Saturday, June 11, 2011

Sacrifice my life for you

Amazing songwriter Tony Nilsson gave a radio interview a week ago and, amongst the other comments I had to strain to understand a third of (yeah, I need to find a Swedish tutor pronto), one of the more interesting facts was that Fernando Fuentes sang the original demos for Tony's "You're Out Of My Life" and "Like Suicide" (the latter of which Fernando co-wrote). The show even played a few clips, excerpted below for anyone who's as much of a pop nerd as I am.

Like Suicide Clip by poppostergirl

You're Out Of My Life Clip by poppostergirl

Fernando's claim to fame comes from participating in the first season of Fame Factory. Since then he's mainly been out of the public eye, but he's worked as part of a party band and at Wallmans, a show-featuring restaurant where many journeymen singers work as part of making a living in music.



Fernando may not have gotten to sing "You're Out Of My Life" or "Like Suicide" in Melodifestivalen--those privileges went to Darin in 2010 and Christian Walz in 2011, who both recorded excellent studio versions even if they received disparate results in the contest--but before you feel too sorry for him, he provided backing vocals for Eric Saade at this year's Eurovision. Participating in Sweden's highest-ranking entry since victory in 1999 has to feel pretty darn good, as does showing up on the cover of Aftonbladet celebrating.



In today's Melodifestival, it's hard to climb from the behind-the-scenes roles into the spotlight, so I'm not necessarily expecting Fernando to appear in the contest as an artist in his own right. Still, every now and then someone manages it, so who knows? He certainly acquits himself very well in the "Man Of The Mirror" video above (and sounds pretty good on the demo of "Like Suicide" as well, though I'm glad we have Christian Walz's version). If nothing else, keep your eyes peeled the next time you see a line of singers swaying behind the main artist--you never know who you might spot.

(Photo credit to SVT.)

7 comments:

Damian said...

Oh my!!! What an exciting stuff PG!
I like final versions more but Fernando now seems to me quite interesting artist to look forward on next MF. His version of "Like Suicide" is really-really good though, but it's completely impossible to compete with Darin's voice...
It's a bit weird regarding my comments not appearing at Simple Plan and Eric's posts. blogger.com has something against me :)

kevin (ru) said...

PG, is he somehow related to Alejandro Fuentes of Norwegian Idol fame?

Laura (EuropeCrazy) said...

Wow PG you did it again - I love the way you track down these clips!

Very interesting to hear them, no offence to Fernando but it's Christian (and Darin) all the way for me here. In fact, "Like Suicide" has now overtaken "In The Club" as my favourite MF 2011 song.

Poster Girl said...

Damian and Laura, I do agree with you about the final versions being the ones I prefer. The alternate reality/behind the scenes sort of stuff is nearly endlessly fascinating to me, though, so I was thrilled they actually played these clips. Doing great backup and songwriting work (he also co-wrote Joe McElderry's really pretty excellent b-side "If You Love Me" with Tony) is probably a really good match for Fernando.

Damian, weird! Apparently my blog has a problem with you ;)

Kevin, not that I know of, though they were both born in Chile, I think. It's great to hear from you, by the way!

Laura, "Like Suicide," which was excellent to begin with, is really only getting better and better with time. It has a really solid shot at ending up my favorite, too.

Gatodeangora - Tienda de bisuteria online said...

The interview was quite good

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InfiNate said...

OK guys I know I am out of the loop here on these songs, but my face nearly melted off when I heard the pop exstacy of these two jams. Who is the recording artist who actually released these? If it is even better than Fernando's version I would be amazed...