Happy New Eurovision Year! After too many days of doing nothing except stuffing our faces with funny food and mulled wine, we almost forgot it's Sunday today! And Sunday means yet another blast from the past, a tradition we will keep on going in 2011. A Swedish "Dansband" from the 90s will have the honor of launching the new year on our blog, and we don't blame you for thinking we have gone completely bonkers:
Last year ended on a rather good note, when Romania chose their participant for ESC 2011. And when the real ESC season kicks off with national finals bonanza like every other day in February (Yay!) we will start posting our 2011 reviews.
Seconds after the Rumanian final had announced the winner (which btw lasted for like 3 days straight or something, you had to have a black belt in ESC to hang in there), the hardcore Eurovision fan community shortly concluded that this was a rip off of Arvingarna's Eloise. Well, we see their point. And in our book that's not exactly a good thing. So we'll let you see for yourself, and do give us a shout and let us know what you think!
Showing posts with label Sweden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sweden. Show all posts
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Look who's dancing!
It's official, our very own Alexander Rybak is one of the participants in "Let's Dance", the Swedish edition of Strictly Come Dancing. We have never heard of any of the other participants so we guess Sweden must be running out of celebrities to put on the show. And as Norway import so many youngsters from across the border to do the work that we just can't be bothered with, we suppose we could spare a Eurovision Star or two for our dear neighbors.
We wish Alexander the best of luck, we hope you really can dance as well as you sing and play. And the best of luck to the Swedes as well, you might be in for a hell of a ride with this crazy fiddler in the line-up!
We wish Alexander the best of luck, we hope you really can dance as well as you sing and play. And the best of luck to the Swedes as well, you might be in for a hell of a ride with this crazy fiddler in the line-up!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
And the winner is...
Sweden! Congratulations! Not exactly a big shocker, Timoteij has been a huge fan favorite all along. We'd much prefer Salem Al-Fakir to represent Sweden, so we suppose we're not in line with the Schlager loving fan boys this time!
Thank you OGAE Denmark for hosting the show! Here's the complete scoreboard:
1 Sweden 267
2 Denmark 223
3 Portugal 203
4 Spain 167
5 Israel 161
6 Norway 138
7 Germany 105
8 Greece 103
9 Finland 87
10 Cyprus 73
11 Serbia 64
12 Slovenia 54
13 Poland 24
14 Lithuania 20
15 Armenia 11
15 Ireland 11
15 FYR Macedonia 11
15 Russia 11
19 Croatia 4
20 Malta 3
21 Rest of the World (Bulgaria) 1
22 Azerbaijan 0
For the 13th time in Second Chance Contest history, Sweden takes the victory:
Thank you OGAE Denmark for hosting the show! Here's the complete scoreboard:
1 Sweden 267
2 Denmark 223
3 Portugal 203
4 Spain 167
5 Israel 161
6 Norway 138
7 Germany 105
8 Greece 103
9 Finland 87
10 Cyprus 73
11 Serbia 64
12 Slovenia 54
13 Poland 24
14 Lithuania 20
15 Armenia 11
15 Ireland 11
15 FYR Macedonia 11
15 Russia 11
19 Croatia 4
20 Malta 3
21 Rest of the World (Bulgaria) 1
22 Azerbaijan 0
For the 13th time in Second Chance Contest history, Sweden takes the victory:
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Exclusive revelation!
GEE has previously been out hunting for Carola's wind machine.
Hmmm, could this be the one, Guri wonders...
... Only to find out that you can actually get one for the bargain price of 399 SEK at Clas Ohlson!
At least if you happen to be in Malmö, where this pic is taken.
"Fångad av en stormvind!"
Hmmm, could this be the one, Guri wonders...
... Only to find out that you can actually get one for the bargain price of 399 SEK at Clas Ohlson!
At least if you happen to be in Malmö, where this pic is taken.
"Fångad av en stormvind!"
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Retro Sunday: Sweden 1989
GEE lingers on the glorious 80s looking across the border to our neighbors in this Sunday's retro flashback.
Tommy Nilsson has a great voice and he sure knew how to sell this powerful rock ballad. The whole song is just like one long chorus, with no verses in between, it sounds like he starts singing towards the end of the song and just jumps straight to the grand finale with no build up whatsoever. It makes you really miss the live orchestra with the trumpet and all, and the guy in a tuxedo doing his guitar solo, how fab is that? And the backing singers, wow, you gotta love it! Especially the guy to the far left, he is really singing his heart out. We suggest the Swedes take a rewind on a bunch of their old entries before they consider sending another bleak teenager to the ESC stage. Cause this is hard stuff the way we like it!
Tommy Nilsson has a great voice and he sure knew how to sell this powerful rock ballad. The whole song is just like one long chorus, with no verses in between, it sounds like he starts singing towards the end of the song and just jumps straight to the grand finale with no build up whatsoever. It makes you really miss the live orchestra with the trumpet and all, and the guy in a tuxedo doing his guitar solo, how fab is that? And the backing singers, wow, you gotta love it! Especially the guy to the far left, he is really singing his heart out. We suggest the Swedes take a rewind on a bunch of their old entries before they consider sending another bleak teenager to the ESC stage. Cause this is hard stuff the way we like it!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Second Chance Contest
Ok, ok, we can't help ourselves from dwelling a little bit longer on this year's Eurovision edition, so please bear with us!
If you're member of a national OGAE fan club, you might have gotten an invitation to cast your votes in the Second Chance Contest. This is where a finalist from the various national selection finals is chosen to represent its country and get a second chance to win fame and glory. To see which entries are in the running this year, you can check out this website. The voting has now closed and the winner will be revealed in late August. We will of course keep you updated!
GEE keep our fingers crossed for a decent result for A1, Norway's representative this year who we think might stand a fair chance. Sweden could have gone with a number of strong contenders, like Eric Saade's "Manboy", the biggest floor stomper at Euroclub this year, or the amazing runner-up Salem Al-Fakir with "Keep on Walking". Instead they chose to send Anna and her vanishing guitar to Oslo and give Timoteij a second chance...
Meanwhile we can ponder upon the fact that the Swedes prevented us from seeing this fabulous man on stage in Oslo:
If you're member of a national OGAE fan club, you might have gotten an invitation to cast your votes in the Second Chance Contest. This is where a finalist from the various national selection finals is chosen to represent its country and get a second chance to win fame and glory. To see which entries are in the running this year, you can check out this website. The voting has now closed and the winner will be revealed in late August. We will of course keep you updated!
GEE keep our fingers crossed for a decent result for A1, Norway's representative this year who we think might stand a fair chance. Sweden could have gone with a number of strong contenders, like Eric Saade's "Manboy", the biggest floor stomper at Euroclub this year, or the amazing runner-up Salem Al-Fakir with "Keep on Walking". Instead they chose to send Anna and her vanishing guitar to Oslo and give Timoteij a second chance...
Meanwhile we can ponder upon the fact that the Swedes prevented us from seeing this fabulous man on stage in Oslo:
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Retro Sunday: Sweden 1968
Every Sunday we give you some of our favorite old entries to cheer you up a little extra and make you miss the glorious old days. Today we bring you hipster coolness from Sweden:
The Swedes are undoubtedly the coolest fashionistas in Scandinavia, and back in the 60s this stylish fella showed Europe that hipsters existed long before the street style blogs came around to tell you what to wear. His cocky attitude and sleek appearance contrast the lyrics in this number as he's telling us that a young man knows he's in love for real when he don't even mind drinking his afternoon coffee with his girlfriend's mum, instead of hanging out with his buddies. How adorable is that! We love the jazzy, easy listening feel to this track and even today both the sound and the look are strangely modern and up to date. Groovy!
The Swedes are undoubtedly the coolest fashionistas in Scandinavia, and back in the 60s this stylish fella showed Europe that hipsters existed long before the street style blogs came around to tell you what to wear. His cocky attitude and sleek appearance contrast the lyrics in this number as he's telling us that a young man knows he's in love for real when he don't even mind drinking his afternoon coffee with his girlfriend's mum, instead of hanging out with his buddies. How adorable is that! We love the jazzy, easy listening feel to this track and even today both the sound and the look are strangely modern and up to date. Groovy!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Desperate times for Melodifestivalen?
The Swedes have been forced to conduct some soul searching after Anna's failure in Oslo this year. However, Melodifestivalen's grand old man, Christer Björkman remains safely in charge. In fact, from next year even more power will be placed in his hands, on the cost of less influence for the jury which previously selected the participants for the national qualification rounds. How very democratic. Mr. Björkman should consider himself lucky he's not a football coach as the last couple of years poor results for sure would have put him out of a job.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, we guess. But by all means, nothing would please us more than our dear neighbors back in shape and on top of their game next year in Germany! After all we give them our douze points anyways...
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Well played; Sweden and Bosnia & Herzegovina
It really makes sense to us to have an award for the worse dressed participant in this competition. We don't mean to sound all negative here, quite on the contrary, we love watching men and women from all over Europe, belting out their sorrow or joy or love or whatever on the ESC stage, while being wrapped in what looks like Queen Elizabeth's latest stationery supplies or a wallpaper the Queer Eye guys could kill for. In fact, we wish there could be a whole range of categories so more than one contestant could win a Barbara Dex Award every year.
On the other hand, there are always quite a few contestants who look absolutely stunning on stage and we love watching them just as much. And after all it's better to get a "wow" from the audience either in admiration or disgust, than an indifferent... "meh".
A couple of those who receive thumbs up and a pat on the back from GEE are the rocker dude Vukašin Brajić from Bosnia & Herzegovina and rocker chick Anna Bergendahl from Sweden. Before ESC, there were much media attention in Norway on our very own Didrik's embarrassing attempts to pick up this sweet Swede. Well, who can blame him for trying, but he should have realized that boring and bourgeois is not Anna's cup of tea. Rebellious and red-hot are probably more Anna's flavors and she would make a cute couple with Vukašin.
Their laidback appearance matches each other perfectly and even though we did find both their songs to be ridiculously boring, we compliment these youngsters for their sense of style and for choosing outfits that fit with their personalities and their performances on stage. It looks edgy yet effortlessly cool, and Anna was brave to stand her ground and insist on keeping her worn out Converses, while there probably were plenty of stylists trying to convince her to go for a pair of killer heels or something more "presentable".
Looking sharp while presenting the latest weather report.
The sweetheart from Sweden is barely visible behind gigantic guitar.
On the other hand, there are always quite a few contestants who look absolutely stunning on stage and we love watching them just as much. And after all it's better to get a "wow" from the audience either in admiration or disgust, than an indifferent... "meh".
A couple of those who receive thumbs up and a pat on the back from GEE are the rocker dude Vukašin Brajić from Bosnia & Herzegovina and rocker chick Anna Bergendahl from Sweden. Before ESC, there were much media attention in Norway on our very own Didrik's embarrassing attempts to pick up this sweet Swede. Well, who can blame him for trying, but he should have realized that boring and bourgeois is not Anna's cup of tea. Rebellious and red-hot are probably more Anna's flavors and she would make a cute couple with Vukašin.
Their laidback appearance matches each other perfectly and even though we did find both their songs to be ridiculously boring, we compliment these youngsters for their sense of style and for choosing outfits that fit with their personalities and their performances on stage. It looks edgy yet effortlessly cool, and Anna was brave to stand her ground and insist on keeping her worn out Converses, while there probably were plenty of stylists trying to convince her to go for a pair of killer heels or something more "presentable".
Looking sharp while presenting the latest weather report.
The sweetheart from Sweden is barely visible behind gigantic guitar.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Defeated, but not forgotten
It turned out to be Germany's turn this year and we say well deserved! Lena was one of our favorites from the beginning and we are confident the Germans will put on a massive show next year, we can hardly wait!
However, every year regardless of who takes home the victory, there will always be discussions around which country should have won. It might be the crazy disco act which finished second or the alluring ballad that keeps growing on you long after it finished seventh in the final. Do you remember who won in 1983? We can barely remember a lady in a pink dress wailing something in French, but the girl who came on third place sticks like glue to our brains!
Here’s our list with some of our favorite songs trough all times that didn’t win the contest but most certainly won our hearts!
1991 - France: Amina "C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison”
An excruciatingly exciting voting process ended with a tie break between Sweden and France. Amina came second with the smallest margin ever to spare to the winner, having received fewer ten points than the winner Carola. – But what an astonishing lady with a heavenly voice and an even sassier orange scarf than the one WigWam had. She owned the stage that night in Rome.
1983 - Sweden: Carola "Främling"
Ironically enough it was Carola who snatched the victory out of Amina’s henna painted hands in 1991, but a few years earlier Carola had to settle for third place. Carola’s career path is somewhat similar to Michael Jackson’s: 1983: talented and wonderful, 1991: on top of their careers, 2006: freak show! We find this deeply disturbing….
1979 – West Germany: Dschinghis Khan ”Dschinghis Khan”
How come everybody remembers an act that came on fourth place in 1979? Magical!
2000 – Latvia: BrainStorm ”My Star”
During this beautiful evening in May one decade ago we realized that the Europe we used to know in our childhood back in the eighties had changed forever and no longer existed. This perfect pop song, with the most charming vocalist ever! Why did it only finish on third place? And why did the Pensioners Party from Denmark win?
1973 – Spain: Mocedades ”Eres tú”
The Basques sure know how to race a bicycle and to play soccer, but they also know how to make the perfect ballad! This song is commonly confused as the winner from 1973, even though the actual winning act was really strong that year.
1968 – United Kingdom: Cliff Richard ”Congratulations”
Sir Cliff looks younger today than what he did 42 years ago. Scary. However there’s no way getting around the fact that he nailed it with a classic and a massive hit when he came second that year. His contribution is especially loved and appreciated among those of us who loves birthday celebrations.
1987 – Norway: Kjersti Bergesen ”Go-go”
This entry didn’t even make it through to the international final; it finished on third place in the Norwegian national selection final behind Kate “Bad Hair Day” Gulbrandsen. But our Norwegian readers and Eurovision connoisseurs might remember that it beat strong household names like Sigvart Dagsland, Olav Stedje, Mia Gundersen and Finn Kalvik. Kjersti is not even close to sporting a decent singing voice, but the song itself is a perfect snap shot from the eighties, and the keychange towards the end of the song is priceless.
2005 – Latvia: Walter & Kazha ”The war is not over”
How can there be wars going on when cutie pies like this can make such wonderful music? Massive ”Extreme- More Than Words” factor going on and we immediately turn 13 again when we listen to this song which came fifth in Kiev.
2003 – Belgium: Urban Trad ”Sanomi”
As if Flemish isn’t silly enough to begin with, the Belgians decided to sing in a sort of gibberish language this year. World music is usually not our cup of tea, but we didn’t mind if this entry had finished higher than second place in 2003.
1983 – Yugoslavia: Danijel ”Dzuli”
1983 was a really strong year with a weak winner. This number came on fifth place and became an instant classic. Balkanswing rules!
What’s your favorite runner up?
However, every year regardless of who takes home the victory, there will always be discussions around which country should have won. It might be the crazy disco act which finished second or the alluring ballad that keeps growing on you long after it finished seventh in the final. Do you remember who won in 1983? We can barely remember a lady in a pink dress wailing something in French, but the girl who came on third place sticks like glue to our brains!
Here’s our list with some of our favorite songs trough all times that didn’t win the contest but most certainly won our hearts!
1991 - France: Amina "C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison”
An excruciatingly exciting voting process ended with a tie break between Sweden and France. Amina came second with the smallest margin ever to spare to the winner, having received fewer ten points than the winner Carola. – But what an astonishing lady with a heavenly voice and an even sassier orange scarf than the one WigWam had. She owned the stage that night in Rome.
1983 - Sweden: Carola "Främling"
Ironically enough it was Carola who snatched the victory out of Amina’s henna painted hands in 1991, but a few years earlier Carola had to settle for third place. Carola’s career path is somewhat similar to Michael Jackson’s: 1983: talented and wonderful, 1991: on top of their careers, 2006: freak show! We find this deeply disturbing….
1979 – West Germany: Dschinghis Khan ”Dschinghis Khan”
How come everybody remembers an act that came on fourth place in 1979? Magical!
2000 – Latvia: BrainStorm ”My Star”
During this beautiful evening in May one decade ago we realized that the Europe we used to know in our childhood back in the eighties had changed forever and no longer existed. This perfect pop song, with the most charming vocalist ever! Why did it only finish on third place? And why did the Pensioners Party from Denmark win?
1973 – Spain: Mocedades ”Eres tú”
The Basques sure know how to race a bicycle and to play soccer, but they also know how to make the perfect ballad! This song is commonly confused as the winner from 1973, even though the actual winning act was really strong that year.
1968 – United Kingdom: Cliff Richard ”Congratulations”
Sir Cliff looks younger today than what he did 42 years ago. Scary. However there’s no way getting around the fact that he nailed it with a classic and a massive hit when he came second that year. His contribution is especially loved and appreciated among those of us who loves birthday celebrations.
1987 – Norway: Kjersti Bergesen ”Go-go”
This entry didn’t even make it through to the international final; it finished on third place in the Norwegian national selection final behind Kate “Bad Hair Day” Gulbrandsen. But our Norwegian readers and Eurovision connoisseurs might remember that it beat strong household names like Sigvart Dagsland, Olav Stedje, Mia Gundersen and Finn Kalvik. Kjersti is not even close to sporting a decent singing voice, but the song itself is a perfect snap shot from the eighties, and the keychange towards the end of the song is priceless.
2005 – Latvia: Walter & Kazha ”The war is not over”
How can there be wars going on when cutie pies like this can make such wonderful music? Massive ”Extreme- More Than Words” factor going on and we immediately turn 13 again when we listen to this song which came fifth in Kiev.
2003 – Belgium: Urban Trad ”Sanomi”
As if Flemish isn’t silly enough to begin with, the Belgians decided to sing in a sort of gibberish language this year. World music is usually not our cup of tea, but we didn’t mind if this entry had finished higher than second place in 2003.
1983 – Yugoslavia: Danijel ”Dzuli”
1983 was a really strong year with a weak winner. This number came on fifth place and became an instant classic. Balkanswing rules!
What’s your favorite runner up?
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Semi-Final 2
All righty then, it's time to reveal our pick for the second semi-final!
This list might be as far off as it gets when comparing it with the final list Thursday night. Like, there's not much hope for Europe to ignore Turkey with their polished, family friendly rock show, is there? And don't get us started on those pretentious Danes. Croatia has more than a fair chance with the lovely femidoms, and Bulgarian Miro is so kitchy we're almost starting to like him.
And Sieneke! She scares the shit out of us...
Woha, this will be so exciting, we can hardly wait!
And you guys, beg to differ anyone?
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Cyprus
- Georgia
- Ireland
- Israel
- Lithuania
- Romania
- Sweden
- Switzerland
This list might be as far off as it gets when comparing it with the final list Thursday night. Like, there's not much hope for Europe to ignore Turkey with their polished, family friendly rock show, is there? And don't get us started on those pretentious Danes. Croatia has more than a fair chance with the lovely femidoms, and Bulgarian Miro is so kitchy we're almost starting to like him.
And Sieneke! She scares the shit out of us...
Woha, this will be so exciting, we can hardly wait!
And you guys, beg to differ anyone?
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Whatever happened to our judgment?
Sometimes, listening to a song many times can make it better, while other times it just burns an irreplaceable hole in your head. So, after giving you our honest opinion about the entries, and then listening to them for like a million times more, has anything changed? A little for some of the entries. Here's the latest news from our changing minds, after the rehearsals have kicked off in Oslo.
Russia
We hated Russia. Kinda still do. But then we've hated it so much it has reached the level of something similar of a cult status with us. "What are you doing, man?" will certainly be a party one liner for the next couple of weeks and we will almost remember it when looking at a photo. At least this song has something quirky and funny about it, and that's more than we can say about the other boring stuff.
Cyprus
There is something about Jon Lillygreen. He is really sweet and his voice sticks with us. We think this can be a popular song in the finals. Because after all, now it's spring and everything looks a little better.
Serbia
Disappointment from here to eternity after watching Milan Stankovic's first rehearsal in Norway. The man is still glorious, but what happened to his glorious dancers? Looks like he switched two of the women for boring men. And the fantastic ethnic show gone as well? Shame, shame, shame, Serbia. You are in vain. We hope you're fooling us, and will reveal the most ethnotastic show ever in the later rehearsals to come.
Sweden
Sweden's entry is working a little bit like their H&M clothing - nice, but wears out really quickly. Anna is still lovely, the song isn't.
Estonia
We're loving the Siren of Estonia even more each day. Robin Juhkental is just so fine and dandy standing there bending his knees, moving in interesting ways and pointing his microphone everywhere. The song is a pearl that grows on you. Too bad the majority of the televoters don't have time for that.
Poland
We're so easily charmed it's embarrassing some times. Poland's happy joy joy singer running around loving his family and making video blogs is just so super charming we're actually reconsidering the song and liking it a little bit more. So much for being tough critics.
France
Oh, God. We wish we didn't like this tiring song. But there's something about it that makes us want to play it every once in a while. We need music like this from time to time. And Jessy is still lovely. Really looking forward to seeing how this works live at least.
Israel
When we reviewed this song, we thought it was a little bit too forgettable and nice. But as we are approaching the finals and taking closer and closer looks at Harel, we realize this is some fine song we will never forget. We've tested it on 2 year olds and mother-in-laws and rock stars and they all like it, so we figure it suits many and is one tough challenge for the rest of the countries this year.
Denmark
We just have to tell you: This song will always remain as horrible as the first time we heard it. For every breath you take, we will despise you even more. It's pretentious, calculating and soulless. Sorry, neighbors. You're a bore.
Russia
We hated Russia. Kinda still do. But then we've hated it so much it has reached the level of something similar of a cult status with us. "What are you doing, man?" will certainly be a party one liner for the next couple of weeks and we will almost remember it when looking at a photo. At least this song has something quirky and funny about it, and that's more than we can say about the other boring stuff.
Cyprus
There is something about Jon Lillygreen. He is really sweet and his voice sticks with us. We think this can be a popular song in the finals. Because after all, now it's spring and everything looks a little better.
Serbia
Disappointment from here to eternity after watching Milan Stankovic's first rehearsal in Norway. The man is still glorious, but what happened to his glorious dancers? Looks like he switched two of the women for boring men. And the fantastic ethnic show gone as well? Shame, shame, shame, Serbia. You are in vain. We hope you're fooling us, and will reveal the most ethnotastic show ever in the later rehearsals to come.
Sweden
Sweden's entry is working a little bit like their H&M clothing - nice, but wears out really quickly. Anna is still lovely, the song isn't.
Estonia
We're loving the Siren of Estonia even more each day. Robin Juhkental is just so fine and dandy standing there bending his knees, moving in interesting ways and pointing his microphone everywhere. The song is a pearl that grows on you. Too bad the majority of the televoters don't have time for that.
Poland
We're so easily charmed it's embarrassing some times. Poland's happy joy joy singer running around loving his family and making video blogs is just so super charming we're actually reconsidering the song and liking it a little bit more. So much for being tough critics.
France
Oh, God. We wish we didn't like this tiring song. But there's something about it that makes us want to play it every once in a while. We need music like this from time to time. And Jessy is still lovely. Really looking forward to seeing how this works live at least.
Israel
When we reviewed this song, we thought it was a little bit too forgettable and nice. But as we are approaching the finals and taking closer and closer looks at Harel, we realize this is some fine song we will never forget. We've tested it on 2 year olds and mother-in-laws and rock stars and they all like it, so we figure it suits many and is one tough challenge for the rest of the countries this year.
Denmark
We just have to tell you: This song will always remain as horrible as the first time we heard it. For every breath you take, we will despise you even more. It's pretentious, calculating and soulless. Sorry, neighbors. You're a bore.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Retro Sunday: Sweden 1988
Every Sunday we give you some of our favorite old entries to cheer you up a little extra and make you miss the glorious old days. Today the Swedes will teach us how a real ballad should sound like:
Why this fabulous ballad did not reach higher than 12th place in Dublin in 1988 is completely beyond us. This is goose bumps and shivers down our our spines from the first cord. Supposedly it was because Tommy Körberg fell ill with a sore throat a few days before the final and as he performed his song during dress rehearsals his voice broke a couple of times when trying to reach the highest notes. This was back in the days when only the juries decided the votes and the jury members were present during the dress rehearsals. So even tough Tommy's performance in the final was spotless he did not manage to convince the juries. But he certainly convinced us and at least Norway gave our neighbors 12 points! Well deserved!
The Scandinavians still love this song and this year's Swedish contestant Anna Bergendahl chose to perform it during her participation in Swedish Idol in 2008. Enjoy!
Why this fabulous ballad did not reach higher than 12th place in Dublin in 1988 is completely beyond us. This is goose bumps and shivers down our our spines from the first cord. Supposedly it was because Tommy Körberg fell ill with a sore throat a few days before the final and as he performed his song during dress rehearsals his voice broke a couple of times when trying to reach the highest notes. This was back in the days when only the juries decided the votes and the jury members were present during the dress rehearsals. So even tough Tommy's performance in the final was spotless he did not manage to convince the juries. But he certainly convinced us and at least Norway gave our neighbors 12 points! Well deserved!
The Scandinavians still love this song and this year's Swedish contestant Anna Bergendahl chose to perform it during her participation in Swedish Idol in 2008. Enjoy!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Party Swedes - welcome!
Get ready for Eurovision's sweetest disappearance act! Here comes Sweden.
Forgetting about the annoying opera chick that couldn't keep her secret last year, Sweden has a long and shiny history in Eurovision. Considering all the noisy, self conscious, trashy Swedes that tend to overpopulate Oslo's restaurants, shops and bars, it is actually amazing how much we love Sweden when it comes to this contest. Guess all the great folks stay at home. There is Ola Salo and the rest of the glam rockers in The Ark, the ABBA people, Lill Lindfors, Lill-Babs, Kikki Danielson, Charlotte Nilsson/Charlotte Perelli and their likings. No one knows how to party like them and no one knows how to make a better Eurovision performance. And then of course there is the queen of wind machines Carola - she has after all delivered some of the best performances ever with Främling and Fångad av en stormvind. Too bad she went all wacko, but we choose to leave that story out of Eurovision and just never invite her back again.
This year's Anna Bergendahl is probably one of the cutest contestants with her blond curls, intense eyes, blushy cheeks and sweet dress quirkily paired with a pair of red converse. We like the bluegrassy feel of this song and her deep voice. We did like the fact that she played an acoustic guitar too, but hey, where does it go after the first verse? We haven't got a clue, but can't wait to see this happening live. Disappearing guitars are after all more rare than disappearing skirts at these parties. Anyways, we think Anna has a great voice, but the song is probably a little bit too boring and repetitive to reach the highest scores. Being a Swedish diva has been proven to work before, though.
One of the most famous graffiti tags in Oslo is a message telling all Party Swedes to go home. We, however, wish you welcome - because we know you have some good people for us, and we can't wait to meet them.
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