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José González is a musician, best known for his 2003 recording of the Knife’s song Heartbeats. The 47-year-old shares his early romances, the benefit of dating a fellow singer and 13 years with partner Hannele Fernström.
My maternal grandmother, Isolina Rosales, was from a small village near Buena Esperanza, a rural town in central Argentina. My mother, Clementina Garcia, was raised there.
My paternal grandmother, Elena Giudice, was half-Italian and lived in Mendoza, Argentina. She liked to share dirty jokes and loved ice-cream.
My parents fell in love as students at San Luis University in Argentina. Dad [Valentin] was involved in a left-leaning political group and the 1976 military coup d’état saw them flee the country. They escaped through Paraguay, then to Rio de Janeiro [Brazil]. I have photos of my parents looking very thin.
The Swedish Embassy offered help to them and my sister, Maria Eugenia, who was only two. And while they didn’t know much about Sweden, they relocated there. They were lucky compared to many of their friends.
Mum struggled to learn Swedish and had to relearn some of her biochemistry studies from scratch. She had three children, worked as a lab assistant, and also played the piano. We had a Casio synthesiser at home, and she’d play songs on it for me.
Maria Eugenia is four years older than me. She owned Bob Marley records, which I listened to, and danced samba and flamenco. She also took care of me and my brother, Mauricio, who is a year younger than me.
My first kiss happened at school when I was playing a game similar to kiss chasey. I was new to this class and was popular among the girls. I remember them chasing me and kissing me so much I started to cry. I had to have a conversation with my teacher about the problem.
My celebrity crush was discovering Paula Abdul on MTV video clips; she was so cool and a great dancer.
My chemistry teacher in high school, Åsa Jouper Jan, inspired me to be curious about molecules. I chose natural sciences at uni thanks to her and my mother’s influence. I did my master’s and continued my PhD research but dropped out to focus on my music career.
I dated my first girlfriend, Maria, for five years from when I was 13. I had my first real kiss with her; an innocent moment in a laneway on a walk home from school.
At university, I dated Kerstin for five years. She was studying dentistry. We broke up when I was 24. She was kind, always smiling and a gentle soul.
When I met famous Swedish singer Yukimi Nagano in the late ’90s, I was starstruck. I was a fan of her music and invited her to play at one of my shows. We started dating soon after, toured and made music together. I thank her for pushing my inner critic. She was very creative, and we spent a lot of time travelling and had a great social life.
I worked with Australian singer-songwriter Sia Furler in a London studio in 2006 on Zero 7’s album, The Garden. She is a lot of fun, gets excited easily and is very high energy. She also got nerdy one day asking me about molecules and how proteins interact.
I have always been in long-term relationships and have been with my partner, Hannele Fernström, for 13 years. We have two children together. I met Hannele in a Gothenburg club where I was DJing. We started flirting, but what I thought would be casual saw me calling her every day; it became serious quickly. She studied textile design and works as an illustrator, doing the artwork for a few of my albums.
I’d often thought about starting a family, but I always dragged my feet until I met Hannele. Experiencing the birth of kids brings a couple together in a way that’s difficult to compare with other relationships I’ve had. When I am up in the clouds, she brings me back to earth.
Against the Dying of the Light is out now.
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