Swedish~ Stereo~

Love Generation (when they weren't Stockholm Syndrome yet) already made some wonderful acoustic covers but here we have an absolute masterpiece I'm ready listen not less than I listen to original - Swedish House Mafia's "Don't You Worry Child"!
Amazing way to celebrate another win of Swedish music and the reason to remind you that the song has made debut at #1 of UK chart.

Though Stockholm Pride is not event broadcasted on TV some really interesting performances are going online shot by Pride's visitors. So I've decided to collect the most special ones.
Ex-Love Generation - Stockholm Syndrome girls have performed their brand new song "Karma" (or "Karma's A Bitch" in some sources, we don't know what is official title yeat). On the video below choruses go a bit too messy because of hard bass but you can understand what a big step it is from previous girls' pop-singles.
Our favorites Happy Hoes and Da Buzz were singing their newest singles and both were enjoyable to look at.
And finally Gravitonas during full gig have premiered two new songs - "Desert Sky" and the next single "Incredible". Both are available to watch here. And you can listen to the first one below. "Desert Sky" is a great piece of dramatical pop with a funky chorus which is probably doesn't have a lot common with a studio-version but it have a potential to be one of the best Gravitonas' tunes (especially for BWO fans). "Incredible" sounds initially more complicated but turns afterwards to a straight-forward big happy dance chorus.

New bunch of Melodifestivalen participants is delivered and we check 1-minutes rehearsals of next schlager-heroes of this year.
Youngblood have presented "Manboy"-cousin armed with torches and Thomas Benstem's choreography. Maria BenHajji has brought 203 candles and her upgraded schlager-ballad. Mattias Andréasson from E.M.D. starts his solo-career with American electronic pop-mix of Oscar Linnros r'n'b direction (my absolute favorite of this semifinal by snippets). Love Generation are back with RedOne's marching dance-tune and Alex Sparrow-inspired show from Sacha Jean-Baptiste. Carolina Wallin Pérez has melancholic indie-track, bunch of drummers and butterfly-confetti. Andreas Johnson doesn't break what worked well for him when he has started with "Sing For Me" arena-oriented pop-rock. Molly Sandén's song is Leona Lewis-sounding dramatic ballad that I can't compare with any other song Molly did before but I save my judgments before I'll listen to it in a full version. And finally Swedish writer Björn Ranelid with ex-Caracola Sara Li. I'm not even gonna try to understand that buzz around Björn, I'll be just enjoying Sara Li's lovely bubblegum-part that sounds especially good after Björn's "there-is-such-a-promising-dance-production-so-read-faster-and-let-the-chorus-start" part.

Tomorrow Love Generation's week starts for real as the band goes to Leksand to perform in the third Melodifestivalen semifinal with a song "Just A Little Bit" co-written by RedOne, which is always very exciting thing. Cover of the single is unleashed and you can check it above.
Girls send St. Valentine's Day congratulations to their fans and have come up with a nice music gift which is more than actual right after six Grammy awards received by Adele.

Ladies and gentlemen, here's the greatest schlager-medley I've seen so far! Melodifestivalen-stars have joined forces on Gaygalan to perform for Christer Björkman and it has turned to 15 minutes of schlager-classics from Shirley Clamp, Love Generation, Andreas Johnson, Sarek, Sanna Nielsen, Linda Bengtzing, Afro-dite, Jenny Silver, Malena Ernman, Swingfly, Måns Zelmerlöw, Charlotte Perelli. Incredible summarizing of the latest Melodifestivalen decade!

You probably have already managed to read about official line-up of Melodifestivalen-2012 on some ESC or Swedish music related sites. I wasn't in a hurry as all of these artists but one were quessed before and you could read about them here. Anna Järvinen has refused to participate in the last moment so she was replaced by David Lindgren. Danny has also changed his song for more proper for MF right before official announcement.
I've collected some descriptions of tracks from SVT, QX, Schlagerprofilerna, Scandipop and Schlagerzoot so you could realize in common what should we expect from MF this time.
Pictures are taken from expressen.se and svd.se.

Semifinal 1: Växjö

Loreen "Euphoria"
(Thomas G:son, Peter Boström)
- dynamic, mystic and dramatic song with "Cry Me A River"-feeling and ambient-sound crawling under your skin.


The Moniker "I Want To Be Chris Isaak (This Is Just the Beginning)"
(Daniel Karlsson (The Moniker))
- track having nothing common with "Oh My God", it's more green than golden, not attached to any genre, more rhythmic and oriental.


Thorsten Flinck & Revolutionsorkestern "Jag reser mig igen"
(Thomas G:son, Ted Ström)
- heavy melodic track in classic schlager-tradition with at the same time personal and common lyrics.


Dead by April "Mystery"
(Pontus Hjelm)
- epic (not a ballad) pop-metall in-your-face track with a strong chorus not written especially for MF sounding in a vein of the latest band's album, the hardest MF entry ever.


Abalone Dots "På väg"
(Rebecka Hjukström, Sophia Hogman, Louise Holmer, Viktor Källgren)
- melancholic love ballad with banjo in a minor and nyckelharpa typical for Abalone Dots style.


Marie Serneholt "Salt & Pepper"
(Lina Eriksson, Mårten Eriksson, Figge Boström)
- swinging and spicy uptempo-track.


Sean Banan "Sean Den Förste Banan"
(Sean Simadi (Sean Banan), Joakim Larsson, Hans Blomberg, Mårten Andersson)
- typical Sean Banan's entertaining track without any calm moment and with a message that everybody can be a king in their own ways.


Afro-Dite "The Boy Can Dance"
(Figge Boström, Catrine Loqvist, Johan Lindman)
- 70s inspired happy disco track with a modern sound.


Semifinal 2: Göteborg

Andreas Lundstedt "Aldrig Aldrig"
(Niclas Lundin, Maria Marcus, Randy Goodrum)
- melancholic uptempo song about breaking up, not a disco but this is the song you can dance and cry listening to.


Top Cats "Baby Doll"
(Mårten Eriksson, Lina Eriksson, Susie Päivärinta)
- positive energetic rock'n'roll track in a full tempo.


Mimi Oh "Det går för långsamt"
(Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad, Niclas Lundin)
- slightly 80s inspired honest and straight bombastic pop-track with catchy choruses and modern sound.


Thomas Di Leva "Ge aldrig upp"
(Thomas Di Leva)
- uplifting energetic song with a certain message.


Sonja Aldén "I din himmel"
(Sonja Aldén, Bobby Ljunggren, Peter Boström)
- recognizable follow-up of "För att du finns", calm but strong and pulsating.


David Lindgren "Shout It Out"
(Fernando Fuentes, Tony Nilsson)
- positive dance-track requiring big dance-performance.


Ulrik Munther "Soldiers"
(Ulrik Munther, Johan Åberg, Linnea Deb, Joy Deb, David Jackson)
- fresh pop-rock song about relationships and forgiveness with millitary feeling not going too far from Ulrik's debut album sound and closer to his "The Box".



Timoteij "Stormande hav"
(Kristian Lagerström, Johan Fjellström, Stina Engelbrecht, Jens Engelbrecht)
- energetic pop-folk uptempo schlager with Irish influences and heavier than their previous stuff though in a same vein.


Semifinal 3: Leksand

Mattias Andréasson "Förlåt mig"
(Mattias Andréasson)
- fresh Swedish pop with American influences (earlier described as r'n'b in Swedish sounding in Oskar Linnros' style).



Maria BenHajji "I mina drömmar"
(Nanna Sveinsdóttir, Thomas Cars)
- webjoker - classic schlager-ballad from "För att du finns" and "Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus" family.


Love Generation "Just A Little Bit"
(Nadir Khayat (RedOne), John Mamann, Jean-Claude Sindres, Teddy Sky, Yohanne Simon, Bilal "The Chef" Hajji)
- explosive pop-track with attitude, power and happiness.



Andreas Johnson "Lovelight"
(Andreas Johnson, Peter Kvint)
- Faces go partying with T Rex, Blur and Robbie Williams, positive track with gospel-touch closer to a style of Andreas' first MF-entries "Sing For Me", "A Little Bit Of Love".


Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li "Mirakel"
(Fredrik Andersson, Björn Ranelid)
- clubby track with happy chorus and poetic lyrics.


Carolina Wallin Pérez "Sanningen"
(Michael Clauss, Martin Bjelke, Carolina Wallin Pérez, F Dread)
- drum cavalcade melancholic synth-pop crossing borders and flirting with rock.


Molly Sandén "Why Am I Crying"
(Molly Sandén, Aleena Gibson, Windy Wagner)
- modern pop-ballad with honest lyrics about broken heart that many are gonna take as personal.


Youngblood "Youngblood"
(Fredrik Kempe, David Krüger)
- uptempo feelgood sing-a-long track with modern sound and recognizable Fredrik Kempe's style.


Semifinal 4: Malmö

OPA "Allting blir bra igen"
(Michael Sideridis)
- swinging, catchy, Greek folk-pop.


Danny Saucedo "Amazing"
(Danny Saucedo, Peter Boström, Figge Boström)
- uptempo track from "In The Club" team, more positive and arena-oriented.


Lotta Engberg & Christer Sjögren "Don't Let Me Down"
(Lasse Holm, Lars "Dille" Diedricson)
- mature euroschlager with modern sound and adrenaline rush.


Hanna Lindblad "Goosebumps"
(Hanna Lindblad, Linda Sundblad, Tony Nilsson)
- 80s inspired song with loads of energy and love.


Axel Algmark "Kyss mig"
(Axel Algmark, Mattias Frändå, Jonathan Magnussen)
- happy pill with party feeling.



Dynazty "Land Of Broken Dreams"
(Thomas G:son, Thomas "Plec" Johansson)
- 90s hardrock song hitting you like a punch.


Charlotte Perrelli "The Girl"
(Fredrik Kempe, Alexander Johnsson)
- fresh clubby uptempo sing-along track with electro-sound and schlager-glitter.


Lisa Miskovsky "Why Start A Fire"
(Lisa Miskovsky, Aleksander With, Bernt Rune Stray, Berent Philip Moe)
- forest minstrel in love with Prince and Kate Bush.

Every year Melodifestivalen songs get geographically much further than anyone can expect charting in different parts of Europe and making new fans of Swedish pop all over the world.
Here we get a pretty special case of Melodifestivalen-2011 hit getting new life in France being adopted by Mélissa Nkonda - French singer who has become famous after participance in local TV-show Nouvelle Star, winning another show Je veux signer chez she's got a contract and has released the album "Nouveaux Horizons" containing duo with V.V. Brown and RedOne song previously performed by Love Generation.
Cover has become absolutely brilliant but in completely own way from eurodance track it initially was "Dance Alone" has got a soul-vibes of Melissa's voice growing into dynamic choruses with lovely live band arrangement.

Kids keep celebrating summer vacation with one of their favorite shows - Sommarlov on SVT.
Latest guests of the show were Love Generation which due to their twitter already prepare new stuff with their producer RedOne. Girls performed both of their singles - "Love Generation" and "Dance Alone". Another guest - Linda Sundblad made her newest single "Intim" and sure Melodifestivalen-entry "Lucky You" in acoustic (and yes, it's still one of our most played songs, amazing track!).

Today we'll get new press-reviews of Malmö semifinal but it's already too much of news to hold them so I'll give it article. First of all we've got new covers of Brolle, Anders Fernette, The Moniker and Julia Alvgard, we love Anders' one especially and hope that this bad rock-guy style means we'll get some strong pop-rock entry from him.

The Playtones will release new album "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" on March 9th, it's produced by Jimmy Jansson and Karl-Ola Kjellholm (The Pusher) as their MF-song "The King" and you can already check its snippets below. Unfortunately we didn't find something better than "The King" but the key is that it's not our style, still maybe you'll find something for you.

Rehearsals of the fourth semifinal have already started on places and you can check some pics with Julia, Linda Pritchard, Anders and Love Generation.

Linda Bengtzing has new song "Män i Uniform" on her site and song sounds even better than we've found it before.

And finally exciting news that you could already read on Schlagerprofilerna, Poster Girl and Schlagerfiasko blogs but I should mention once again. Today in new QX-issue it was revealed by Christer Björkman and Edward af Sillén that next rare songs will be out on rarities CD in golden pack of MF:
Sarah Dawn Finer - Not a Sinner nor a Saint
Sonja Aldén - Night of Passion
Sonja Aldén - Invincible
Linda Bengtzing - Headlines
Agnetha Kjörsvik - Hero (Freebee, backing singer of Charlotte in Belgrade)
Brandsta City Släckers - En gång för alla
Timoteij - Run (initialy recorded in English)
Jessica Andersson - Jag ljuger så bra
Fredrik Kempe & Shirley Clamp - Du och jag mot världen

Sarah's "Not a Sinner nor a Saint" was presented few days ago on Poster Girl's blog, so here we show you another track that will appear on that compilation and we like it in this version not less than in final version!

It's time for new schlager-heroes to visit Linköping this week to fight for tickets to Globen and we're getting probably harder pack of names than it was in first semifinals. Eric Saade looks like even bigger favorite by odds than Danny was before 1st semifinal followed surprisingly by The Playtones (because of Dansbandskampen win + Fredrik Kempe's song I guess), Shirley's Angels (oh, this project looks more and more interesting!) and again surprisingly newcomer Sara Varga (Sara sounds very Anna Bergendahl these days so probably repeat of Anna's success is expected here as well). Simon Forsberg, Sara Lumholdt, Sebastian and Linda Sundblad go close next. There are no outsiders by bookies and no outsiders by good sense. Everyone has strong background, songwriters or label support behind. Tomorrow evening we'll hear first press-reviews and maybe then we'll get first winner-feeling responses (what I miss for now).

Takling about news of participants.
Linda Bengtzing joins artists already announced about wish to release new albums before Melodifestivalen-final, her compilation "Min Karusell" except MF-hits/MF-rejected hits ("Hur svårt kan det va", "Värsta schlagern", "Alla flickor", "Jag ljuger så bra", "E de fel på mig", "Victorious") will also include fan-favorite "Not that kind of girl", duet with Brolle "Varför gör du som du gör", "Kärlekens barn" released on separate EP in 2009 and brand new song "Man i uniform" that you can already listen in the end of this video. Some karaoke-tracks are already included as bonuses.

Linda Sundblad after making soundtrack for "Let's Dance" show on TV4 year ago this time has recorded soundtrack for another TV4's "Sveriges mästerkock" show. As we always love Linda the most with a bit rockier sound (yes, she's gonna stay Lambretta-Linda forever for us) we really like it!

Talking about other news. Love Generation's leak this time doesn't seem to cause any consequenses due to Thomas Hall's response to escsweden.com.

If you remember this year we'll get CD with rarities celebrating 10 years of new Melodifestivalen, Sarah Dawn Finer has revealed that it'll include demo for Alcazar's "Not A Sinner Nor A Saint" recorded by her. And you can already listen to that demo on Poster Girl blog!

The Moniker in recent chat with Aftonbladet's readers revealed that he's album is on the way.

Anniela's album will be out on March 14th and MF-single "Elektrisk" will be released there in English version.

Brolle and Anders Fernette also record new albums and Anders already has preliminary tracklist on his blog (with "Lola", "Hungry Eyes", "Tell me Why" but unfortunately without "Don't Stop").

Loreen also revealed she has so much stuff that she could release three albums but for now her closest aim is to release next single "Sober", you can check its acoustic version below. Very beautiful song!!!

Simon Forsberg who will compete this Saturday in Linköping seems to be ready for the fight and due to pics from rehearsals he's gonna be alone on the stage, we'll know for sure later. Check also video from rehearsal and other pics on Schlagerfiasko.