The phrase “Sverige, vi har ett resultat” translates fairly easily to English as “Sweden, we have a result”. There are quite a few other phrases used in Melodifestivalen, the Swedish finals leading to Eurovision which also translate easily. Phrases like, “text och musik” is also pretty clear to people watching the final without any knowledge of Swedish.… Read the rest “Sverige, vi har ett resultat”
Though ostensibly it’s about choosing Sweden’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, very few of the songs chosen for Melodifestivalen have much of a chance of making it through.
Melodifestivalen is the Swedish pre-selection process that takes place over six weeks during February/March each year.
The first few times I visited Sweden and tried to use my Swedish language skills, I was always somewhat frustrated. Every time I spoke in Swedish, people would reply in English. “Are my Swedish language skills that terrible?”, I thought to myself. They would always reply politely with “Your Swedish is very good”, but then we would continue the conversation in English.… Read the rest “Melodifestivalen 2021”
The best thing about Andra Chasen this year was Shirley Clamp’s performance of “Min kärlek “. Despite her name, Shirley Clamp is a well-known Swedish pop singer. Her father was British, and I understand now lives in Australia. She’s had quite a few hit songs in Sweden, including this.
Back in the days of 7-inch vinyl, there was always the B-side. There was the hit song on the A-side, and on the B-side there was, generally speaking, a song favoured by the artist, but never likely to be a hit record.
As I watched the latest heat of Melodifestivalen, the Swedish finals for the Eurovision Song Contest, I couldn’t help but feel I’d heard the songs before.
“Rich” by Julia Alfrida sounded very similar to “Royals” by Lorde (it even contained the line “Do you want to be royal?”.
If I had to choose one song or performance from the first heat of this year’s Swedish path to Eurovision (Melodifestivalen) to go straight through, it would be that of Lena Philipsson.
As we head towards this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, I’ve been keeping up to date with all of the different national finals.
Last weekend, Australia chose “Don’t Break Me” by Montaigne. “Fair enough”, I thought to myself, though I much preferred Casey Donovan’s song, which I thought was more anthemic, and had a stronger performance.… Read the rest “Sweden’s Second Best”
Following on from yesterday’s awesome half-time moment from when Norway hosted Eurovision comes another awesome half-time moment. This time it’s from Sweden, and it’s one of two (or maybe three) moments I’ll post featuring the awesome Petra Mede.
