Ola Svensson

In the live shows, he sang "My All" from Mariah Carey (Live Show 1, theme "My Own Idol"), "True Colors" from Cyndi Lauper (Live Show 2, theme: the 1980s) and "Kom igen, Lena" from Håkan Hellström (Live Show 3, theme: Swedish Hits) going to the next round on all three performances.

Ola Nils Håkan Svensson (born 23 February 1986) is a Swedish artist and songwriter, known professionally by the mononym Ola until 2014, and as Brother Leo from 2018 to present.

Born in Lund, Skåne, his career began in 2005, when he finished eighth on season two of Swedish Idol.

Since then, Ola has released four studio albums.

Eleven of his singles have reached the top five on the Swedish singles chart, with six achieving number one, and nine attaining gold and platinum certifications.

After being signed to Universal Music for many years, Ola founded his own record label Oliniho Records for the Swedish market, keeping distribution arrangements with Sony Music in Europe and internationally.

In 2005, Svensson auditioned for season 2 of the Swedish edition of Idol.

In the initial audition in Malmö, he sang "This I Promise You" from 'N Sync and later "Mandy" from Barry Manilow / Westlife and finally "Against All Odds" from Phil Collins as a duet.

Just 19 and coming from Lund, he performed his qualifying audition "Show Me Heaven", a song from Maria McKee.

The audition was broadcast on 21 September 2005 on Swedish TV4 channel.

But he was eliminated on Live Show 4 broadcast on 21 October 2005, after performing Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River", receiving the lowest votes from the public.

He finished the competition as eighth overall for the season.

Between 2005 and 2010, Ola released 8 singles with Universal Music, five of which reached no. 1 on the Swedish charts, and all gaining a top 5 spot.

Despite being eliminated early from Idol, a record deal was soon signed with producer Jonas Saeed, and his debut album Given to Fly was released in June 2006, appearing straight at number one in Sverigetopplistan, the Swedish Albums Chart in its first week of release.

His first single "Rain", a cover of a song by Anthony Callea was decided by a poll conducted on his website, winning 60% of his fans' votes.

The single "Natalie", released on 7 June 2007, topped the Swedish singles chart for 5 weeks and was certified platinum.

It aired in a number of European radios outside Sweden.

The follow-up album Good Enough was released in autumn 2007 and reached number 2 on the album charts in Sweden.

In 2008 Ola won a coveted Rockbjörnen award in Sweden, for Best Song of the Year with "Feelgood".

He has also received 14 nominations for the Rockbjörnen award and also a nomination for a Grammy Award.

Ola has taken part in Melodifestivalen twice in a bid to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008 and in 2010.

Ola first participated in Melodifestivalen 2008 appearing for the second semi-final on 16 February with the song "Love in Stereo".

The song was written by Tony Nilsson and Mirja Breitholtz.

He moved to the "second chance" phase in Kiruna on 8 March 2008 and was through in the first round against the band Caracola, but was overtaken by Sibel in the second round with her song "That Is Where I'll Go".

Ola was eliminated without reaching the finals.

On 22 June 2009 Ola released the single "Sky's the Limit" that again topped the Swedish charts.

In 2009, having gained great success, he took part in the music event NJR in The Park and in Diggiloo Tour with Mojje, Lasse Holm and other artists.

In autumn of 2009, Ola participated in the Swedish version of Clash of the Choirs known as Körslaget with his male choir Team Ola from hometown Lund.

Finishing as winners of the competition, he donated 500,000 Swedish kronor (around 50,000 pounds) to refugee charity Tamam.

In June 2010, Ola released an EP on iTunes Sweden which featured the single "Overdrive", two new tracks from the upcoming album "All Over The World" and "Still Remember", and a remix of his previous single "Unstoppable".

Following a four-year break, he returned in 2018, recording under the stage name Brother Leo for Columbia Records.

Ola was born to Swedish parents, and has two adopted brothers from El Salvador, Jonas and Daniel, both his elders.

His second single "Brothers", deals in part with his relationship with his brothers.

From the age of 5, Svensson has played piano, and a strong musical influence came from his grandfather who died when he was 8.

After he died, Ola decided to sing in a boys choir in memory of his grandfather.

By age five Ola began playing the piano at Lund's Municipal School of Music, and at nine he joined a boys' choir in his hometown Lund.

Ola Svensson is an avid football (soccer) fan.

Ola played for a long time for Trelleborgs FF before moving to the first-division team Vasalunds IF.

As an 11-year-old, Svensson had a starring role in the opera The Magic Flute at the Malmö City Theatre, directed by Philip Zandén.

Encouraged by his friends, Svensson tried out to the Swedish Idol auditions.