Pop queen Veronica Maggio is now, after 20 successful years as a songwriter and singer, taking the step into the world of film. Not only does she play the female lead in the currently released 7 Steps, she has also written the script together with the film's director Andreas Öhman.
PHOTO MARTIN KÄLLQVIST

Since I was involved in writing the script, I probably thought I was used to it because I've been living with this material for so long. But it was definitely something different than shooting a music video.

7 Steps is a touching story about the seven stages of love. During a romantic trip to Paris, Maggio's character Elle suddenly disappears. Her boyfriend Josef (played by Joel Spira, who we know from films like
The Scapegoat and Fast Cash films, as well as TV series such as Thicker than Water and the acclaimed show Laserman) becomes obsessed with finding Elle and searches all over the world until he
finds her and discovers secrets from the past.

INRI meets up with Veronica, who is also currently working on her new album Sciura, on Zoom. She is wearing a light long-sleeved shirt that is buttoned up to the chin. She is at a hotel in Stockholm, where she has done lots of interviews during the day, to promote the film that has been an ongoing project for several years.
“We recently went through all the hundreds of script versions and then we discovered that it’s been seven years since we wrote the first scenes,” says Veronica with a smile. A lot has happened since then and of course we haven’t been working on this film non-stop for seven years, that would have been crazy. She laughs and then says that being an actor in a film was much harder than she had thought. She explains that she is used to acting in front of film cameras when it comes to shooting music videos, doing TV interviews and being filmed during concerts. But making a film is a completely different thing.

– Since I was involved in writing the script, I probably thought I had gotten used to it because I've lived with this material for so long. But it was definitely something different than shooting a music video.

Was it difficult to film revealing and emotional scenes?
– Yes, it actually was, but most of it was just a lot of fun. It was so fun to discover something new. And really learn and watch. I had a good teacher in Joel Spira because he is so experienced, and it felt very safe to have him next to me. Did you and Joel improvise a lot in the dialogue?
– Our ambition was to be very faithful to the script. I think it feels fun and a bit solemn that you decide what to say and that you actually do it. We were pretty faithful to the script, but some little improvisation certainly slipped in.

You are admirably creative with your songwriting, writing and now film scripting and acting. I guess you are an artist who likes to look ahead.
– There are probably people who want me to stay in the Satan in the Street era, while there are others who want me to repeat similar songs I wrote during other periods of my career. But I can't be 'everything', so it falls on its own absurdity to try to please everyone. One of the things that is so nice about making a film is that there is no previous version of me who has done this. In any case, it can't be compared to anything I've done before. So in that way it feels quite pure. Then you know that there may be people who think 'stick to the music'. But I don't care about that. I love when an artist you like does something unexpected. Like when André 3000 from Outkast made an album with pan flute!
You and your family took a sabbatical from Stockholm and lived in Italy. Why did you take that adventure?
Tell us a little about what your life was like there.
– We were only in Italy for a year. It went by quickly. There was some disagreement about whether we should stay longer or not, but now we are back in Stockholm. I love Italy and one thing that was really nice was that I wasn't recognized there. I could just walk around and 'be'.
Is it important to live a fairly ordinary everyday life despite fame and wealth in order to be able to write songs, and now also film scripts, that appeal to a broad audience?
– Yes, they say that when you start writing songs about hotel rooms, it's over. I wrote a song about a hotel room on the album The First One Is Always Free. The album didn't do so well. Maybe that's why. Haha. Maybe I had lost my footing a bit. Now, I'm not a Hollywood star, so it's not like
I have a butler and live in a lavish mansion in Beverly Hills. I live in an ordinary suburban house and am a fairly ordinary person. I absolutely believe that it is good to be quite similar to the people I write about.
and so on.

How do you maintain your integrity when you're as well-known as you are? I'm guessing a lot of people want something
from you or invites you to more or less strange collaborations.
– It's not that hard to say no to strange collaborations. However, it's harder to say no when people come up to you and want you to film or take pictures. It can be difficult to maintain your dignity while not being disrespectful to the person in question.
Is it necessary to have a business sense in your profession? How much of your business do you manage yourself?
– I can be a bit of a strategist when it comes to planning releases and my brand. But that's about as much of a businesswoman as I can be. But I find contracts, money and all that terribly uninteresting. I forget and I'm mobile. Before I had the accountant I have now, I had receipts in an ICA bag, so in that way I'm not business-minded at all.
It feels like you are a seeker, have you found yourself now or are you still searching?
– Many puzzle pieces have fallen into place. But then something new is torn apart. Both you and the world around you are changeable. Sometimes everything is in sync and sometimes it is out of sync – with people, your own age… You grow up with people or away from people. It never really stands still. So I'm probably a bit of a 'periodist' in my search, I would say. These days I find what I'm looking for more often than I
did when I was younger. Our interview time is almost up. When Veronica is asked for the last time what her plans are for the future, she laughs and says that there are some plans that are written in the calendar, but
She prefers to avoid planning too much.

Many pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place. But then something new is torn apart. Both you and the world around you are changeable.

– My new album Sciura is a double album that will be released in two parts. Album number one is out now and number two will come in March. Otherwise, I haven't decided much. I would really like to write more film scripts. It would be incredibly fun to do that. Especially now that I have experience of doing 7 steps. But otherwise, I don't know. I think it's nice that sometimes there's a bit of space in the calendar, so that you get
know what you want to fill it with. It would feel like a prison for me to be fully booked for several years to come. I can't possibly know now what I want to do in 2030.

VERONICA'S FAVORITE PLACES IN SWEDEN
“Sundsvall. We filmed some of it there for the movie 7 Steps and it was very cozy. I really like Sundsvall.”
“Skåne. I love large parts of Skåne, along the coast, around Ystad. It's very nice and lovely there. My husband is from Ystad so I've been to those areas a lot.”
“Uppsala. I have to say that. It's been a long time since I moved from Uppsala, I've lived in Stockholm longer than I lived there. But it's still my hometown.

3 FAST VERONICA MAGGIO
… is watching: “I'm not watching any series right now, but I'm excited to watch the British series Fleabag.”
...laughs at: “I laugh easily. I can like really American comedies that are very silly. I can laugh my ass off at the movie Bridesmaids. I love Saturday Night Live too.
…admires: “When I was younger, I was very interested in Monica Zetterlund. I thought she was so fragile and expressive and at the same time a little messy. I could look up to that and identify with that. I have always wanted to live out several sides of myself, that they could exist at the same time.”

VERONICA MAGGIO
Age: 44.
Family Husband Nils Tull, children Bosse and Rut.
Bor Stockholm.
Occupation Singer, songwriter, screenwriter and actor.
Background in brief: Veronica Maggio is one of our most beloved artists. She broke through in 2006 with her debut single Dumpa mig. Since then, she has released seven award-winning studio albums and is acclaimed for her unforgettable live shows.
Currently The feature film 7 Steps is in theaters now. The first half of the album Sciura was released in early October and the second half will be released in March 2026.