Swedish soprano Viktoria Tocca on Chinese music, vampires and why she loves crossovers

Swedish soprano Viktoria Tocca, who has sung numerous lead roles in popular musicals such as Phantom of the Opera and Evita, recently arrived in Hong Kong to perform with the Yao Yueh Chinese Music Association at the Hong Kong City Hall. The 43-year-old singer, who grew up in Stockholm – where she recently met Michelle Obama during the former US first lady’s book tour – talks to the Post about her experience working on Chinese music and her career. How did the collaboration with the Yao Yueh Chinese Music Association (YYCMA) come about? The collaboration started last year when I was invited to sing at a charity concert for underprivileged children. I sing a lot of classical crossover musical theatre music, and to do that with Chinese instruments is a very special experience. I am really honoured when they called me to come back for their 45th-anniversary concert. How is the experience of working on Chinese music? It was my first time working with Chinese music. I experienced the music before but never really collaborated the way we are collaborating now. It creates this very exotic and interesting sound and a different atmosphere that makes the song feel new again. I like it a lot, actually. Your song Dark Waltz, which you will be performing today, won IFPI’s prize for bestselling classic artist in Hong Kong in 2016 and several awards at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards and the Indie Music Channel Awards in the United States. Can you tell us more about the single? I first heard the song when I was living in Romania for a while. When I was going to record my new album, I knew I really wanted to do that because it suits my voice really well. The music is haunting in a way and has this very special feel to it. I wanted to do a music video almost like a short film about vampires. When you live in a country like Romania for a while, you do get inspired by stories like that. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and I like the Twilight series, Disney and all these kind of things that are larger than life in a way. That is something wonderful about music and art, it takes you somewhere else where you get to use your imagination and play. We see a mix of classical singing and pop elements in some of your albums. What inspired you to do a crossover and what is the greatest challenge of doing that? I was classically trained as a singer so I feel like certain styles do not work for my voice, like rock music, for example. But I like to try things. One of the reasons I started doing crossover is because I felt very limited with real classical music and opera training. People who focus on it get very serious about it and I wanted to break out of that. It is not the end of the world if it does not end up perfect. A few years ago, I released a pop song called We’re Still Young in America and it ended up No. 3 on Billboard. But it is not really my kind of music and I am not that kind of singer. It was fun to do one song like that just to try it. You produced the musical concert From Broadway to Duvemala and toured around Sweden in 2016. And now, you are bringing them to Hong Kong by performing some of Broadways’ greatest hits on Friday night. What are the challenges performing these all-time classics? I don’t feel like I have to compare with anyone else. I think that is one of the most important things to remember as a singer that you do your own version with your voice. When I played Christine in the Phantom of the Opera, people have a clear idea of what they want Christine or the song to sound like, and then you try to stick to that idea. But as I grow older and work more, I understand there is nothing wrong to put your own colour to it. What is your next most anticipated project and why? I am producing the show From Broadway to Duvemala, the musical concert tour that I am still performing in. Next year, we are expanding it to Norway, Denmark and Finland, and hopefully China and other countries if possible. And I would love to record the new album soon, which I have started collecting materials and ideas for. It would be fun to have a collaboration between Chinese music and Western songs and just put different cultures together. Most popular K-pop star on Instagram is now Blackpink’s Lisa I am hoping to produce more musicals. Producing takes a lot of energy and work so I need to feel very passionate about the project to start it. I have met producers that are more business-oriented. They want to produce shows that make money and there is nothing wrong about that. But at least for me, it is the wrong way to start a project. In my opinion, money will come if what you are producing is good enough.