“Music and singing come from some place inside me. It’s always been my way of expressing my joy, tears, anger – it’s my safe place and my safety net.
I call my own singing ‘singing for the heart’. If I hadn’t worked in music – which I didn’t think you could – I would have sung anyway. I sing because I have to. When I was 13, I saw Miss Saigon and it changed everything. For the first time, I saw someone who looked like me on stage.
When I was four, I started dancing and then a bunch of sports followed: soccer, judo and swimming. I sang every night after soccer practice or school. I would skip lessons to sing in the bathroom. At the same time, as a sporty tomboy, I was ashamed to sing at school graduations. It was so uncool! So I lied and said I had to in order to get good grades.
I’m rarely nervous before a performance. I’m more like: ‘let’s do this!’ I used to get my energy from five hours of singing at home, but it’s different when I have it as a job, since I get that outlet on stage. Now I’m looking for peace in other things, I’ve started knitting! I long for the country, to live where we can have a dog and a pig. I don’t need anything fancy.
Sometimes I want to quit, if I forget my lines or do something else that messes things up for my colleagues on stage. But I could never leave it. I can’t function if I don’t get to sing. I do it for myself really, and if others like it, that’s wonderful. Being called a ‘star’ feels surreal – and the fact that I’ve already played my two dream roles, Elphaba in Wicked and Kim in Miss Saigon, is totally mind-blowing, and an honor. I would have sung these roles many times regardless, but at home alone.”
Feline Andersson was a debut sensation as the green witch Elphaba in Wicked, which had its Swedish premiere at the Göteborg Opera in 2023. Two years later she played Kim in Miss Saigon, and now she is one of the most sought-after names in the musical world. She will defy gravity again as Elphaba in Wicked for season 2026/2027.
