Tells in SVT’s “Thank you for the music” with Niklas Strömstedt
Published 2024-07-26 19.55
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The artist Jireel has grown up in a large group of siblings but with an absent father.
In SVT’s “Thank you for the music”, he talks about the complex relationship.
– I think my father had a hard time showing feelings for me, he says.
When the artist Jireel Lavia Pereirabetter known as just Jireel, released the song “Cataleya”, he not only became “the man” in his junior high school – but in the whole of hip-hop Sweden.
He was only 16 years old then. Today he has turned 24, released five studio albums, won prestigious music awards and made himself known throughout the Nordics.
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full screen Niklas Strömstedt and Jireel. Photo: Anton Andersson/SVT
When Jireel visits Niklas Strömstedt66, in SVT’s “Thank you for the music”, he tells about the success story, but also about his family.
One of the songs that Jireel performs in the program is called “Forebild”, he wrote it for his mother.
– It is a tribute to my mother. She has been so strong taking care of so many children, on her own I would say. She has always tried, she has always been there for us and encouraged us, explains the artist.
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full screen Niklas Strömstedt and Jireel Photo: SVT
You can “step up”
In total, Jireel has nine siblings. He grew up together with four of them and his mother in Rågsved south of Stockholm.
In “Example”, the artist sings: “I became a man, but am taught by a woman”.
– Is it weird? asks Niklas Strömstedt.
– I don’t think it’s so strange, I think that’s what a parent needs to do. If there is not a man in the picture, you have to “step up” and take that place, he says.
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full screen Jireel as a child… Photo: SVT
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full screen…and on the student Photo: SVT
Difficult relationship with the father
At the same time, the relationship with the father has been more complex.
– I had a very on and off relationship with my father, says Jireel when Niklas Strömstedt asks him about the relationship.
– It was very special because I think my father had a hard time showing his feelings to me. And I was a little kid who wanted a lot of love from my father, but didn’t get it quite like I wanted, he says.
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full screenJireel Photo: SVT
Although the relationship was not what Jireel wanted, the artist explains that he tried to turn the negative into lessons and motivation to be a better person himself.
– Much that I didn’t like about my father made me instead learn to think about how I behave and be as a person. Everything that was negative I tried to turn into something positive in myself, he says.
