Twitch Vocal Coach Reacts to Anthem (from Chess) sung by Tommy Körberg 

Tommy IS the original for Chess! Not josh groban.

This song is specifically written for Tommy Körberg in the 80's. He played the main caracter on the Prince Edward Theatre in Londons for three years and a total of 1130 shows starting 14 maj 1986. Tommy IS the original.

Josh Groban was three years old when Tommy sang this on the album. 😁

Tommy is a non-schooled Singer, he use to say that he just opens his mouth and start to sing 🥰 I am very proud of him being a Swede myself

Wow. I never thought I'd see a reaction to a Tommy Körberg performance from a non-swedish youtube reactor/vocal coach. Fun!

You just have to do Helen Sjöholm with either "Gabriellas Sång" or "Du måste finnas" she is one of the most expressive and powerful singers I have ever seen.

As a Norwegian, I've always been envious of Sweden having such a singer as Tommy K. I know, what an amazing singer he is. Not only this song, but many extremely demanding songs. Thank you Tommy Körberg, for your songs.

And here's the original recording in Polar Studios in Stockholm 1984. The two legendary B:s from ABBA, Benny and Björn, wrote the musical "Chess" together with Tim Rice and they seem to be quite happy with Tommys performance, look at Bennys smile in the end. Of course they wanted Tommy to do the lead role in the musical in London. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DWLlB41GlvU.html

Originally by Josh Groban? Hehe... He was a toddler when Tommy did this routine ;)

You have to check out when Tommy Körberg sing with Celine Dion, The beauty and the beast. It's so funny

Chess is a masterpiece! Tommy is also on the original album, released in 1984. In 2019 I saw Benny Anderssons Orkester in Skansen (Stockholm). Tommy sings there as well and they also play some Chess-songs during these concerts.

I suppose like a thousand Swedes have already commented on this, but this role was written FOR Tommy Körberg. This song was written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus with his particular voice in mind. They released the musical as an album long before it was produced on the stage, in 1984 or something. And when it was first produced on staged, in London, guess who played the Russian. Not Josh Groban! (Was he even born then? Sorry, but Josh Groban is more of a crooner than a singer like Tommy Körberg.) Here is a take from the recording of the album: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DWLlB41GlvU.html And here is Tommy singing Anthem at the Laurence Olivier Awards in 1987. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1xnpfwTkfV0.html None of this is difficult to check.

Körberg is the original cast singer, and he sings this part on the Chess album that was released as well :)

Actually Tommy Körberg was the first person to be the Russian, who became later Anatolij. So Tommy is the original singer of this song

Fact about Tommy Körberg: This is his natural non-trained voice. He "sings up" by coughing. No joke. This is THEEE most spectacular voice in the world, and I can't comprehend that we have it to our self in Sweden. And also, Josh (I love him) is a child in this. Please dont EVER make this mistake again.

You should've watched one of his preformances from the 80's or early 90's. Even more powerful then.

Funny how you think Josh did this first. 😄 Tommy was on the original recording in early/mid 80s. He was in the show all the way until they were going to the US. He had a 20 year old drug charge and they wouldn’t let him in.

It wasn't exactly written for him, but as soon as he was on board I guess they composed the music to fit him better. Tommy did this role both on the conceptual album in 1984 and the West End production 1986. If I'm not misremebering, Björn and Benny needed someone to sing the demo for this very song, and they were so blown away by his performance that they cast him in the role. Here in Sweden, this has been his theme ever since. And as he put it "This song just caters to all my strengths". Also, funny how you should mention how connected his voice is to his body. According to legend, he never warms his voice up before a gig, his breathing is just naturally perfect (lucky bastard...). The man has also not taken a single singing lesson in his life. The show was extensively re-written for the Broadway run, to the detriment of the show, and it flopped. Due to legal issues, the show can ONLY be performed with that bad script in the US, and as a result, most productions are half-acted concert versions, where the rules are a little less strict. And that's where Josh Groban comes in, as he played this role in a series of concert versions with a number of different co-stars.

Tommy Körberg is a friend of Björn Ulveus and Benny Andersson that wrote the music for Chess.

Not only isn't he formally trained, HE DOESN'T WARM UP!!

No no no Tommy is the original Anatoly. In the mid 1980s. There is nobody better.

Yes!! I love Tommys voice! ❤ I'm swedish myself and an amateur singer, and I have listened to him all my life. And this is his show stopper song, Anthem always makes me cry. ❤

It was Björn and Benny's first musical. It was after ABBA had broken up AND yes, Tommy Körberg was the original artist.

Tommy Körberg also played Jean Valjean in the Swedish production of Les Mis.

Tommy Körberg, the man who's voice just gets better for every year.

Tommy K is a living legend, just like the composers of "Chess", Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson from Abba.

It’s even more fantastic, knowing he has no classical schooling... at all!

Tommy has never been to a song teacher in his entire life. He is just all natural raw talent

Okay the Josh Groban comment made me laugh haha, but I loved this reaction! I'm so thankful for my parents taking me with them to see the Swedish version of Chess when I was ten. I was too young to fully appreciate it then, but I remember tears just streaming down my mom's face when Tommy sang this song and now I can hardly listen to it without getting chills all over my body and tears in my eyes. Such a powerful song and voice.

NOT Groban, Tommy was first 1985. Listen to the whole album for g sake! Körberg sounds though like he have been singing this like 1000 times here, it´s much much better on the original album. I´m a swede and love all that Björn and Benny have made (ABBA, you know).

Tommy is the original "the russian" and it's earlier than 2000-2010.

Yeah, Tommy Körberg was and still am the original, this has been his anthem since the 1980:s 🌟

My childhood, youth and most of my adult life is lined with the soundtrack of that man... Thank's for reacting!

Please... He was the first! Anyone else will always be a close second! Tommy Körberg is the king ❤❤

The American - Murray Head The Russian - Tommy Körberg Florence - Elaine Paige Molokov - Denis Quilley The Arbiter - Björn Skifs Svetlana - Barbara Dickson So Tommy Körberg is the original....

In Eurovision Song Contest 1988, Tommy competed for Sweden with the song "Stad I ljus". But the winner that year was Switzerland with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" Performed by Celine Dion.

One of the best male Swedish Singer of all time. Amazing voice.

Oh no...you didn't do Tommy Körberg...oh how I adored him when i was young. He is just magical, haven't heard from him in a long time. This was kind of written for him, Chess. Sorry to hear he's been ill. He sound so amazing still. Wow, thank you ❤

Oh no, Tommy Körberg is the original singer of this very number.

I was at the rehearsal and the premiere The premiere of the musical took place at the Prince Edward Theater in London's West End on 14 May 1986, where it then went on for three years in a total of 1,130 performances. The main roles were played by Elaine Paige (Florence), Murray Head (Freddie) and Tommy Körberg (Anatolij). Trevor Nunn was responsible for the direction and Anders Eljas for the musical arrangement.

Fun fact Tommys ex wife is Aviicis mother shes an actor. Chess original is from 1984 written by Björn and Benny from ABBA. Benny and Tommy since then has worked together a lot. Last year Tommy was in the TV show Så mycket bättre So much better. This show is about Swedish artist meet up and interpit each other songs. When Silvana Imam interpit Tommy Stad i ljus everyone was a bit chocked how you can make a classic Swedish anthem to something even more beatiful.

My 10 cent worth. It is all about comparing apples and pears. One the one hand a schooled singer taught to sing in a specific, scientific way like a robot regarded as the right way. The person under scrutiny has a natural, god given magical unique voice singing the way that is natural and unique to him. He has not attended formal training, it is his voice and not the voice that someone else want it to be as part of a group norm. Tommy is special and I and thousands with me are glad we hear Tommy and not a professor or a standard 12 to a dozen voice! Heja Sverige! Love you Tommy ❤

There is an old clip of a duet featuring Tommy Körberg and Celine Dion singing "Beauty and the Beast". A one time only performance. For reasons. You might find it interesting.

The Roll was created on Tommy. When Björn and Benny made Chess and the song’s, the write with Tommy körberg in mind.

Chess the musical is Swedish and Tommy is the original singer. Björn and Benny from ABBA wrote it. It's from 1984 so no Josh Groban was not first.

Chess is a Swedish/British musical from 1986 with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (ABBA), lyrics by Tim Rice and script by Richard Nelson.

It wasn't written for Tommy.But Björn and Benny asked if he could sing it while they where making the musical and when they heard him they gave him that role.

His jaw is always puched forward, that's how his jawjoint is constructed. He can't push it back, it's a underbite. But who cares, obviously he sings like a god. But if a person with normal bite would have same jawposition it perhaps would affect something

Tommy Körberg is the original singer from the production in London.

I would love for you to react to Tommy and Sissel singing Endgame (also from chess) live. The ending of that performance is just so amazing.

Tommy is the original singer!

With all due respect, I think you have your musical history a little mixed up. Chess was originally released as a concept album in 1984, and Tommy Körberg originated the role of the Russian/Anatoly Sergeyvsky, not Josh Groban. I'm fond of him as well, but Groban wasn't the first person to play the Russian at all.

Den största och bästa manliga sångare vi har i Sverige. Amazing. Give me the chills. He is so good. 🌺🌸💕❤️

This guy have no idea. Josh was a baby when Tommy first did this song.

Just so you know, the K in his last name uses the same sound as "sh" in sheep

The entire studio album Chess is outstanding. Rough, unpolished and yet close to perfection. What puzzles me, however, is that the one shitty track on the alnum, One night in Bangkok, is the one that people tend to associate with Chess. Anthem, Pity the clild, Mountain duet and Nobodys side are imo some of the best pices of music ever recorded.

If you havent seen it. Tommy sings beauty and the beast with Celine dion and she was not happay that he shined overher. He had been careful during the rehearsals ,so she was not prepared for his voice

I´m so happy because Im going to listen to him live this summer in the city of Karlstad in Sweden. A perfect way to celebrate my 70th birthday.

Great to see a reaction to Tommy Körberg and chess from outside Sweden. As others have written the song was written specific to Tommy’s voice. But he’s old here and has lost some power, you should watch some earlier videos from the 80s or 90s when he was even better. Original recording 1983: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MYfpcddXWxk.html

I always liked to play him singing the Swedish version as I drove over the bridge home to Wales. Tommy has performed a lot with the Benny Anderson Orchestra and Helen Sjöholm.

Oh I'm so happy you watched this performance with Tommy Körberg, I think it was me who put in the request. I am in love with the voice of Tommy Körberg, he is amazing. Tommy has lived a pretty hard life, his voice however is something he has taken such good care of. I heard him say in an interview that singing was his biggest passion and it shows. And to me, being able to live through both heart surgery and a serious case of Covid19 and still come out and sing the way he did in Melodifestivalen... That is just amazing to me. He is really badass. His voice is perhaps a little more fragile now, which is no wonder, but the power, it's still there. My dream is to see and hear him sing with Floor Jansen, I mean they live in the same country nowadays so I'm hoping :D That would be a dreamduet really. Take care, and stay safe

Perhaps a good idea would be to listen to the original album? Just a thought.

Oh come one. Check history. Tommy was the original singer for this role in Chess in 1984 when Groban was stubbing around in dipers.

He has a great stage presence. Thanks for explaining that stuff about how the jaw position affects the sound you produce, learning lots! Please break down some of Tyler Joseph's vocals.

Tommy Körberg IS the original. The role was LITERALLY written for him, by his old pals Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DWLlB41GlvU.html

Must be Janne Schaffer on the guitar solo there :) For those who don't know Janne played in studio with ABBA and other amazing artists. Tommy Körberg, ABBA, Ted Gerdestad, Janne Schaffer, Helen Sjöholm are true Swedish legends in music. Cheers from Sweden!

Would love to see you do Loreen - Euphoria from eurovision

Tommy Körberg has never taken any singing lessons, he has amazing voice control.

Btw the boys from Abba wrote this song. Its amazing how many songs were written by them. Songs that you know of even but you wouldnt necessarily know that they were written by the same guys from Abba. Another eg. You have to be there - made viral by Susan Boyle back in the day.

Thommy Körberg is the king and will always be! He is amazing!!

remember he was young when he did this... the original. listen to that version.

Björn & Benny...The ABBA Composers...

I feel so lucky that I have seen Chess and heard Tommy sing this live in the show. It was amazing.

This was so much fun! But Ah! A young Tommy Körberg would have been even more interesting to to hear your take on. He has developed some quirks, technically, over the years that weren’t there when he was young. This song is so powerful. 🌸

Score written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulveaus, AKA the male part of ABBA!

Tommy Körberg is entirely self taught, an autodidact.

Love how humble and respectful you are to the performance even though it break some rules. After all, at the end, it is how well the artist can deliver a feeling, emotions, take you somewhere, penetrate, reach and touch those nerves your body built walls around. Technique is good, but it's not everything. Meatloaf might not have been the most technical singer out there but together with Steinman, Boy could he express feelings!! Crying out loud is a gem that deserved more appreciation (a reaction video maybe? :) Anyway, a wonderful and insightful review, I sub :)

Oh I love this!!! I kind of grew up with this, I we’re about 10y old and only a few years later we played (in school Orchestra) a few themes from Chess. Powerful music both as an audience as well as being in the middle of an orchestra. 🎶🎵🎵🎶🎶🎵

WOW! What a Masterpiece!

I had the privilige of seeing him live on a "smaller" (1300 people if fully seated) scene, so being much closer and his voice is 10 times better live. It's the one performance of my life where I was in tears. This song was written for him and his voice...nothing beats hearing him giving his all for a song.

As a gift for my birthday I recieved tickets to Tommy’s last show from my wonderful girlfriend - and he actually brought this video up and laughed about it with the audience, haha. He still sounds absolutely wonderful, btw. Truly a blessed voice.

Great reaction! I was going to mention the '84 recording by I see others have beat me to it. On a side note, I hope you don't mind, but one pointer on how to pronounce his surname: the K is soft and sound like the leading phoneme of "she", "sharp" and "shallow".

Björn and Benny from ABBA rote Chess. And yes Tommy is the original artist.

Have u seen The book of Boba Fett? the theme song is "inspired" by a song that Tommy sung from Astrid Lindgrens book Ronja Rövardotter

Bjorn and Benny who made this musical wrote this song for Tommy Korberg and to fit his specific voice. This is the original.

Maybe someone has already commented below but I just thought I should share some info I got from my own singing coach. Back in the day as Tommy was becoming a rising star he was trying to get the, then best singing coach in Stockholm. But the coach in question denied, saying basically: The risk of me disturbing what you do (oh so right) is greater than whatever small help I could give you so I must decline. I don’t remember the name of the voice coach in question, but I think it is kind of nice story. As a classical guitar player I have another related story: There was this woman, perhaps the greatest guitar player ever to live, Ida Presti, who had the most insane (as in insanely incorrect according to any school) technique. She still managed to play better than anyone I have ever heard. For her to relearn at the peak of her excellence might have destroyed her playing. Maybe it is the same with Tommy.

As a Swede Im sooo proud booth over amising Tommy and over Björn and Benny proud and happy, what a lucky coincidence that they live i the same time. they have created Halleluja moments many times. Such beautiful music they have bringad to the hole world. ❤️🥰👏❤️❤️❤️❤️Thanks from the bottom of my heart❤️🇸🇪

Can we for a second talk about the pure size of the stage and venue. I believe this is the arena Globen in Stockholm with an audience around 20 000 people, and the shots of the audience u see in this video are actually the choire supporting Tommy. It is just epic.

If Tommy Körberg is supposed to sing without his underbite, you have to make him have surgery. He simply was born with a bit of an underbite. It's not something he "makes".

The amount of cocaine that Tommy did in the 80's and the fact that his singing voice is as good as it ever was, is in itself an absolute miracle.. lol! But in all seriousness he's a very cool guy, a Swedish icon and a national treasure!

I'd love to see you do one of these with a performance from chess when he was in his prime.

Its 2012 - Stockholm Friends Arena ( Swed bank arena) opening ceremony. Thanks for CHESS.

Saw Tommy tonight in a little town in Sweden a fantastic show and amongst the songs, Anthem wich I always dreamed to hear with him ever since Chess was released. After his sickness last year but you still would not beleive it because he was flawless!! I'm so happy to have had the chance!

About the under bite talk, he simply has an under bite all the time. You can see it really clearly in pictures from when he was young. It is simply how his jaw is positioned/built

If you haven’t, please check out Molly Sandén - Husavik

He did this in his seventies! He originally sang it when he was 36 (for the album in 1984) and 38 (when it premiered in London's West End in 1986.) By the way, the music for Chess was written by Björn Ulvæus and Benny Andersson of ABBA fame, and the lyrics by Tim Rice, who helped Andrew Lloyd Webber reach superstardom. But that jaw thing at the end? Honestly, his English is much better now and it seems like he suddenly remembered that he was doing an å sound where English requires an ah sound and shifted. If you look at the 1984 and 1986 versions, he keeps his mouth in the original position through it all.

The finale is very similar to the Swedish national anthem.

DUDE.TOMMY KORBERG ORIGINATED THE ROLE IN THE EARLY 80S!

Tommy Körberg also showed your clip and reacted to you live on stage during his current show ”Grand Finale”

Hi, This was some time ago and I only want to add that this was written for his vice back in 1984, or at least it was recorded for TV back then. By the way the last name K is pronounced "ch" like in kitchen but you're doing well on the ö, maybe just a tad more open, but whomever even finds that name fitting in their mouth has our Swedish admiration. We know our language is weird. We also have good general singing diction that comes from our weird and wonderful language and some of Körbergs good diction is because he is Swedish. True story. It was usually a bit of a job, whenever I worked with American singing coaches that wasn't clued in on the basic difference in woking singing depending on your native language. Not everyone had the experience to know that we don't have to do the same exercises in Italian that Americans do, because we already come with Italian pronunciation built in. We usually worked it out after a couple of lessons and it was always a fun time. A couple of times when I didn't know better, my Swedish voice teacher/coach had to straighten me out when I got back, but that was okay too, because I learnt a lot from the experience. I would like point out the giant choir that sings background in this recording. I don't know if this was it but back in the early 2000's there was a choir master that traveled up and down the country creating that in translation would be something like WE Who Can't Sing Choirs. They would consist of lots of people coming together to sing sober. Not an easy task around here. They would combine into up to a couple of thousand singers for giant gigs from all the towns and hidden places where he started this. I think this might have been one of those big gigs. I love this as I together with all singing people I've ever met believe that everybody can sing it's just down a bit of practicing every now and again, and never to believe what your grade schools' music teacher told you, and put you in the back of the choir. Körberg has been known since he was a kid to have this natural voice. He's used, and abused (trust me on this one), without any repercussions I've ever heard of, at least not vocaly. I think he's back at gigging again, without much difference of tone, and he is 76. He used to claim that he never really warmed up his voice before gigs, and if he ever had voice lessons he must have hidden this fact really well. It's basically undoable because Sweden is a very small country, especially when it comes to numbers voice teachers per capita. He might have done it when his voice started to age, but that has hardly really happened yet, so I leave that open to conjecture. My voice teacher/coach (we have a slight different system than at least N.Y, NY, in Sweden with the same person doing both kinds of jobs) use to say that he had vocal cords like piano wire, and that's probably near the truth. I don't know when this show was recorded but it must have been at least 30 years after he premiered the role. To us humans all this is really annoying of course. He got the gift and the rest of us have had to work at it. Adam Pascal did sing Freddie Trumper, in the American version of Chess called Checkers, with a young Josh Groban singing Körbergs role Anatolij. Fun fact: there at least were two endings to this musical, so you can choose who gets Anatolij in the end. The Freddie Trumper role has a BEAST of a number in Pity The Child. That song is massive, and you should all go listening to on RU-vid it in my opinion. He is the Secondo Uomo so he only really has that song. Well he might have had the intro, disco song, One Night In Bangkok too. In the Swedish premiere Freddie was sung by Björn Shifts if I remember correctly. Yours, Ann