Swedish News

Honeymoon betting in full swing. More young adults have debt problems. Royal wedding stamps sold out. Madeleine leaves Sweden. Rock-Olga dead.  

  • Honeymoon betting in full swing
    Bookies in Sweden are taking bets on Crown Princess Victoria’s honeymoon destination, the likely profession of her first-born child, whether the wedding day will be cloudy, and such details as the amount of rain being wagered to fall on the ceremony. Hawaii and Brazil are low odds because bet makers feel that these are the most likely honeymoon destinations, while China or Mallorca are highly unlikely. One betting company is giving odds on which day the couple’s first child will be born, and reports relate that a thousand to one odds are being offered on bets that the first born grows up to be a tennis star and whether it will be a male or female who takes to the tennis courts.

  • More young adults have debt problems
    An increasing number of young Swedish adults have problems with debts. During the last four years, the unpaid bills have increased with 50%. Most of them concern mobile phone bills and down payment of consumer goods. According to the Swedish Enforcement Authority, one reason might be that it is easier today to take loans and that young adults have a poor knowledge of private economy.

  • Royal wedding stamps sold out
    The first edition of the celebration stamps for the Royal wedding between Crown Princess Victoria and her fiancé Daniel Westling has already sold out. But not to worry - the printing-presses are set for a new edition. “The interest has been great since the stamps came out, and it will surely continue," says Britt-Inger Hahne, stamp manager at the Swedish Postal Service. The first edition was of a total of 1.5 million royal stamps.

  • Madeleine leaves Sweden
    Princess Madeleine has spent a lot of time abroad since her break-up from fiancé Jonas Bergström earlier this spring. She will attend sister Victoria’s wedding next Saturday, but next fall Madeleine is leaving Sweden again. The court reports that Princess Madeleine will return abroad to work for World Childhood Foundation.

  • Rock-Olga dead
    Birgit Magnusson, aka Rock-Olga, has died. Upon returning from a nostalgic concert at Stockholm’s Tyrol a month ago, Rock-Olga was taken to the hospital with high fever, which turned out to be blood poisoning. Treatment came too late to save her, and after a month at the Borås hospital Rock-Olga passed away. Birgit Magnusson (née Jacobsson) was born in Gävle in 1940. She won a talent show in 1958 in Uppsala and not long after Little Gerhard called her Sweden’s Queen of Rock. Her greatest hit was a cover of Paul Anka and Micki Marlo’s duet “What you’ve done to me”, and her first album, “My Dixieland doll”, was released in 1959. A summer 2010 tour was planned with Little Gerhard, among others, and Rock-Olga also had gigs scheduled for fall.