It's beginning to look like whoever's managing Elin Lanto now is serious about turning her into a real "serious" popstar, of a whole different sort from what we knew her as. The promo pictures for her single were the first clue...
...but the thing that prompted this post? The video for "Speak 'n Spell" comes out on Monday.
The question is, will it be popstar making material or just a desperate attempt at a new more mature, less girl-next-door image? A reinvention like this is fantastic if you can do it, but very difficult to pull off, and right now I'm worried we'll end up with a case of the latter, though I'm hoping for the former (how exciting would that be?). I guess we'll find out Monday.
The fourth and final semifinal of Melodifestivalen is this coming Saturday; after that, they'll be a second chance round (Andra Chansen), at which various third and fourth place finishers from all the semifinals are matched up head-to-head in a knockout format until it's narrowed down to two, at which point those two will go to the final, which will take place the week after that. In other words, we've got three Saturdays left of Melodifestivalen: one for the fourth semifinal, one for Andra Chansen, and one for the final. For now, though, here are the artists for this week's semifinal, which is looking to be really tough. Same disclaimer as usual about all this information, and as usual, feel free to correct me or add things!
1.) Niklas Strömstedt, "For många ord om kärlek"(Too Many Words About Love) This week's joker, Niklas Strömstedt has a music career dating back to the '80's. I guess you could say he's a mature singer-songwriter sort, though some of the songs from his most recent album (from 2001) are kind of lightly poppy (or could be made sort of poppy with minimal changes), from the little I've heard of his work. On the plus side, he did co-write Magnus Carlsson's 2006 entry "Lev Livet!" (as well as Christer Björkman's winning entry in 1992). He says "For många ord om kärlek" is uptempo. He also says the song is a little more pop than schlager and kind of '70's-influenced. Niklas has a new album, Två vagar, coming out March 19.
To watch: well, YouTube doesn't give us too many options, so let's got with this montage set to his 1990 hit "Om"
2.) Calaisa, "If I Could" Calaisa is a female country-pop group made up of two sets of sisters. They released their self-titled debut album in 2006, preceded by the sweetly-sung single "Hey Girl." The official description of the song says that it's a ballad about losing someone near to you and wanting to do something to get them back. They've been working on a second album.
To watch: the video for their single "Hey Girl"
3.) Daniel Mitsogiannis, "Pame" Ooo, now here's a brand new artist whose song I'm very interested to hear! Granted, Fredrik Kempe--who, among other songs, wrote last year's "Cara Mia"--says that out of his tracks in this year's contest, Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" is his favorite, but I still have hopes that "Pame" will be good. In fact, speaking of "Cara Mia," Daniel sang on the demo version of that last year (as well as the originally English demo of Mathias Holmgren's "Långt bortom tid och rum" from 2005), making me even more hopeful of a similar revelation from "Pame" this year--though I'm trying not to let my expectations get too high. Also, apparently he and Måns sang it differently, which doesn't mean his version was necessarily worse but does mean maybe we shouldn't expect a Måns redux here...then again, Henrik Wikström, the other writer, describes the song as "'Cara Mia' with ethnic influences." As you might have guessed from the title, "Pame" has Greek influences (apparently it means "Let's go" or something like that); it's also said to be uptempo and danceable (Daniel says it's "happy, speedy, and explosive" and like a male version of Helena Paparizou). In terms of not particularly relevant or useful information, Daniel already has an official site set up in a similar style to those of Charlotte Perrelli and Linda Bengtzing--does he have management that have a lot of faith in the song or did he just hire the same people himself?
To watch: I can't find any videos of him singing whatsoever, so let's just watch the first performance of "Cara Mia" from last year again. It's still a rush. You know, I've really enjoyed this year, but now that I'm thinking about it, has any song really got me as excited as "Cara Mia" did? I have a feeling, though, that I'll get that this week, and hopefully from the song up next...
4.) Linda Bengtzing, "Hur svårt kan det va?"(How Difficult Can It Be?) Oh Sweden--I'm begging you: I need Linda in the final. As absolutely exciting as it is to have so many upsets going on, it worries me greatly for this round. Linda participated in Fame Factory, but her real establishment as a singer came with 2005's "Alla Flickor," a schlager song which may very well be the best song ever--a statement which would be easier to get away with if her followup 2006 entry "Jag ljuger så bra" wasn't so close in quality that it's easy to prefer it depending on the day. She released an album as well in 2006, and in 2007 she had a huge hit in Sweden in the form of her and Markoolio's jokey "Värsta Schlagern." Her entry this year is by the same people that gave us "Alla Flickor" and her second single "Diamanter" (and who have also worked on her upcoming album), among a bunch of other great songs. It was also originally described as being influenced by '60's schlager (there was also one early reference to it being a little bit like "Grace Kelly," but before everyone starts going into conniptions, that seems doubtful and I've heard absolutely nothing to make that sound accurate since), but all recent writing about it has referred to it as sounding very modern but being a "classic schlager" (so yes, it has a key change). Linda says the song is a girl singing to a guy about how he's stupid for not realizing she's the best thing that's ever happened to him. I have absolute faith in this track being completely a-maz-ing and March 19, the release date of her new album, Vild & Galen, cannot get here soon enough. Fact: Linda's on the cover of at least two weekly or monthly magazines in Sweden this month--please let that be an indication of her popularity in Sweden...
To watch: her performance of "Jag ljuger så bra" at the 2006 final
5.) Nordman, "I lågornas sken"(In The Flame's Light) Eek. I wish we could just take Nordman (who in their 2005 semifinal qualified directly to the final, while Alcazar and Linda Bengtzing had to go to Andra Chansen) out of this heat--I don't want them as a threat to my favorites. Sigh. Maybe I'm being kind of unfair here, but I just don't go in for gruff male voices, a fact that makes it difficult for me to appreciate Nordman's work. The writers of "I lågornas sken" did give us Jessica Andersson's "Kom" and Magnus Backlund's "The Name Of Love"--not classics, but not songs to make you instantly reach for the mute button either (and I actually really like "The Name Of Love"). Still, whether or not the writers call this a pop song and Nordman say it's "more schlager" (really? That doesn't fit with what I know of their work at all), I'm having trouble mustering much enthusiasm for a song that was stirring up controversy for its stage performance including the simulation of a witchburning onstage--it's not so much the act I'm upset with as I can't really imagine a song I like being conducive to that performance. Then again, the band do claim that it will be "beautiful and dramatic"--who knows, maybe it'll be a fantastic bombastic song (I wouldn't bet on it, to say the least). For the sake of the other songs in this heat, though, I'm almost hoping not. They've got a new album coming out March 12.
To watch: oddly enough, I can't find a video of their Melodifestival performance, but you can listen to the audio of it below, attached to a Lion King montage
6.) Sibel, "That Is Where I'll Go" 2007 gave us Sebastian and Måns (could have been Agnes) from the second season of Swedish Idol; 2008 brings us Ola and Sibel from the same season. Sibel finished third, behind Agnes and Sebastian, and will finally get a chance at commercial success with this power ballad. The song's writer says it's a big ballad about unconditional love. It starts out small and grows for the end and includes a lot of long high notes. For some reason, I see it as having a very good chance to do well. She (like seemingly most of the contestants this year) has an album due to come out this spring; it's called Diving Belle and comes out March 12.
To watch: her performance of (Niklas Stömstedt's) "Sista Morgonen" on Idol
7.) Fronda, "Ingen mår så bra som jåg"(No One Feels As Good As Me) 2007's Melodifestival saw two entries disqualified: first Agnes's, and then Fronda's, thus allowing Lustans Lakejer and Måns Zelmerlöw to enter the competition. Fronda's entry was disqualified because he sang the demo of it but he (/his record company) refused to sing it at the contest, at least not by himself (not all demo singers will go on to sing the song at Melodifestivalen, but SVT can choose to demand that the demo singer do so and disqualify the song if the demo singer refuses). This year, the rapper will be participating with a song that its writers describe as an uptempo party song with danceable rap beats and funny lyrics. Fronda adds that it's not a pure hip-hop track, more like "balkan-ska."
To watch: a montage (well, more like one photo) set to his song "En stor stark"
8.) Charlotte Perrelli, "Hero" ...or, as fans of Eurovision but not followers of Swedish music would know her as, Charlotte Nilsson. Charlotte was Eurovision in 1999 singing "Take Me To Your Heaven," and she's released four albums since then (if you like your upbeat schlager, her Gone Too Long album has some songs you'll definitely want to hear), with another one (in English) due out this April (which she says she wants to promote beyond Sweden). Charlotte hasn't entered Melodifestivalen since winning it in 1999, though it's often been rumored she'd be participating; her decision to finally enter again this year has a lot of people thinking her song must be something very special--and with the writers it has, that's a very strong possibility: Fredrik Kempe and Bobby Ljunggren (who's been involved in way too many Melodifestival songs to list here). The official description of "Hero" says it's a dance and rock song, and it's also been said to be uptempo, have a great chorus and a really good beat, and be a modern pop song, not "Take Me To Your Heaven" part II. Charlotte says it tells a good story and is an uptempo dance-pop song that is a little bit rockier than "Take Me To Your Heaven" (though she points out that "rockier" is relative and she'll still be doing schlager songs), and will be a good way to establish her "new style." The performance involves a lot of dancing and girls in 10 cm tall heels, and the song has been said to be a potential winner of the whole contest as well as a great song that only gets better with each listen.
To watch: well, I could embed her winning performance of "Take Me To Your Heaven," but let's go with something more recent, a performance of her most recent single (but not the most recent of songs), the schlager-disco-pop "Jag är tillbaks"
It's easy for me to make my "who do I want to go through without having heard the songs" decision this week: Linda--I'm so worried for her; she has to make it--and Charlotte to the final. The trouble is, I can see all too many potential threats from the other contestants that could prevent that from happening.
Incidentally, in March and April we're getting new albums from Linda, Charlotte, and Sanna?! Now if only Lena Philipsson would release something new, it'd be pretty much the perfect year.
In a side note related to this past Saturday's semifinal, I read online--well, why don't I just quote it, but this is all [sic]:
"Currently he [Oscar Görres] is composing and producing a record for the artist Therese Andersson performing under the name Evan. Therese Andersson is also classically schooled and sings in the genre pop/ballad."
Now, Oscar's not Evan (he co-wrote some songs on Danny's album and co-wrote Donal Skehan's "Double Cross My Heart" and LoveShy's "Mr. Gorgeous") nor is Therese, so I have no idea what to make of that, but it's at least nice to know that a record is in the works. Therese also said in an interview that Pay TV are still working on their album, though if her solo album comes out at the rate of that album, we'll still be waiting for it in 2010. Once again going off on a tangent, Oscar Görres's official site that I linked to above allows you (in the "Media" section) to listen to a clip of a Danny song called "Alive" (it's also on his MySpace). Song they wrote together but that didn't make the cut? Song that was reworked into a song that eventually made the album? I've got no idea (though if it's really obvious or something please let me know!).
While Sweden was having its third semifinal last night, a lot of countries were having their finals. Some great songs were knocked out (Poland [though once I get a chance to properly listen I may end up thinking Isis Gee's entry is fine--not something I'll love, but fine], Romania, Ireland--though I still haven't caught up on the live performances there), but luckily we did get some real gems out of the night.
Iceland chose Eurobandið's "This Is My Life" as their entry to Eurovision--yay! I'm so happy for them, and really hope they do well on the night; the song is great (even if you think the original arrangement was better, I'd argue this version is still easily one of the better songs chosen so far), the singers can sing, and Iceland is well overdue for some good results, considering the great songs they've generally given us recently. Not only that, but the styling was finally approaching something reasonable--thank goodness they had three tries to get it right. Fridrik's outfit kind of reminds me of someone, though I can't place who...
Ukraine chose a stomping pop song that had a great performance. Ani Lorak is apparently a major popstar over there, which I love to see, and she was preselected as the singer for Ukraine--last night was dedicated to choosing which song she would sing. "Shady Lady" won--ignore the sketchy title, it's a great hard-hitting pop song with a performance that makes up for anything that might be pedestrian about the song.
I've still not made up my mind about Bulgaria yet. Deep Zone and Balthazar's ravey (in parts) "DJ, Take Me Away" won there. It's definitely a different sort of sound for Eurovision.
I've been meaning to write about Ireland's national selection for ages now; I've got pre-hearing and post-hearing the song posts sitting as drafts at the moment--in the latter one, I tried to acknowledge everything Dustin the Turkey's song does right and that I can totally see it appealing to certain types of taste...before saying that I absolutely can't stand it. Forget that trying to be understanding, though--I know Dustin's ridiculously favored to win to the extent that we can say he's virtually unstoppable (Dustin's odds are 2/9; the candidate with the next best odds is at 5/1), but I still can't help featuring--and hoping against hope that Ireland votes for it--Donal Skehan's song "Double Cross My Heart."
Donal's a known and unabashed fan of Melodifestivalen (as well as Eurovision itself), and yes, you can really hear that in his entry (which also has two Swedish co-writers, in addition to an American co-writer), and yes, I'm a known fan of that sound so I have an automatic increased likelihood of liking "Double Cross My Heart," but it really is fantastic. It could be argued that it's generic, by numbers, or not that good, but I'd disagree--I think the rhythm of the last two lines of the chorus ("Double cross me/Double cross my heart") gives it a unique punch and makes it really catchy.
Plus, doesn't he seem like the sort of person you want to go stalk Swedish popstars with? Look, he's already met and/or interviewed a bunch of them!
What really matters is the song, though, and "Double Cross My Heart" is fantastic, a catchy uptempo pop song with a little bit of a dance beat running underneath (though no more so than, say, "Brother Oh Brother" does) and (with performances unseen) easily my favorite in Ireland's selection tonight.
I'm pretty excited at the moment--after what seems like ages and really must be something like 10 months since Turnaround introduced it to me, I finally finally finally have (a non-MySpace rip of) Jonathan Fagerlund's song "Playing Me," which I've been in love with from the first listen. Back when he released his debut single, "Angeline," I made it my song of the day but didn't post it because his label had done such a fantastic job of making it easy for international customers to buy--in addition to being able to buy a physical copy of it, customers could get it from any country's iTunes stores or Klicktrack without region restrictions--and I really wanted him to do as well as possible. His brand new single "Playing Me" is still available to international customers if you want to buy the physical single, but digitally it's restricted just to Swedish customers. With that in mind, I am going to post it, but only for a short time; for people outside of Sweden, importing singles is just ridiculously cost prohibitive, but I don't want to risk hurting sales for him (though admittedly that's unlikely), since he's still trying to establish himself. Anyway, back to Jonathan, in case you missed my earlier posts on him, he's a former member of an ill advised Lou Pearlman-managed boy band, but he left (good call) and is now pursuing a solo career. He's young, younger than a usually like my popstars being, but if the songs are great enough, I'm more than willing to make an exception, and so far, his are.
Playing Me--perfect boy pop. Perfect teen pop? Mmm...better just to say perfect pop--or maybe even better to say that it's perfect pop for me. It's difficult for me to avoid getting all hyperbolic about this song because it's exactly the sort of music I adore; it does everything I could've wanted it to do without feeling by numbers at all. "Playing Me" may be made up of lots of non-"real instruments," but at the least it's supposed to sound like it isn't--not in the sense that this is guitar pop or anything, but in that it's going for a fuller, more fleshed-out sound. "Playing Me" is soaring uplifting catchy Swedish pop (yes, it may not have happy uplifting lyrics, but that's exactly the right word to describe the melody), complete with strings, and I love it with every bit of my heart. Could you tell?
To buy Jonathan Fagerlund's single "Playing Me" (he's credited just as "Jonathan" on it), go here (physical).
Next up: Melodifestivalen! Though at some point I do want to write about that national final I alluded to--which, interestingly enough, includes another former member of that boy band and a friend of Jonathan's.
I'm sure it'll all be sorted out soon, and the other clips must be there too.
Edit: scratch that, it's all fixed now; all the clips are up here. Thoughts (probably) in a bit.
Edit again: yay Patrik Isaksson! I was hoping he'd come through...and from the sounds of that clip, he did. BWO were right that their song isn't "Temple Of Love" part II--it's not a stomper like that song (that's just not the feel it's going for, but I have a feeling that will cause some people to feel let down by it)--and I really get why all the Madonna "Sorry"/"Hung Up" comparisons were coming from, though it reminds me of something else I can't place too. Anyway, I like "Lay Your Love On Me" but oddly don't want to say more at the moment--I want to hear the rest of the song before I decided what level of excitement I'm going to be at about it--is it worth over the top freaking out about or is it "just" a great song (because at the very least it's that)? Frida and Headline's "Upp o. Hoppa" is so summery and fun sounding that I can't help but be won over by it; the review that said you'll want to sing and dance along with it was totally right. It doesn't really sound like a Melodifestival song at all, though, and I'm not expecting it to win a lot of votes on the night (or to win over a lot of fans, for that matter). Caracola's song is also summery and upbeat, though with a completely different feel--highly produced campy girl group pop-schlager--arguably trashy but good. I'm not really a fan of opera (yes, I know I just wrote about liking Fredrik Kempe), but I think I like-to-really-like Thérèse Andersson's song...I'm at least intrigued by it, and could easily end up loving it and seeing it as some sort of "revelation." Ainbusk's clip starts out kind of typical ballad-y, but I really like the last five seconds; I need to hear more of the song to really know my feelings on it. Eskobar's song isn't as "big" as I was hoping or expecting from them, so I'm kind of disappointed so far, but I want to hear more--maybe it gets bigger or punchier later; if it has a great big climax or sounds anthemic live, I could end up getting sucked in by it.
In fact, so far I'd say Mickey Huskic's song is the only one that doesn't leave me at least a little interested to hear more, that I don't have anything positive to say about. Based just on the clips, Eskobar and Ainbusk's entries are above that (significantly and easily) but below the others, I think. Thérèse would be above them, and then I'd have (in no particular order) Patrik, BWO, Caracola, and Frida in my top four. That could easily change, though--Thérèse could challenge those entries, as could the songs on the rung below Therese's song. And really, I can see myself ending up in love with a good number of songs from this heat; trying to rank my top 5 is going to be difficult.
I'm not sure if I just have low standards or what, but from the sounds of it, this'll be another really great semifinal.
Official site (ditto on the nowhere streaming the whole song thing)
(Veronica Maggio, "Måndagsbarn," recently released single)
...or a hotly tipped British Australian singer...
(Duffy, "Mercy")
...or a slightly less hotly tipped British singer...
(Gabriella Cilmi, "Sweet About Me")
...or a Canadian R&B singer searching for that elusive top 10 hit...
(Jully Black, "Seven Day Fool," which is actually a cover of a '60's song)
...or a Swiss singer who won a German talent contest...
(Stefanie, "My Man Is A Mean Man," with thanks to Turnaround!)
...that seems to be the sound to go for at the moment. Now, I don't really want to criticize these singers--many of them may have always pursued this style and may just have found that record companies are more interested in them now. Others may even have been successful in a similar style beforehand. Often these songs are good or great, and the singers may have other songs that are good even if I'm not particularly interested in their current single (I've been very interested to hear Gabriella Cilmi's "Don't Wanna Go To Bed" since PopJustice posted a clip of it). Not all of these songs are Amy-like, more just '60's sounding. But...well, I'm not the biggest Amy Winehouse fan, but I can't help feeling like some of this is kind of missing the point a bit as to why her songs took off in the first place. Still, forget the Grammys--I guess the true sign of having made it is having Eurovision contestants trying to sound like you.
Just a quick note to say that the English version of Eurobandið's "Fullkomið líf," my favorite song in Iceland's national final, has, fantastically enough, been put up for free and legal download by the song's creators. It's worth mentioning, though, that in addition to the language being changed, the arrangement has been changed as well; this version is more Eurodance, a change I'm not entirely sold on yet but we'll see if that changes. Anyway, you can download the English version, called "This Is My Life," here.
Somewhat relatedly, now's as good a time as any to remind you that the creator of "Fullkomið líf" also worked on Páll Óskar's album from 2007, which I still maintain deserves far more attention (outside of Iceland, in Internet circles; inside Iceland, it's launched major hits); if you like that song, it's very much worth at least checking out some of the singles from Páll's album; "International," "Allt fyrir ástina," and "Betra Lif" are all fantastic (and videos for the first two are on YouTube). Páll also wrote the lyrics to "This Is My Life," while we're talking about him.
Also, there's another country's national final that has thoughts brewing in my brain--I'll probably write about it tomorrow.
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).
This week's joker, Niklas Strömstedt has a music career dating back to the '80's. I guess you could say he's a mature singer-songwriter sort, though some of the songs from his most recent album (from 2001) are kind of lightly poppy (or could be made sort of poppy with minimal changes), from the little I've heard of his work. On the plus side, he did co-write Magnus Carlsson's 2006 entry "Lev Livet!" (as well as Christer Björkman's winning entry in 1992). He says "For många ord om kärlek" is uptempo. He also says the song is a little more pop than schlager and kind of '70's-influenced. Niklas has a new album, Två vagar, coming out March 19.
Calaisa is a female country-pop group made up of two sets of sisters. They released their self-titled debut album in 2006, preceded by the sweetly-sung single "Hey Girl." The official description of the song says that it's a ballad about losing someone near to you and wanting to do something to get them back. They've been working on a second album.
Ooo, now here's a brand new artist whose song I'm very interested to hear! Granted, Fredrik Kempe--who, among other songs, wrote last year's "Cara Mia"--says that out of his tracks in this year's contest, Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" is his favorite, but I still have hopes that "Pame" will be good. In fact, speaking of "Cara Mia," Daniel sang on the demo version of that last year (as well as the originally English demo of Mathias Holmgren's "Långt bortom tid och rum" from 2005), making me even more hopeful of a similar revelation from "Pame" this year--though I'm trying not to let my expectations get too high. Also, apparently he and Måns sang it differently, which doesn't mean his version was necessarily worse but does mean maybe we shouldn't expect a Måns redux here...then again, Henrik Wikström, the other writer, describes the song as "'Cara Mia' with ethnic influences." As you might have guessed from the title, "Pame" has Greek influences (apparently it means "Let's go" or something like that); it's also said to be uptempo and danceable (Daniel says it's "happy, speedy, and explosive" and like a male version of Helena Paparizou). In terms of not particularly relevant or useful information, Daniel already has an official site set up in a similar style to those of Charlotte Perrelli and Linda Bengtzing--does he have management that have a lot of faith in the song or did he just hire the same people himself?
Oh Sweden--I'm begging you: I need Linda in the final. As absolutely exciting as it is to have so many upsets going on, it worries me greatly for this round. Linda participated in Fame Factory, but her real establishment as a singer came with 2005's "Alla Flickor," a schlager song which may very well be the best song ever--a statement which would be easier to get away with if her followup 2006 entry "Jag ljuger så bra" wasn't so close in quality that it's easy to prefer it depending on the day. She released an album as well in 2006, and in 2007 she had a huge hit in Sweden in the form of her and Markoolio's jokey "Värsta Schlagern." Her entry this year is by the same people that gave us "Alla Flickor" and her second single "Diamanter" (and who have also worked on her upcoming album), among a bunch of other great songs. It was also originally described as being influenced by '60's schlager (there was also one early reference to it being a little bit like "Grace Kelly," but before everyone starts going into conniptions, that seems doubtful and I've heard absolutely nothing to make that sound accurate since), but all recent writing about it has referred to it as sounding very modern but being a "classic schlager" (so yes, it has a key change). Linda says the song is a girl singing to a guy about how he's stupid for not realizing she's the best thing that's ever happened to him. I have absolute faith in this track being completely a-maz-ing and March 19, the release date of her new album, Vild & Galen, cannot get here soon enough. Fact: Linda's on the cover of at least two weekly or monthly magazines in Sweden this month--please let that be an indication of her popularity in Sweden...
Eek. I wish we could just take Nordman (who in their 2005 semifinal qualified directly to the final, while Alcazar and Linda Bengtzing had to go to Andra Chansen) out of this heat--I don't want them as a threat to my favorites. Sigh. Maybe I'm being kind of unfair here, but I just don't go in for gruff male voices, a fact that makes it difficult for me to appreciate Nordman's work. The writers of "I lågornas sken" did give us Jessica Andersson's "Kom" and Magnus Backlund's "The Name Of Love"--not classics, but not songs to make you instantly reach for the mute button either (and I actually really like "The Name Of Love"). Still, whether or not the writers call this a pop song and Nordman say it's "more schlager" (really? That doesn't fit with what I know of their work at all), I'm having trouble mustering much enthusiasm for a song that was stirring up controversy for its stage performance including the simulation of a witchburning onstage--it's not so much the act I'm upset with as I can't really imagine a song I like being conducive to that performance. Then again, the band do claim that it will be "beautiful and dramatic"--who knows, maybe it'll be a fantastic bombastic song (I wouldn't bet on it, to say the least). For the sake of the other songs in this heat, though, I'm almost hoping not. They've got a new album coming out March 12.
2007 gave us Sebastian and Måns (could have been Agnes) from the second season of Swedish Idol; 2008 brings us Ola and Sibel from the same season. Sibel finished third, behind Agnes and Sebastian, and will finally get a chance at commercial success with this power ballad. The song's writer says it's a big ballad about unconditional love. It starts out small and grows for the end and includes a lot of long high notes. For some reason, I see it as having a very good chance to do well. She (like seemingly most of the contestants this year) has an album due to come out this spring; it's called Diving Belle and comes out March 12.
2007's Melodifestival saw two entries disqualified: first Agnes's, and then Fronda's, thus allowing Lustans Lakejer and Måns Zelmerlöw to enter the competition. Fronda's entry was disqualified because he sang the demo of it but he (/his record company) refused to sing it at the contest, at least not by himself (not all demo singers will go on to sing the song at Melodifestivalen, but SVT can choose to demand that the demo singer do so and disqualify the song if the demo singer refuses). This year, the rapper will be participating with a song that its writers describe as an uptempo party song with danceable rap beats and funny lyrics. Fronda adds that it's not a pure hip-hop track, more like "balkan-ska."
...or, as fans of Eurovision but not followers of Swedish music would know her as, Charlotte Nilsson. Charlotte was Eurovision in 1999 singing "Take Me To Your Heaven," and she's released four albums since then (if you like your upbeat schlager, her Gone Too Long album has some songs you'll definitely want to hear), with another one (in English) due out this April (which she says she wants to promote beyond Sweden). Charlotte hasn't entered Melodifestivalen since winning it in 1999, though it's often been rumored she'd be participating; her decision to finally enter again this year has a lot of people thinking her song must be something very special--and with the writers it has, that's a very strong possibility: Fredrik Kempe and Bobby Ljunggren (who's been involved in way too many Melodifestival songs to list here). The official description of "Hero" says it's a dance and rock song, and it's also been said to be uptempo, have a great chorus and a really good beat, and be a modern pop song, not "Take Me To Your Heaven" part II. Charlotte says it tells a good story and is an uptempo dance-pop song that is a little bit rockier than "Take Me To Your Heaven" (though she points out that "rockier" is relative and she'll still be doing schlager songs), and will be a good way to establish her "new style." The performance involves a lot of dancing and girls in 10 cm tall heels, and the song has been said to be a potential winner of the whole contest as well as a great song that only gets better with each listen.
I'm pretty excited at the moment--after what seems like ages and really must be something like 10 months since Turnaround introduced it to me, I finally finally finally have (a non-MySpace rip of) Jonathan Fagerlund's song "Playing Me," which I've been in love with from the first listen. Back when he released his debut single, "Angeline," I made it my song of the day but didn't post it because his label had done such a fantastic job of making it easy for international customers to buy--in addition to being able to buy a physical copy of it, customers could get it from any country's iTunes stores or Klicktrack without region restrictions--and I really wanted him to do as well as possible. His brand new single "Playing Me" is still available to international customers if you want to buy the physical single, but digitally it's restricted just to Swedish customers. With that in mind, I am going to post it, but only for a short time; for people outside of Sweden, importing singles is just ridiculously cost prohibitive, but I don't want to risk hurting sales for him (though admittedly that's unlikely), since he's still trying to establish himself. Anyway, back to Jonathan, in case you missed my earlier posts on him, he's a former member of an ill advised Lou Pearlman-managed boy band, but he left (good call) and is now pursuing a solo career. He's young, younger than a usually like my popstars being, but if the songs are great enough, I'm more than willing to make an exception, and so far, his are.
