Per Erik Magnus Grönwall is a Swedish hard rock/heavy metal singer and songwriter and actor. In December 2009, he won the Swedish Idol television competition. During several of the shows he received standing ovations from the jury for his performances. His first single, "Higher", sold gold on digital downloads after only three days. His first album, self-titled "Erik Grönwall", was released just ten days after the finals and debuted at number one on the Swedish albums chart and was certified platinum. Since 2012, he is the lead singer for the successful rock band H.E.A.T. Altogether as a solo artist and band member, he has numerous top 40 hits. In 2018 he portrayed Simon Zealotes in the NBClive television concert production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar, in which he received Grammy nomination for in the Best Musical Theater Album category.
Career
Early life
Erik was born in Knivsta, a small town about 30 miles north of Stockholm. Erik started his musical career with playing the guitar in a local punk/rock band. During high school, his focus went from mostly playing the guitar to singing. He became the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the metalband RAID from north-eastern Stockholm and played with them until summer 2008. His future as a singer really took shape for the first time as he performed the leading role as Galileo Figaro in the Queen musical We Will Rock You, doing a number of shows at Oscarsteatern in Stockholm. Aggressive, charismatic hard rock frontmen such as Paul Stanley and Freddie Mercury proved huge influences on Erik.
Erik first auditioned for Swedish Idol in 2007, but he did not reach the final auditions at that time. In 2009, he came back, and made quite an impression on the jury who reacted with a mix of crying and laughing after his audition singing Skid Row's "18 and Life". Erik performed several rock songs during the show; Kiss – “Shout It Out Loud”, Iron Maiden – “Run To The Hills” and Queen – “The Show Must Go On”. Grönwall subsequently won the competition.
After Idol
Immediately following Idol, Erik released his debut single, "Higher", which debuted at number one on Sverigetopplistan. One week later, his self-titled debut album "Erik Grönwall" was released, which included songs performed during the Idol shows. The album made it right into the number one spot on Sverigetopplistan. The album has been certified with platinum. In 2009 Erik began working on his second studio album titled "Somewhere Between a Rock and a Hard Place" scheduled to be released on 2 June 2010. The lead single for the album "Crash and Burn" was released on 19 April 2010. The album included songs written by Joey Tempest, Paul Stanley, Jörgen Elofsson, Nicke Borg etc. He made his acting debut in America in the live televised concert rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar as the apostle Simon Zealotes on April 1, 2018, Easter Sunday.
H.E.A.T
Following the departure of former vocalist Kenny Leckremo in 2010, Erik joined Swedish rock band H.E.A.T as lead vocalist. In 2012 they released the album Address The Nation. It was listed number one on the rock charts and was well received by critics. H.E.A.T started the recordings of their album Tearing Down The Walls in 2013, which was released in 2014. The band subsequently started their tour with the album. They have played all over the world and been the opening act for bands like Scorpions.
