7/17//20: I take the artists I profile wherever I find them, but the last place I ever expected to discover one was a Will Ferrell movie. Netflix had been recommending Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga for weeks. The previews were so silly, I couldn’t resist watching it, but I certainly didn’t expect good music. To be honest, most of the music in the film is deliberately bizarre in a Bjork kind of way, but the songs performed by Ferrell and his unspeakably lovely costar Rachel McAdams started growing on me. Certainly, the singing voice coming out of McAdams needed research.

Although McAdams can certainly sing, this was a once-in-a-lifetime voice. The singing was Loren-Allred-singing-Never-Enough good. I knew something had to be up. Sure enough, it didn’t take much digging to find out that McAdams vocals were in large part dubbed with the voice of Swedish singer, Molly Sandén.

F.Y.I., the movie was quirky and silly and had some unexpectedly tender moments (plus Demi Lovato and Pierce Brosnan). Definitely worth your time if that’s you’re thing. Now, back to Sandén.

Turns out Sandén is quite well known in Sweden, though she’s new to me. The singer is Adele-level gorgeous, and has a deeply remarkable quality to her voice. It’s a pop voice, to be sure, but I mean that in the best way possible. She’s got some serious pipes. And most satisfyingly, she did in fact win the 2006 Junior Eurovision Song Contest!

You can hear more of Molly Sandén’s music on her YouTube channel, Instagram, and Facebook.