Rest in Peace, Karin Glenmark

On October 30th, Karin Glenmark passed away at the age of 73.  Both Karin and her brother Anders' story have been so intertwined with ABBA's, from their early days of competing against ABBA in the 1974 Melodifestivalen, together with their aunt and uncle, to providing backing vocals live during Agnetha's 1975 performance on Sommarnöjet, to Anders playing backing guitar on ABBA's Dancing Queen and Money Money Money, to eventually both Karin and Anders contributing the majority of the backing vocals for Bjorn and Benny's Chess Concept Album.  Karin and Anders even provided backing vocals for Agnetha's 1985 solo track "Save Me."  And then of course there is Gemini, Karin and Anders' band that featured tracks mostly written and produced by Bjorn & Benny.  And also Anders' went on to produce Frida's 1996 album, Djupa Andetag.

When I was younger, I used to disdain Gemini, fueled by the fact that I was upset that ABBA had ended and Bjorn and Benny had been focusing on the duo instead.  Plus Benny once said (can't find the source, I'm sorry) that Karin sang better than Agnetha and Frida!  But, I've matured a lot since then, and I've really grown to appreciate Geimini's music, to the point that I have their first album on my phone, and their songs often play when I have my phone on shuffle.  I have yet to actually listen to their second album, but I've literally had the tab up on Discogs to purchase it, so the news of Karin's passing really hits hard.

Aside from her music with Gemini, Karin also had a few solo albums and singles released from 1980 until 1996.  I have never actually listened to them before, but I'm inclined to now.  

Karin has always had a strong and powerful voice.  One of my all time favorite vocals from her is on the final track on Gemini's first album, "Another You, Another Me."  The song is definitely very ABBA-esque with the lyrics, which were written by Bjorn, so I've always had a soft spot for the song anyway.  An absolute favorite performance of mine is during Chess in Concert in 1984, when Karin stepped up to fill in for Barbara Dickson who had suddenly gotten sick  during Endgame. Another song that demonstrates Karins beautiful, softer vocals are Mio Min Mio, and also Karin's performance/cover of Agnetha's 1967 hit "Utan dej mitt liv går vidare".  I also have always really enjoyed Gemini's performance of TLC on Jacobs Stege in 1987, with the song being an extremely fun an upbeat track.

Rest in peace, Karin.  Thank you for the music and the memories.