So how did I spend my 44th birthday?

Well it was a Monday, so I went to work, and dealt with some of the more mundane aspects of my job.

And then after work, a couple of colleagues and I went out for a drink (or three).

Then I came home to watch Dansbandskampen, a Swedish television program.

It’s a bit like “Idol”, it’s a bit like “X-Factor”, it’s a bit like the “Got Talent” franchise, but it’s also uniquely Swedish in many ways because it features “dansbands”.

I found dansbands described on the interweb in these terms…

They’re middle aged, often bald, in male majority and with a horrible taste in both cloths, stylisists and music. They are Swedish Dance Bands. Flourishing during the 70’s and 80’s the music genre of dance band, in Sweden, is now just an odd memory of past days. All that remains are hundreds of LP records, made by obscure little local dance bands, depserately trying to make it to the big stages.

Famously, Dansbands were celebrated on the Audioporn Website and on The Top Ten Website, mostly because their photographs and album covers look so incredibly ridiculous with hindsight.

According to the Wikiweb…

The contest aims to bring dance band culture in the media light again, after that, during much of the 2000s the first decade played a more modest role compared with the tailwind during the 1990s.

Amongst the many Dansbands featured on the program I watched was a band which did a cover version of the faux-techno hit, “Boten Anna” by Basshunter.

As they sang along, a group of middle-aged dance and swing enthusiasts danced to their performance.

Later, they were judged by the likes of Magnus Carlsson, who before joining his alleged boyfriend in Alcazar, was once part of one of the most famous Swedish dansbands, Barbados.

The program I watched also featured a Swedish radio producer and a singer, Lisa Williams, who alternated between English and Swedish in her comments.

Yes, I know it sounds bizarre. But it was also a very entertaining program. And if you have some time, I’d suggest you check it out on http://svtplay.se/, as it’s great fun.

And even though it’s in Swedish it’s still reasonably easy to follow.

It was a fun way to spend my birthday, although I’ll probably also do some more exciting stuff later in the week.