Appeal for the Jussi Björling Museum

“With deep sorrow and dismay we have been informed that the Municipality of Borlänge has decided to close down the Jussi Björling Museum at the end of the year. Considering Jussi Björling’s unique position in Swedish and international music life combined with him being deeply-rooted locally we find the decision thoroughly deplorable.

Jussi Björling was born in Borlänge almost 110 years ago. After having started his singing career at less than five years of age he carried through a thirty-year-long operatic career and occupied a unique position among Swedish singers within Sweden and abroad. This position he still occupies today, sixty years after his death. At the turn of the millennium he was, in several international media, voted the foremost among 20^th century singers, by critics as well as the public. Contrary to common prejudice about opera as highbrow culture, Jussi Björling was in high degree appreciated by the common people. During the Second World War he was voted the most popular voice in Swedish radio, before a long row of greats within the popular music sphere, and this popularity he retained until his death. His position, not least internationally, has, if anything, increased during the years since his death in 1960. He still serves as a model and inspiration for singers worldwide, and he attracts new crowds of listeners through his unsurpassed recordings.

It is in a way a universal heritage that the Municipality now choses to ignore. A universal heritage is of course not only of local interest but also international interest. The collections housed in the museum of items, archive copies of recordings, disc issues in all formats, reviews, personal documents, photographs etc. make Jussi Björling one of the most well-documented singers in the world. This must not be dispersed!

For that reason we want to pursue another solution: a solution worthy of Sweden’s and one of the world’s foremost singers of all times.

We ardently urge that the museum be retained in Borlänge or, if that is not practicable, that the State be engaged and create a new museum in Stockholm."

Organizers are Jussi Björling Society - Sweden and Royal Opera Soloist Club

If you want to support the appeal, please send your name and your place of residence to jussibjorlingsallskapet@gmail.com

Click here for a list of supporters, December 21, 2020. Many significant people in Sweden and abroad have signed the list.

New website for the Jussi Björling Society

We would like to wish you a warm welcome to the Jussi Björlingsällskapet's new website: www.jussibjorlingsallskapet.se Here you are given good opportunities to delve into the life and work of the singer Jussi Björling. But this website will just be in Swedish.

The old website: www.jussibjorlingsallskapet.com, which you are reading now, will remain as a comprehensive archive and will be able to be visited as usual and you can read it in English, click on the British flag.

The new website is intended to be a more up-to-date place for current information from August 2023.