STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - According to a report in Expressen, a Swedish tabloid newspaper, Marie suddenly refused to perform in a charity gala for the homeless. Marie had promised to appear in the gala several months ago, but at the last minute her manager, Marie Dimberg, told the organizers that she wouldn’t be there if Carola was performing.

  The charity gala “A Song for the Homeless”, for Stadsmissionen (“City Mission”) was held on Tuesday night in Katarina church, Södermalm, Stockholm. It will be broadcast on Swedish TV3 on December 23rd. Because it had already been printed, Marie even made it to the cover of TV3’s magazine, Viasat News.

  When Expressen asked Dimberg about the reasons behind Marie’s sudden refusal, she denied that Marie was refusing to perform on the same bill as Carola. According to Dimberg, they had a disagreement with the organizers about Marie’s musical contribution. “They had one idea and Marie had another,” Dimberg told Expressen and continued: “If you want to do something, you should be able to do it the way you want it, and they wanted to have a different approach.”

  Carola is a Swedish singer with a long and successful career. In 1983, she won Melodifestivalen in Sweden and was third in the Eurovision Song Contest. Since 1981, she has released several albums in both Swedish and English – the latest, “My Show”, in October of this year.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Following up on this story, reporter Johan Lindwall filed another story, this time saying that musical and pop star Peter Jöback did the same thing.

  “I understood from their manager that I had to make a choice. Either Marie Fredriksson and Peter Jöback or Carola,” said Bonnie de Souza, talent coordinator for the event. “I chose Carola. For me she’s a bigger artist and more suitable for Christmastime,” she continued.

  Clearly disappointed, she said “I understood from her [Dimberg] that there would be too many stars on the stage at the same time. But when it’s about charity, you’d think you could ignore such things.”

  Manager Marie Dimberg explained why her artists didn’t participate:

  “There was an agreement with TV3 that Marie Fredriksson, Peter Jöback and Lisa Nilsson would appear together. But [then they indicated] they would rather have Carola and so we said ’fine, we’ll do it instead some other time.’”

  “But couldn’t they all have appeared together?,” Lindwall asked.

  “But there was a covenant, an agreement . You’re trying to make this into something that it’s not. I see what you’re after, and it’s sad that it’s going to be this kind of slant.”

  Marie Davis, Thomas Evensson, and others on RML contributed to this article.

• Expressen article
• Carola official website
• Expressen’s follow-up article
• Peter Jˆback’s website