Thomas Johansson

Thomas Johansson was born in 1948. His career in artist management and concert promotion started in the late 1960s. Barely out of his teens, he brought artists like Jimi Hendrix to Sweden.

In 1969 Thomas founded the concert promotion agency EMA, which he still runs today. When the company merged with the Telstar agency to become EMA Telstar, Thomas Johansson quickly became the leading concert promoter in Scandinavia. In 1999 EMA Telstar was sold to Clear Channel, and in 2008 the company changed its name to Live Nation Sweden.

EMA produced all ABBA tours and Thomas also accompanied the group on several of their early promotion trips. Furthermore, he was present when the group won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton in 1974. The ABBA tours – Europe in 1974/75, Europe and Australia in 1977, North America and Europe in 1979 and Japan in 1980 – are still the largest ever undertaken by a Swedish act.

The experience of working with ABBA gave Thomas Johansson invaluable international connections. He has named the group’s manager Stig Anderson as one of his three mentors. Thomas has functioned as co-ordinator for Frida’s three post-ABBA solo albums and has been involved in Björn and Benny’s musical projects.