Item 831 - La Vie se chante, la vie se pleure (Down by the water)

Mats Bjorklund is a talented Swedish singer/songwriter and studio musician.

During the 1960s he played in records with the Swedish band The Spotniks, one of the world’s leading guitar groups. He played with Bony M, a German pop group, and worked with other well-known disco artists and groups in West Germany in the 1970s. In the 1980s he played with Italian pop star Umberto Tozzi and the Al Bano & Romino Poser duo, winner of the 1984 San Remo Festival, and in several of their disco albums, as well as with Donna Summers, an American pop singer and composer of international fame in the disco era.

Bjorklund moved to Australia in 1988 where he performs as a solo artist, singing and playing guitar in venues around Melbourne. On his returns to Sweden he has appeared in Uppsala at the highly regarded music venue “Katalin”. He is a member of bands and groups in both countries: in Sweden Major Nine, Bjorklund & Schultz, Sunnysides orkester and Uppsala Högar and in Australia Masters of Disguise and The Red Herrings folk music group. He is currently guitarist in the Nordic folk music group “Nordanlåt” based in Melbourne and has appeared at folk music festivals including the Nordic Festival in Warburton, the Maldon Folk Music Festival and the Newstead Folk Music Festival. At the Australian Songwriters Awards in 2017 his composition “A dragon fly” qualified in the top 30 in the folk category.

In 2019 he performed at the Oak Tree Tavern with his newly formed MatsB Band during the Basin Music Festival in Melbourne and is presently performing under the artist name MatsB which is appropriate for the international market.