Margareta Svensson

Actor · b. 1968 · Varberg, Hallands län, Sweden

Margareta Svensson Riggs (born Ulla Margareta Elisabeth Svensson; April 22, 1968, in Varberg) is a Swedish singer, pianist, songwriter, actress, voice teacher, vocal coach and television personality. At 18, Svensson boarded the Portuguese cruise ship MS Funchal as a singer-pianist and a headliner, and from there on she performed throughout Sweden and Europe. While playing Gothia Towers in Gothenburg, Frank Sinatra was performing next door at Scandinavium. After the concert, the Sinatra band came to see Svensson. Sinatra-drummer, Gregg Field, liked Svensson's original music and invited her to come to Los Angeles to record. As a singer-pianist Margareta Svensson has opened five casino resorts in Las Vegas. Svensson has also performed and held resident engagements at among other places The Grand Hotel Stockholm; The Dorchester in London, UK; The Beverly Hills Hotel Polo Lounge; The Beverly Wilshire Hotel, and Montage Beverly Hills where she was responsible for all music, and she has travelled the world both as a headliner as well as a piano-singer, and performed for many superstars, including Sir Paul McCartney, Whoopi Goldberg, Stevie Wonder, Chevy Chase, Michael Bolton, BB King, Sir Tom Jones and Kiss and world leaders like Margaret Thatcher, to name a few. Her extensive career as a singer-pianist and performer led to a lead on the fifth season of Svenska Hollywoodfruar broadcast on TV3 Sweden. Svensson Riggs is married to American vocal coach Seth Riggs, known for clients such as Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Madonna, Ray Charles, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Natalie Cole. The two met when Margareta Svensson came to Seth Riggs for singing lessons in the mid-1990s. In 2008, they became a couple and in 2012, they married and their daughter Samantha was born.