Swedish~ Stereo~

Waiting for a series of new post-MF albums from Timoteij, David Lindgren and Molly Sandén coming very soon I'd like to turn your head to another worth mentioning work of this Spring, the one you probably even got tired of. Or probably you're going to play it till the very end of this year, or years more... However Charlotte Perrelli's "The Girl" hasn't failed to meet the expectations, the album has become a proper pop-treatment and has peaked at #7 of Swedish chart which is Charlotte's second best result after "Hero" (#3).
While "Little Braveheart" starts spreading in Europe, I'd like to mention another great dance track - "In The Sun". Starting with a slow growing intro as all good schlagers are supposed to it surprisingly turns to a big dance summerish anthem, poptastic and happy. As dubstep becomes a trend in Swedish pop this song also includes dubstep middle-eight. The song was written by the same team behind "The Girl" and "Little Braveheart" - Fredrik Kempe and Alexander Jonsson with producing help of Elias Kapari and the lyrics from Sharon Vaughn.

Youngblood have entered Swedish chart with their debut album "Running Home To You" at #10 last week. Quite promising start, summer tours and performances in pop-festivals will definitely give guys long life in chart.
You can listen to samples of the album here noticing Fredrik Kempe, David Kreuger, Jörgen Elofsson, Fredrik Thomander, Sharon Vaughn and many other recognizable songwriters.
Personally I haven't become addicted to a ballad part of the album but finally I've got sold on next two tracks which are quite worth mentioning. K-One has become a producer of dance-track "Play My Song" sounding in a style of the first Eric Saade's album when he was one foot in his boyband past. Fredrik Kempe stands behind it and you definitely can feel his hand. Another Jörgen Elofsson-penned track "American Girlfriend" has become a nice male version of Avril Lavigne's "What The Hell". You can listen to both of them in full versions below.

Fredrik Kempe is one of the most popular and successful Melodifestivalen songwriters, every single year his songs participate in the contest and at least one of them becomes hot public favorite.
It all has started back in 2004 when Fredrik has entered the contest performing his own song "Finally" that reached Second Chance round and has ended up with three winning songs ("Hero" (2008), "La Voix" (2009) and "Popular" (2011)). 17 entries during 7 years (he has missed 2006) but we don't have a doubt that after "Popular" success this number will get bigger in the next season.
This week Fredrik has performed potpurri of his most successful hits with Stockholms Musikkår Tre Kronor at Allsång på Skansen, I bet many melofans was wondering how these songs will sound in songwriter's version so here they are - "Manboy", "Hero", "Hope & Glory", "Moving On", "La Voix" and "Popular".
One week ago Eric Saade was at Allsång på Skansen and you can check his own version of "Popular" below.

In this truly hard period for Swedish pop-artists to stick out with their new releases when country hasn't calmed down after melofever and Eric Saade's "Popular" still rules singles-chart staying #1 4th week in a row we get new pop-wonder who has managed to overtake Erik in iTunes-chart already and it's Andreas Wijk - that talented guy we've tipped on casting of Idol-2009.
Andreas is popular fashion blogger and singer who among other has made some brilliant youtube-covers showing his really beautiful vocal and recently he has recorded voice for Fredrik Kempe's song that has become soundtrack to new show "Stylisterna" (Stylists) and now the song is out and obviously gets impressive success immediately climbing to #2 on iTunes.
"Like My Style" from the first listen is nothing you could expect from Fredrik Kempe and I don't mean it's bad, it's really different melodically and by sound, it's still pop but it's more international melodic electropop than schlagerpop that could easily be on Robyn's album, ultra-catchy and incredibly poptastic stuff. Hope it's not the last collaboration of Andreas and Fredrik!

Few weeks ago disc with rare demos of Melodifestivalen was released in deluxe-pack celebrating 10 years of new schlager-era and as we expected it turned to be full of goodies which has started to leak already few years ago though and I think some of them worth separate article like for example demo Fredrik Kempe recording his hit of Melodifestivalen-2005 "Du och jag mot världen" (co-written by Fredrik with Bobby Ljunggren and Henrik Wikström) with Shirley Clamp, finally song was performed with another schlager-diva Sanna Nielsen and has reached the final (Sanna always does) but here we can check how it sounded initially (+ how it did later). Not that it's too different from what we've heard before but definitely Shirley brings her own personality into this track and itäs really interesting to listen.

Can I not to mention release that includes credits of Fredrik Kempe, Bobby Ljunggren, Thomas G:Son, Kristian Lagerström, Oscar Holter, Henrik Wikström and other biggest names in Swedish music? Sure not!!! Especially when it's as good as new album "Mihalis" of Michalis Hatzigiannis.
In a short Michalis is 30-years old Greek-Cypriot who participated in Eurovision-1998 and since that has become incredibly popular artist selling tons of records in Greece and Cyprus and receiving multiple awards in these countries.
This year Michalis decided to record his first English album and he has got hard support of Lionheart team with it. The album turned to be amazing summer soundtrack, a little bit late for the end of August but always in time for all the lovers of classic Swedish pop-tunes wrapped in modern sound and flavored with Michalis special vocal. This is really one of the most worthy albums of this year - strong from the first track till the last and as one of the sickest MF-rejects detectives I couldn't not to suspect that Lionheart presented some great rejected song to Michalis and seems like I was right. Song titled "Do You Really Wanna Love" was rejected in 2008 and 2009 on Melodifestivalen and we have song with such title on this album, moreover it's written by Pontus Hagberg (Evan), Thomas G:Son and Bobby Ljunggren and it's less than 3 minutes, so now try to convince me there's any ability it's not MF-reject.

You're More Than Beautiful (Oscar Holter, Bobby Ljunggren, Kristian Lagerström)
I Raise My Hands (Fredrik Kempe, Bobby Ljunggren)
Favourite Mistake (Rob Davis, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Adrian Zagoritis)
Do You Really Wanna Love (Pontus Hagberg, T. G:Son, Bobby Ljunggren)
Everyone Dance (Nikos Moraitis, Rea Garvey, Michalis Hatzigiannis)
Suddenly (Adrian Zagoritis, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Nikos Moraitis)
One In A Million (Michalis Hatzigiannis, Eleana Vrachali, Adrian Zagoritis)
In The Middle Of The Night (Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström, Kristian Lagerström)
Heart Surrender (Nikos Moraitis, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Adrian Zagoritis)
Eyes Of A Sinner (Michalis Hatzigiannis, Eleana Vrachali, Adrian Zagoritis)
Let’s Call It Love (Henrik Wikström, Niklas Edberger, Kristian Lagerström, Bobby Ljunggren)
Now That You’re Gone (Adrian Zagoritis, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Eleana Vrachali)
Kiss On the Breeze (Mihalis Hatzigiannis, Eleana Vrachali)

Check this impressive list and remember that most of the songs without Swedish songwriters were produced by Jörgen Ingeström ("Favourite Mistake", "Everyone Dance", "One In A Million", "Eyes Of A Sinner", don't have information about the rest) who worked before with Martin Stenmarck, Sonja Alden, Sanna Nielsen and Charlotte Perrelli. Also you can hear backing vocals of Lars Säfsund (voice of Star Pilots in "I'm Alive") and schlager-veteran Britta Bergström in some tracks (here is credits-list for part of this album).

Peter Jöback is really on fire this year, being one of the most respectable and beloved singers of Sweden with 20 years career he immediately became central media character when he was announced as participant of Melodifestivalen-2010 with the song "Hollow" of not less than Fredrik Kempe and Anders Hansson. But luck didn't follow Peter till the end and though he was odds favorite right till semifinal where he was unexpectedly beaten by Anna Bergendahl he finished right where previous Peter's song "En sensation" participated in 1991 - at #9 of the final and entered Top-10 of singles-chart.
However Peter was honoured to sing both on the concert devoted to Princess Victoria wedding and later on Victoria's day traditional concert (to be favorite of Royal family is not that bad thing at all, right?), he also got married and the only sad thing is that he doesn't seem to care a lot about his further releases for now. We still don't lose hope and can enjoy his last single "Hollow".

As well I need to share with you this STUNNING cover of "Hollow" made by young artist Marcus Örjehag. Marcus hasn't official page filled with info about him yet, only some Eurovision covers on youtube and this nice meeting with Hera Björk at Stockholm Pride. I bet this guy has very successful future career with such great voice so let's wish him luck!

And finally don't forget to check this pleasant performance of Peter in Grensen with one of his hits "Stockholm i Natt", he seems to be well-known in Norway so it's very nice to see warm responce from audience.

Swedish pop- and soul-queen Sarah Dawn Finer has released her devotional single "Kärleksvisan" for princess Victoria's wedding that she performed previous week on a big concert right before the wedding. This is incredibly touching acoustic ballad that appeared first time on the last golden Sarah's album "Moving On" in English version as "For A Friend" and later as soundtrack of Swedish film "Så Olika" in new Swedish version. Right after release this single reached 2th place of iTunes (special Agnes' and Björn Skifs' wedding song still holds #1 hard). Currently Sarah's preparing her next album that will be out on the first week of November and will be mostly acoustic due to her own words. I'll remind you that star of Sarah Dawn Finer has risen up in 2007 after ultra-successful debut with beautiful soul-ballad "I Remember Love" that came fourth in the final of Melodifestivalen (that is realy huge success for artist not well-known for wide audience who released only one EP "Sarah Dawn Finer" before), the song sold gold, became a massive radio-hit and debut Sarah's album "A Finer Dawn" peaked at #2 of Swedish chart. Sarah came back to Melodifestivalen in 2 years this time with heart-breaking pop-rock song "Moving On" written together with Fredrik Kempe and amazing show causing loads of tears of touched audience. The song came 6th in the final but again became one of the biggest radio-hits of the year and new album "Moving On" has reached #1 and sold gold. Recently Sarah finished her sold-out tour and ready for a new stage of her music life with a new album.

Young Eric Saade has got so much success for last 6 months - debut solo-single, debut music video, Top-3 of Melodifestivalen final, golden debut album, thousands of fans, honour of announcing Swedish votes on Eurovision-2010, so now it's left only to fix results with showing a little different side of Saade's music and Eric remembers about it releasing new single - another song co-written by Fredrik Kempe but this time it's a ballad following "Moving On"-"Hollow" line of Fredrik music direction. Video is shot by famous video director Mikeadelica and is very pleasant and qualitative video that's undoubtfully gonna give a new push to Eric's album "Masquerade".

Måns Petter Albert Zelmerlöw turns 24 and congratulations come to this young and talented guy today not only from us but from all over Scandinavia. Icelandic Friðrik Ómar Hjörleifsson's releasing his cover of the song that Måns has started his big career with 3 years ago and although we actually don't have idea why it's happened right before Måns' birthday let's think that Fridrik has made it in honour of Måns and this great song that has become legendary pop-anthem and pushed Måns to the highest star-level of Swedish music industry.

Short caramiastory. Måns Zelmerlöw appeared in front of big audience first time in 2005 participating in Swedish Idol together with Agnes, Sibel, Ola and Sebastian Karlsson, he finished 5th and started waiting for his time 2 years. Fredrik Kempe already well-known songwriter and artist has sent demo of the song "Cara Mia" co-written by Henrik Wilkström and recorded with Daniel Mitsogiannis vocals to Melodifestivalen-2007 and the song almost missed the contest as jury initially prefered Fronda's entry "Alla kan bli stjärnor" but Fronda didn't want to sing it himself and finally the song was pulled out and "Cara Mia" was taken instead, Måns was chosen to sing it.

How ironic that finally this song reached the top-3 of the final, has become second in public voting, #1 in singles-chart and big Eurovision fans favorite across Europe. Måns released one platinum and one golden album, successfully participated in Melodifestivalen one more time, even took part as a host of the show, met his pop-princess Marie Serneholt, so there's nothing to wish him today that he has not so let's just wish him to come back faster with new stuff and new #1 hits.

Last Saturday Thomas G:son and Anders Bagge were really on fire competing for Denmark and Azerbaijan in the final of Eurovision-2010 and reaching Top-5, Harry Sommerdahl also helped Georgia to finally reach Top-10 and I hope it will serve as the guarantee of success for Swedish songs next season of contest in pre-selections of other countries. Though not all Swedish songs were lucky enough, Eriksson family for Ireland (23), Fredrik Kempe for Norway (20), Robert Wells for Belarus (24) and Niclas Kings for Iceland (19) unforunately didn't achieve such success in the final but however these songs reached the final and it's already good result for Ireland, Belarus and Iceland which are often followed by bad luck on contest when it comes to qualifying from semifinal so our dear songwriters should be proud of their work. As Swedish songs didn't win pre-selections any time this year I decided to give you a guide to all Swedish songs competing in national finals this year, probably you'll find something interesting that should get its ticket to Oslo but didn't.

NORWAY
Didrik Solli-Tangen - My Heart is Yours
[Hanne Sørvaag, Fredrik Kempe]

Venke Knutson - Jealous Cause I Love You
[Laila Samuelsen, Alexander Kronlund & Lucas Hilbert]

DENMARK
Chanée & N'Evergreen - In a Moment Like This
[Thomas G:son, Henrik Sethsson, Erik Bernholm]

Thomas Barsøe - Just Like Rain
[Patrick Jonsson, Joakim Övrenius, Thomas Karlsson]

SPAIN
Coral - En Una Vida
[Tony Sanchez-Ohlsson, Thomas G:son, Andreas Rickstrand]

Venus - Perfecta
[Tony Sanchez-Ohlsson, Thomas G:son, Andreas Rickstrand]

IRELAND
Niamh Kavanagh - It's For You
[Niall Mooney, Mårten Eriksson & Jonas Gladnikoff, Lina Eriksson]

GEORGIA
Sopho Nizharadze - Shine
[Hanne Sørvaag , Harry Sommerdahl, Chistian Leuzzi]

BULGARIA
Miro - Twist & Tango
[Thomas Thörnholm, Peter Panov, Danne Attlerud and Michael Klaus]

UKRAINE
Vasyl Lazarovych - Don’t wanna loose you
[Claes Andreasson]

AZERBAIJAN
Safura / Milk&Kisses / Maryam - Drip Drop
[Stefan Örn, Anders Bagge, Sandra Bjurman]

Milk&Kisses - Cancelled
[Stefan Örn/Negin/Random]

Safura / Maryam - Soulless
[Anders Lundström]

Safura / Maryam / Milk&Kisses - Under My Skin
[Stefan Örn, Phil Anquetil]

BELARUS
3+2 and Robert Wells - Butterflies
[Max Fadeev, Malka Chaplin]

ICELAND
Hera Björk - Je Ne Sais Quoi
[Örlygur Smári, Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir] (produced by Niclas Kings)

MALTA
Thea Garrett - My Dream
[Jason Cassar, Sunny Aquilina] (produced by Johan Bejerholm)

It was really crazy spring for young artist Eric Saade who has made successful debut on Melodifestivalen-2010 with platinum hit "Manboy", few days ago I told about his Past so now time has come for his Future and this Future is his first solo-album "Masquerade". If you like what you've heard from Eric before tracks from this album will get your players for a long time. I would describe it as mix from Kempe-goes-Britney-disco-pop (Masquerade, Manboy, Sleepless, Upgrade, Radioactive), BWO+September's electro-pop (It's Gonna Rain, Why Do We Need Fashion) and classic boy band stuff that you could expect from What's Up (Say It, I'll Be Alright), next planned single is "Break Of Dawn" that sounds for me like young modern sister of Peter Jöback's "Hollow" and some classic Blue/Westlife ballad. Sounds interesting? Well, probably it's better if you'll check our preview of this album below.

Credits list of the album:
Masquerade (Eric Saade, Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad & Tony Malm)
Upgrade (Alexander Jonsson, Björn Djupström & Charlie Mason)
Break of Dawn (Eric Saade & Fredrik Kempe)
It's Gonna Rain (Fredrik Kempe)
Manboy (Fredrik Kempe & Peter Boström)
Say It (Gustav Efraimsson, Hayden Bell & Sarah Lundbäck)
Sleepless (Fredrik Kempe & Peter Boström)
I'll Be Alright (Eric Saade, Dimitri Stassos, Mikaela Stenström & Jason Gill)
Radioactive (Dimitri Stassos & Mikaela Stenström)
Why Do We Need Fashion!? (Eric Saade, Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad & Niclas Lundin)
It's Like That With You (Alexander Kronlund, Stephanie Bentley, Gustav Efraimsson, Hayden Bell & Sarah Lundbäck)

Yesterday SVT showed the last part of "Inför ESC 2010" that you can watch here. Jury discussed the rest of 2nd semifinal and finalists of this year. Germany, Norway and Croatia has become today's favorites.



Common results of the 2nd semi:
Israel 24
Sweden 21
Croatia 19
Armenia 16
Denmark 16
Turkey 16
Bulgaria 15
Lithuania 15
Romania 15
Georgia 13
Ireland 13
Switzerland 13
Azerbaijan 12
Cyprus 12
Ukraine 9
Netherlands 2
Slovenia 0

Rehearsals in Oslo are already in a full mode and yesterday was the first day of Swedish rehearsals, Anna Bergendahl received positive feedback from press in common and jumped up to #6 by odds.



Also check press-conference with Anna (part 1, part 2).

This year contribution of Swedes in Eurovision is especially massive, we have five Swedish songwriters playing for other countries, two songs produced by Swedes and even one Melodifestivalen participant at the stage.

NORWAY

Didrik Solli-Tangen - My Heart is Yours
[Hanne Sørvaag, Fredrik Kempe]
(MF-veteran Mr. Kempe and Norwegian-Swedish Hanne Sørvaag who already composed German song in 2008)

DENMARK

Chanée & N'Evergreen - In a Moment Like This
[Thomas G:son, Henrik Sethsson, Erik Bernholm]
(Thomas G:Son is another legendary name, Henrik composed Eurovision song for Friends)

IRELAND

Niamh Kavanagh - It's For You
[Niall Mooney, Mårten Eriksson & Jonas Gladnikoff, Lina Eriksson]
(Jonas participated before in pre-selections of Malta, Ireland and Denmark and you could hear loads of great stuff from Eriksson family on MF before)

GEORGIA

Sopho Nizharadze - Shine
[Hanne Sørvaag , Harry Sommerdahl, Chistian Leuzzi]
(Hanne was lucky twice to fight for 2 countries this year and Harry is also Swedish songwriter who worked before with Robyn and BoA)

AZERBAIJAN

Safura - Drip Drop
[Stefan Örn, Anders Bagge, Sandra Bjurman]
(Anders has written and produced songs for Madonna, Janet Jackson, Santana, J.Lo, Nick Lachey, Jessica Simpson, Celine Dion and Enrique Iglesias)

ICELAND

Hera Björk - Je Ne Sais Quoi
[Örlygur Smári, Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir]
(Producer of the final version is Niclas Kings who gave tons of hits to Kate Ryan and participated before as songwriter of Belgium-2006 and producer of Iceland-2008)

MALTA

Thea Garrett - My Dream
[Jason Cassar, Sunny Aquilina]
(Producer of this song is Johan Bejerholm who produced Azerbaijan-2009)

BELARUS

3+2 - Butterflies
[Max Fadeev, Malka Chaplin]
(Famous Swedish pianist Robert Wells will perform on the stage with Belorussian band)