She is one of Sweden's biggest and most award-winning artists. But even though she loves that her music is so popular with both the public and critics, she is very secretive as a person, rarely giving interviews and not revealing much about her private life on her social media.

When I'm on stage, I feel great. When I'm performing, it feels natural and then I feel justified in taking my place. In other environments, I become more insecure because of the attention.

When INRIKES meets up with Laleh via Zoom, she tells me that she likes performing in front of an audience, but as soon as the concert is over, she wishes she could make herself invisible and avoid attention. That's one of the reasons she likes living in Los Angeles, because there she can be anonymous in a completely different way than in Sweden.

– That was probably the thing that appealed to me the most about LA, actually, she says with a smile. The weather was appealing too, of course, but I loved the feeling of being a bit anonymous. I love being able to walk into a party and not feel like everyone was looking at me. It's weird. When I was a teenager I liked the attention, 'here I come, I'm king'. But I've grown out of that and now I feel like it's nice to just be able to have a conversation with someone and talk about their life and my life, a normal conversation where I don't always have to be the topic of conversation.

If you were meeting someone for the first time in Los Angeles, how would you describe yourself?

– I've made a few songs over the past 15 years, she answers and laughs big time.

Happy and playful

Laleh has a smile that is contagious. She is happy and bubbly, gesticulating and laughing a lot. During our conversation, she is sitting in what could be a kitchen, but the background is digitally blurred so it is difficult to see her surroundings. Her hair is tied up in a bun and she is wearing a thin black puffer jacket with a collar and a little floral pattern on the sleeves. She exudes confidence and the conversation is easygoing.

The single Forward which was released last winter is a happy and radio-friendly pop song that puts you in a good mood and the lyrics testify that Laleh is feeling pretty good. “So I take myself out and walk for a while, the clouds are moving, everything is on its way, just moving forward here,” the lyrics go.

– Forward was a song that came to me while I was walking, Laleh says with a broad smile. I reflected on how the clouds moved and how I moved forward. At first I wrote the song as a quiet ballad about hard days, but it instead became a happy song that takes you forward. Everything is on its way, even when we think we have stopped and can't cope, life still has its way. Laleh is going a little against the grain in a time where pop music is often a bit dark and 'difficult'.

– It's ironic that in the Western pop world, there's a lot of talk about it being dark and artists being like angry teenagers. But then you look out into the world and see countries where people have it harder and the music is much happier. There, everyone tries to be happy – “tra-la-la-la-laa” like.

Thinking out loud

Laleh has previously described herself as a songwriter and producer first and foremost and an artist second. When she is in Los Angeles, she works on producing and writing songs for other artists, such as Ellie Goulding, Adam Lambert and Demi Lovato. - For me, writing songs is like thinking out loud, she describes the working process. A song has to grow and I don't know in advance what I'm going to write. Sometimes people say 'write a song about this', but that's not how it works - not for me anyway. When I write for other artists, they might tell a story that inspires or gives me an idea and then it comes naturally. But I can't write like 'a happy song about this'. It has to grow. It starts with me singing a line and then I do detective work, but I just have to search and search. It's like a conversation with myself, but being able to see through myself along the way. It's good to just walk around and think and let your thoughts float, because then you can get ideas and inspiration. A good songwriter is very honest.

Laleh Pourkarim 

Occupation Artist, songwriter, producer, record label executive and more. 
Age: Turns 41 on June 10th. 
Bor Los Angeles and also lives in Stockholm. 
Family Boyfriend. 
Background in brief: Born in Iran and came to Sweden at the age of 9. Raised in Gothenburg. Had a breakthrough in 2005 with her debut single Invisible (My Song). At the age of 18, she played a role in Josef Fares' film Jalla! Jalla! She has released a total of nine albums, the latest being titled Vatten and released last year. Vatten has sold quadruple platinum. 
Currently With the hit song Framåt and a summer tour starting July 28 in Helsingborg. 
Info and tickets: www.laleh.se

Control over your career

Laleh runs the company Palang, which is an all-in-one production company, publishing house and record label. Being her own entrepreneur gives Laleh the opportunity to pursue her ideas and have control over her career. But it's not exactly a bed of roses.

– I don't want to discourage anyone, but it's sad that there is a lot of politics in the music industry and many people who want to decide over artists and songwriters. In that way, the music industry is like any other industry, but many people probably believe that there is a kind of glamour in the music industry that doesn't exist in reality. There are so few people who can work in this industry. The odds are very small that you will succeed, both as an artist and as a songwriter. You have to work very hard to be able to make a living at it. It makes it quite a bit of elbowing and it becomes like you use the advantages you have, and all the disadvantages you have are used by everyone else. You have to be constantly on your guard to have control over your work. It's a very strange world in many ways.

Laleh is a mentor who encourages female artists and songwriters to take ownership of their own creations. She helps them develop and learn, rather than relying solely on outsiders who sometimes claim to be experts when they are not. One of the aims is to give female songwriters the tools and knowledge to produce and program music in the recording studio. It is easy to be taken advantage of as a young girl in the music industry, and Laleh says she enjoys discovering new artists and watching their artistry develop. She encourages them to create honest music that they can stand behind and not regret in the future.

One of the questions Laleh asks young songwriters and artists is how they see their future, how they would like to live in 20 years.

– My mother asked me questions like that and it made me think. It's good to think about where you are right now and look ahead and plan what you want to do in the future. Thankfully, I received that education at home, but not everyone does.

Their own thing

Without revealing any details, Laleh says that she received many more or less strange offers early in her career.

– I was offered to be in different girl groups and bands. But I already felt that I wanted to do my own thing. She laughs and adds:

– Even though the only thing I owned was like a guitar and a sleeping bag, I had very high thoughts about myself as a songwriter.

Laleh's live shows are very popular. Last summer she made history by being the first Swedish female artist to headline at Ullevi in Gothenburg. This summer she will embark on a Swedish tour that will end at Ullevi on August 26th.

I travel a lot between Stockholm and Gothenburg. It's cozy. I always get to know someone on the train. Time goes by much faster when you talk to people. The last time I took the train, I met the comedian Tobias Persson. We had a lot of fun the whole trip.

– It will be super fun, but there is sooo much to do and plan for the tour. We will be 7-8 people in total in the band and we will have some choir dancers, who both dance and sing. It will be artistic on stage. Most of my songs have a story and then you can paint quite a lot on stage that goes with the songs. You can show the lyrics with the help of dance and music. There are many of us who work on planning the show, but I am involved in all parts, as I am the one who decides what to play, how to play it and how to dance it.

She doesn't know exactly what she'll be doing in late summer and fall when the tour is over, but she'll likely step away from the spotlight and work on creating new music.

– I just want to be able to walk around and be ordinary, she says in conclusion. When I'm on stage, I feel great. When I perform, it feels natural and then it feels justified to take a place. In other environments, I become more insecure because of the attention. But it has gotten better over the years. I no longer care so much about what others think and I can feel that I have found a comfortable voice that allows me to be clear about who I am – both to myself and to others.

Laleh likes to... 

… play padel and football. … hang out with friends, eat good food, go for a walk or watch a movie together. … listen to Cat Stevens, Salif Kata and Cornelis Vreeswijk. … take the train. “I travel a lot between Stockholm and Gothenburg. It’s cozy. I always get to know someone on the train. Time goes by much faster when you talk to people. The last time I took the train, I met the comedian Tobias Persson. We had a lot of fun the whole trip.”