Berndt Öst of Family Four passes away

The founding member of Family Four, Berndt Öst (pictured on the right), has sadly passed away at the age of 86. He formed the band together with his siblings Stig, Siw, and Inger in 1964. However, the band constellation that went on to represent Sweden at Eurovision was different. Agneta Munter, Marie Bergman, and Pierre Isacsson replaced the Öst siblings for the occasion. They were active for 25 years before they disbanded in 1989.

Eurovision

Eurovision 1971

Family Four is the only act that has gone on to represent Sweden two years in a row. In 1971, they won the national selection, Melodifestivalen, with the song “Vita vidder”. Remarkably, the selection had 5 semi finals and the band managed to win all of them. Thus, they sang all the songs in the final: “Tjänare kärlek”, “Heja mamma”, “Min sång”, “En sång om världen”, and of course the winning entry. Family Four placed 6th in Dublin later that year.

Eurovision 1972

In 1972, they entered Melodifestivalen again. This time they beat out 9 other acts in a star-studded final line up (including Swedish superstars Cornelis Vreeswijk and Björn Skifs) with the song “Härliga sommardag”. Unfortunately the band didn’t fare as well in Edinburgh: out of 18 participating songs, they finished in 13th place.

After Family Four

Berndt Öst remained more known for his work with the band than his solo work. Thus, there’s not much information about his work after 1989. He leaves his children and his wife, Ulla Blomqvist, with whom he had been married since 1958, behind.
The thoughts of the entire ESCXTRA.com Team are with Berndt’s loved ones in these difficult times.