As always, January opened with a great party featuring Stig & Friends in Syvstenhallen, along with a single New Year’s concert. Otherwise, 2018 began much as 2017 had ended — with rehearsals for the new, grand production of Chess, with Stig in the lead role as the Russian chess player Anatoly.
Chess, performed in Danish for the very first time, premiered as planned at Tivoli Concert Hall on January 19 and was warmly received by both critics and audiences. Due to the overwhelming success, additional performances were gradually added to the already packed schedule in Copenhagen, which ran until February 17. From February 20 through the end of March, the Cold War drama was staged in Aarhus, Odense, Vejle, and Holstebro.
After a successful Chess tour, there was once again room for concerts with Stig & Friends, and in early April the focus was primarily on acoustic performances. On April 8, the Sæby Music Corps provided the accompaniment while Stig performed both Danish and international favorites at a cozy spring concert in Sæby’s community center.
A Night with John Mogensen is one of the rarer gems on the program, and unsurprisingly, the show on April 13 at Sidesporet in Holbæk quickly sold out. The intimate basement venue at Sidesporet always creates just the right atmosphere for these concerts, where the best songs from Mogensen’s repertoire are presented in a mix of anecdotes and theater, with Stig continually shifting between his own persona and that of John Mogensen.
The many Stig & Friends concerts continued from spring into summer, though there were the usual detours along the way. On May 6, there was a swing concert with big band in Ballerup, and later that month small, sun-filled concerts at the Lifestyle Days at Ledreborg.
Early summer also featured another sold-out boat trip aboard the Sagafjord in Roskilde, while new CD projects were being planned and released. The Chess production had been such a success that a recording of the Danish version with the Tivoli cast was scheduled. The full-length musical was recorded later that summer. Stig also added yet another genre to his already versatile CV: together with Faroese country singer Evi Tausen, he released the EP Our Sweet Love, followed by a performance at the Sørvágs Country and Blues Festival in the Faroe Islands on June 15.
Koldinghus celebrated its 750th anniversary with an impressive tribute to the historic festivities — a nostalgic trip down memory lane for Stig, who this year marked the 40th anniversary of his very first performances, right there in Kolding.
In the autumn, the final Four Jacks show premiered on September 8 under the title No More Jacks – Towards New Times. The production ran until early November, with a short break in late October for another trip to Spain, where Stig performed both solo and with his band at the grand Oktoberfest in Málaga on October 20.
As always, November and December were filled with the Christmas spirit, with this year’s guest soloist for The Christmas Concert being the young rising star Andrea Lykke Oehlenschlæger. No fewer than 28 concerts rounded off the season before Stig could enjoy a well-deserved Christmas break and reflect on a year rich in highlights — concerts at home and abroad, a successful Chess tour, and a nomination for Singer of the Year for his leading role in Chess, which itself was also nominated as Best Musical/Theater Concert/Cabaret of the Year.