Today’s song is a special one, and is probably one of the main reasons I decided to do my 365songs challenge again this year as I didn’t discover the stunningly beautiful Vilar Glad i Din Famn until 2011 when it was released on Benny Andersson’s O Klang Och Jubeltid album.

Vilar Glad i Din Famn (“Resting happily in your arms”) is a love song with lyrics by Swedish poet and dramatist Kristina Lugn and music by ABBA’s Benny Andersson which was performed at the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling. Here’s the video of this performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkcBkGU5ux4

On the O Klang Och Jubeltid album, Vilar Glad i Din Famn is sung by Helen Sjöholm. This haunting version can be heard here.

Since this song became one of my favourite ever works by Benny Andersson I decided to write a set of lyrics in English to the melody based on the Christmas story and we used this at church on Christmas Eve in 2013 and 2014. We filmed this for posterity:

Anyway, if this piece of music is new to you, I hope you fall in love with it as much as I have! Here’s my piano solo version as my #365song for today. If it’s your first time on the site, find out more about the 365 Songs project and you can listen to all of my December songs here.

https://soundcloud.com/mark-pentleton/vilar-glad-i-din-famn