Elisabeth Melander, born and raised in Boden, way up north in Sweden is one of the country’s most acclaimed jazz singers. Internationally recognized and with a career that stretches back some decades. She is a highly creative artist, spiced with wisdom and a lot of feeling. She is known for her unique voice, her phrasing and improvisational skills; in her stage presence there is an ease and joy of life, a seriousness and a splash of sadness which grabs and involve her audiences …

Lately Elisabeth Melander has led her own group EM JazzAppear and her latest album ”Reflections Of A Voice” was named top three female vocals in ”The 40th Annual Jazz Station Awards USA – The Best Jazz Of 2018”. In the spring of 2022, the sequel ”Notes From Within” is released on Prophone Records / Naxos. 

Elisabeth is a senior lecturer at the Malmö Academy of Music / Lund University.  She studied at the Swedish Academy of Music in Gothenburg where she received her educational degree (BA) in classical singing and ensemble. In addition Elisabeth continued her individual musician education (masters degree) with improvisational focus, art music, jazz, composition and rhythm. In 1985 she was called to the Academy of Music in Malmö to establish the first education in Sweden in jazz and rock singing and other modern genres as well as in improvisation. For several years she was a guest professor at the music academies in Gothenburg, Stockholm, Ingesund/Piteå, Turku and Jakobstad in Finland, with assignments within her specialization. During a three-year period, she was also a teacher of jazz singing at Skurup’s Folk High School.  In 2005 and 2011, she was ”guest professor” at the Yunnan Art Academy in Kunming, China. In 2016, Melander started the first jazz education for singers at the Vietnam Academy of Music in Hanoi and in 2017 continued her mission as a guest professor at the Conservatory of Music in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). She returned to Hanoi in 2019 for another period as ”guest professor”

During her extensive career, Elisabeth has produced a lot of own concert projects. She has done several recordings, radio and television appearances; has had several groups of her own as well as many collaborations some of Sweden’s formost musicians including EMB (Elisabeth Melander Band), Jazzmine, JazzAppear, The Boys and Her Voice, Melander-Bergcrantz Jazz Quintet and Elisabeth Melander Trio. She has also been a member of the groups Lifeline, Mopele, Cosmic Agogo, Nandu, Millfield Band, Jazzsounds Unplugged. The line of collaborations is long and includes musicians such as Norrbotten Big Band, Monday Night Big Band, Hudiksvall Big Band, Mikael Rådberg Jazz Orchestra Big Band – Jan Allan – Anders Bergcrantz – Nils Landgren – Lars Danielsson – Anders Jormin – Joakim Milder – Håkan Broström – Bosse Broberg – Lars Jansson – Helge Albin – Håkan Rydin – Jan Lundgren – Jakob Karlzon – Inge Petersson-Lindbäck – Palle Danielsson – Red Mitchell – Claes Crona – Göran Klinghagen – Bengt-Arne Wallin – Kjell Öhman – Ulf Adåker – Ulf Andersson – Terje Sundby – Lars Beijbom – Andersson Chico Lindvall – Christian Speering – Hans Andersson – Yasuhito Mori – Anders Hagberg – Vincent Nilsson – Lasse Lundström – Göran Schelin – Johan Norberg – Mikael Råberg – Steve Dobrogosz – Lasse Bagge – Peter Gullin – Backa-Hans Eriksson, Mike Hamilton and many many more.

Between 1984 and 1985, Elisabeth was Elisabeth was also engaged as a singer and actor at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm for the famous Ingmar Bergman’s production of William Shakespeare’s “King Lear”. The production toured six month playing at many of the national theatres in Europe.

At 14 years of age Elisabeth made her ”official” debut singing the theme, Marion’s Song, in the Swedish movie version of Disney’s Robin Hood.