Jill Anna Maria Johnson, born May 24, 1973 in Ängelholm, is a Swedish count… Read Full Bio ↴Jill Anna Maria Johnson, born May 24, 1973 in Ängelholm, is a Swedish country- and pop-singer and songwriter. She performed the Melodifestivalen 1998 winning song Kärleken är, and represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 with that song, which finished 10th with 53 points. In 2003 she again entered Melodifestivalen with Crazy in Love, which finished fourth in the final. She also hosted the final of Melodifestivalen in 2005. Johnson is today one of the most successful artists in Sweden, with several gold and platinum records.
Biography

Johnson is from the small town of Ängelholm in the south western part of Sweden, but the surroundings and the media compare her with the biggest stars in the music business. By the age of four, she had decided that she wanted to become an artist. She was highly encouraged by her local choir leader.
She now lives in a hunting lodge in the Western Gothlandic woods of Sweden, but also has a home in Stockholm.
As a 12-year old, she started off as vocalist in a Country & Western band, Tomboola Band, touring in Norway and Denmark. She signed eventually with EMI-Medley in Denmark and recorded an album, produced by top producer Paul Bruun. The title-track, Sugar Tree, became a hit in Denmark. In 1996, she had her first Swedish hit with Kommer tid, kommer vår”, a duet with Jan Johansen.
In 1998, she performed Kärleken är at Melodifestivalen, winning the Swedish finals and going on to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest. This established Johnson as one of the prime Swedish artists. The success was followed by the hit album När hela världen ser på and a successful tour.
In mid 1999, Johnson went to L.A. to look for material for her second album. At home, she worked with Andreas Carlsson (ASCAP Writer of the Year 2000), who is known for several massive hits, the biggest , so far, being Celine Dion's That's the Way It Is. She also tried out a few local new-comers and the album Daughter of Eve was released in early 2000. It was very well received and Johnson was compared with some of the world's best artists.
In 2000, she received a platinum-record in Denmark for the sound-track Promise To Love from the Danish block-buster, "Eneste Ene". Later that year, Johnson started to collaborate with other songwriters such as Jenny Orenstein, Charlie Stefl, Mary Green [Biem Writer of the Year 2001]. This resulted in her receiving a Publishing contract in Nashville Tennessee. Consequently, in 2002 Johnson's album entitled "Good Girl" came to be with the help of producer Scott Bagget and some of Nashville’s top musicians. This album secured Johnson's artistic sound and style and once again she was extremely well received by the press in their reviews where she was described as an artist of International calibre.
In the Swedish finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 she qualified at fourth place (out of 32 entries) but and her song “Crazy in Love" became a hit and received a great deal of radio play and was followed by a successful tour.
Johnson's collective "Discography" CD was released in late March 2003. It contains the 20 most popular songs since her debut in 1995. This Cd went straight into the sales charts for best selling CDs in Sweden. The single “Crazy in Love” stayed at No 1 in the Swedish Top Charts (Svensktoppen) 12 weeks consecutively and No 2 for 15 weeks. "Discography" sold Gold in Sweden and Johnson also got a Grammy for this album.
The new album "Roots and Wings" was released in November 2003, recorded and produced by Amir Aly in Sweden and by Scott Baggett in Nashville, USA. "Roots and Wings" sold gold in less than two weeks and platinum a few months later. The album "Being who you are" was released in Sweden in late March 2005 and sold gold in only a few weeks. Johnson was the host of the 2005 Swedish finals of the Eurovison Song Contest in Stockholm

Angel From Montgomery
Jill Johnson Lyrics

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I am an old woman
Named after my mother
My old man is another
Child who's grown old

If dreams were thunder
Lightning was desire
This old house would've burned down

A long time ago

Make me an angel
That flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
Of an old rodeo

Just give me one thing
That I can hold on to
To believe in this livin'
Is just a hard way to go

When I was a young girl
Well, I had me a cowboy
He wasn't much to look at
Just a free ramblin' man

But that was a long time
And no matter how I tried
The years just flowed by
Like a broken-down dam

Make me an angel
That flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
Of an old rodeo

Just give me one thing
That I can hold on to
To believe in this livin'
Is just a hard way to go

There's flies in the kitchen
I can hear 'em there buzzin'
And I ain't done nothing
Since I woke up today

But how the hell can a person
Go to work in the morning
Then come home in the evening
And have nothing to say?

Make me an angel
That flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
Of an old rodeo

Just give me one thing
That I can hold on to

To believe in this livin'
Is just a hard way to go

Overall Meaning

The song "Angel From Montgomery" by John Prine has been covered by many artists, including Jill Johnson. The opening lines of the song introduce us to the singer, an old woman named after her mother, who is married to a man who is also like a child. It seems as if the singer is reflecting on her life, dreaming of a better one as she grew tired of living. She speaks about how if dreams were thunder, and desires were lightning, then her old house would have been burned down long ago, implying that she has some unfulfilled dreams and desires but feels stuck in her life.

Throughout the song, she longs for something to hold onto, something to believe in, as she reflects on her uneventful life. She reminisces about a time when she was young, and she had a cowboy lover who wasn't much to look at, but she was happy. Despite her efforts to keep it going, time kept flowing like a broken-down dam, and she can't seem to recapture that happiness. The song ends with her lamenting about having nothing to say, being trapped in her mundane existence, and dreaming of an angel from Montgomery, or a poster of an old rodeo, providing some solace in her loneliness.

Line by Line Meaning

I am an old woman
I am an elderly woman

Named after my mother
My name is the same as my mother's

My old man is another
My husband is a different person

Child who's grown old
My child has aged

If dreams were thunder
If aspirations were powerful and loud

Lightning was desire
Then passion would strike fiercely

This old house would've burned down
My life would have fallen apart

A long time ago
Many years in the past

Make me an angel
Turn me into a heavenly being

That flies from Montgomery
That can escape Montgomery and its troubles

Make me a poster
Create a picture of me on a poster