Jag vill att du stannar kvar

(Obviously this isn't a recent picture of Pernilla, but I love the '80's pictures of her too much, so I'm going to keep using those.)

Awfully enough, Melodifestivalen is over for the year. Sure, we've got some albums coming out in the next couple of months to look forward to, but I'm still feeling like someone who's been forced to quit an addiction cold turkey. Consider today's song part of the beginning of the coming down process, then--technically not part of this year's Melodifestivalen (meaning you can tell yourself you're making progress and beginning to move on) but sounding like it very well could have been. It's a pretty safe guess that "I Min Värld" is a Melodifestivalen (2008, presumably; edit: or maybe 2006 [or both]--it's a 2008 single either way) reject, pure schlager that comes in at three minutes. If that's the case, poor Pernilla Wahlgren--with the exception of 2003, when her duet with Jan Johansen, "Let Your Spirit Fly," made it into the contest and to the final, she keeps getting shut out of Melodifestivalen in recent years--in 2005, she was passed over for "Alla Flickor," which was given to Linda Bengtzing (which I'm glad of, since I prefer Linda's recording); in (the lead up to) 2006, her song "Crashed & Burned" was rejected; and "I Min Värld" didn't make it either. As I said when I wrote about it earlier, it's not the best schlager song ever, but it's definitely an enjoyable listen and a great song. (I know I've written about it before, but it's still worth posting, and time has been nothing but kind to it.)

I Min Värld--a schlager song with a racing beat underneath it--well, the beat races, but the song doesn't feel ridiculously uptempo or anything, possibly because 1.) it's not really that fast, and 2.) the chorus has this big soaring feel--definitely upbeat, but not particularly fast. Anyway, the point is that the punches and crashes come at all the right moments in this song, the shiny electronically-created backing sparkles, and it's a fantastic catchy schlager song. I can't help thinking that if Melodifestivalen was really still as much of a schlager-focused event as many people think, more songs like this would make it through--but they don't. If just knowing that it's Pernilla doing great upbeat schlager isn't enough for you (and it should be!), here's further proof of "I Min Värld"'s schlager credentials: it was written by Pontus Assarsson and Henrik Sethsson, who've also collaborated on Fame's "Vindarna Vänder Oss" and Friends' "The One That You Need" (though if we're talking about them separately, they've done loads of non-schlager stuff as well).

You can buy Pernilla Wahlgren's single "I Min Värld" on her official site. Since this is a new-ish single, it'll only be posted for a little bit.

Next up: maybe Titiyo, given that oddly enough I just got her 2001 album today and then saw her featured on the front page of of PopJustice as being in the new Kleerup single.