting to break the music industry… which am sure she doesn’t have the money to do in an environmentally friendly way!” said another.
“Weirdness clearly runs in the family,” a critic said online
