Gunhild Carling was born in Sweden in 1975. She’s a Swedish jazz musician and multi-instrumentalist. Gunhild plays trombone, bagpipes, trumpet, recorder, string instruments (such as banjo, ukulele and harp), and will often showcase all of her skills in one song, sometimes casually breaking into a tap dance or singing. Carling competed as a celebrity dancer in Let’s Dance 2014 on TV4, being placed third.

In 2013, she performed with her ‘Carling Big Band’ at the Royal Palace in Stockholm in the celebration of King Carl XVI Gustaf’s Ruby Jubilee. In 2016, Carling performed at King Carl XVI Gustaf’s 70th birthday celebration. She was recently featured as a singer and multi-instrumentalist in several of Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox’s adaptations of pop songs, which include a jazz swing version of Rick Astley’s “Never Going to Give You Up”, a 1920s jazz swing version of “Material Girl”, a vintage jazz version of Europe’s “The Final Countdown”, a jazz cover of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy”, and a 1920s hot jazz cover of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”. She was featured at TEDxArendal, speaking about and playing trombone, which she has said is her favorite instrument. Carling often expresses her affection and respect for artists from early jazz, and especially the seminal New Orleans period. Among others, she refers to the influences of Louis Armstrong, Freddie Keppard, Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, and Billie Holiday. Holiday’s influence is patent in Carling’s singing style.