Axel: When I was 19 years old,
it was very important for me to look good.
One night, I did something stupid
that was entirely my own fault.
I got electrocuted
16,000 volts went through my body
and since then I am a burn victim.
These scars, they make me look like
no one else in the world.
Before the accident,
I was very confident.
I thought I was the coolest guy ever.
And I thought I looked amazing.
I felt like I owned the world.
When I had my accident,
I was 19 years old
and I was just going to graduate from Swedish high school.
I climbed onto a train - that train was parked.
I didn't touch any of the electrical wires
over the train.
But I got electrocuted with 16,000 volts
and I became a very serious burn victim.
I had 70% of my body damaged
with third degree burns.
I don't remember the accident, it's just
pitch black in my memory.
But I do remember waking up with a
police officer asking me questions and he explained that I had got electrified by the wires.
I don't know why this happened. I don't know why we did it.
I suppose it was some kind of a prank.
Just a 19 year old guy feeling immortal.
And I'm actually thankful
for not remembering because
it might just kill me to know why I did this.
I blame myself for what happened, but I don't hate myself.
I have forgiven myself for what happened.
It was weird
like going from being this cool guy, the popular guy
with confidence and looks
and just over one night that all changed.
And my confidence was gone,
my old looks was gone.
The first months of being a burn victim
was just about surviving.
But once that hit me that I was never gonna look the same,
I was never going to be the old guy
that I was before
that was a hard hit for me to take.
Mostly on the upper body.
There's not much skin that is not burned.
Like it's everything, it's basically a big scar.
Being burned is like having a shirt on that's
not big enough.
It feels like, feels like someone is pulling your skin.
The key when you got burned is
to moisturize very much.
Otherwise you really can't move and you get very dry.
Once I got to take the bandages off,
and see my face for the first time,
that's when the journey started.
But I had to go out for the first time
I had to experience people's judgmental
eyes on me.
I started looking at myself in a very bad way,
because of the scars.
It was the hardest time of my life
having to accept all of this.
It really was.
It took some time,
but in the end,
I learned how to love myself again.
I decided that I wanted to be a physical therapist,
and that was because
I had a physical therapist
for over a year at the hospital.
He really inspired me
and he's one of the reasons that I even survived.
At the training, I met Malin just six months before I got on Swedish Idol.
So I didn't become a physical therapist,
but I got myself a girlfriend out of it.
Malin: He was kind of like the clown
in the class.
You know, having all the girls' attention and
walking around and goofing around with everyone.
This is why I thought that he was kind of funny.
It just took like two weeks
and then we were hooked.
I didn't see his scars at all.
I only saw him.
Axel: I would say I really gained a lot of confidence
from dating Malin.
You done?
Malin: Yes.
Let's go.
Malin: At first when we went out
in the city or taking
a dinner or so,
people staring you know, I got more uncomfortable
and perhaps a bit angry sometimes.
He told me to take a step back because he's fine.
He can deal with that by himself
and he doesn't care really.
Axel: I definitely think that
I get judged by some people.
Some people think I look weird,
some people think I look scary.
And also once I got into music,
people thought that I should just hide.
Receiving all that judgment
is also one key to,
to just letting it go.
Early at the hospital
I started like listening to music,
in bed and through operations
even though I obviously didn't hear it then.
I'd really say it helped me a lot because
that's the great thing in the power of music is that
it really can,
can help you.
I went on Swedish idol just because
I was like, "Okay, I got this musical dream,"
"I know what I want to do, so why not try it out?"
Being on stage and performing is
is a great kick.
Every time I do it, it just shows me how far I've gotten
from the accident.
I wrote it the other day. It's in Swedish though.
It's about a broken heart.
Malin: Axel has taught me a lot.
He's taught me, mostly not to give up.
He is the funniest person I know.
We laugh, like hard, every day.
I love everything about him.
Axel: You know, once I was so ashamed of myself
that I just didn't want to go out.
I just wanted to sit inside and hide
and I didn't want to see the face of myself in the mirror.
And suddenly I'm on a stage like millions of people watching me and
if I can do that, I can do anything.
You know beauty to me is loving yourself.
I don't think it really matters how you look.
It's about how you look at yourself.
It's okay to be different.
It's okay to love yourself
even though you don't look like everybody else.