Lopez Blogs

Melodifestivalens välkomstfest ska givetvis innehålla en tjusig buffé. Malmö har ju varit värdar för festivalen ett flertal gånger så man har rutin på detta.
A Melodifestivalen welcome party must include a delicious buffet. Malmö has been hosting the contest several times and knows have to satisfy the guests.


Bland vimlet passade jag på att intervju en av festivalens ’creddigaste’ deltagare, Nicke Borg från Backyard Babies. För fem år sedan var det ingen, inklusive Nicke själv, som trodde att denna tatuerade hårdrocksälskare skulle ställa upp i Melodifestivalen. Men han träffade sin stora kärlek Jojo och nu skriver de låtar ihop. Nicke har mognat och just nu är det solokarriären som är i fokus. En av hans favoriter från Eurovision är självklart Lordi.

Among the guests I met one of the contestants with the highest credibility, Nicke Borg from Backyard Babies. Five years ago nobody, including himself, expected this heavy-rock-lover to participated I Melodifestivalen. Then he met his big love Jojo and now the write music together. Nicke has become matured and for the moment focusing on his solo career. One of his Eurovision favorites is Lordi.
Thomas Deutgen, från P4 Dans och Dansbandskampen, var på sitt bästa humör. Fattas bara eftersom hans stora idoler, Lasse Stefanz tävlar i morgon med en klassisk dansdandsdänga. Man har t.o.m. bytt från engelsk till svensk text och låten heter nu ”En blick och nånting händer” istället för ”I Surrender”.
Thomas Deutgen, host of ‘P4 Dans’ and ‘Dansbandskampen’, was in a very good mood. One of his big idols, Lasse Stefanz, is competing tomorrow with a classic ‘dansband’ tune. To make it even more Swedish and traditional, the lyrics have been changed from English into Swedish.
En av låtskrivarna till Lasse Stefanz är Alexander Bard, som själv medverkat på scenen fyra gånger med BWO. Dessutom har han skrivit otaliga låtar till Melodifestivalen genom åren och det finns ingen genre han är främmande för berättade han för mig och såg riktigt glad ut.
Alexander Bard is one of the composers of Lasse Stefanz’ entry. He has participated on stage four times with BWO. In addition he is a frequent song writer for Melodifestivalen. He told me that there is no genre that he wouldn’t touch and looked really happy to be part of the dance band tradition this time.

Mirja från Poplight.se passade på att fira sin födelsedag i Rådhuset. En bra idé med tanke på utbudet av mat, vin och kändisar.
Mirja from Poplight.se celebrated her birthday in the City Hall. Good idea. No lack of food, beverages and celebrities.

Photos: Thanks to Göran Sagstuen and Andreas Nilsson for helping me!

Jag har anlänt till Malmö och i morgon börjar helgens aktiviteter med genrep inför deltävling 4 i Melodifestivalen. Det blir min första deltävling eftersom Göteborg fick stryka på foten till förmån för Finlands final. Det finns dock en nackdel med att vara i Malmö just nu - jag missar Danmarks final på söndag.

Jag hoppas och tror att detta kan bli det mest intressanta startfältet i år. Rock, webbjoker, dansband, stompschlager, pop och berömda Amerikanska låtskrivare. Det finns rutinerade Melodifestivalsdeltagare och flertalet debutanter. Därmed inte sagt att debutanterna är några noviser på scenen. Snarare tvärtom.

Bland låtskrivarna känns det inte lika nydanande. Fredrik Kempe, Thomas G:son, Alexander Bard, Ola Håkansson med flera.

Utan att ha hört låtarna så finns det stor chans att det även denna gång är bäddat för herrarnas afton medan damerna får nöja sig med andra chansen. Blir det så innebär det att vi efter Malmö kommer att ha en rejäl manlig övervikt i finalen. Sju manliga finalister och en kvinnlig, dvs. Sanna Nielsen.

Malmö startfältet:
Melody Club: "The Hunter"
Julia Alvgard: "Better Or Worse"
Lasse Stefanz: "En blick och nånting händer"
Linda Pritchard: "Alive"
Anders Fernette: "Run"
Linda Bengtzing: "E de fel på mej"
Nicke Borg: "Leaving Home"
Love Generation: "Dance Alone"

Source: SVT

Dansband, vispop, stompschlager och rap. Ungefär så skulle man kunna stildefiniera de första klara artisterna inför 2011-års Melodifestival. SVT med Christer Björkman i spetsen släppte under torsdagen namnen på fyra av de tävlande. Om ca två veckor kommer ytterligare namn och proceduren lär fortgår ett flertal veckor framöver. Allt för att hålla spänningen vid liv och Eurovisions fantasterna på halster.

Dance-band, vispop (=mix of ballad & pop), stomp-schlager and rap. The artists confirmed yesterday for Melodifestivalen 2011 are representatives for these genres. SVT with Christer Björkman in lead has given us four names for next year’s contest. A few more names will come in a couple of weeks and I suppose the procedure will continue for several weeks or months. The excitement must be kept alive and fans hold in tension.

I'm starting to feel a bit schizophrenic

Om fortsättningen ser ut som starten så tyder allt på att vi kanske har 32 låtar och 32 musikstilar att ta ställning till. Ur ett bildningsperspektiv är det fantastiskt men fungerar konceptet för att skapa ett ”nytt” startfält inför 2011? Personligen tycker jag det verkar oroväckande likt tidigare år.

If it continues as it started we might end up with 32 songs in 32 different genres. From a music educational perspectives it’s fantastic but is this the right kind of concept to create a “new” kind of starting field for 2011 and to improve Sweden’s chances? Personally I think it is very similar to previous years.

Själv har jag en dröm om att Orup skriver alla låtarna och utser 3-4 artister som framför dem. Det är visserligen ingen ny idé utan snarare en återgång till 50-60-talens koncept. I modevärden blickar man ju ständigt tillbaka och vintage, retro och recycle är supertrendigt. Varför inte testa det konceptet i Melodifestivalen.
I have a dream that Orup will write all the songs with 3-4 different artists performing them. This is of course not a new invention but a return to the concept used during the 1950-60. The fashion world is always looking back in time to find inspiration. Vintage, retro and recycling are trendier than ever. Why not give this concept a try in Melodifestivalen.

De fyra första klara bidragen är följande - hur det låter får vi vet i februari-mars nån gång:
These are the four confirmed song – how they sound will be a secret until February-March:










Song title: "En blick och något händer"
Composer: Alexander Bard, Ola Håkansson, Tim Norell
Artist: Lasse Stefanz

Song title: "E de fel på mig"
Composer: Pontus Assarsson, Thomas G:son, Jörgen Ringqvist
Artist: Linda Bengtzing

Song title: ”Me And My Drum”
Composer: Teron Beal, Patrik Magnusson, Johan Ramström
Artist: Swingfly

Song title: ”Desperados”
Composer: Pernilla Andersson
Artist: Pernilla Andersson
 
Source: SVT
Photos: SVT, Poplight, Lilian

Right before the start of new Melodifestivalen webbjoker-contest (pre-part of MF where only unsigned artists can compete) winners of previous season MiSt are finally releasing their song "Come and Get Me Now" in new revamped version (diferent from what we've heard at MF). Honestly year ago I was quite sceptic about this song but when it turned to gorgeous dansband-schlager I've completely fallen for this song. I'll remind you that MiSt is Mia Terngård and Stefan Lebert and when contest version was performed by Highlights this new released one is performed by Stefan and Mia, it's also got remix-treatment that you can hear along with radio-version here.

Talking about new webbjoker-contest - already next week we're gonna listen 2 songs which will be performed at Melodifestivalen-2011, this time contest has got 424 webbjoker-candidates (year ago there were just 180) and the final will be held on November 8th when viewers will choose 2 out of 5 songs, it feels undoubtfully exciting and I'm gonna check all candidates and let you know about most interesting ones.

Talking about main contest, it has beaten records of received songs (3832) and like it happens every year media goes wild about possible participants, Expressen presents long list of artists which we can see next year, Aftonbladet speaks about comeback of songwriting trio Norell Oson Bard with the song for dansband Lasse Stefanz, Magnus Carlsson and Eric Saade give hints about their wish to participate and Sarah Dawn Finer anounces that she doesn't plan to compete this time. It's gonna be more and more interesting when we'll get titles of songs and songwriters chosen by jury but let's move to something more real and close - webbjoker contest that will start already on October 11th. I'm gonna present you my three favorites of previous year.
It's Carmen with amazing italo-disco-schlager "Stai Stai" that could fit Melodifestivalen stage perfectly (I should say choreography in video is completely brilliant, a bit unsynchronized but come on! Who cares when the song is so enjoyable?). Another one is Siberia "Hot for the night" - something that could sound fantastic with Empire Music Production revamp, Star Pilots could kill to get this combination of 80s rock and dance-power (by the way Scotts actually released one of webbjokers "När vi har landat" afterwards). And one more work is by Fredrik & Magnus "Slagen av Kärleken" - pleasant relaxing pop-song with velvet Magnus' voice and charming atmosphere. This band also had another song "Happy Thoughts" that came further in contest and due to announcement on their site they're gonna come back this year!

Autumn is the hottest time for speculations in media about who will participate in next Melodifestivalen and therefore who will be those top-pop-artists appearing whole next year on different live events, releasing fresh music stuff and spreading all over magazine's covers here and there. Sure you shouldn't believe in everything that press claims but as usually most of revealed comes true all these rumours turned to be utterly exciting when you see some really interesting names in lists.
Aftonbladet reported today that Danny is ready to perform solo at Melodifestivalen and looking for the right song able to win whole contest (before he participated as part of EMD in 2009 and took 3rd place of the final). Among other possible names are participants of 2009 Lili & Susie, runner-ups of 2008 Sanna Nielsen and 2004 - Shirley Clamp, winner of MF-1996 One More Time re-united in the final of MF-2010 and by rumours being rejected already some years. As well Aftonbladet's sources report that Lasse Stefanz (very popular dansband-group that had to perform with "Den första kyssen (Sweet Kissin' In The Moonlight)" in 2009 but refused and the song was given to Thorleifs) are 100% gonna participate, dansband being quite popular genre in Sweden didn't do well on Melodifestivalen last years (Thorleifs, Highlights and Scotts have failed to get to the final). Anders Fernette received songs from many songwriters and currently is looking for the right song to perform also. After last two years when three final spots were conquered by Idol-participants and this year contest was won by Idol-Anna Bergendahl Mr. Björkman doesn't seem to be positive about big quantity of Idols on MF saying that exploring different genres Idol-artists need more time to find themselves after.
Below is the list of artist who are rumoured to be in Christer Björkman's wish-list:
Timo Räisänen
Ace of Base
Laleh
Sahara Hotnights
Maia Hirasawa
Elena Paparizou
Lisa Nilsson
Mauro Scocco (as songwriter)
Robyn (as songwriter)
Sofia Jannok
Annika Norlin
Magnus Carlson

Artists who want to participate and plan to send songs:
Sara Varga
Marie Picasso
Rebound
Marie Serneholt
Magnus Carlsson
Le Kid
Timoteij
Sarah Dawn Finer
Elisabeth Andreassen
Linda Bengtzing