Frans Jeppsson Wall

2006–2015: Early career

Frans was born in Ystad, Sweden. He is best known for his football anthems with the band Elias, including the 2006 hit "Who's da Man", dedicated to Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović. The song, credited to Elias and featuring vocals by Frans, stayed at the top of Sverigetopplistan, the official Swedish Singles Chart, for 13 weeks.

For Christmas 2006, he scored a minor hit with his song "Kul med Jul", which entered the Swedish Top 10 reaching #6. Another sports-related chart-topper by Frans was the 2008 song "Fotbollsfest", a song launched in support of the Sweden national football team.

2016–present: Melodifestivalen and Eurovision Song Contest 2016

After years of absence from the charts, Frans returned with his participation in Melodifestivalen 2016 in a bid to represent Sweden the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "If I Were Sorry", co-written by Oscar Fogelström, Michael Saxell, Fredrik Andersson and Frans. He performed it in Gävle during the fourth and last semi-final leg of the competition on 27 February 2016, thereby securing a place in the final-10 competition on 12 March 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Immediately after his performance, the single was released. It became very popular and went straight to number 1 of Sverigetopplistan during the first week following its release. It also charted on the Spotify Viral charts in Switzerland, Taiwan, Iceland, Uruguay, the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, France, Denmark, Turkey and Germany. He won the Melodifestivalen 2016 final on 12 March 2016 with 156 points, and represented Sweden in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. At the age of 17, Frans became the youngest winner of Melodifestivalen in 33 years, and the second youngest ever after Carola Häggkvist, who was 16 when she won in 1983.

In the final of the contest Frans song placed fifth after the jury and televoting.

Personal life

Frans's father Mark was born in Nigeria to a Nigerian mother and a British father. At the age of eight, Mark moved to London, United Kingdom. Frans' mother is Swedish. He was thus raised speaking both English and Swedish. During most of his life, Frans has been a part-time resident in London and he also studied music there for an entire year when he was 15 at The Norwood School. He has a younger brother named Casper and a twin sister, named Filippa.