Today's interesting Twitter moment came from Sarah Dawn Finer, who mentioned that her original 2002 demo of "Not A Sinner Nor A Saint" would appear on the (amazing) upcoming Melodifestival boxset documenting the past ten year's of the contest.
Sarah's comment left me hitting my head against the wall--how had I not realized that was her singing on this demo for all these years? Obviously Alcazar's version is definitive and the way to be introduced to the song--it's a Melodifestival classic in their disco interpretation--but it's always nice to get these "peaking behind the music industry door" moments.
For anyone who hasn't heard it, here's Alcazar performing the song in Melodifestivalen 2003. It's the first version of "Not A Sinner Nor A Saint" anyone not in the music industry heard and the change from the original demo is stunning...and for the better, much as I love Sarah (though that has much to do with the arrangement and production).
I'm excited to hear what other demos will appear in the boxset. Dare to dream of the 99% impossibility of Måns's version of "Hero" showing up...
After I wrote about Alcazar's "Burning" for the first time, I spent my next trip to the gym listening to nothing but that 52 second clip on repeat. Literally nothing else the entire time.
I offer that fact up as a way of explaining that there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to hold myself back from posting the full song once we had it. Disco Defenders is full of great songs which could easily hold up their own post, but "Burning," with its Alcazar-meets-Star-Pilots vibe--read "swooshy, hands-in-the-air, full-throttle dance-pop inspired by the '80's-sampling dance hits of modern times that is pure fun and completely contagious" if you're not familiar with Star Pilots--is irresistible and my easy favorite of the songs on the album we hadn't previously heard in full. It's always dangerous to start throwing phrases like this around, but if "Burning" isn't one of the best songs of 2009 by the year's end, we'll have had a breathtakingly good year for music. "Burning" has to be the most international and crossover-friendly Alcazar have sounded for quite some time. It's also exactly the sort of song this blog is here to promote, praise to the heavens--because make no mistake, "Burning" is nothing less than a gift straight from the gods of pop--and beg you to buy.
One of the most surprising things about the album is that the best songs come from various different writers; superproducer Anders Hansson may be responsible for a plurality of the tracks, but the highlights come from multiple writers. "Stay The Night," "We Keep On Rockin'," and the previously unheard "My My Me And Mine" are all by Anders Hansson, "Baby" is by the Pet Shop Boys, and "Burning" is from Empire Studios' Johan Fjellström, Joakim Udd, and Karl Eurén. I'd also put Figge's "Put The Top Down" near that list, though the fact that it includes acoustic guitar work and is more a cruising down the avenue song than a dancing in the club song may make me fairly alone in that belief. Still, if I'm going to put that song near the best of list, then I'm going to have to start talking about "Harlem Nights," too, which is better and probably belongs in that first list, and then I'll just start listing off almost every track on this great album.
If you don't live in Sweden, you can buy Disco Defendershere or here.
Next up: maybe Erik Hassle or someone else if I can manage to stop playing Alcazar's new album for long enough to think about anything else.
Alcazar's new album, Disco Defenders, is out now, after some problems with availability. I haven't heard it yet, but you can read a review of it over at Scandipop and listen to short clips from it below.
As a reminder for those of you who might usually ignore Alcazar news (what, are you crazy?), "Baby," the seventh track on the album, is written by the Pet Shop Boys. It starts playing at 2:25.
If you don't live in Sweden, you can buy Disco Defendershere or here.
With information taken from Alcazar Magic via PopJustice, here's the tracklisting of the new Alcazar album, Disco Defenders, complete with my notes on the songs. It's set to come out March 11, though that's a tentative release date.
CD1: NOW 1.) We Keep On Rockin' (the first single released by this incarnation of Alcazar and I still love it all this time on; I really should have put it on my year end singles countdown. Anyway, it's Anders Hansson at work, producing upbeat pop-disco in classic Alcazar style.) 2.) Burning (I introduced you all to a clip of this a while back before it spread all over the Internet, and the group has since performed the song live. It's done by Empire Music, the same people who are behind Star Pilots, the production of the West End Girls' songs, a lot more great stuff. "Burning" is, from the sounds of it, absolutely fantastic. It's a bit more on the dance-pop side than, say, "We Keep On Rockin'" and you can hear that it's done by the same people who make Star Pilots' songs.) 3.) Stay The Night (their a-maz-ing Melodifestival entry this year. I think it might come out this evening, though I'm not positive of that fact. Anyway, at least up until this point, it's by far the best song in the contest this year.) 4.) From Brazil With Love (written or co-written by Danny) 5.) Inhibitions (another Anders Hansson work and, as I've said before, it wasn't quite what I was hoping for in terms of second single. There's something kind of "minor" musically about it. "Stay The Night" shows that Alcazar don't have to be making pure disco frothiness for me to love their songs, but "Inhibitions" isn't quite the right kind of "cool" for me. It's still an OK song, mind--just not as great as many others we've heard from them.) 6.) Harlem Nights 7.) Baby (written by the Pet Shop Boys, back when Alcazar were a four-piece, but they broke up too early to do the song then. Now, we'll finally get to hear it) 8.) Jump Straight Into The Fire (I've mentioned this song on here before, too. It's written by Anton Malmberg Hård af Harsted, who's behind--get ready for this--Magnus Carlsson's "Walking In My Shoes," Velvet's "Sound Of Music," and Lutricia McNeal's "Same Same Same." That's a pretty amazing disco-tastic line-up right there, so I've got high hopes for something great. Anton also wrote Luigi Masi's "Strangers Again," which, as I've said before, I really like.) 9.) My My Me and Mine 10.) Funky Town (the group has been performing their cover of this old disco song for a while now) 11.) Put The Top Down (I can't 100% promise you this, but I'm nearly positive that you can listen to the demo--as in, not sung by Alcazar and quite possibly with a very different arrangement from what we'll end up hearing--of this song here. I mean, it's got the same title, Alcazar themselves have said this song was written by Figge Böstrom who also co-wrote that demo, and the group's statement that the song "[m]akes you wanna go cruising at Ocean drive with the wind in your hair" fits perfectly for it. I really like it; it's got this strummy guitar background that gives a little bit of a laid-back vibe to the song while still keeping it happy and not down-tempo.) 12.) Thank You 13.) Stay The Night (FL Club mix)
CD2: THEN 1.) This Is The World We Live In 2.) Crying At The Discoteque 3.) Ménage à Trois 4.) Sexual Guarantee 5.) Don't You Want Me 6.) Start The Fire 7.) Shine On 8.) Not A Sinner Nor A Saint 9.) Physical 10.) Ritmo del amor 11.) Alcastar 12.) Love Life 13.) Someday
Alcazar's new album, Disco Defenders, is tentatively scheduled for a March 11 release date (stolen from PopJustice).
The Backstreet Boys apparently have a Max Martin-written song called "Bigger" on their new album (which they hope to release this summer) *gets hopes up again only to see them crushed* (stolen from Cheiron Songwriters).
Danish songwriter Lucas Secon--of Martin's "Show The World," Sarah Connor's "Under My Skin," the Pussycat Dolls' "I Hate This Part," and much more--wrote on his MySpace a while ago that he'd be contributing to Jordin Sparks's new album. Jordin played clips of several songs that might end up on her new album on the radio recently and among them was an unmastered version of one of Lucas's songs, "Walking On Snow." From the sounds of the clip, I'm chomping at the bit to have the full song; like "No Air," it manages the remarkable feat of sounding refreshingly fresh while also making total sense in the current commercial music environment, though its pretty poppy electronic-pop-meets-pop-rock sound isn't musically related to "No Air."
Five minutes! The stream for Melodifestivalen is on this site.
Edit 1 (post-the top five): WHAT?!?! I'm in shock...
Edit 2: Alcazar to Globen! Yes yes yes! Oh, thank you thank you thank you.
Edit 3: I'm redecorating my room to look like this...
...and that doesn't even begin to get across what it actually looked like. TWENTY DISCO BALLS.
Edit 4: I have to run, but I'll be back with thoughts of more than one sentence in length.
Edit 5: what did we do when this group wasn't around? I really don't know.
(These videos are getting pulled quickly, so it might not be there by the time you read this. There is a volume jump about a minute into the performance.)
I cheered for them when they won their duel against Scotts to make it to the final. They deserve, with this song and this performance, to be there and I hope this helps that long-awaited new album of theirs sell. Can you believe I've never posted an Alcazar track here before? It's not for lack of loving them and I've posted just about every sort of related track you can think of, as well as loads of news.
Well, that won't be changing tonight; much as it's going to kill me, we'll have to wait for this new single of theirs now that they're still in the conversation. I can, though, offer up a song for a short time that, although not as good as "Stay The Night," was another of my favorites from the night.
I thought catchy pop-rock song "Tick Tock" (which is so much better than I was anticipating based on earlier descriptions) had a really solid--no, great performance to go with it. In the typical fashion of the first week of Melodfestival semifinals, though, the Swedes eliminated most of my favorite tracks. That a song like this one and as well performed as this one can get eliminated in its semifinal in Sweden speaks to just how high the quality of choice is there (or that the Swedes and I have pretty different taste in Melodifestivalen, one or the other).
The other song I was really praying would survive the night was Marie Serneholt's "Disconnect Me."
Up until the moment when the international jury announced their choice--Caroline af Ugglas--I was hoping against hope that Marie would survive in the contest. For someone we were all so uncertain about in the singing live department, I thought Marie was great (and though it doesn't bear at all on how good the track is, I love how genuinely happy she seemed to be to be competing in the contest, as revealed in all the run-up to it). I'm further convinced of deserving her pop princess title. I do understand all the criticisms and concerns people were expressing and, when I've got a bit more time, I'll try to get across why, if I was choosing results, I would have put your through to the final (part of it is, admittedly, probably some sort of emotional attachment)--because I would have, along with Alcazar.
I do have more to say on the other entries (I'll mention them tomorrow), but for lack of time, I'll end for now with a random question: did anyone else find it kind of...surreal to hear obviously recorded backing vocals (for example, done by the artist him/herself)? Maybe they've used those in earlier years and I never noticed. It's not a complaint, mind (I actually like it at points)--it's just different (in a Melodifestival context).
All of these songs will be on the album for Melodifestivalen 2009, out March 8, which can be preordered here (physical).
The first Melodifestival semifinal takes place this Saturday and, as before, I'll be running down the artists and the songs the Sunday beforehand. Keep in mind, though, that I have absolutely no inside connections, so all these posts are meant to do is serve as a gathering of information scattered throughout the Internet already. As always, it is to the sites below that all the credit for this information goes to, and any mistakes are my own (please feel free to correct them in the comments or add more information or thoughts).
(I'm toying with putting up a "what is Melodifestivalen?" post for people who have no idea what I'm talking about; there are people out there far better qualified to do that sort of thing, but considering the contest will dominate this blog for the next six weeks, I probably need to go over that.)
1.) Nina Söderquist, "Tick Tock" (Johan Lyander/Matti Alfonzetti) A singer who, after winning a televised contest, has been performing as the Lady of the Lake in London's West End's production of Spamalot, Nina should probably be expected to bring a big voice to "Tick Tock," an up-tempo rock diva song full of energy and with just a bit of flamenco. Songwriters Johan Lyander and Matti Alfonzetti also composed the Poodles' 2006 entry, "Night Of Passion," another rock song. Nina says "Tick Tock" isn't "Melodifestival rock"--a little more unusual than that--but it's suitable for a schlager festival since it's a little softened up, though still fairly tough. As of a few months ago, there were plans for an album.
To watch: Nina singing the Swedish version of "Find Your Grail" from Spamalot (if you're interested in hearing her voice turned towards chart music, her MySpace has some songs to listen to; they include some of that hard '80's guitar sound)
2.) Jonathan Fagerlund, "Welcome To My Life" (Samuel Waermö/Didrik Thott) Teenage singer Jonathan may have spent some time in a sketchy Lou Pearlman-backed boy band (the same one his friend and last year's Irish national final contestant Donal Skehan was in), but he's been solo for a while now. In that time, he's released a debut album, Flying, and three singles, two of which made it onto my "Favorite Singles of 2008" countdown. His sound on that album is one man boy band pop, though with the production favoring a "real instrument" sound (including guitars) instead of the obviously electronic sound of a boy band like, say, 'N Sync or Backstreet Boys. The album was too far on the ballad side for my taste, but the description of "Welcome To My Life"--a positive and happy up-tempo pop song with lyrics that are somewhat biographical--gives me hope that "Welcome To My Life," co-written by the man behind the Flying project, won't fall into that trap.
Still, I'd call it highly unlikely that "Welcome To My Life" is going to be disco-friendly material, which means I'll be surprised if Melodifestival fans (besides me) take it to their heart. Jonathan's a pretty untested live performer, too, so I'm pretty worried (or skeptical, if you're being less generous) about the performance. He's hardly a big name going into the competition, so any publicity and increase in awareness is probably a win for his management, but the odds of him progressing past the semifinal are generally not seen as that good. Jonathan did mention a few months ago that he'll be releasing an album in conjunction with Melodifestivalen, full of pop tracks whose tempo will generally be sped up and which are a little rocky. Samuel Waermo (the main man behind his last album) and Didrik Thott, the songwriters of "Welcome To My Life," wrote a lot of the songs on it.
To watch: the music video for "Playing Me"
3.) Shirley Clamp, "Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus" (Ingela "Pling" Forsman/Bobby Ljunggren/Henrik Wikström) This entry marks the return of a Melodifestivalen stalwart after a break of four years from the competition. Calling someone a stalwart after only appearing in the contest three times might seem like a stretch, but her second and third entries embedded Shirley deeply in the hearts of many Melodifestival fans. "Min kärlek," her 2004 entry, is arguably (or really, not that arguably at all) a modern day schlager classic. Since 2005, though, she's released two solo albums that left fans of up-tempo schlager feeling out in the cold.
Her entry this year, "Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus," is described by its writers (the same as those of "Min kärlek," but they write so many songs that appear in Melodifestivalen that that's no indication of what the song will sound like) as a vocally demanding melodic mid-tempo song about being in the middle of life and realizing its true worth. Shirley has called the song a ballad but said that it almost feels mid-tempo due to its swing and that it is more like her two previous Melodifestival entries (though more mature) than her last album. She also compared it to "Min kärlek"'s verse melody. If you're feeling disappointed by Shirley returning with a ballad, you might want to be upset with one of "Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus"'s songwriters, Bobby Ljunggren; Shirley says she was sure she'd come back with a disco number as a gay icon queen with glittery clothes and loads of dancers--her record company agreed--until Bobby told her he'd written a song for her and she heard "Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus."
On the album front, Shirley will be releasing a best of album on March 11 to tie in with her appearance in Melodifestivalen. That might be a disappointment to those people who want an album to make them forget her last two as quickly as possible, but there is some hope: she's releasing another album next year, one which she says will have bigger and more up-tempo tracks, a little like "Mr. Memory" (her first Melodifestival entry, and yes, I know, that was in English and the Swedish version is "Äntligen," but those are her words), fast and in Swedish.
To watch: her performance of "Min kärlek" at the 2004 Melodifestival final
4.) Scotts, "Jag tror på oss" (Lars "Dille" Diedricson/Martin Hedström/Ingela "Pling" Forsman) The dansband Scotts rose to fame in 2008 through the televised dansband competition Dansbandskampen. They ultimately took second, but their album has been selling well in Sweden. Much of the focus during their run on the TV show was on blonde lead singer Henrik, but even someone who took on a semi-heartthrob status for some parts of the Swedish population is unlikely to stop many Melodifestival fans from wishing that Linda Bengtzing, who sang the demo of "Jag tror på oss," was in the competition instead of Scotts, even though it was never likely that Linda would compete. "Jag tror på oss" is said to be an energetic catchy pop-rocky song--fast Swedish guitar pop with a sharp chorus--about love with obstacles; Scotts say the chorus will get stuck in your head. The group's popularity on an earlier television show has led some to speculate that they will be likely candidates for the final.
To watch: the group performing Robbie Williams's "Angels" on Dansbandskampen
5.) Emilia, "You're My World" (Emilia Rydberg/Figge Boström) Emilia had an international (though not American) hit in the late '90's with "Big Big World." She released two albums before not releasing anything until 2007, when she made a Swedish language comeback. After that album, though, she's released two English language singles, both covers of songs from Elin Lanto's first album. Her entry is described as a tribute to those we love and the warmth they give us; she says it has a little soul in it.
To watch: I should probably embed the music video for "Big Big World," but I prefer "Good Sign," taken from that same album
6.) Alcazar, "Stay The Night" (Anders Hansson/Mårten Sandén/Andreas Lundstet/Therese Merkel/Lina Hedlund) Alcazar are most known internationally for "Crying At The Discotheque," released in their original three person incarnation of Andreas, Tess, and Annikafiore, but both their appearances in Melodifestivalen up to this point were in their four person combination of those three and Magnus. Both those appearances were with great camp pop songs that deserved better than having to go through the second chance round to make it to the final, even if most of the songs that beat them out were at least good songs, too (though make it to the final they both did--Alcazar took third there both times, beating out one of the semifinal songs originally ahead of them the first time and both of the songs originally ahead of them the second time).
Their return to the contest that gave their Swedish popularity a real boost will be in their latest formation of Andreas, Tess, and Lina, who will be performing a modern party-friendly pop song with odd harmonies and in the style of the music they're making now. Let's hope it's more "We Keep On Rockin'" or, better yet, the so far only partly heard "Burning" than "Inhibitions" (though given that the track is co-written with Anders Hansson, it's more likely to be like "We Keep On Rockin'" or "Inhibitions" than "Burning," since he wrote those first two). Tess says that "Stay The Night" sounds like a combination of the group's earlier hits while Andreas says it's a little comparable to "Knock On Wood." It's said to be a good song, of the same level as their earlier entries, but a little less schlager and more on the cool side. It's safe to say that "Stay The Night" is likely to be enjoyed by fans of the contest who look to it for great pop, especially of the up-tempo sort. I love this group so much--I'm really hoping they've got something great for us.
Their new album has been a work in progress for quite some time, so I'm hoping we'll get a release in the next few months. We've already heard at least part of three tracks on it and the group says the album will have songs by Anders Hansson (of course), Danny, and Pet Shop Boys on it.
To watch: I can't choose between their unforgettable performances of "Not A Sinner Nor A Saint" or "Alcastar" (their 2003 and 2005 Melodifestival entries respectively), so here are both
7.) Caroline af Ugglas, "Snälla snälla" (Caroline af Ugglas/Heinz Liljedahl) Caroline, a soul-voiced singer who once released an album made of Swedish language Janis Joplin songs, isn't exactly someone I was hoping would return to the contest. Maybe her retrosoul narrative ballad, a "typical Caroline track" a little quieter than her previous entry that deals with unhappiness in love, will surprise me, but I'm not counting on it. She has a new album coming out March 18.
To watch: her Melodifestival 2007 performance of "Trör på dig"
8.) Marie Serneholt, "Disconnect Me" (Peter Boström/Tony Nilsson) As the blonde female member of A*Teens, Marie helped make some of the best pop of the past ten years. Her 2006 solo album continued on in that pure pop vein and featured some great songs (though not all of them were), but didn't sell as well as was probably hoped. Luckily, she's returning to the world of releasing pop with a song penned by Tony Nilsson and Bassflow, two people you all know I love by now (Ola's best songs from his second album on, Elin Lanto's "Discotheque," Johan Krafman's music; Bassflow without Tony has also co-written or produced an amazing number of brilliant tracks, including Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero").
"Disconnect Me" is described as having a pinch of John Barry (a James Bond composer) and a little electro. It's warm, with Mediterranean influences (Marie says the Mediterranean feeling of Helena Paparizou's "My Number One" is in "Disconnect Me" too; she also calls the up-tempo song pure pop and compares it a little to Ani Lorak's "Shady Lady" and Kalomoira's "Secret Combination"), and a joyful song (despite the lyrics about the end of a love, Marie says it's about being strong and beginning something new). Marie also says the song is spicy and exotic. Marie has the potential to be a great popstar, but, even if the song is good (as it is said to be), singing live could be a problem--we'll have to see how it goes for her on Saturday. In good news, Marie is currently working on a new album and says she wants to keep working with Tony and Bassflow (yes! Finally, someone does more than a few songs an album with them) and maybe one more composer. It'll be in the same style as "Disconnect Me," commercial pop with a lot of rhythm.
To watch: the music video for "I Need A House," the second single from her debut solo album
If I'm making guesses at my favorites from this semifinal without hearing a bit of the songs, I'd go for Alcazar and Marie, with Shirley and Jonathan just a little behind (Shirley could easily be the favorite for me or disappoint). Scotts and Emilia are possibilities. And maybe Nina. The songs for each week's semifinal will be uploaded on SVT's official site for listening from 9 PM Swedish time on Friday, meaning 3 PM EST. The show will start on Saturday at 8 PM Swedish time/2 PM EST. I'm nervous I may miss the beginning--I'm going to do everything I can not to, but it might happen anyway.
Sorry for the abundance of the "Poster Girl is way behind the times"-type posts recently, but has everyone else heard the clip of one of Alcazar's new songs, "Burning"? The song was supposedly going to come out this November, but as we can see that didn't end up happening (presumably they're just going to wait until Melodifestivalen to release anything else)--still, this means we know they've done "Burning" with Johan Fjellström/Joakim Udd/Karl Eurén and "Jump Straight Into The Fire" with Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad, as well as their Melodifestival track "Stay The Night" (which they co-wrote) with Anders Hansson and Mårten Sandén. Then there's the two singles already released, "We Keep On Rockin'" and "Inhibitions." Hopefully the album's coming out in tandem with Melodifestivalen.
Am I ever going to stop writing about Melodifestivalen? No, probably not.
In interviews with QX, the first eight artists announced gave us a little more information about their songs.
Alcazar talked about "Stay The Night," with Tess saying it sounds like a combination of songs Alcazar have done earlier, with Andreas saying that it reminded him a little bit of "Knock On Wood."
BWO say they noticed that modern dramatic ballads do well, so presumably that's what they think "You're Not Alone" is. Apparently it's a song that shows off Martin's singing and they say it's this year's "Empty Room" and "Believe" (great...).
Måns Zelmerlöw says "Hope & Glory" is an upgrade of "Cara Mia," big and grand. He also reveals that there was another song he worked on with Fredrik Kempe and considered sending, a megaballad in a French march tempo, but (and this is why you have to love Måns) he decided that he "had to get to dance" or he would be "boring" otherwise. He hasn't sent in songs he's written to any other country yet (a song he co-wrote was in Romania's nationa final this year), but he has enough that he can and (probably) will.
I haven't mentioned this in a blog post yet, but the fact that Markoolio is the first joker announced has been discussed in the comments. Markoolio's song, "Kärlekssång från mig," is described, as Melodiment pointed out, as a ballad with a twist (and funny lyrics) and is from the writers of not just some of Markoolio's own songs (like "Värsta Schlagern") but also of 2005's B-Boys International and Paul M's "One Step Closer" and 2007's Verona's "La Musica." Damian pointed out an article in which Markoolio says there will be strippers, with Markoolio lying on the ground and crawling around. Speaking of Markoolio, I want to take another opportunity to praise "Emma, Emma" from his last album. It may have kind of cringeworthy lyrics, but if "Värsta Schlagern" was Markoolio doing a parody of schlager but actually making a brilliant schlager song with a lot of help from a female singer, "Emma, Emma" is the techno/Eurodance equivalent of it. All three of my preferred tracks from that album involved Markoolio being smart enough to delegate a lot of the hook duties and actual good parts of the song to a female singer, so it'll be interesting to see if he does that at all with "Kärlekssång från mig." I'm not counting on it, though.
With three joker spots left, the names being mentioned again and again are Marie Serneholt (would love her to be back with any music period, so a big yes from me), Orup, Darin (love him, obviously, but I'm not sure that I want him in Melodifestivalen), EMD, and Lutricia McNeal.
As Schlager Queen and Gylleneskor (among others) both reported, dansband Lasse Stefanz have declined to sing "Den Första Kyssen;" as they're the demo artists, if they refuse to sing the song, SVT has an option to disqualify the song entirely if they don't feel they can find anyone else they want to sing it. If that happens, another song--one of the ones that just missed the cut--would be chosen to replace it. In 2007, Måns's "Cara Mia" and Lustans Lakejer's "Allt vi en gång trodde på" were replacements, so you could potentially get something good out of a disqualification...then again, the current song could be great. The lists of the finalists (the songs chosen and those that just missed out) and the top 116 are posted on SVT's site (as PDFs--the former is here and the latter is here). I love going through in the months afterward and trying to figure out what songs released were Melodifestivalen rejects (I've got some list somewhere I should go find and see if anyone can add onto), so, though it's a bit early to do that with these lists, they may provide some entertainment in the future.
I should just edit this information into the previous post, but it's Melodifestivalen, so it gets a pass. SVT also released a little description of each of the eight songs whose artists were confirmed today (and I've added in some descriptions from an earlier post). More importantly, though: (some) new pictures (all credit to SVT)!
Alcazar, "Stay The Night" (Anders Hansson/Mårten Sandén/Andreas Lundstedt/Tess Merkel/Lina Hedlund): good party track with odd harmonies. QX earlier reported that the song is a modern pop track in the style of the music Alcazar is doing now. Incidentally, supposedly their album is coming "shortly," whatever that means.
BWO, "You're Not Alone" (Fredrik Kempe/Alexander Bard/Anders Hansson): a dramatic electro-gospel ballad
Caroline af Ugglas, "Snälla Snälla" (Caroline af Ugglas/Heniz Liljedahl): a typical Caroline track and a ballad
Emilia, "You're My World" (Emilia Rydberg/Fredrik Figge Bodström): "a tribute to those we love and the warmth they give us"
Jennifer Brown, "Never Been Here Before" (Jennifer Brown/Peter Kvint): the saddest track Burt Bacharach never wrote. QX earlier described it as a soul ballad.
Lasse Lindh, "Jag Slåss I Dina Kvarter!" (Lasse Lindh): an in-your-face danceable track
(Look, that's the picture SVT chose--don't blame me if you wanted to see more! They did give us this, too:
if that helps at all) Måns Zelmerlöw, "Hope & Glory" (Fredrik Kempe/Måns Zelmerlöw/Henrik Wikström): a hopeful love anthem and a track everyone will remember after the first listen. Musically a continuation and development of Måns's earlier hits. QX earlier wrote that the song is said to be a strong, modern pop track.
(That photo's obviously taken from Sarah's own latest promo session--she's got a new single out soon.)
Sarah Dawn Finer, "Moving On" (Sarah Dawn Finer/Fredrik Kempe): a dynamic, dramatic, beautiful, epic, big, strong song that is hopeful, but with a little bit of sadness. QX earlier reported that the song is a powerful ballad totally different from "I Remember Love."
More pictures? You didn't ask for more? Too bad, you're getting them anyway.
BWO! And they've "gone ballad" on us. Watch them finally win (though it may be a brilliant ballad--who knows?).
Alcazar!
Emilia and Måns
Måns!
Lovely Jennifer Brown.
Also, it's worth noting these people are not all in the same semi--just all in Melodifestivalen. We'll find out one joker tomorrow.
(If anything could draw me out of Circus-land, you just knew it would be Sweden, right?)
Proving (!) that I'm not absolutely obsessed, here--a half month after its debut--is a performance (in shady quality) of another track from Darin's new album. It's called "Strobelight" and is the urban/clubby track we heard David Jassy working on it that "Making of Flashback" video.
In other Swedish music news--and as Troy and Scandipop already wrote about--eight of the Melodifestival artists were confirmed today. No surprises, but hey, it's nice to know for sure that these artists are doing it.
1.) Måns Zelmerlöw, "Hope & Glory" 2.) Lasse Lindh & Band, "Jag ska slåss i dina kvarter" 3.) Sarah Dawn Finer, "Moving On" 4.) Jennifer Brown, "Never Been Here Before" 5.) Caroline af Ugglas, "Snälla snälla" 6.) Alcazar, "Stay The Night" 7.) Emilia, "You're My World" 8.) BWO, "It's My Life"
Not that I've been obsessively checking iTunes for this single or anything, but...
Here it is!
(For a short time, as usual.)
Do you know, I've been thinking for a while (and may have actually said on here at some point) that it's probably actually criminal that I've never posted any Alcazar song. I mean, I posted a song featuring them, but they weren't technically the main artists.
Unfortunately, until they bless us with another track (please let it be better than "Inhibitions"!), that probably won't change; I expect most readers with any interest in Swedish pop already have quite an extensive Alcazar collection.
Until then and even once that happens, we can enjoy today's artist. Even beyond his work with Alcazar, he has a back catalogue filled with gems. His solo Melodifestivalen entries, "Lev Livet!" and the Bosson-does-"Take On Me" "Live Forever" were both excellent top-shelf pop (with the latter being significantly better than Bosson's own version of the track) and tracks like "Crazy Summer Nights" (should have been the second single and released in summer 2007), "Don't You Worry" (should have been the third single and released in fall/winter 2007...that "Christmas single" type of thing), and "What About Love" (what the heck, only a bonus track?) are real treats that everyone should own.
News about "Walking In My Shoes" posted on his official site was illustrated with this picture...
...and that really sums up this song (though that's not the single cover--this is). It's modern pop-disco and totally proud of that fact, and I wouldn't have it any other way. And since I now know what that sample is from (thank you, commenter!), I can listen to it without any distractions. That chorus, in all its parts, is pure perfect Swedish pop. You all have no idea how happy it makes me that somewhere in the world, people make music like this. Everything, from the disco clangs and swooshes and "oh oh oh"s and "woah-oh-oh"s to that chorus melody to Magnus's voice, brings a smile to my face.
Incidentally, the writers of this song are Anton Malmberg and Felix Persson. If you visit Anton's MySpace, you'll find that his discography includes a 2008 song called "Jump Straight Into The Fire" by Alcazar! I know absolutely nothing about that track beyond that, though.
I imagine by tomorrow or Wednesday, you'll be able to buy this single from here (digital). Maybe most important, though, is buying the greatest hits album it's meant to promote; you can preorder here (physical) or presumably from the same digital link as above. It comes out November 12. I'm not kidding about everyone needing to own "Live Forever," "Crazy Summer Nights," "Don't You Worry," and "What About Love," either--pick up Live Forever - The Album for those (though you'll need to buy the digital version for that last track).
Next up: maybe I'll finally get to that boy band song.
I've got no idea why Alcazar are releasing a video for "We Keep On Rockin'" now given that I thought the buzz around the single peaked a while ago, but I'm glad they did--the world just seems a little bit brighter, happier, and more colorful now.
Sad that you weren't able to spend your last Saturday night watching Melodifestivalen? Why not try to ease the pain with your own Swedish TV mix-and-match (i.e., feel free to skip anything that doesn't interest you) special, taken from the past few months!
I'm sure other performers have used the spinny camera at the big climatic moment in the song trick, but now that Charlotte has so totally claimed it, I can't help thinking of "Hero" right in the middle of this performance of EMD's new single, "Jennie Let Me Love You," which they performed on Let's Dance. Still, I'm totally buying this when it comes out. (Plus, bonus points for the "twisted sheets"/"sore heart beats" rhyme--that should go right up there with "fire"/"desire.")
Anna Sahlene was BRILLIANT in musical gameshow Så ska det låta this past weekend. She was teamed up with Peter Johansson against Carola and Andreas Johnson, and not only did she prove herself (as if it needed further proving) to be a fantastic singer with a great knowledge of music (she and Peter ran away with the contest), she's also made me wish even more for another album from her. Heck, I'd take an album of disco covers at this point, something which we got a taste of from several of her performances. Unfortunately, though seemingly everything her partner performed has been uploaded on YouTube, most of Anna's performances haven't been yet. Still, you can watch the whole thing here if you want to, and you can watch her perform a slowed down version of "Runaway" below.
Time for a commercial break. I'm not sure if this ad is being run in the U.S. or UK (my guess is no, at least on the US front), but it's getting airing in Scandinavian countries, even causing Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence" to creep up the iTunes charts there.
Taking us back into our regularly scheduled programming is Alcazar, performing their fantastic latest single "We Keep On Rockin'" (I was going to rave about it but never did, did I?) on Let's Dance. I'm beyond thrilled to have them back and can't wait to hear some more material from them. I think they're facing off against EMD on some upcoming TV show, too...
There's some great staging going on in September's performance of "Because I Love You" on Bingolotto. She really imbues those opening lines with emotion, and I love the use of lights for the transition into the more "dance" part of the song.
Not from TV--taken from her official website, in fact--but if you want to hear a few clips of Charlotte Perrelli working on songs for her new album in studio, go to near the end of this clip.
And what better way to end our Melodifestivalen substitute than with the track rejected from the 2006 Melodifestival that ended up being the biggest selling single in 2007? Courtesy of Så ska det låta again (though a different week), here's Amy Diamond and Fredrik Swahn singing it after winning.
OK, while I'm being music dorky, I might as well go all the way and say that I'm currently really enjoying this site--I have a bunch to catch up on in regards to songwriters, producers, and song history, and, though I'm sure each publishing company has its own site, this is the one I'm working my way through at the moment.
If you read the news on the songwriters, you'll pick up interesting news bits (some names of people working on Sofia Berntson's album [Dimitri Stassos, who discovered her, and Jason Gill are working on it, though what's up now--post-Melodifestivalen--I have no idea], the fact that the same people who did Gerard's "Work It (Everybody)" have also come up with what sounds like might be another single or at least will be released somehow, "Addicted") and the music player in the bottom right hand corner will clue you in to some of the songs they've done, sometimes already released, sometimes not, and sometimes--and maybe the most interestingly (since we don't know who, if anyone, will end up doing the unreleased ones [there are some--if they aren't yet released--that I hope someone records; Thomas Ahlstrund, Richard Anderson, and Peter Malmrup's "Won't Be Back" is a cute poppy song and I wouldn't mind hearing Niklas Gårfeldt, Nilas Hillbom, and Tomas Jansson's "Unreal" on a girl group album at all, if it's not already been recorded)--demos of songs already released, like Ola's "Cops Come Knocking," Hadise's "Bad Boy," No Angel's "Someday," Soccx's "From Dusk Till Dawn," Gerard's "Work It" (entirely in English), and Alcazar's "Not A Sinner Nor A Saint" (slowed down and just with a female singer), although some of these could just have been released earlier by someone else that I don't know about and it's the original singer you're hearing.
So, who'll be performing with Alcazar at G-A-Y and potentially continuing on with them if it all goes well? Lina Hedlund! I don't know that much about her, only that she competed in Melodifestivalen 2002 (with her sister, who is married to Martin Stenmarck; they made it to the finals and took ninth) and Melodifestivalen 2003 (by herself; she made it to the second chance round, where she took fourth). Here's her Melodifestivalen 2003 performance with the song "Nothing Can Stop Me."
Apparently the woman who will be joining Andreas and Tess for their performance as Alcazar at G-A-Y is an established Swedish artist. I wonder who it could be...
The best concert line-up ever (for me) was last year's series of concerts where the Click Five opened for McFly--my two favorite bands, both at their peak (well, McFly have improved with every album, so that's more like "peak so far"). It narrowly beats out the whole V/McFly/Busted thing, though it's close.
Now, though? We've got another rival. I don't expect it to ultimately win out, but it'll put up a good fight.
BWO Army Of Lovers Alcazar (!!!!!!!)
At G-A-Y on July 21. Can you imagine? I'm a little confused as to why Alcazar would perform in the UK, especially if it's a one-off--surely this would be huge if in Sweden?
(By the way, some of Sweden's summer tours should be in contention, but I guess I think of those as somehow different--more festival-like, or something. Illogical, but whatever.)
Your problems don't exist when music feels like this.
Songs are posted only for promotional purposes (I love them and want others to know about them, too)--if you like them, please "go out and buy the record"! If you are an artist, represent one, or are a songwriter/producer and would like your songs removed, I'll gladly do so (just let me know).
Today's interesting Twitter moment came from Sarah Dawn Finer, who mentioned that her original 2002 demo of "Not A Sinner Nor A Saint" would appear on the (amazing) upcoming Melodifestival boxset documenting the past ten year's of the contest.
