The Cardigans Play “Beautiful One” Live For The First Time 20 Years After Their Final Album

There is unmet demand for the Cardigans to tour America again. The underrated Swedish pop-rock greats haven’t toured this country in 19 years, playing only one stateside show since 2006, and their biggest (but not even best) song “Lovefool” went viral on TikTok a few years ago. That sole US show was at the 2023 goth/new wave nostalgia fest Darker Waves in Huntington Beach, CA. I was there and they sounded incredible. The crowd should’ve been bigger, but their set overlapped entirely with Devo’s.

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Cardigans’ final album, Super Extra Gravity. After the tour behind that LP, founding guitarist/songwriter Peter Svensson left the group to become an in-demand pop producer (he is Swedish after all) and he’s had writing and production credits on multiple Weeknd and Ariana Grande albums. Svensson co-wrote the former’s “Can’t Feel My Face,” the latter’s “Breathin,” and the pair’s “Love Me Harder,” for example. Cardigans singer Nina Persson has said that Svensson will never rejoin the band and that they won’t make any music without him.

But the Cardigans do still play live and, along with Persson, the lineup still includes ’90s members Bengt Lagerberg, Magnus Sveningsson, and Lars-Olof Johansson. On Monday they returned to Tokyo for the first time in 13 years, headlining a gig with fellow Swedish acts Cloudberry Jam and Meja at Tokyo Garden Theater. It was the one-night Swedish Pop Carnival (yes, they played “Carnival”) and Persson said in a pre-show interview that they’d been rehearsing old material from “when we first popular in Japan in the ’90s.” That led to their first-ever performance of “Beautiful One,” from 1995’s Life:

@stereogum @The Cardigans returned to Tokyo after 13 years for Swedish Pop Carnival and played "Beautiful One" (from their 1995 album 'Life') for the first time ever [📹: yumipi-channel] #theCardigans #Tokyo #SwedishPopCarnival ♬ original sound – stereogum

And from the aforementioned final album, here’s live video from Darker Waves of the LP’s driving, biting lead single “I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer.” One of their best.

@stereogum @The Cardigans’ final album ‘Super Extra Gravity’ was released 20 years ago today. 💿 Here’s some video we took of the Swedish pop-rock greats performing the LP’s lead single at Darker Waves festival in Huntington Beach, CA two years ago — the only US show they’ve played since 2006! #theCardigans #NinaPersson #indiepop #2000s #concert ♬ original sound – stereogum

The Cardigans played Osaka today and they have some South American shows next year, including their first in Peru:

2/10/26 Santiago, Chile
2/12/26 Lima, Peru
2/14/26 Bogota, Colombia

Check out the Tokyo setlist below and learn the Swedish word for cowbell.

The Cardigans ほんとに最高でした…･:*:･(*˘︶˘*).｡*♡･:*:･♩ pic.twitter.com/pL4kgaXMwt

— iori shiina (@iori_shiina) October 14, 2025