{{short description|Swedish singer}} {{Infobox person | name = Bergslagsmor <ref>[https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Lydia+Hedberg%22 Lydia Hedberg recordings] ''archive.org''. Retrieved: November 15, 2021.</ref> | image = Lydia Hedberg.jpg | image_size = 225px | birth_name = Anna Lydia Pettersson | birth_date = {{Birth date|1878|01|05|df=y}} | birth_place = Falun, Dalarna | death_date = {{Death date and age|1964|06|10|1878|01|05|df=y}} | death_place = Sundsvall, Medelpad | occupation = singer, <br> storyteller | spouse = Torbjörn Hedberg <br> (1904–1918) }}

'''Lydia Hedberg''' (1878&ndash;1964) was a Swedish singer, who performed in folk costume and was known as '''Bergslagsmor''' (Mother of the Mining District).<ref name="Ericson 1971">[https://archive.org/download/LydiaHedberg/02Bergslagsmor1971.pdf ''På Nöjets Estrader'' by Uno Myggan Ericson, (Stockholm: Bonnier, 1971) pp. 111-113.]</ref>

==Biography== According to a critic at ''Vecko-journalen'' (The Weekly Journal), Hedberg was "a sweet-sounding soprano with an echo of the rural forests, mountains, waterfalls and cow bells in her voice."<ref>[http://musiknostalgi.atspace.cc/lydhed.htm Lydia Hedberg.] ''atspace.cc''. Retrieved: June 21, 2019.</ref> She was one of the few women to be a ''bondkomiker'' (rustic comic) although she preferred to call herself a ballad singer.

Born in Falun in 1878, Hedberg was a trained physical therapist. From 1908 onwards she worked as a singer and storyteller, appearing frequently in Sweden’s folk parks during the 1910s and 1920s. She lived for a long time in Sundsvall and was also a host at Furuvik, an amusement park outside of Gävle.<ref name="Sweden 1981">[https://archive.org/download/GustavFonandernCovers/04FromSwedenToAmerica.pdf ''From Sweden To America'' (Stockholm: Caprice Records, 1981) pp. 18-19.]</ref>

==American tours== Hedberg contributed to the Swedish-American song repertoire during three extended tours of the United States made between 1921 and 1925. While on her longest tour she gave 50 concert performances in 81 days, acquainting audiences with the latest songs and stories from Sweden. She made a number of recordings for Columbia and Victor and sold songbooks at her concerts.<ref name="Sweden 1981"/> Her 1925 recording of ''Johan på snippen'' was the first American version of the song.<ref name="Records 1990">[https://books.google.com/books?id=TvB2hsWm8HwC&dq=%22Lydia+Hedberg%22&pg=PA2685 ''Ethnic Music on Records: A Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893-1942'' by Richard K. Spottswood, (University of Illinois Press, 1990) LCCN 89-020526. Volume 5, p. 2685.]</ref>

In 1925 Hedberg published a book about her travels in the United States<ref>Lydia Hedberg. ''Reseminnen från U.S.A.'' (Skövde: Isakssonska boktryckeri-aktiebolaget, 1925).</ref> and wrote of her concern with audience reaction. She found "repeated proof that my singing softened their American hearts, whose very fibers must be moved by verses about the poor countryside at home in order that their true Swedish feelings might emerge."<ref>H. Arnold Barton. ''A Folk Divided: Homeland Swedes and Swedish Americans, 1840-1940''. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1994).</ref>

==Legacy== The Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research had two Hedberg recordings on its album “From Sweden To America”, which was released as an LP in 1981 and as a CD in 1996. It also had one track by Gustav Fonandern, another Swedish singer who toured America during the 1920s. In 2011 the 23 tracks on the CD were released on iTunes and Amazon mp3. The Swedish-American singer Olga Lindgren-Nilsen, who was married to Olle i Skratthult in the 1920s, gave credit to Hedberg, Fonandern and other performers from Sweden for providing much of her new material.<ref name="Sweden 1981"/>

==References== <references/>

== Further reading == * {{SKBL|name=Anna Lydia Hedberg (Bergslagsmor)}}

== External links == {{commonscat}} *[https://archive.today/20120905193710/http://www.folkpark.nu/folkparker/artister/lydia-hedberg.htm Lydia Hedberg at Swedish folk parks] *[https://runeberg.org/vemardet/1925/0299.html Lydia Hedberg in the 1925 Who's Who] *[https://archive.org/download/LydiaHedberg/24%20Svenska%20Amerikanaren%20%2809-28-22%29%20On%20the%20Drottningholm.jpg Bergslagsmor on the Drottningholm in 1922] *[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/204389/Hedberg_Lydia_Bergslagsmor Lydia Hedberg - Victor discography] *[http://78-varv.atspace.cc/lydhed.htm Lydia Hedberg - Columbia discography] *[https://archive.org/download/LydiaHedberg/01LydiaHedbergProfile.pdf Lydia Hedberg profile] *[https://archive.org/download/LydiaHedberg/03LydiaHedberg1921-1925.pdf Lydia Hedberg 1921-1925] *[https://archive.org/download/LydiaHedberg/04LydiaHedbergOnAmerica.pdf Lydia Hedberg on America] *[https://archive.org/download/LydiaHedberg/06%20Lydia%20Hedberg%20songbook.pdf Lydia Hedberg songbook] *[https://archive.org/details/LydiaHedberg Lydia Hedberg audio]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedberg, Lydia}} Category:1878 births Category:1964 deaths Category:Columbia Records artists Category:People from Falun Category:Swedish women singers Category:Swedish women writers Category:Victor Records artists Category:Musicians from Dalarna County