Time is ticking

There are a bunch of things in the music world that need to be discussed--the new Britney album, some new Eurovision songs, finally having the studio version of Danny's "Catch Me If You Can"--but with the Melodifestival final starting in less than two hours, Sweden's national selection for Eurovision has to take priority.

Half the time I don't know what I truly feel about any given entry until I have a gut reaction to how it ends up ranked. As of right now, though, I'd be happiest with a Danny win. I have a rising concern about the Moniker, though, and I'd certainly rather see Eric Saade take it instead of him.

In terms of solely my personal preferences--ignoring the odds of any of this actually happening--I'd be most pleased by a victory for Danny (in my top three favorite songs for this year as well as my favorite song and my favorite performance package of the entries remaining), Eric (there's still a missing ingredient for me, I'm frustrated that better similar entries in past years have been rejected and this one might win, and in the unlikely event that Danny should end up seriously challenging him the detachment I feel from Eric's entry would intensify, but when the song and presentation are taken together it's tough to deny that it averages out to be one of the night's best entries), Swingfly (a messy on-stage presentation, but the song is a lot of fun and gives me that rush of joy I wish I got from "Popular," even if I'm not sure that it's actually better in the long run), or Linda Bengtzing (she's had better songs and better performances but I love her and her infectious enthusiasm and enjoy "E det fel på mig"). I'd be fine with Brolle winning as well. After that, my enthusiasm would drop off precipitously, but it wouldn't feel like the end of the world if Sara Varga won. Despite its great production and great singer (though, truth be told, she's using a side of her voice here that I don't hugely enjoy), Sanna's song still leaves me cold. I like "The King" a good bit (yes, really) but feel like the Playtones' performance is a black hole for charisma. Any of the aforementioned choices would be better than the remaining two, though; Nicke Borg or the Moniker winning would leave me distraught.

Still, we should be in for a great show. Though songs I loved were lost along the way to Globen, I'm actually pretty happy with the line-up we'll be facing. Yes, two of the songs that would have made the best impression internationally were lost in Andra Chansen last week, but this year's final nevertheless includes mostly enjoyable songs that, even if they wouldn't make for great Eurovision entries, make for great entertainment.

Vaken i en dröm

A tradition half-abandoned last year makes its quiet return two days (or two days and one week) late: a preview of this coming weekend's Melodifestival semifinal. As always, I have absolutely no inside information, so I am incredibly indebted to the below mentioned websites; all of my information about this year's entries comes from them.

Sources: Aftonbladet (1, 2, 3,), Poplight, QX (1, 2, 3), GD, SVT, VK, Expressen,

Brolle, "Seven Days and Seven Nights" (Brolle)
Former Popstars contestant Brolle carved out a successful niche for himself in the first half of the '00s with his Elvis style. His latest songs haven't had the staying power of early hits like "Playing With Fire," though, which may have finally brought him to Melodifestivalen. Brolle describes his self-penned ballad as a tribute to love and the way the members of a couple fight but then work together to make the relationship work. It is, he elaborates, a mix between old Brolle, new Brolle, and rockabilly.

To watch: though I think his third album contains some underrated tracks and even liked the Billy Idol-flavored single from his greatest hits, the description of "Seven Days and Seven Nights" makes me think "Playing With Fire" from his first album might be more representative.



Loreen, "My Heart Is Refusing Me" (Moh Denebi/Björn Djupström/Lorén Talhaoui)
A 2004 Idol contestant turned television host, Loreen describes her song as "as far from schlager as you can get." She's elaborated by saying "My Heart Is Refusing Me," a dramatic, emotional, string-filled ballad with a lot of pain, represents the intersection of electronic and organic. Loreen is signed to a new record label run by Måns Zelmerlöw and the two co-writers of Loreen's song. Speaking of the songwriters, I'd characterize these three as "working men" songwriters, for lack of a better phrase--they've had songs on albums (and in Melodifestivalen), but they're not big names. That's meant as no slight, though, since that's how most writers come up through the ranks.

To watch listen: the best I've got is her 2004 featured vocalist appearance on Rob n Raz's single "The Snake"



Babsan, "Ge mig en spanjor" (Larry Forsberg/Sven-Inge Sjöberg/Lennart Wastesson)
Fittingly for the first drag queen performed-entry in Melodifestivalen since After Dark twice graced the stage, "Ge mig en spanjor" is said to be a mix of "La Dolce Vita" (written by these songwriters, as is Jill Johnson's "Crazy In Love") and "Y viva España" or, alternately, a happy disco-flamenco song. Expect humor in the performance--not that you needed to be told that, given that the song is being sung by Babsan and has a title that translates to "Give Me A Spaniard."

To watch: Babsan performing at Allsång på Skansen



Elisabeth "Bettan" Andreassen, "Vaken i en dröm" (Lars "Dille" Diedricson/Calle Kindbom/Kristian Wejshag)
Bettan is a veteran of both national finals and Eurovision at this point, having competed in Melodifestivalen six times and Norway's Melodi Grand Prix five times and making it to Eurovision four out of those eleven tries. She won the whole contest in 1985, performing "La det swinge" as part of Bobbysocks. Dille and Calle are likewise Melodifestival and schlager veterans. They've co-written songs like, in Dille's case, Charlotte Perrelli's "Tusen och en natt" and Linda Bengtzing's "Jag ljuger så bra" and, in Calle's case, Fame's "Give Me Your Love" and Barbados's "Kom hem." Kristian debuted in the contest with Jessica Andersson's "I Did It For Love," co-writen with Calle, and since "Vaken i en dröm" is said to be a ballad, that entry might be an indicator of what to expect.

To watch: since we're expecting a ballad, here's her performance of "I evighet" at Eurovision in 1996. Performing for Norway, Elisabeth took second.



Sanna Nielsen, "I'm In Love" (Bobby Ljunggren/Thomas G:son/Irini Michas/Peter "Bassflow" Boström)
Power vocalist Sanna, a young Celine Dion in the making, returns to Melodifestivalen for the sixth time. As the public vote-winning but ultimately second-placed contestant in 2008 with "Empty Room," Sanna's entry this year will be much anticipated. With five previous entries, Sanna has basically covered the schlager spectrum of tempos; this time, she returns not with a ballad but with an up-tempo, upbeat song. She says it begins mysteriously, has a strong chorus, and allows her to show her voice. The song's writers are a conglomeration of big festival names: Bobby and Thomas have created all sorts of generally schlager-flavored entries, Peter makes excellent uptempo pop like Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" and Ola's big hits, and Irini, the least famous of the bunch, co-wrote Sofia's Greek-pop-rock "Alla."

To watch: Sanna performing the the uptempo schlager song "Våger du våger jag" in Melodifestivalen 2007. Sure, it doesn't show off her voice or make the same impression on the public as "Empty Room," but a.) I never really warmed to "Empty Room" and b.) her entry this year isn't a ballad. The completely lovely "Hela världen för mig" might actually do a better job of making her live vocals sound appealing, though.



The Moniker, "Oh My God!" (Daniel Karlsson)
Performing under a stage name, former Idol 2007 participant Daniel Karlsson will sing an entry he describes as a '60s-type song inspired by ABBA, the Beatles, and the Ark in a faster, happier style than he usually uses.

To watch: the music video for his single "Would You Believe?", released under his own name in 2008.



Anniela, "Elektrisk" (Johan Alkenäs/Tim Larsson/Tobias Lundgren/Johan Fransson)
"Elektrisk" has been linked to both Linda Bengtzing and Magnus Carlsson, a promising indicator of pop-friendliness, as is the credentials of its songwriters (the makers of Linda Bengtzing's "Alla Flickor" and "Hur svårt kan det va?" and Alcazar's "Alcastar"). Anniela, a young singer looking to break into the Swedish consciousness after the release of her debut album last year, confirms that speculation by calling "Elektrisk" danceable electro-pop.

To watch: there are better songs on her debut album, but none of them have music videos, so here's said album's single, "Strip-teaser."



Christian Walz, "Like Suicide" (Fernando Fuentes/Henrik Janson/Tony Nilsson/Christian Walz)
Best known for singles from his second album like "Wonderchild," the somewhat quirky, soulful singer-songwriter makes his first appearance in Melodifestivalen with a song he describes as "a combination of my band and a spaceship." Henrik and Tony have teamed up on songs like Velvet's "The Queen" and Darin's "You're Out Of My Life" (with Tony also writing most of Ola's big hits).

To watch: the music video for "Wonderchild"



I don't dare make predictions about results, but I'm cautiously optimistic about the quality of this week's offerings. I kind of wish Brolle had a few other songwriters backing him up, but given my established weakness for his musical offerings, I expect to be won over nevertheless. Sanna and Anniela's songs should be great (even if Anniela's likely lack of stage experience and name recognition may hurt her performance, I expect it her song to sound great in studio and those particular songwriters always get me excited). I'm a fan of Christian Walz and several of his song's co-writers so, even if they seem like an unusual match, we might get something good from him, too. Getting a great schlager ballad in Melodifestivalen is rare nowadays in my books, so Elisabeth's entry doesn't have me psyched up. Still, one always hopes that institutions like her wouldn't return to the contest without something decent. Daniel's earlier single was quite good, but having heard less material from him, quality-wise he's a wild card. Loreen's song certainly sounds intriguing though I'm not counting on it to translate to the Melodifestival stage. Finally, the songwriters for "Ge mig en spanjor" have shown their skill enough in the past to make me hope there's a song of substance--albeit fun, frothy substance--behind Babsan's performance.

Then again, I'm always cautiously optimistic about the quality Melodifestival semifinals. It's those voting results you have to look out for...

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).

#74 Brolle, "Solo I Stockholm"

Jag är solo i Stockholm
Utan mening, utan mål
Solo i Stockholm
Och jag minns det som igår
Vi hade varann, två själar som brann och stan låg öppen för oss då
Solo i Stockholm

Elvis-like Brolle should count himself lucky that I write up this list in January and not, say, June. My original love affair with the Swedish power ballad-like "Solo I Stockholm" was in the first quarter of 2008, when I was constantly treading through snowy northern Sweden. The fact that we've been in winter storm mode here recently has once again brought "Solo I Stockholm" back into "season"--it's not a song for sunny summer days at all. In fact, there's no image that better sums up this song than the moment in the video where Brolle, walking and then running towards the camera in a snow-covered landscape, falls to his knees is despair, hands reaching up towards the sky pleadingly, and shouts that killer climax.

And oh boy, is it a killer climax. Remember how much I adored Martin Stenmarck's half-spit-out delivery of the peak of my favorite song of last year? This song has a moment in it that works in the same way for me. The sweeping strings and guitar drop out for a moment and a military drumbeat kicks in while Brolle continues singing and then, Brolle, no longer able to hold it in, shouts out "Jag är solo i Stockholm" (complete with the return of the regular instrumentation, of course, only amped up even more) in this epic wailing key change-y way that has him turning "Stockholm" in a giant dragged out word that suddenly seems completely crushing as well as completely amazing in the powerful adrenaline rush way that only pathos can give you. Love it. I swoon every time.

Incidentally, the video may be cheap, but the art direction for his covers this year was pretty great. I'm still kind of madly in love with the album cover (and title too, come to that):



In retrospect, "Det är hon" really should have made this countdown, too.

Find it on: Ett Hjärta Som Glöder, Som En Gång Brann

You want it, you'll get it--just keep on working hard

Are all my favorite Swedish singers going to start pairing off?



Now it's Brolle and Elin Lanto. Semi-nice timing in the announcement on their part.

Speaking of Swedish singer couples, Måns Zelmerlöw of Måns-and-Marie is currently working on his second album, with tentative plans for a new single out in October and an album in November.

Give me more of the attraction

A random Ola update:

I knew his second album, Good Enough, was going to be re-released with his Melodifestival track "Love In Stereo" added on, but now I'm getting the impression we're getting more than that--is that right? Reworkings/remixings of (some of?) the original tracks as well as at least one entirely new song. I'm really not sure on that, though; I'd welcome clarification.

This is kind of old news at this point, but I was fascinated to read that (while most of the gossip about "Hero" centered around Charlotte and Måns) apparently "Hero" was actually written for Ola; he turned it down (he wanted a song that was in keeping with the "80's feel" of his album) and the writers then decided it suited a female voice better anyway, Fredrik Kempe suggested Charlotte Perrelli, and she fell for the song. That's not based on any talking with people who would actually know, though, just on this article (note: not my scan!), but since that information actually comes from Bobby Ljunggren, that must be what happened. Do you know...I LOVE "Hero," but I LOVE "Love In Stereo" as well--heaven help me if I do another end up year ranking because I really don't know how I'm going to rank my favorite Melodifestival tracks. At any rate, I don't think he would have won with "Hero" anyway, but I love getting these little flashes of insight into the behind the scenes side of Melodifestivalen.

Moving away from Ola, I have to thank Baszjuh for alerting me to the fact that Brolle's new album is (like Sanna's) out this coming week, a fact that I somehow managed to not pick up on despite Brolle's name being all over the Swedish papers recently and actually having seen the cover of the album. Which looks like this, since we're speaking of it:



I love it. In a way I have not loved an album cover in a long time. I'm still loving "Solo I Stockholm" too--especially that GIANT climatic note near the end, which I literally can't get enough of--and have been really enjoying his debut album since I picked it up, so I'll definitely be buying Ett Hjärta Som Glöder Som En Gång Brann when it comes out. The tracklisting:

1.) Solo I Stockholm
2.) Världens Hörn
3.) Faller Du (elsewhere listed as "Faller Du Faller Jag")
4.) Är Det Mig Du Gråter För
5.) Söt Sak
6.) Mexiko (a type-o, maybe?)
7.) Det Är Hon
8.) Vaken Igen
9.) En Sång För Dom
10.) Tillsammans
11.) Nu
12.) Sång För Dom (Bonus Track/Acoustic Version)

I know this isn't going to be an album for everyone, though; you can listen to preview clips of it here if you're wondering about it.

In other Brolle news, he was on Så ska det låta recently, teamed up with Linda Bengtzing...but in terms of him, I like his performance of "Suspicious Minds" on the same program but from 2006 more, so that's what I'm embedding.



Oh fine, here's a bit of Linda having fun singing "We're Not Gonna Take It"...



...and a Brolle-centric take on "Johnny B Goode."

Jag är solo i Stockholm

Gosh, we're just getting flooded with Swedish music videos now, aren't we?

Back when I wrote about Brolle's latest single, "Solo i Stockholm," I mentioned the little making of the music video clip we'd seen made me want to see the actual thing--any video with running towards the camera at a steadily increasing pace before falling to the ground dramatically in despair in the middle of a snow-covered landscape as the camera continues to pull away had to be worth seeing.

Well, it's out now...and I think the making of clip may have made it seem better than it was. It's fine, but not worth watching unless you really like the song (plus, in the aforementioned scene, I kind of wish they'd kept pulling away after he falls to the ground instead of cutting back to a closer-up shot of his back). The funniest thing about it may be that Aftonbladet is billing it as "Brolles heta kärleksvideo"--there's like five seconds of him lying shirtless in a bed with a girl, including a quick kiss, and that's it--otherwise there really couldn't be less love or fewer "hot" scenes in it. Still a great song, at any rate, though.

Solo i Stockholm, och jag minns det som igår...

I've been meaning to pick up one of Swedish singer Brolle Jr's two albums (probably his first one first; I'm pretty positive I'll love it) for a while now and just have never got around to it. When I finally heard his new single, though, I loved it too much to pass up buying that. If you're interested in knowing a bit about his background, EuropeCrazy wrote about him over here and #1 Hits wrote about him a while back as well; suffice to say, he auditioned for Popstars but has a career very much outside of the reality TV-based sort now. Now billed--at least on this single--as just Brolle, he's back with a new single that only narrowly missed making it into Melodifestivalen (something I'm glad of, to be honest; I'm worried I might not have appreciated it properly in that context). In a change for him, it's in Swedish, as his new album, which I read was due out in March, but I don't know if that's really set yet. He'll also be participating (along with singers like Linda Bengtzing, Agnes, and Markoolio, among others) in the Swedish version of Clash of the Choirs. As a kind of side note, the for-the-fans video for this song on Brolle's MySpace uses the b-side "piano version" of the track; I think the main version is much better, and it's therefore the version I'm posting today. He's also got a video posted of himself making a video to the main version of the song (complete with running, gorgeous snow-covered Swedish scenery, and dramatic falling to the ground!), so I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.

Solo i Stockholm--this song, written by Brolle and Aleena Gibson among others, sounds very much like a Brolle track, from the little I know of his work. What, then, does a Brolle track sound like? Good question. Well, it definitely uses guitars and "real instruments," and Brolle's unique (and fantastic--I love the sound of it, though I imagine not everyone might) voice is a part of it. If his styling is any indication, he feels he takes influences from the '50's, and maybe from the '80's--the hairstyle he's sporting is always...interesting, often alternating between being Elvis-esque (a singer who he's often compared to vocally) and looking like it's from the '80's. His songs aren't the bubblegum pop, dance-pop, or schlager I often post from Sweden. As a result of their style, instrumentation, and Brolle's voice, his songs end up having a more mature feel to them. However you end up describing "Solo i Stockholm," though, it's a fantastic dramatic emotional pop song with a great climax, and I literally can't get enough of the way he sings the lines in the chorus.

To buy Brolle's single "Solo i Stockholm," go here (physical) or here (digital). This song will only be posted for a short time since it's a new single.

Next up: maybe another male Swedish singer.