A couple of promo things I've been meaning to mention, but, ridiculously, haven't yet:
I've written about the amazing London-based club night Scandipop before, but Tuesday the 29 provides an extra reason to get excited about the work its creator does: BWO will be performing. The flyer above contains all the information. I'd love to go if I wasn't across an ocean from it.
I'm currently moonlighting--along with a bunch of other great bloggers--as a panelist over at Pop Trash Addicts Pop Panel. This week's results find me being about as middle-of-the-road on everything as it's possible to be, but luckily the rest of the panel makes up for it...a panel that this week includes Robyn Loau. Mike may play up the trashy aspect of his choices for us to review, but it's also true that his panel is doing one of the best jobs of introducing people to great music they might not otherwise take the time to listen to.
Jesse McCartney's "Body Language" is nearly everything I hoped it would be. Hyper-cute urban-glossed catchy pop with ridiculous lyrics ("breaking it down articulately" plus FUN WITH LANGUAGES).
I'm open to being convinced otherwise (Jesse does a decent job with "Rock Ya"), but so far, when we're talking about his nominally more R&B direction, Jesse's shown himself to be best with this hyper-cute mid-tempo pop that uses the aforementioned urban sheen to barely disguise just how poppy and kitschy it actually is, as opposed to, say, the ballads or the edgier and less melodic songs. "Body Language" doesn't approach the brilliance of its predecessors "Leavin'" and "How Do You Sleep," but it's a respectable entry into this era of Jesse's work.
In other news: BWO. As I mentioned, Swedish newspaper/tabloid Expressen recently allowed us to listen to the album in advance, but Big Science, the group's fourth studio album, is out tomorrow. I feel pretty pleased with it, but I'm going to elaborate on that in a future post since after allowing myself to indulge on Sunday I cut myself off from the album so I didn't overplay it before I got the full thing properly. As I'm a bit pressed for time now, though, I do want to say that the next single, "Right Here Right Now," is great (though to be completely honest on my first listen and after so much build-up around it, I didn't quite see the big deal; I quickly came to love it, though, and it may very well be my favorite song on the album at this point). Quick favorites (in no particular order) that haven't been fully thought through and are basically based on only one only-just-took-place listen since Sunday:
Right Here Right Now: BWO in sound, but with some more strings. It's not the sometimes menacing electro drama of Prototype, but this is still the BWO we now--maybe more Halcyon Days BWO, which I'm fine with. As I mentioned somewhere, the up-tempo remix of "You're Not Alone" reminded me of September's "Satellites" in its beat and "Right Here Right Now" has a little of that, too, though much toned down and overlapped with those lovely strings and that lovely pretty melody and with some kind of "Chariots Of Fire"-esque choral moments tossed in.
Rise To The Occasion (proper--not Expressen--quality): also mid-tempo-ish, but with more of an up-tempo feel than its technical tempo would make you think. Poppy. A catchy female vocal hook (sung by Märta of Cocktail Studios, according to Oswalds Popcorn) seals the deal on this already catchy song. Oswalds Popcorn compared it to Ace of Base, only modernized, and that's spot-on.
Rhythm Of The Night: the song opens with that classic BWO sound (you'll know what I mean when you hear it--it shows up throughout Prototype). Also really catchy. Wow, I really shouldn't be attempting this at all if I'm not going to be able to put the proper time into coming up with good descriptions until later. Anyway, maybe kind of like a slightly slower "Gomenasai." Not slow, though.
Shoot From The Heart: maybe the most "dance attack"-type song. It's still more on the pop side than the electro side, though.
In Too Deep: I've yet to see anyone else write positively about this song, let alone call it one of their favorites, but it really is for me (I think perhaps its placement and hearing the album through as a whole via Expressen helped). BWO go for one of those washing-over-you mid-tempo songs, but this time it actually works for me instead of seeming too chintzy (and yes, I realize I just got done praising a song with the word "kitschy" a few paragraphs up) and manages to get under my skin. Thankfully, the electro sounds here are smooth instead of that buzzier electro sound used in "Give Me The Night" and "The Bells Of Freedom," which I was really beginning to fear would characterize most of their future work. It was fine for "Give Me The Night," but I like my BWO smoother, a la "Gomenasai."
Thunderbolt: the Empire Music song. The beginning of "Thunderbolt"'s chorus isn't quite as melodic as that of other songs, but it's still a fun song (and it basically has an A chorus and a B chorus anyway), as well as also one of the dancier ones.
That was kind of ridiculously uninformative and poorly descriptive. I'll try to actually do a proper write-up when I have more time. My general comment would be that the sound here is generally more...middle of the road? That's not the right phrase (especially since it comes with a negative connotation), but I wouldn't say you're getting anything edgy or abrasive for most of the album. On the one hand, I'm much more satisfied with it than I was with Fabricator, so it's won at least one fan who was beginning to feel a bit alienated back. On the other hand, I can see it losing them the people who really go in for the harder electro sounds as well as not winning back people who loved Prototype but not much more. I feel really pleased with it, though: I'll admit their experimentation with other genres (see "Love Came Crashing Down" and "Burning Down The House," for example) isn't my preference, but there is enough here of electronic pop BWO--and, more importantly, good electronic pop BWO--that I feel satisfied.
Buy BWO's new album, Big Science, here (physical).
Next up: maybe something about Måns. Or Erik. Or Lily. Or not.
Pre-listen to BWO's new album Big Sciencehere (below full quality, but very listenable--better than MySpace). I'm only beginning to do so myself, so no further comment as of yet, but I'll be back with thoughts, I'm sure.
Much thanks and credit to Aces and Damian for the link!
This coming semifinal, the third overall, has the chance to give us a solid top four. Will that happen? That will depend not just on the voters but whether the artists participating live up to the potential they have. There are also a good number of acts here that I can imagine just being filler.
1.) Velvet, "The Queen" (Tony Nilsson/Henrik Janson) Backing singer turned artist in her own right Jenny Petterson, a.k.a. Velvet, has built herself quite a fanbase among fans of Swedish dance-pop. She makes her third appearance in Melodifestivalen this year, following 2006's Latin-flavored "Mi Amore" (which made it to the second chance round but no further, though it did prompt a revamp of the rules so that artists in the second chance round got to perform their songs again) and 2008's disco "Déjà Vu" (which didn't make it out of its semifinal). Outside of the contest, she's released a good number of great dance-pop songs; her 2006 album may have been Finally, but that title, accurate for its time, would be even more appropriate for her upcoming album The Queen: we've been waiting for it since she released the amazing swooshy dance-pop song "Fix Me" in early 2007. In the intervening time, she's released four additional singles, meaning that by the time the song "The Queen" comes out, she'll have released six singles from her new album before it's even come out.
If September is the queen of classy Swedish dance-pop, Velvet tends to make more hands-in-the-air sort of stuff, big fun dance your worries away tracks which sparkle with a touch of '80's. "The Queen" may be a bit of a change for her, though; Velvet has said it's not like her other tracks. Since she explained that by saying that it's dancier and poppier, though, I'm not worried (as well as confused--how a song could possibly be both poppier and dancier than what she's previously released, I have no idea). Velvet has also said the song is a cool electro dance song and will have a Madonna-inspired performance. The song is co-written by Tony Nilsson (of Ola's best songs, Elin Lanto's "Discotheque," Johan Krafman's music, very underrated work for himself, and, in addition to other songs, my probably undying musical love) and is described by its writers as an attitude-filled retro hit which you either love or hate. Schlagerprofilerna said a little while ago that, out of the girl pop group of Marie Serneholt, Agnes, Amy Diamond, and Agnes, Velvet had the most buzz.
Supposedly The Queen, Velvet's new album, comes out March 18. By that point, we'll have heard at least seven tracks on it--the singles plus "Sound Of Music"--and maybe eight, if "My Rhythm" is on it. She's also just about to release "Chemistry" in the UK, complete with, as Chart Rigger pointed out, a Pete Hammond remix.
To watch: other people have other favorites, but I still love "Fix Me" too much to not post it
2.) Rigo & the Topaz Sound feat. Red Fox, "I Got U" (Rodrigo Pencheff/Tobias Karlsson) I tend to associate Rigo, a member of Infinite Mass and a solo artist, with kind of Latin-influenced urban pop (or hip-hop), sometimes reggaeton-influenced. I'm not hugely familiar with his work, though. Topaz Sound is the band backing him up here, I think, and Red Fox is a reggae singer. The songwriters describe "I Got U" as a happy '50s-'60s inspired song with a Caribbean touch, not a hip hop song but not schlager either.
To watch: the music video for "Vamos a bailar"
3.) Molly Sandén, "Så vill stjärnorna" (Ingela "Pling" Forsman/Bobby Ljunggren/Marcos Ubeda) Bert Karlsson, a record company svengali who always tries to get artists in Melodifestivalen, has been trying to get Molly in the contest since the 2008 edition. Now she's actually old enough to enter and, unsurprisingly, here she is. Even without Bert, though, I would've expected and hoped to see her in the contest after her breakthrough in 2006, when she won Sweden's national final for Junior Eurovision and took Sweden to what was by far its best place, third. The song that did it for her, her self-written schlager ballad "Det finaste någon kan få," is nothing short of fantastic (as well as my go-to proof for the fact that yes, I can love schlager ballads).
As a commenter mentioned recently, Molly may be younger than Amy Diamond, but she has a much older-sounding voice; if it's Amy's voice that you find the main stumbling block with liking her, you may have a much better chance of liking Molly. Hopefully her song, described by its songwriters as a beautiful ballad about when destiny finally happens and by Molly as atmospheric, beautiful and with a Nordic touch, is worthy of her; along with Sarah Dawn Finer, Molly is one of my two big ballad hopes for this year. The songwriters are Melodifestival stalwarts, which means they've penned both songs I love and songs I feel no attachment to--hopefully this is one of their better efforts, but it could go either way. Christer Björkman says the song is a classic Swedish ballad, but I'm not necessarily going to take his word for it. Schlagerprofilerna did say that they'd heard "Så vill stjärnorna" is a strong ballad that those who've heard it expect to end up in Globen.
To watch: Molly singing "Det finaste någon kan fa," of course (here at the Swedish final for Junior Eurovision). Keep in mind this was back in 2006 when she was fourteen; she's only had time to grow up and get better since then.
4.) E.M.D., "Baby Goodbye" (Erik Segerstedt/Mattias Andréasson/Danny Saucedo/Oscar Görres) Made up of three former Idol contestants, boy band E.M.D. has yet to really impress me. Given that Sweden is the source of most of the boy band classics, a Swedish boy band really should be releasing fantastic songs, not uninspiring covers of "All For Love" and generally decent but unmemorable material. Given that Danny, since before joining the group, has been the singer of fantastic dance-pop songs, the fact that the group has a serious lack of great up-tempo songs has been disappointing for me. That hasn't stopped them from doing very well in Sweden, though, building up a large number of fans and (somewhat crazily) taking home the title of year's best track with "Jennie Let Me Love You" at Sweden's 2008 Grammis.
Their description of their self-written entry, "Baby Goodbye" (chosen at the last minute instead of the Jörgen Elofsson-penned "Saturday Night," currently released as a single by group member Erik) is exactly the thing they needed to say to get me interested in it despite my reservations: a self-confident up-tempo song that isn't a typical E.M.D. song. and the sort of thing that would do well in Europe. It's true that co-writer Oscar Görres did one of the better tracks on the group's debut album, the melodic piano-and-strings "Run To You," but my real hope is that he and Danny have indulged their electronic and dance sides that so far they've shown everywhere else besides the E.M.D. project. "Hey (I've Been Feeling Kind Of Lonely)," "Blue," "Running Away," and "Turn Of The Sound" from Danny's solo albums were all co-written by Danny and Oscar. Oscar is also the co-writer of The Provider's electronic pop song "Wanna Feel Real," Monrose's "Hit 'n Go," and Donal Skehan's "Double Cross My Heart," which is a pretty poppy catalogue. I'm hoping that the group will have decided they'd rather be Danny-as-a-group or "Bye Bye Bye"-era 'N Sync and, at least for "Baby Goodbye," have gone in that direction. That's probably hoping for too much, especially since their interviews have made it sound like it was mainly Erik who wrote it, but there's a chance the group could exceed the low quality expectations I think people have for them.
To watch: E.M.D. performing (via playback) "Jennie Let Me Love You," their second single and first original single
5.) Mikael Rickfors, "Du vinner över mig" (Thomas G:son) Mikael Rickfors is, from what I understand, one of those artists who's been around for a long time in Sweden and has worked as both part of a group and solo. He's not an artist who's work I'm not familiar with, despite the large number of albums he's released. Thomas G:son is a name I'm familiar with, given the generally schlager-inclined writer's large output over the years--sometimes throwaway (Anna Book's "Samba Sambero") and sometimes great. Mikael is generally more of a rock artist, though, not your typical Melodifetival act, and he says "Du vinner över mig" is a rock song which only has just a little schlager in it.
"Du vinner över mig" is described by G:son as "'80s style in a leather suit," whatever that means.
To watch listen: "Vingar," an '80's hit of his
6.) Maja Gullstrand, "Här för mig själv" (Thomas G:son/Marcos Ubeda) Maja, like many a past Melodifestival contestant, appeared on reality singing show Fame Factory. For all that, though, she doesn't make music in a "typical Melodifestival style" at all--it's quirky light jazzy bossa nova style stuff. From the description of the songwriters, it sounds like that's what we should expect here, too; they say "Här för mig själv" is groovy trendy neo-retro bossa nova clad in flowery yellow velour pajamas (yes, that's really the description). Maja has released two albums in Sweden, but it's still unlikely she's got the fanbase to push her onto the next round. Still, strange things can happen in Melodifestivalen.
To watch: Maja singing maybe her biggest hit, "Alla dessa ord," live
7.) Sofia, "Alla" (Dimitri Stassos/Henrik Wikström/Irini Michas/Nina Karolidou) Sofia has competed in Melodifestivalen once before, failing to make it out of her semifinal with "Hypnotized" in 2007 (despite me thinking the Greek-flavored up-tempo pop song--kind of in the style Helena Paparizou used to do--was the second best track in its heat). She's done a little in other countries since then but not anything in Sweden. Now blonde, she returns to the contest with a rock-inspired ethno-pop song--tough pop-rock with a cool riff according to the writers--all in Greek and in a Eurovision pop style. It's co-written by one of the writers of "Hypnotized" and the man who was, at some point in the past two years, working on an album with her, Dimitri Stassos. Henrik Wikström has contributed to too many Melodifestival tracks to name while the other two songwriters are making their first appearance in the contest (though I've written positively about Irini Michas's Greek-flavored dance-rock-pop song "Play" before).
To watch: Sofia performing "Hypnotized" at Melodifestivalen 2007
8.) BWO, "You're Not Alone" (Fredrik Kempe/Alexander Bard/Anders Hansson) On paper, this should be an easy contender for the title of best song in Melodifestivalen. Three-time entrant electronic pop group BWO's past two entries into the contest, "Temple Of Love" and "Lay Your Love On Me," have both been quality tracks loved by the fans (and they took second and third respectively at Melodifestivalen) and the group has made many a fantastic pop track since their 2005 debut album, Prototype. Composed of singer Martin Rolinski (a former reality TV singing contestant), Alexander Bard (a pop maestro behind songs by Army of Lovers and Alcazar among many others), and Martina Schiptjenko (who does the group's frequent fabulously spoken middle eights), BWO have an admirable commitment to making modern (or maybe more aptly futuristic) pop music--a commitment which they take seriously--and never fail to be impeccably styled. In my opinion, though, the group was a little off their game with their third album, a fact I was made less worried about when they debuted the "Hung Up"-like "Lay Your Love On Me" in last year's Melodifestival. Unfortunately, he two new tracks on their greatest hits besides that song weren't exciting for me, but they're a group I'm always going to want to like.
With songwriters like those of "You're Not Alone," though, one has to hope for the best even more so than you would just because BWO is involved. Bard, as mentioned, has put his name to many a great pop track. Fredrik Kempe's star has risen rapidly in Melodifestivalen since 2007's "Cara Mia," with him winning with Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" last year and scoring a number of entries this year. Anders Hansson, like Bard, is a writer and producer with pop roots running back a long time, at least to the '80's, and also like Bard worked with the Alcazar of the past, though unlike Bard he's also working with the group in its current incarnation. In addition to co-writing Alcazar's "Stay The Night" from this year, he's also the man behind Agnes's latest album, which includes the top-notch disco-pop track "Release Me." He's a man whose work I'm always going to be interested in, even if every track isn't a 10 out of 10 for me.
Add up three exciting pop songwriters like that and a group as interesting and capable of pop brilliance as BWO and you should get something fans are dying to hear--and they are. Will it be worth the wait? I'm far more nervous than I want to be. "You're Not Alone" exists in two versions, one ballad and one disco, and it's the ballad version--described as a modern dramatic electro gospel ballad--the group has chosen to enter into the contest, though the song didn't start its life as a ballad and it's said they've left open the option of entering the disco version in Eurovision should they win and many other countries choose to send ballads. Part of me is extremely skeptical of acts who I prefer doing up-tempo work who've entered great songs in Melodifestivalen in the past "going ballad" in search of a win. Anyway, BWO says the song starts small and then becomes really big before ending small again and that it will remind people of Dima Bilan's "Believe," while Schlagerprofilerna referred to it as "Timbaland meets Army of Lovers." BWO also say it shows off Martin's voice. The group says they've changed their image, too: they're going more sci-fi and more futuristic.
A new album, Big Science, will be coming out April 1 and boasts producers including the aforementioned Bard and Hansson as well as another frequent Melodifestival songwriter, Henrik Wikström, and Johan Fjellström, the man behind West End Girls and Star Pilots as well as Verona's 2007 entry "Ti Sento." The group has at various times said that its new sound will be "inspired by such varied sources as Duran Duran, The Killers, contemporary electronic pop, classic soul and R&B" and that it is a little like the Killers and has some traces of Kraftwerk, but with BWO production still.
To watch: BWO performing "Temple Of Love" at Melodifestivalen 2006. If they mean it when they say this new song is more gospel, though, maybe "Chariots Of Fire" would be a better indication of what to expect, even if that is up-tempo.
What I expect my favorites to be: this is kind of hard--there are some people I'm hoping to like but that, moreso than in the past weeks, I could just as easily be left unmoved by. I want to love Velvet's song and I do like most of her work and Tony Nilsson's work so it looks promising, but "Deja Vu" isn't a song I return to at all at this point. As I said above, I have real concerns about BWO, concerns I'm hoping are misplaced. There's still a good chance their song will be one of my favorites of the week, though. Molly is right up there too for me, though once again, I don't feel safe about the song yet. That's even more true for E.M.D.; there's a good chance I'll rank their song in my top four, but will they really turn things around and be as fantastic as a Swedish boy band should be? I liked Sofia's last entry, but the rock part of the description does make me a bit nervous considering that the "heavier" songs I've heard from her and from those writers are more often misses than hits for me. Those first four--Velvet, BWO, Molly Sandén, and E.M.D.--are the four I'm guessing will be my favorites, though, and there's a decent chance I'll like Sofia's song, too. There's some great potential here, but equally potential to be let down.
The world is full of pain and heartache But I was sure I was immune I never thought I'd make your heart break, oh-oh
I've had a suspicion for a while that this song was rejected from Melodifestivalen 2007--how many Swedish songs named "Gomenasai" can there be?--but I've never been able to convince myself that a BWO song actually wouldn't make the cut, especially the best one from their third album (though oddly not made a single until after they'd released several singles from the greatest hits that followed that third album). "Gomenasai" is prime BWO, their usual electronically created pop sound but still fresh. I may return to Fabricator less than to Prototype or Halcyon Days and not really liked "Barcelona" or "The Bells Of Freedom," the new tracks on their greatest hits, but as long as the group can keep making songs like "Lay Your Love On Me" and the even better "Gomenasai," I'll keep listening--the ending "I didn't mean to hurt you, I didn't mean to harm and make you cry" and the chorus coming in to overlap on top of it still gets me just as excited as it did on the first listen.
We can dance all night with the bourgeoisie Oh-oh, oh-oh Lay your love on me
A return to form for BWO after a run of singles not up to the group's usual excellent high standard, "Lay Your Love On Me" was the Swedish version of Madonna's "Hung Up"...which sampled ABBA, so it all cycles back in the end. "Lay Your Love On Me" is pop group BWO doing what they do best, and as a result has all the quality, catchiness, drama, slightly confusing ridiculous but "deep"-sounding lyrics, and even the "woah"s and "oh-oh"s we've come to love from the group. Why doesn't the song come a little higher up in the countdown? In part, that's a result of a fact that didn't hurt the song when performed live but that is a bit of a drawback when you listen to it on its own: the climax of the song is just...silence. This made sense when they debuted the song at Melodifestivalen--that moment of musical silence was when a bunch of pyrotechnics went off--but it leaves me feeling a little cheated when I listen to "Lay Your Love On Me" without watching the Elizabethan-style performance. Still, "Lay Your Love On Me" really is an excellent track, much better than #64 makes it look, and it succeeded in getting me excited about BWO's future all over again; music like this is worthy of them.
Am I ever going to stop writing about Melodifestivalen? No, probably not.
In interviews with QX, the first eight artists announced gave us a little more information about their songs.
Alcazar talked about "Stay The Night," with Tess saying it sounds like a combination of songs Alcazar have done earlier, with Andreas saying that it reminded him a little bit of "Knock On Wood."
BWO say they noticed that modern dramatic ballads do well, so presumably that's what they think "You're Not Alone" is. Apparently it's a song that shows off Martin's singing and they say it's this year's "Empty Room" and "Believe" (great...).
Måns Zelmerlöw says "Hope & Glory" is an upgrade of "Cara Mia," big and grand. He also reveals that there was another song he worked on with Fredrik Kempe and considered sending, a megaballad in a French march tempo, but (and this is why you have to love Måns) he decided that he "had to get to dance" or he would be "boring" otherwise. He hasn't sent in songs he's written to any other country yet (a song he co-wrote was in Romania's nationa final this year), but he has enough that he can and (probably) will.
I haven't mentioned this in a blog post yet, but the fact that Markoolio is the first joker announced has been discussed in the comments. Markoolio's song, "Kärlekssång från mig," is described, as Melodiment pointed out, as a ballad with a twist (and funny lyrics) and is from the writers of not just some of Markoolio's own songs (like "Värsta Schlagern") but also of 2005's B-Boys International and Paul M's "One Step Closer" and 2007's Verona's "La Musica." Damian pointed out an article in which Markoolio says there will be strippers, with Markoolio lying on the ground and crawling around. Speaking of Markoolio, I want to take another opportunity to praise "Emma, Emma" from his last album. It may have kind of cringeworthy lyrics, but if "Värsta Schlagern" was Markoolio doing a parody of schlager but actually making a brilliant schlager song with a lot of help from a female singer, "Emma, Emma" is the techno/Eurodance equivalent of it. All three of my preferred tracks from that album involved Markoolio being smart enough to delegate a lot of the hook duties and actual good parts of the song to a female singer, so it'll be interesting to see if he does that at all with "Kärlekssång från mig." I'm not counting on it, though.
With three joker spots left, the names being mentioned again and again are Marie Serneholt (would love her to be back with any music period, so a big yes from me), Orup, Darin (love him, obviously, but I'm not sure that I want him in Melodifestivalen), EMD, and Lutricia McNeal.
As Schlager Queen and Gylleneskor (among others) both reported, dansband Lasse Stefanz have declined to sing "Den Första Kyssen;" as they're the demo artists, if they refuse to sing the song, SVT has an option to disqualify the song entirely if they don't feel they can find anyone else they want to sing it. If that happens, another song--one of the ones that just missed the cut--would be chosen to replace it. In 2007, Måns's "Cara Mia" and Lustans Lakejer's "Allt vi en gång trodde på" were replacements, so you could potentially get something good out of a disqualification...then again, the current song could be great. The lists of the finalists (the songs chosen and those that just missed out) and the top 116 are posted on SVT's site (as PDFs--the former is here and the latter is here). I love going through in the months afterward and trying to figure out what songs released were Melodifestivalen rejects (I've got some list somewhere I should go find and see if anyone can add onto), so, though it's a bit early to do that with these lists, they may provide some entertainment in the future.
I should just edit this information into the previous post, but it's Melodifestivalen, so it gets a pass. SVT also released a little description of each of the eight songs whose artists were confirmed today (and I've added in some descriptions from an earlier post). More importantly, though: (some) new pictures (all credit to SVT)!
Alcazar, "Stay The Night" (Anders Hansson/Mårten Sandén/Andreas Lundstedt/Tess Merkel/Lina Hedlund): good party track with odd harmonies. QX earlier reported that the song is a modern pop track in the style of the music Alcazar is doing now. Incidentally, supposedly their album is coming "shortly," whatever that means.
BWO, "You're Not Alone" (Fredrik Kempe/Alexander Bard/Anders Hansson): a dramatic electro-gospel ballad
Caroline af Ugglas, "Snälla Snälla" (Caroline af Ugglas/Heniz Liljedahl): a typical Caroline track and a ballad
Emilia, "You're My World" (Emilia Rydberg/Fredrik Figge Bodström): "a tribute to those we love and the warmth they give us"
Jennifer Brown, "Never Been Here Before" (Jennifer Brown/Peter Kvint): the saddest track Burt Bacharach never wrote. QX earlier described it as a soul ballad.
Lasse Lindh, "Jag Slåss I Dina Kvarter!" (Lasse Lindh): an in-your-face danceable track
(Look, that's the picture SVT chose--don't blame me if you wanted to see more! They did give us this, too:
if that helps at all) Måns Zelmerlöw, "Hope & Glory" (Fredrik Kempe/Måns Zelmerlöw/Henrik Wikström): a hopeful love anthem and a track everyone will remember after the first listen. Musically a continuation and development of Måns's earlier hits. QX earlier wrote that the song is said to be a strong, modern pop track.
(That photo's obviously taken from Sarah's own latest promo session--she's got a new single out soon.)
Sarah Dawn Finer, "Moving On" (Sarah Dawn Finer/Fredrik Kempe): a dynamic, dramatic, beautiful, epic, big, strong song that is hopeful, but with a little bit of sadness. QX earlier reported that the song is a powerful ballad totally different from "I Remember Love."
More pictures? You didn't ask for more? Too bad, you're getting them anyway.
BWO! And they've "gone ballad" on us. Watch them finally win (though it may be a brilliant ballad--who knows?).
Alcazar!
Emilia and Måns
Måns!
Lovely Jennifer Brown.
Also, it's worth noting these people are not all in the same semi--just all in Melodifestivalen. We'll find out one joker tomorrow.
(If anything could draw me out of Circus-land, you just knew it would be Sweden, right?)
Proving (!) that I'm not absolutely obsessed, here--a half month after its debut--is a performance (in shady quality) of another track from Darin's new album. It's called "Strobelight" and is the urban/clubby track we heard David Jassy working on it that "Making of Flashback" video.
In other Swedish music news--and as Troy and Scandipop already wrote about--eight of the Melodifestival artists were confirmed today. No surprises, but hey, it's nice to know for sure that these artists are doing it.
1.) Måns Zelmerlöw, "Hope & Glory" 2.) Lasse Lindh & Band, "Jag ska slåss i dina kvarter" 3.) Sarah Dawn Finer, "Moving On" 4.) Jennifer Brown, "Never Been Here Before" 5.) Caroline af Ugglas, "Snälla snälla" 6.) Alcazar, "Stay The Night" 7.) Emilia, "You're My World" 8.) BWO, "It's My Life"
