In an interview with Everyone’s tells the artist Loreen about her upbringing with six younger siblings and a single mother. “I’ve been thinking about how she made it all come together,” she says.
Lorine Zineb Noka “Loreen” Talhaoui is one of Sweden’s most famous artists, thanks in large part to her win in Melodifestivalen 2012. But the success brought with it new challenges:
“Capitalizing music is a necessary evil, but it really goes against any kind of creativity. Today, I think it’s fun to work with the strategies, but in the beginning I had to go the tough way, and you shouldn’t get carried away with the fact that the industry is male-dominated,” she tells Allas. “I have not accepted this and would probably like to call myself a rebel in that matter.”
“Never felt like we were living on the bare minimum”
The fact that Loreen values integrity so highly is probably due to her mother – it is a quality that she also values highly:
“What I got from [mamma] is self-respect and integrity, that you shouldn’t take crap from anyone,” says Loreen. “She would probably have lost respect for me if I had run over myself as a person and sacrificed my health to succeed as an artist for the sole purpose of making money.”
Loreen grew up in Västerås with six younger siblings and her mother, who was single. She tells the magazine that her parents divorced when she was six years old and that her father died when she was twelve. The siblings helped with the household chores, but it was natural that Loreen had to shoulder more responsibility than the others because she was the oldest.
Despite the tough conditions, Loreen’s mother managed to create a sense of security for her children:
“I’ve thought about how she made everything work, but not once did my siblings and I feel like we were living on the bare minimum,” she says.
Loreen is currently in the final of Melodifestivalen where she competes with the song Tattoo.
