Tomas Andersson Wij

by Lars Lovén
Starting out with music journalism and book editing, Tomas Andersson Wij took to the stage as singer/songwriter, and soon started to get known as a skilled and sensitive songwriter. As a kid, he sang and played guitar in church, performing for a secular audience for the first time at the age of ten. After finishing school, he worked as a journalist for a number of Sweden's most renown papers and musical magazines, and in 1997, he returned to music with the debut album Ebeneser. It did not sell much, and Andersson Wij continued to work as a journalist. In fact, many people do not even know the first album but see Ett Slag F?r Dig, released in 2000, as his debut. This album was nominated for a Swedish Grammy award for Best Lyrics in 2001, but the price went to incredibly successful debutante H?kan Hellstr?m. Still it was the lyrics that, being both deeply personal and giving a picture of modern society, won the album critical acclaim and put Andersson Wij on another level than most contemporary singer/songwriters. The music leaned on a domestic singer/songwriter tradition, especially Ulf Lundell, but also loaned from religious music. Andersson Wij's outspoken religiosity was quite exotic in Sweden at the time and probably helped in getting him publicity on the national television as well as on radio.