Eilert Pilarm: Sweden’s beloved imperfect Elvis Presley impersonator
He doesn’t even own all of Elvis Presley‘s albums. But then again, who does? Nevertheless, Eilert Pilarm is happy with the strong collection he does have, and he’s even happier to celebrate his hero with a tribute act. Completing this artistic cycle is the love he receives from his fellow Swedes in return. However, there is a kink in this otherwise perfect chain: he neither looks nor sounds anything like ‘The King’.
Sure, he has the rhinestone outfits and a timbre akin to Elvis’ baritone if you squint your ears, but you can also pop a frock on your corgi, and it won’t make it the Queen. However, the oddity is that despite this, he’s a household name and once performed before a television audience of millions in the UK. He has achieved feats of endearment that a thousand Vegas Presleys have only dreamed of in their heartbreak hotels.
And it all came off without a hitch for Pilarm. Growing up, he was a forestry worker like the rest of his family, and music was not to be dabbled with. In fact, he was bottom of the class when it came to music at school simply because a man of lumber has no business wrestling with crotchets and keys. However, he was passionate about the art form as a source of enjoyment, and that outlasted his schooling days.
So, in the early 1990s, as Pilarm was in his 40s, he finally decided to pursue an active participating role in his passion. Unexpectedly, this quiet man of the woods showed up at a local dance in full Elvis get-up (well, except for the wig, glasses, make-up and shoes – everything except the jumpsuit he had acquired, in fact), took to the stage, and instantly wowed everyone with his very slightly similar to Elvis ways.
His annunciation is bang-on, had Elvis been lobotomised. However, his most unique ability is how he syncopates his slurred English drawl. His sense of melody is what musicians might term as off-the-beat. And this is his gift, as he said himself when he finished 21st place in a US Elvis impersonator competition in the US in 2005 after coming out of retirement following 600 shows and six albums: “Elvis is Elvis, I cannot imitate that voice. I did my own interpretation. I’m no Elvis copy; I am and want to be Nils Roland Eilert Dahlberg.”
Nevertheless, he has also cited that he feels as though Elvis is somehow part of him, as though he speaks through him, perhaps his heart attack explaining the new delivery style. If that’s the case, then he remains equally beloved. Pilarm is an odd fixture of Swedish culture, John Peel loved him, and a legion of outsider music fans hold him close to their hearts, knowing that their dull days can always be brightened by his lilting take of ‘In the Ghetto’, resplendent with its garish album artwork.
But above all, it’s affirming of the character of the world that he also just might be the most famous Elvis impersonator out there. I mean, Alex Turner excluded; can you name another?
