Saturday, January 24, 2009

#23 Charlotte Perrelli, "Hero"



This is a story
Of love and compassion
Only heroes can tell


Whenever this song is playing, it's the best song in the world. Unfortunately, it can't be playing all the time, and I'm just a little hesitant to press play sometimes--blame the fact that it go so much play from me this year (which should hardly be something a song is penalized for, but I've yet to figure out a way beyond my excitement about a song to measure where it belongs here)--which makes me feel like I can't honestly put it at the top of this list. Almost a year on, though, "Hero" remains exhilarating. It does bear resemblance to "Cara Mia," another Fredrik Kempe-penned Melodifestival song, but there's something even more triumphant about "Hero," something that all these months on gets me all worked up about the middle 8 and the twirling camera, three part point, and key change--oh, that key change, and oh, can Charlotte sing--that accompanied it. Charlotte made being iconic look easy. I'm not sure if I had a better music-related experience this year than being surrounded by a bunch of people jumping around and going crazy while Charlotte performed this song at the Globe during the Melodifestival final. Being surrounded by people whose passion for music you love equals yours, especially when it's a type of pop we never get here in the U.S.: priceless. There may be a Melodifestival song and a Eurovision song ahead of it in this countdown, but "Hero" deserved to win both contests.

Find it on: Hero

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe it was just because it was the first time we saw it, but I think Charlotte's semifinal performance at MF was the best performance I ever saw of "Hero". The Globen finals and the two Eurovision shows are great but not quite as exhilarating and spot-on.

Anonymous said...

A truly fabulous song and a complete MF classic. As much as it pains me to say it, though, I think the Eurovision performances were just two performances too far for Charlotte. The heavy promotion had clearly taken its toll and it's a shame that more thought hadn't gone into revamping the staging for Belgrade. But at least we know that a certain group of eight people still liked it enough in a room somewhere in London on the afternoon of the Semi Final ;-)

Poster Girl said...

I'm trying to remember if I've rewatched her Melodifestival final performance--my angle of view and the aura around me at the time didn't exactly make for optimum judging conditions! I think both of you are onto something, though. As much as I loved the original staging, you're right, eurovisionessex; hopefully whoever wins this year will be forced to do some of that rethinking and revamping given the difference in numbers of performers allowed on the Melodifestival stage and Eurovision stage this year. Thank goodness for that, at least, though ;)

Aaron said...

Ditto and Ditto - She should have won!!!!

Amazing 3-part Point and just EPIC!! - but I'm with you - just a little overplayed...