In love and it's so overrated

Newsbreak:

Mexican group Belanova's new single, "Nada de más," comes out August 2, apparently. You can listen to a clip below. It sounds pretty fantastic, but then again, I would expect nothing less for the lead single for their new album, Sueño Electro I.



Swedish singer Nanne's new album, En Rastlös Själ, comes out October 6. It's been preceded by the singles "Otacksamhet" and "I Natt Är Jag Din," with one more, the title track, to be released August 18. The cover of the album is at left and the single cover can be viewed here. Other upcoming Swedish albums you may be interested in: Darin's Lovekiller (August 18), Ola's new album (September 15--at least, that's what I read at one point, but Ola now says that it's only 28 days away), and Robyn's Body Talk Pt. II (September 6 internationally). You should be able to buy all those albums from Bengans, though Ola's album isn't listed yet and it probably makes more financial sense to buy Robyn's album from a music distributor in your home country.

The third proper single from the reformed a1, following on "Take You Home" and "Don't Wanna Lose You Again," is "In Love And I Hate It." It's out August 4 in Norway, but the group has been performing it live recently. If you want an advance feel for what it sounds like, here's one such performance.

You know "Champagne Lemonade," that great new song from upcoming British singer Ed Drewett which I wrote about a month ago? It's co-written by Tim Powell of Xenomania. Now we know why it's so buzzily fun. Unusually, for a song coming from a member of Xenomania that we actually get to hear, its only authors are Tim and Ed.

Give you love in America

Twitter-worthy newsbites, some of which actually have appeared on Twitter:

EDITED! Clips Full versions (I'm listening to them as I write this) of several Le Kid songs previously unheard by everyone outside of a select few--"Escape," "America," and "We Are The Drums"--are streaming here full versions here (as well as one full new song, "Seventeen"). The poppy technicolor Swedish group's upcoming debut album is one to watch out for in a big way this year. These new songs are...dreamier than I expected, but in a good way. My guess is these are still demos, but they could very well be the final versions. In other Le Kid news, it looks like "Mercy Mercy" was at some point set for a release late this past December but then canceled--pushed back, I presume. Embedded below are the lovely clips of "Escape" and "America," which I cannot wait to buy and hear in their full versions (edit: you can stream the full versions here, as I said above); in terms of music tone, they kind of remind me of Gwen Stefani's "Cool" and the restrained disco princess side of Kylie, mixed with the best parts of the radio edit of MissMatch's "Breathe In Breathe Out" (which members of the group wrote). Edit: I couldn't help myself--I'm also embedding the clip of the somewhat spunkier "We Are The Drums." The verses kind of have a RedOne-meets-the-Ting-Tings feel, but the song is much better than that makes it sound. Could summer get here quickly, please?

"Escape" (it sounds like this cuts out just before the song fully takes off)



"America"



"We Are The Drums"


(If you haven't listened to swooshy, harder-hitting dance-pop "Telephone" or summery "Mercy Mercy" yet, this is definitely the time to do so.)

Via the latest issue of QX (via in turn Schlagerprofilerna), Linda Bengtzing's upcoming single "Victorious" is a Melodifestival reject and features Velvet. To be honest, as "oh my gosh, Swedish pop princesses colliding!" as that news is, I'd kind of prefer an all-Linda single, but that's just being picky.

As covered by Planet Salem, Chart Rigger, and Scandipop, I'm enjoying Staygold's new single "Backseat Love." The Prince-reminiscent song mainly features vocals from future Melodifestival contestant Salem al Fakir (disguised and under the alias Damien Adore), but in the live performance at the P3 Guld Awards, Robyn stepped in to provide the female vocals usually done by Lady Tigra.



We've finally heard a couple of songs from the reformed-and-featuring-in-a-reality-TV-series Swedish girl group Play. Modern sounding pop, insistent single "Famous" and its sparkly b-side "Girls" have caught my ear, although we'll see if they have lasting power; the problem with much of the output of Janet Leon (one of the artists featured in last year's season of said show) was that, though it took its leads from where pop is at now, many of the songs sounded anonymous over the long run.

In belated news, I've only just noticed that "DESTROY! DESTROY!", just possibly Swedish group DYNO's best song from what we've heard so far, is streaming in a quality better than what you can hear at MySpace over on their Facebook page, accessible whether or not you have an account. Synthy pop-rock that is very much worth your time on every level. Go over the #1 Hits From Another Planet to hear "Above & Beyond."

Speaking of synths, Xenomania-backed British singer Alex Gardner debuted the soulful singer-songwriter over synths sound via the full version of his debut single "I'm Not Mad" getting played on the radio recently; check out Xenomania News for instructions on listening to it or here for a clip. I've been a bit nervous about this project living up to this potential and now find myself in the strange situation of feeling unsure that "I'm Not Mad" is all I wanted it to be while simultaneously playing it much more than I expected. I've been wondering recently if Xenomania's output in the past year or so has always succeeded as matching up a great instrumental to a great vocal part (with, in general, the instrumentals exceeding the vocal melody, but at least not really fitting together), and "I'm Not Mad" kind of enhances the differentiation even more. Still, the song has gone straight into frequent rotation on my iPod, so I must really like it.

There's a low quality recording of Nanne performing her new single "I Natt Är Jag Din" here. The song sounds to have the production style you'd expect from Nanne (flirting with electro-rock), but I'm still not totally convinced. Sanna Nielsen's mid-tempo Celine Dion-like "Devotion," meanwhile, is proving with time to be more enjoyable than my original "OK" rating would indicate. It could still use a better ending, though.

Anything she wants

One of the best things to happen recently for those of us who love Swedish music is Cutting Room's decision to open a blog documenting all the work they're doing, mainly on the technical production side of music (like mastering). They've been the first place to go to read about new singles from Nanne (a cover of Tomas Ledin's "I nätt ar jag din"), Linda Bengtzing ("Victorious"--so it's in English?!), Brolle ("Anything She Wants"), and many others. If you're not checking the site regularly, I recommend starting to do so now (though I've also been tweeting some of the highlights).

Hold on just for a while

A few notes on artist and songwriter-related subjects:

Martin Stenmarck's upcoming album, I Septemberland, features five songs from the team at Swedish music publishing and production company TEN (A*Teens, Amy Diamond, Erik Hassle). In this case, though, the songs don't seem to be by the Tysper/Grizzly/Mack team (who in addition to the aforementioned successes have also been the creators of Industry's "My Baby's Waiting" and VV Brown's "Shark In The Water") but rather by Elof Loelv and Kim Wennerström, who also worked with Erik Hassle and produced Malena Ernman's "La Voix." Kim is also a member of the band DYNO and Elof has worked with them (if you're not already a fan, now's the time to fall in love with them; they're overdue a post here, but in the meantime, check out coverage on #1 Hits From Another Planet and Don't Stop The Pop), who are now under TEN's wings. Anyway, I wouldn't expect a change in Martin's style, but hopefully this is a good sign in terms of quality meeting accessibility. The song titles TEN is involved with are:

I Septemberland
Gråa Hjärtans Sång
Happy Ending
Jag Vill, Jag Vill, Jag Vill
J, Jeff och Jesus

Kris Allen apparently wrote some songs with Eg White (Will Young's "Leave Right Now," "Who Am I," "Let It Go," "I Won't Give Up," "Tell Me The Worst," James Morrison's "You Give Me Something," Adele) for his upcoming debut major label album. The tracklisting isn't finalized yet, so it's uncertain which if any will make the cut.

(Side note: the first tastes of Adam Lambert's new music is out, but it's a non-album power ballad, "Time For Miracles," for the 2012 soundtrack and is apparently not indicative of the sound of the album. Oh, and Dr. Luke recently mentioned he was adding retro synths to a song for Adam--I'm hoping he means Van Halen's "Jump"-style synths.)

Bosson released a greatest hits collection this past summer. Did anyone else not know that? A quick glance at the tracklisting doesn't show any new songs beyond a version of "One In A Million" featuring Elizma Theron. I hope he releases new material soon...and that it's more like his older songs, not like "Wake Up." He's friends with Twentyfive Productions (Lisette Vares, Danny's "I Need To Know") on MySpace, which could mean they just produced the new version of "One In A Million" or he's working on them with new stuff.

As Paul of Fizzy Pop and PopMuse have written, the video for Will Young's new single, "Hopes & Fears," is out. It's a great song, one of those gentle mid/up-tempo hybrids that just makes you feel better about the day.

Seven of the songs on Magnus Carlsson's upcoming album Pop Galaxy are by Pitchline (Velvet's "Take My Body Close" and "Come Into The Night" and a song with Elin Lanto that I still hope to hear some day--speaking of which, Scandipop has great Elin news about a new single and possible participation in a certain music festival).

Kleerup, Natasha Bedingfield, and newcomer Jonas Myrin (you might know him best as the male mannequin in Sophie Ellis-Bextor's "Get Over You" video) all worked on a song together--presumably for Natasha. It was such a surprising combination that I had to mention it.

James Morrison has a new single, "Get To You," coming out to promote the rerelease of his second album, Songs For You, Truths For Me. It's produced by Mark Taylor, the same man who produced "Broken Strings," his excellent duet with Nelly Furtado, as well as many, many other songs. It's not quite as great as that earlier single, but it's good.

Nanne's great recent single "Otacksamhet" was co-written and co-produced by '80s Swedish popstar Paul Rein. Given how much I ADORE the Epicentre-penned "Kom Hit," on which Nanne duets with Paul, I'm thinking they should collaborate more often.

I'm sure all the hardcore Agnes fans already knew this, but half of Agnes's demo version of "Say Love," the song which eventually ended up being released by Sandra, is streaming in the music section of the website of the song's cowriters, Epicentre's Anders Wikström and Fredrik Thomander.

We had it all, but we lost it somehow

Bringing you cutting-edge news from...um, August 11:

No Måns Zelmerlöw in Melodifestivalen 2008

:(

(Though technically he does say "maybe" [he claims he wants to wait since following up a song as great as "Cara Mia" one year after it came out would be really difficult] and he does say when he comes back--he's thinking 2009--he wants it to be with a song like "Cara Mia.")

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Nanne's said no in regards to 2008 as well.

(2008 sounds like it has the potential to be a great year, though, given all the people said to be considering competing.)

Kom hit!

In the ongoing periodic series of insomniac posts, I bring you a song from a new album. Does anyone else think it's strange iTunes is selling Nanne Grönvall's new album a week before it's supposed to be released? Oh well--in a classic case of impulse buying, I just bought it. I've written before about how much I love her--that should be taken with a grain of salt, because my knowledge of her work is limited, but I love what I know. I was sort of disappointed with her Melodifestivalen entry this year--it just felt too "unplugged" and lacked a certain oomph. However...

Kom hit--can someone please tell me if this is a cover? If it is (and it's probably a cover of some classic that I should definitely know but don't), I want to hear the original, and if it's not, I want to bask in how great and refreshing this song is. For some reason, it just feels like it could be a cover--it's not quite what I think of as Nanne's usual style (though she's done some style-hopping) and the album does include a cover of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," after all. Anyhow, I really don't know if this is the best song on the album because I made the mistake of listening to it first and now every time I start to listen to something else, I end up skipping back to this; if nothing else, then, it's probably the most immediate. "Kom hit" is not the intense side of Nanne--far from it; it's light and fun...and has synths! Synths! I was never expecting those, but I love them! There's a lot of singing by a guy--it's still Nanne's song, don't worry, but I'm surprised it's not labeled as a duet or "featuring." In addition to the synths, the song also feels retro (another reason for my initial question). I love the chorus, I love how so many of Nanne's titles are or are like commands ("Kom hit" means "Come Here," and, given how it's sung, that really should be "Come Here!"; the title of her Melodifestivalen song this year meant "I Must Kiss You" and her 2005 entry meant something like "Hold Me"), and I love this song in general.

To preorder Nanne's new album Jag Måste Kyssa Dig, go here (physical). If you can't wait, though, or want to buy it for less, iTunes is selling it now; for example, if you live in the U.S., go here.

Next up: maybe that French song, finally.

Show me what it takes

Very stop-start so far...hopefully it all improves...Jessica vs. Elin up first.

Edit: I basically saw Elin's performance as a series of still images, so I can't judge...and now Anna Book is saying something about her...looked good, though!

Edit: and now the Ark are speaking about Jessica. Oh, Jessica, you might not have been comfortable in those hotpants last year, but did you have to go in the complete opposite direction? What is that shirt?

Edit: between these two, I'm not sure that it makes a huge difference to me...I think I might give Elin the edge, in terms of my preference, but it's very up in the air. I sort of have a sentimental attachment to Jessica.

Edit: ...and Jessica's through to the next round of this second chance thing! She was too cute holding that stuffed tiger, so I'm happy with this, too.

Edit: Jimmy vs. Sanna now...ooo, it's like Grease! They're going to race! I should support Sanna here, and I love her song, but I just love Jimmy's song more...he's who I'm rooting for.

Edit: yup, I still adore that song; even now, when I hear it I feel a strong desire to start bouncing around the room. It's so exactly what I love!

Edit...ohh, but I do love Sanna's song, too; both are in my top 10. My two favorites in the second chance round, and they're up against each other; can't we just send them both through instead?

Edit: Sanna's through--no surprise, and I am happy for her, but Jimmy's song is just so fun! I'm hoping she beats Jessica and goes to the Globen. Next up is Uno & Irma vs. Sonja, and I'm definitely hoping Sonja wins this; her ballad is so much better than Uno & Irma's.

Edit: there is something endearing about Uno & Irma's song, but--ooo, now Sonja's singing a Shirley song! And the audience is clapping along! See, people want her back!

Edit: Sonya through--good! I'm not sure who I want to win out of Magnus Uggla vs. Nanne--I think Nanne, though; and if I want Nanne to win, do I want her to beat Sonya? I'm not sure...I think so, but hmm...

Edit: Nanne and Magnus are playing chess--I think Nanne's the U.S. and Magnus is the Soviet Union?

Edit: Nanne's just performed, and--ooo! Now Mans is talking about Nanne. I love Mans's song--it's what I'm hoping wins the whole thing.

Edit: I just live this middle marchy bit of Magnus's song. And he really puts on a great show.

Edit: Magnus through. There will be some very unhappy people out there. I think I would've preferred Nanne, but I'm not hugely angry about it.

Edit: I've only ever seen Jessica's performance when the stream was very stop-start, so I've never noticed how she rips the tie off a man and then he takes it and puts it back on--I guess they didn't want her dancing around with a tie or something lying on the floor to interfere with strutting! I should be hoping for Sanna win more than I am--I want her to win, I think, but not as much as I expected.

Edit: lost my stream...and just when I was getting all optimistic about it staying.

Edit:...it's back! For the end of Sanna's performance.

Edit: some clips from the past--maybe past second chancers in the final? We get to see Barbados with Magnus, Alcazar, Bubbles, and Shirley Clamp, among others.

Edit: clips continue--oh my gosh, "Alcastar"! "Alla flickor"! Also, Magnus Backlund and Rednex. Yup, I'm pretty sure this is past second chance contestants' performances. I'm feeling all nostalgic now.

Edit: Sonja's just performed. Who do I want to win out of her and Magnus? I have no idea.

Edit: the host is smelling Jessica and Sanna now--weird! Just tell us who's made it.

Edit: nope, not telling us yet; Magnus is performing.

Edit: I've decided Magnus is too dangerous in the finals--I want Sonja to win this round.

Edit: great performance from Magnus again, and it is a fun song, but I hold to what I said--hopefully Sonja would just further split the ballad votes in the final, whereas I can see Magnus doing quite well. And if I want Mans to win, the less competition, the better.

Edit: Sanna through to the final!

Edit: and Sonja through! I'm surprised, but pleasantly so! Good for her.

Make me believe you

After a night of barely being able to sleep because I kept feeling compelled to go listen to the songs from this semifinal, I've reached a few conclusions.

My two absolute favorites that I'm desperate to see do well are definitely Magnus and Måns. Their songs are both bounce-around-the-room-like-a-crazy-person tunes that are instantly amazing (I know, now I'm overusing that word more than last year's Eurovision hosts) and I've run out of adjectives to describe them.

After that, I think my favorite is the Attic feat. Therese, though I don't expect it to do too well. Still, in my dream world, it would make it to the second chance round. The second second chance slot--well, I'd probably give it to Sebastian, just narrowly beating out Nanne, but, with performances, I'm sure Nanne will deserve to do very well.

Some random news about some Melodifestivalen contestants:

Jimmy Jansson and Sebastian have both updated their sites and have albums coming out in early March, both I've which I'm planning on buying. Jimmy's got a bunch of pictures on it (not necessarily new), but I think this one is the classiest:


Sebastian's new album is going to be called The Vintage Virgin (really?) and he'll be previewing some of the songs from it on his site.

Also on the subject of photos, this is definitely my favorite one of Måns:


So, anyhow, Magnus and Måns! Please, Sweden! I'm most worried about Måns--I could see him not even making it to the second chance, but, based on song along, he unquestionably deserves to be in the final, as does Magnus. Their songs--I can't even express how good they are.

All the stars in heaven will shine for me

Ohhhh, yes. It is on. At this rate, this semifinal is going to be better than the actual final. The songs...they're amazing. I'll update in just a couple of minutes.

I am incredibly impressed. All predictions were that this was going to be the best semifinal round, and so far it easily is, but I had no idea it was going to be this good. Wow. In no particular order, the best:

Magnus (opening with Bosson-esque "ohh"'s, this song is so good. It's fast, it's poppy, it's got everything you could possibly want in a song. My favorite of the round, I think, though there's so much quality here that title could end up shifting around a lot, but this was the song I found myself wanting to listen to while I was sitting around waiting for my computer to do some stuff, so it wins out for now. It's one of the favorites to make the final, and it better! To quote someone else, though--I can't remember who, or I'd cite it--it might be very Melodifestivalen but maybe not very Eurovision. I don't care, though--it's sensational. Really. I can't even begin to get across how good it is--just listen to it already!)

Nanne (I was a little worried at first because it's acoustic-sounding, but she is going to perform the heck out of this, I'm sure, which will really elevate the song. Catchy vocal part, catchy guitar, and some lovely orchestral-ish punctuation of the song...I just sort of wish it wasn't so acoustic. As I said, though, I'm sure my opinion of it will climb immensely when I see it performed--she's such a powerful performer and really makes you see how brilliant her songs are.)

Måns (I'm hoping Mans does really well with this song and then decides that he wants to continue with this musical direction, as opposed to the "singer-songwriter" direction he's threatening. Nanne's a singer-songwriter, too, but I suspect he means something less fun, and this song is AMAZING. He's probably singing "When someone loves like I do, dreams can true," but to me it sounds like "When someone looks like I do, dreams can come true," and that's what I'm going to imagine he's saying instead. I'm not sure how well he'll perform it, but on quality of the song, I'd love this to at least make it to the second chance and the final from there. Please, Måns, release a full album of music like this! He seems a little emotionless at points, but oh gosh...I love this song. It starts out dark and slower, with Mans's voice muffled, but it breaks out into fantastic dance-pop. As if that wasn't great enough, out of nowhere, we get handclaps. Handclaps! Oh my gosh, is it good. It may, ignoring the performances, steal the title of my favorite from Magnus.)

Sebastian (ahh, this is great as well, up there with some of the best of his work. Don't let my lack of words here fool you--I love it as well.)

The Attic feat. Therese (it can't be a coincidence that this song opens up with a reference to "human rights" when the theme song for Melodifestivalen last year, also made by the Attic, was called "Human Rights," can it? Very clubby, very good. Even it fails to make the final--and I wonder if it being so clubby might hurt it--I don't know how it couldn't be a club hit...I love it a lot.)

MissMatch (these girls will probably be overlooked, cursed with being in the toughest semifinal and not being famous ahead of time, and I have a feeling a lot of Melodifestivalen fans might not like it, but I like it--I hope we hear more from them. It's a little rocky without being what I would necessarily call pop-rock. Plus, it's got panting.)

Sonja also has a beautiful ballad that is growing on me, but with this much amazing up-tempo stuff, there are so many other songs I'd rather see make it through. The Shieda song is nice enough, but can't compete when up against songs like these. You can listen to all the songs here.

Please, please, please let the stream work tomorrow! My hopes for the final and second chance--well, it's tough. I'm narrowly going to go Magnus and Nanne based on the reports that Nanne's performance easily tops everyone else's (otherwise--and I can't believe I'm saying this--it'd be questionable for me as to whether she should even make the second chance. Oh, saying that feels awful!), but Måns is close, and I definitely want him at least in the second chance and making it to the final out of there (or maybe in the final instead of Nanne...I love his song so much!). The second second chance spot--between Sebastian and the Attic feat. Therese, for me. There are five absolutely top-quality songs in this round, though, and it's such a shame more can't make it to the final. In fact, given the new structure of the second chance round, there's no way more than three songs from this semifinal will end up being in the final, which is ridiculous.

I'm in music paradise! I can't believe how great this round is. It really is going to be better than the final, I think.

I've waited tonight

My incomplete guide to this week's Melodifestivalen semifinal.

I'm far from an expert on Swedish pop, but I thought I'd give some brief background based on what I do know about the artists who'll be competing this Saturday. (If any of this is wrong or you know more, please let me know!) Since Melodifestivalen seems to take over this blog on the weekends, I thought some information ahead of time might be a good idea to give a better idea of what to expect and what's happening.

1.) Måns Zelmerlöw--a former competitor on Idol (he took fifth) and later the winner of Let's Dance, Sweden's version of Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing With The Stars, so, even though he's only twenty, he's practically a veteran of televised performance competitions. Originally, he wasn't going to be in Melodifestivalen, but after Agnes's (who beat him in Idol) song and another one were disqualified, he was called in. He's described his song, "Cara Mia," as danceable, with some ABBA and BWO influences, starting out sad but building up to something much happier. Enjoy it while you can, though, because he's also said his CD will be in a more singer-songwriter style.

To watch: he hasn't released any music yet, but you can watch him singing Roxette's "The Look" on Idol.



2.) MissMatch--I don't know anything about them except that they're made up of two girls--does anyone know more? All I've got from their Melodifestivalen profile is that they're best friends and neighbors. Their song is called "Drop Dead." Expressen compares them to t.A.T.u, though I'm not sure why, and there's a reference to schlager, though the girls do say they're not typical schlager.

3.) Magnus Carlsson--former Barbados and Alcazar member turned solo artist. He competed in Melodifestivalen last year (he's actually competed in it every year since 2000 except for 2004) with the great "Lev Livet" (one of the three happiest songs of last year), making it to the finals and placing eighth. I think I've heard that there's been a lot of positive buzz around his song this year, "Live Forever," which he's said is '80's-ish (he compared it to a-ha, among other things), happy, and fast, and has said it's typical of his upcoming album (which he's also said will be pop and disco).

To watch: his performance of "Lev Livet" at Melodifestivalen 2006



4.) Shieda--I don't know anything about this group--does anyone? Their song is called "I mina drömmar" and, from what I can understand from their Melodifestivalen profile, is sung in three languages. From what I can understand from Expressen, their song is "ethnic" or "world" music.

5.) The Attic feat. Therese--the Attic released a brilliant album last year which they described as pop-house, and that's about right. They've been around for longer than that, though, releasing singles and remixing songs for other artists, and they made the music for Lena Philipsson's entrances at Melodifestivalen 2006 (she was the host). Therese, too, does really danceable music; she might be most famous for "Put 'Em High," which she did with Stonebridge, but her song "Time" is also great. Together listed as "The Attic feat. Therese," they'll be singing "The Arrival."

To watch (for the Attic): or actually, don't...just let it play so you can hear the music, but it's a typical dance video featuring a bunch of scantily clad women...which is a shame, because a truly brilliant song like this one deserves so much more. The album version is much better than this video mix, too (that quiet part in the middle doesn't exist). You don't see the two members of the Attic until the end, in the police line up.



To watch (for Therese): the music video for "Time."



6.) Sebastian--a former Idol contestant, he's a little bit of a rocker and was in the same season as Måns, ultimately placing second. He released a debut single that I couldn't stand ("Do What You're Told") but followed it up with the good "Indifferent" and the excellent (as in, one of the best singles of last year/this year) lead single for his new album, "Words And Violence." At the rate his singles are improving, his song for Melodifestivalen, "When The Night Comes Falling," should be absolutely out of this world. However, if I'm understanding his interview in Expressen correctly, he compares the song to Bruce Springsteen circa 1975, and I think it's also saying a lot of people have criticized it, but I could be completely wrong.

To watch: his live performance of "Words And Violence" on the Idol 2006 finale (not the season he was competing in).



7.) Sonya--or Sonja Aldén, as I guess she is going by. She used to be one of Shirley Clamp's backup singers. Sonya competed in Melodifestivalen 2006 with "Etymon," but didn't make it out of the semifinals. She also co-wrote the Poodles' fourth-placed "Night Of Passion." She's contrasted her song this year, "För att du finns," with "Etymon," saying that while the latter was energetic and wild, this year's is calm and will contrast with the many uptempo songs she's up against; it's a lighters-in-the-air sort of song, according to her. The co-writer of her song also worked on "Etymon," Carola's "Invincible," Shirley Clamp's "Min kärlek," and Alcazar's "Not A Sinner, Nor A Saint," among other songs.

To watch: her Melodifestivalen 2006 performance of "Etymon."



8.) Nanne Grönvall--brilliant and maybe crazy, Nanne's competed in Melodifestivalen a bunch of times, sometimes as part of a group and sometimes solo, and also tried to represent the UK once, too. In 2005, she was the viewer favorite with "Håll om mig", but the jury's votes were enough to give Martin Stenmarck the win. Her song this year is "Jag måste kyssa dig," which means "I Must Kiss You." She's definitely one of the contestants to beat, and with good reason; given her history in Melodifestivalen, her performance is sure to be entertaining and her song should be great.

To watch: her Melodifestivalen 2005 performance of "Håll om mig."



Sources: Moopy, ESC Today (1, 2), Catchy Tunes Of Sweden, Wikipedia, SVT's Melodifestivalen site, Expressen. A huge thanks to all of these sites!

Pulsen slår, jag ser din blick

I promise I'll post something less well known soon, but I'm so excited about Melodifestivalen that I can't really think about anything else at the moment.

I've mentioned before how much I love Martin Stenmarck, and he comes off really well in the live performances of his I've watched--sweet and fun; take, for example, his performance after winning Melodifestivalen--but "Las Vegas" is not one of his best moments (though, to be fair, it has grown on me over time). I don't quite understand why it won in 2005, especially when you had performances like Nanne Grönvall's that year. She's entered Melodifestivalen a bunch of times, sometimes as part of a group and sometimes by herself, and will be competing in it again this year; she's in the third semifinal which, judging by the fact that even I recognize the names of a lot of people competing in it, looks really tough. If she gives a performance like the one she did in 2005, though, I don't know how she could fail to make the final.



Håll om mig--this song itself is great--strong and catchy--but, as with a lot of Melodifestivalen songs, you'll enjoy it so much more if you watch the performance of it. Nanne seriously does everything right, and then some; if I was competing in Melodifestivalen, this is exactly the sort of performance I'd want to give. The beat (those guitars and drums), the dancers, the wind machines, the choreography, the dress--all perfect. I'm sort of left without words, actually, but it's the sort of song perfect for strutting, and, though I doubt any of us is going to be able to rival Nanne in that department, you might just find yourself fighting the urge to try.

To buy Nanne Grönvall's album Alltid på väg, go here (physical) or here (digital; it's also available on iTunes; her name there is listed just as "Nanne").

Next up: maybe I'll be able to break away from my Melodifestivalen fixation...but I wouldn't count on it.