Biography
Östen Warnerbring was a Swedish singer and songwriter. He was born and raised in Malmö where he started his first jazz club, the 12th street club, together with a friend. He played saxophone and clarinet, but also turned out to be a class singer. In 1952 he started as a professional musician and performed for the soldiers in Germany with a band called Totty Wallén and his wild Vikings. After this, he sang with various orchestras in Malmö and Helsingborg. Until 1963 Östen had his own dance orchestra. Meanwhile, he took part in Melodifestivalen three times, but his real breakthrough came in 1965 with the song “En röd blomma till en blond flicka” (“Red Roses for a Blue Lady”). He released his first album, which also included several hits.
In 1967, he participated in Melodifestivalen again and won this time. With the song “Som en dröm” he represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest. At the end of the 1960s Warnerbring was at the top of his career and made several acclaimed pub shows at the Berns and Hamburger Börs. Together with Cornelis Vreeswijk and Ernst-Hugo Järegård he had success with the tavern show Lyckohjulet. He moved home to Skåne and made a career in Denmark. In 1979 he was the program manager on TV for his own jazz series “I morgon e de lörda'”. After a heart attack in the 1980s, Östen Warnerbring went down the tempo a bit and was not seen as often on the estates anymore.
At the beginning of the 1990s the CD “Om himlen och Österlen”was released. Östen Warnerbring’s last album “Piraten, Bombi Bitt och jag” was released in 2003. His last performance was in the Canary Islands where he entertained tourists at a Swedish-owned hotel. He made two of several planned appearances before he was found dead in his hotel room in San Agustin on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria on January 18, 2006.
