Swede Dreams

A star in her native Sweden, Emma Andersson, girlfriend of Red Wing Henrik Zetterberg, brings a dose of glamour to Detroit

By Aleene Jinn Hang

Posh Spice, aka Victoria Beckham, isn’t the only European celebrity to follow her man to the States this year. Arriving shortly after Miss Spice was Emma Andersson, the Swedish girlfriend of Detroit Red Wing Henrik Zetterberg.
Like Beckham, Andersson, 29, has celebrity status in her native country with a résumé that includes winning Expedition: Robinsson, the Swedish version of American reality TV’s Survivor. The second female ever to win the competition, Andersson says it was her “start to fame,” and was the breakthrough for her career. “I am a farmer girl; I came from the south part of Sweden,” Andersson says in her accented English.
After the competition, people knew her name and face, which led to modeling gigs and a recording contract. Because of her popularity and bubbly personality, Andersson was picked to host the star-studded Swedish celebrity-TV program Dolce Vita. “One day, I was miserable on the island and the next day I am drinking champagne and eating caviar with Mariah Carey,” Andersson says.
In 2005, Andersson was voted sexiest girl by the Swedish magazine Café, which put her on the cover with an image shot by photographer Bruno Bisang, who has snapped portraits of Tyra Banks, Claudia Schiffer, and Kylie Minogue.
Andersson confesses that she didn’t like hockey or even know that Zetterberg was a pro player when they first met in Sweden. Now an avid hockey fan, she laughs when she recalls her reaction — “Who?” — when a friend informed her that she was flirting with a Swedish hockey player. He was “nice,” she says of their first encounter, now about a year and a half ago.
“Nice” apparently was reason enough to put her own career temporarily on ice. As she says, she’s here to stay, and support the “love of [her] life.”