Victoria Tolstoy – Swedish jazz singer

Viktoria by Joerg Grosse Geldermann. 2008

Victoria Tolstoy is a Swedish jazz singer. She is known under the pseudonym Lady Jazz. By the way, she is one of the most popular jazz performers in Scandinavia. During her career, she released 8 albums. In her works she repeatedly turns to classical Russian composers, such as Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Rachmaninov, and also Vysotsky.
Louise Victoria Tolstoy was born on July 29, 1974 in Sigtuna, Sweden. She is the daughter of musician Erik Kjellberg and great-great-granddaughter of the famous Russian writer Lev Tolstoy. Victoria’s father was a professor of music at the University of Uppsala.
When the future singer was 16 years old, her father played jazz on the piano. It was Lover Man by the great Billie Holiday. The girl realized that jazz was her destiny.
The singer debuted in 1994 with the album Smile, Love and Spice, which was recorded in co-authorship with her father. After that, Tolstoy quickly became popular in Sweden. In 1996, she recorded her second album Too Loved and received an invitation to cooperate with the American jazz studio Blue Note. By the way, Victoria became the first Swedish singer who worked with this famous company. But only one album with a spectacular name White Russian was realized (producer Esbjern Svensson).

Later she worked with the German label and released album Shining On You. In 2011 she performed in St. Petersburg.
You know, Victoria never performs solo. Her partners in different periods were Ray Brown, Benny Anderson, Svante Thuresson, Putte Wickman, Arne Domnerus, Ulf Wakenius, Nils Landgren and others. Also she performed with the legendary pianist and composer McCoy Tyner.
In 2013 the singer released her album A Moment Of Now.

Victoria’s great-great-grandfather, famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy

Personal life
In August 2001 Victoria married fashion designer and skateboarder Per Holknekt, whom she met in 2000. Per was one of the contestant of Big Brother and Victoria was a co-host. They divorced in 2008.
At the same time, Victoria began a relationship with the Swedish jazz drummer and gave birth to their son.
Her official site: www.viktoriatolstoy.com