Showing posts with label Fernando Fuentes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fernando Fuentes. Show all posts

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.)