Mapei ft. Femme Fatale Selection – Sommartorsdagarna, Borås

Mapei at Sommartorsdagarna, Borås. Photo: Jonas Gustafsson/CrowdSnapper

Swedish-American singer Mapei has become quite a household name in Sweden after many TV performances showcasing her own music and her talent for covering other artists and genres to mainstream audiences.

Joined by the dance and music duo Femme Fatale Selection, she took the stage downtown Borås with a short but sweet, eclectic set of songs.

Jacqueline Mapei Cummings, known simply as Mapei, is a Swedish-American singer and songwriter known for her genre-blending music that fuses elements of pop, RnB, soul, and hip-hop. She was born in Providence, Rhode Island, but moved to Sweden with her mother at a young age. Mapei spent her childhood and teenage years in Stockholm, which greatly influenced her music style.

Mapei's music is characterized by its emotional depth, catchy melodies, and powerful vocals. She draws inspiration from a diverse range of artists and genres, which is reflected in her work. Mapei has been compared to artists like Lauryn Hill and M.I.A., but she maintains a distinct sound that sets her apart.

Multi-Faceted ArtistIn Sweden, Mapei has really shown her vocal range from many TV appearances in shows where she would either do covers or new takes of songs of other artists and genres. For instance, in the show Så mycket bättre ("So Much Better"), she did her own rendition of Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry and You And Me Song by The Wannadies, both with Swedish lyrics. A few years earlier, she covered Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N Roses in the show Stjärnornas stjärna ("Star of the Stars"), which sounded a lot better current-day Axl, to be honest. Together with the artist Robyn, Mapei also did a cover of Neneh Cherry's hit song Buffalo Stance. Simply put, it's truly undeniable what a multi-faceted artist Mapei is!

This is how I dry my hair, too!

Lethal Dance Duo Brought Along for the Show

With her on stage, Mapei also brought the dance and DJ duo Femme Fatale Selection which added a lot of energy and excitement to the show. At times, Mapei took a step back to the DJ stand, letting the duo take the stage fully.

The two dancers also took their performance to daring highs as they climbed the scaffolding of the stage (refer to the image gallery below). They climbed quite high, but rest assured, there were no work injuries taking place this fine evening!

The show itself was a bit on the shorter side, clocking in at around 45 minutes, during which a few covers were also included.

Buttshot – nailed it!

Photographing the Show

CrowdSnapper reached out to the arrangement of Sommartorsdagarna months in advance but was unable to get pit access, so all footage is crowd-shot (booh!).

The show was well-attended but not jam-packed, allowing some movement within the crowd, for different angles of view.

I used my 70-180mm f/2.8 lens almost exclusively since its range would fit the bill nicely. Also brought one of my smaller Micro Four Thirds cameras with a superzoom lens as a fallback for extended focal range at both ends. More on the gear used below!