Growing Girls formed on January 5th, 1979 in
Rönninge, Sweden. All four girls were 11 years old at the time, hence the name
Growing Girls. Anna's & Malin's mothers sang together in a quartet called
The Beautiful Screamers, and the young daughters thought it would be fun to
start a quartet of their own. They asked their respective classmates, Naima
& Suzanne if they would be interested in singing in a Barbershop quartet.
Naima & Suzanne immediately replied:
"Sure, but... what's Barbershop?" Anna's mother, Britt-Helene Bonnedahl,
Master director of International medalist chorus
Rönninge
Show Chorus, became the quartet's coach and mentor. Since the girls
started they have performed all over Sweden and the US, as well as in
Germany and New Zealand. They all attended
Adolf Fredriks Musikskola, a school
for performing arts in Stockholm, and were encouraged by their music teacher,
Bo Aurehl. In 1983 Britt-Helene started the Rönninge Show Chorus, and Growing
Girls were welcome to join
Sweet Adelines
International at 14 (finally!), with sponsors. The
quartet competed and won in the Area (Regional) contests in 1985, 1986 and
1988, and went on to compete at the International contest in Houston in 1988,
to reach their dream of becoming
Queens of Harmony, in Miami Beach in
1989.
Malin
Palmqvist
was born a tenor! She is a member of
Rönninge
Show Chorus (2005 International 4th place
chorus) and a
female vocal quintet called High Five. Malin and Anna grew up listening to their
parents sing Barbershop and they both therefore fit the description of
"Barbershop Brat." Malin works as a nurse’s aid and lives in Rönninge,
Sweden. She has a son named Karl who is 10.
Suzanne Harrington
is the lead of Growing Girls and also of
Swinglish
Mix (2003 Queens of Harmony), who brought home the
gold
in Nashville! Yee-haw! Suzanne is married
to Doug, who sang baritone in Second Edition, 1989
SPEBSQSA
champions from Louisville, KY. Suzanne and Doug have two sons, Jack, 6 and
Tom, 1. The Harrington family lives in Rönninge, Sweden. Outside the Barbershop world Suzanne works as a travel agent
and also sings(!) in the quintet High Five with Malin.
Anna Öhman
is the baritone of Growing Girls,
and more recently the tenor(!) of
SALT,
who placed 2nd(!) in Detroit. She is her mother's protégé
and one of the dynamic leaders of
Rönninge
Show Chorus. In her "real" life
Anna is an elementary school music teacher and lives in Huddinge, Sweden. She
is the
mother of Frida, 13 and Arthur, 9. She is married to Richard who is the lead of
the
SNOBS champion quartet Absolut and an active member of
The
EntertainMen
Chorus. By the way, if you've logged onto Sweet Adelines
International's web site you might have wondered who that beautiful face
belongs to at the top left...
Click here to find out!
Naima Meyer
is the bass of Growing Girls and
Swinglish
Mix. She lives in Fort Myers, Florida, U.S.A. with her husband
Jamie (bass of Second Edition, 1989
SPEBSQSA
Champions), their son Adam, 10, and daughter Selma, 5. Naima is a stay-at-home mom and also works
from home as a
Web
designer and administrator. She is the
Associate Director of the local
Spirit of the Gulf
Chorus, who most recently was awarded 9th
place at International in Indy (2005). Go
Spirit!
