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Well, dear readers, if one day Linda Pritchard will decide to give daily performances visiting every Swedish tv-show one by one, you'll read about it on this blog every single day. If I had some annual pop-awards here undoubtfully Linda and Loreen would be the biggest contenders to get title of Best vocal of the year.
Today Linda has visited Nyhetsmorgon to perform her epic ballad "Alive" in fantastic piano version, we heard it already before but this time it was totally breathtaking.
Other two performed tracks from new Linda's album were "Dance Your Tears Away" and "Glorious" with live band behind. Not less amazing!

Yesterday I've presented new Bingolotto performance of Ace of Base for your attention but AOB weren't the only interesting guests of the show.
Svante Thuresson who has just released new album "Regionala Nyheter: Stockholmsdelen" presented new Mauro Scocco written song "Sommar I Stockholm" and "Ta Det Kallt, Det Är Allt" with Lotta Engberg and another schlager-veteran Kikki Danielsson who also ready for her new album "Första Dagen På Resten Av Mitt Liv" has presented song "Wagon Wheels" from it. But our most expected guest was Linda Pritchard who performed best ballad of Melodifestivalen-2011 in our opinion, it's "Alive", it's here and it's fantastic Linda Pritchard (video is a bit defective in the first verse but fine after that).
UPD: Full video of concert was removed so links to Kikki and Svante don't work but thanks for the tip to our dear reader Peter we have separate Linda's performance here.

Release that was awaited by many Linda Pritchard's fans quite long - her debut album "Alive" will be out on March 9th and due to tracklist and what we've heard already it's gonna be brilliant album containing mix of power ballads, r'n'b and rock-vibes and sure loads of pop-tunes from Oscar Görres and other loud names. Weird that single "Fast Car" wasn't included into it but we don't complain as we expect a lot more.
Today Linda has premiered acoustic-version of her latest single "Alive" for readers of Expressen and as you can expect with Linda's beautiful and strong vocal it sounds all sorts of amazing!

Tracklist:
1. Glorious
2. Miracle
3. Alive
4. Not even hello
5. Dance your tears away
6. Erase & rewind
7. Rise again
8. Alienized
9. Satellite
10. Crying in the rain
11. Stuck in a riddle
12. On time
13. You’re making me hot-hot-hot (Bonus Track)

This is a Melodifestivalen semifinal to remember. It became as exciting as expected. The biggest surprise of all was Linda Bengtzing who got most of the televotes. The second surprise was that Love Generation only reached second chance. The third surprise was Melody Club who failed compleatly and ended second last.

 Linda Bengtzing with her Swedish schlager "E de fel på mig" charmed the viewers and so did Nicke Borg with his tattoos and his power rock ballad "Leaving Home". Linda Pritchard and Love Generation get a second chance next weekend in Sundsvall. That heat will be extremely exciting.


Here you find interviews with the finalists, made directly after the show.







Source: Lilian.
Behind the camera: Andreas Nilsson

Så har det första officiella genrepet klarats av under fredagskvällen. Utgången är mycket oviss och nästan alla är möjliga finalister eller andra chansare. Trist att det kommer att slås ut bidrag som är värdiga att gå vidare.

Förhandshypade Love Generation med låtskrivaren RedOne startar sist och maken till snyggare nummer får man leta efter. Kommer inte den här låten vidare så fattar jag absolut ingenting. Resten får fru-fortuna eller sms-rösterna avgöra. Om ambitionen är att Sverige åter igen ska hamna på Eurovision-kartan så kan man bara inte sumpa chansen som Lady Gaga producenten serverar oss. Till saken hör att tjej-gruppen kan sjunga och agera. Det är inte en taffligt ihopsatt kvartett som valts ut på grund av hårfärg eller annat.

Mer kommentarer är på kommande om alla låtar men fram tills dess kan ni höra min intervju med Linda Pritchard som ger mig och många andra östeuropeiska balladvibrationer. Vilken låt jag tänker på tänker jag inte avslöja just nu men jag kan t.o.m. se vissa likheter i utseendet. MEN Linda P är både snyggare och sjunger bättre och har en bättre låt.

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

Tomorow Göteborg will get schlagerized in full-mode meeting Melodifestivalen's 2nd semifinal gang of artists - Brolle, Loreen, Babsan, Elisabeth Andreassen, Sanna Nielsen, The Moniker, Anniela, Christian Walz - not a weak selection at all! And how strong their songs will be we'll know already tomorrow from press-reviews. Due to odds and polls the biggest favorites are Sanna, Brolle and Christian but will they stay faves after tomorrow prelisten? We'll see!

For now we'll turn our face to other updates.
Dilba's single "Try Again" has made debut on iTunes today and going road of Le Kid single has reached #1 of iTunes chart with Le Kid on #2 and Rasmus Viberg at #45. It's gonna be really one of the strongest meloyears if even not qualifying songs are doing so well.

Talking about success of MF-2011 among viwers, show in Luleå has collected 3 014 000 viewers in front of TV-screens (that is neither record nor a fail) and on the other hand only 320 608 of votes that is the lowest first semifinal figure for the last 10 years (since semifinals system was introduced).

Recently Schlagerprofilerna revealed that no Melodifestivalen DVD is intended to be released this year again because of lalbel not satisfied with low sales due to sharing video in Internet and all videos in free access located on SVT site.

Linda Bengtzing has taken part in commercial action Schlagerfeber - talent contest held in Onoff stores net, Linda is gonna be coach for folk's talents and judge as well. Contest will be held through February, you can see trailer here (and our friends say that booklets with Linda are already all over). I just wonder how Melodifestivalen management will take it.

Linda Pritchard's dress is gonna be made not less than by Royal family designer Lars Wallin who had previous Eurovision-experience with Sweden-2006 and Azerbaijan-2009.

Daniel "The Moniker" Karlsson has appeared in XL-Live with very nice acoustic performance. Interesting fact is that both Daniel and Christoffer Hiding participated in the same season of Idol leaving on 4th and 6th place (EMD's Mattias was 5th) so it's gonna be interesting if both will meet in the final.

Actually I wanted to give you update later waiting for press' reviews of first Melodifestivalen semifinal but here 2 updates I'd like to share right now.
We've got another single cover this time from Jenny Silver, very lovely and sweet cover marking Jenny going from dark and authentic to softer and lighter side.

Linda Pritchard has written yesterday on twitter that her album will be ready today, something that many fans were waiting whole year since many Linda's songs were out last Spring and pretty stunning to expect a lot from her album. Today we've got another delicious piece of Linda from Schlagerprofilerna - her demo of "Hollow" that was sent to Melodifestivalen-2010 and finally given to Peter Jöback. I'll remind you that when Peter was announced there was a lot of buzz around winning song and it's not surprising as demo sounds very beautiful, massive and as Linda was then new artist without any expectations on her it really was taken as big favorite. New Linda's song is also written by Fredrik Kempe but this time co-written by Oscar Görres ("Hollow" was co-written by Anders Hansson).

Every year Swedish QX-magazine publish stunning schlager-issue with some new theme and future melo-participant in special photoshooting devoting to it. Before last year it has even got tradition of future winner to appear at the cover but in 2010 neither Salem, nor Anna were there. However everyone who were on the cover have got to the final, this time QX marks new favorites with theme TV-classics and we have Eric Saade, Sara Varga, Simon Forsberg, Babsan, Linda Pritchard and Danny on the cover!
Besides completely brilliant photos QX also interviewed artists about their plans one week before start of the show.
Danny appeared this year as "True Blood" character, Jenny Silver, Linda Pritchard, Sara Varga and Sara Lumholdt have made "Sex & The City", Sebastian and Simon - "Prison Break", Le Kid - "Glee", Eric Saade - "21 Jump Street", Love Generation - "Desperate Housewives" and Babsan - "Dynasty". You can read whole issue here and watch series of really amazing photos below.

Probably I could not to write about amazing trio of Martin Stenmarck, Linda Pritchard and Jessica Marberger performing at "A Grand Evening" Christmas show...


...though I guess you remember I commpensated it with news about Sanna Nielsen, Shirley Clamp and Sonja Aldén Swedish Christmas album "Vår Jul"...


...and Måns Zelmerlöw who will release his first Christmas album and (I haven't told about it) will join girs in Christmas tour second year in a row, this time with help of Brandur and Björn Kjellman...


But these great news have arrived just now!!!


New Malena Ernman's Christmas album "Santa Lucia" will be released on November 17th and officially it's the most exciting Christmas release I've ever heard about!!! In Christmas period Malena will be touring a lot and to understand how heavenly can Malena sound with this sort of song check her performance at Nordiske Julkoncert year ago.

Autumn has just started and we've already got whole bunch of planned exciting album-releases, I should collect all of them in one post.
- Magnus Carlsson's new album "Pop Galaxy" will be released already on September 22th but before we'll get another single "The Best In Me".
- It's just few days till new Ola's album "Ola" (September 15th).
- Erik Hassle's EP with 4 new songs is planned for the end of September.
- Nanne Grönvall's album "En Rastlös Själ" is ready to hit shops on October 6th.
- After 6 years Stephen Simmonds releases new album "Anomie" in October.
- Jennie Berggren's album "My Story" release was moved to October 13th.
- A little bit earlier Ace Of Base will release album "The Golden Ratio" on September 24th with first single "All For You" planned to be released already today.
- Caroline af Ugglas after huge success of previous year is back with new album planned for September 22th publishing as well book "Hjälp, vem är jag?" (Help, who am I?)
- EMD's album "Rewind" release was firstly carried from August 25th to the end of October but now you can find its release in some shops marked with December 31th.
- Albums from Linda Pritchard, Titiyo, Tove Styrke, Lisa Miskovsky, Love Generation, second EP from Gravitonas and Christmas album from Måns Zelmerlöw are to be expected.
- Sanna Nielsen's just released her last single "Part Of Me" and ready for new release of Christmas album with Shirley Clamp and Sonja Aldén, this time due to title "Vår Jul" (translation of English title of previous album "Our Christmas" that obviously says tracklist won't be different in common) it's gonna be in Swedish.
- Amy Diamond after 5 studio-albums is ready for compilation "Greatest Hits" that will be out on November 3rd.
Not enough to be excited? It's alright, it's just the first days of Autumn ;)

I'm staying quite nasty blogger these days. It's such a weird thing though - every last day on some of my favorite blogs I see bloggers writing about how much they are currently loaded with work, what is it? Maybe just this heat slowing us down?
Well, however not to leave you too bored and to turn you on a bit I'd like to share with you some nice mixes you'd spend this hot Summer along with.
First of all I should mention Soundfactory's best work for last 2-3 years at least. It's made for Linda Pritchard's last single "Miracle" and it's just brilliant with fantastic beat that we could expect from Von Der Burg's team, great scandi-dance bass line, play with Linda's amazing vocal, anthemic choir in the middle eight, totally ecstatic, check it!

Another worth listening mix that I would recommend to you is for Jenny Berggren's last single "Here I Am" made by Sthlm Sound Facility (songwriting team behind the song), very nice trance-work.

Pandora released Euroversion of her currently promoted "You Believed" and this time exactly what you could expect from eurodance-queen - powerful, energetic and very danceable.

Nexx has released in Sweden "Paralyzed" one of songs from their album "Synchronize Lips" in remixed version from DJ Andi. Sounds quite Romanian dance-pop that's sure a good thing (oh, is DJ Andi Romanian? Then I've guessed right!).

Basshunter's new hit "Saturday" has got Almighty treatment as great as Almighty can make. Hope it'll finally convince the world that this song deserves to become hugest hit of Basshunter though it's already widely played across Europe and #21 of UK chart isn't bad at all.

Also you should taste Therese' Alesso remix for "Drop It Like It's Hot" and check fragment of this gorgeous lady's recent performance, isn't she lovely?

And finally don't forget to listen Mohombi's new Chuckie mix for "Bumpy Ride", it's very-very nice as well.

This week Stockholm is full of different music events connected with Stockholm Pride. So everyone who will visit Swedish capital these days will be able to see Sarah Dawn Finer, Linda Bengtzing, Christer Sjögren, Pauline, Rebound, Le Kid, Titiyo, Marit Bergman, Sibel, Jenny Silver, NEO, Hanna Lindblad, Safura, Hera Björk, Lena Meyer-Landrut (not announced officially yet but quite obviously), Therese Grankvist, Anna Maria Espinosa, CC & Lee, Love Generation, Jonathan Fagerlund, Sandra Dahlberg, Ankie Bagger and many-many others. So we're waiting for some live performances leaking soon on youtube.
Cheers friends! Swedish Stereo's turning to a normal working mode very soon.

One of the biggest brightests hopes of Swedish pop-music Linda Pritchard is releasing new single "Miracle" and I extremely need to tell you about her as surprisingly I haven't yet. Being gifted child Linda didn't waste her time and prepared herself for a big career attending Adolf Fredriks Music School and SWAY (dance programme). Soon she was hired by Tess Merkel to Wallmans Salonger and started to work there as singer and dancer. Demand for her talent increased quite fast and Linda was getting offers to work from such well-established artists as Celine Dion, Ace of Base, Andreas Lundstedt and Velvet. In 2006 when Velvet made her debut on Melodifestivalen stage with "Mi Amore" Linda was singing back-vocals behind her. In 2 years Linda appeared on Melodifestivalen again making show for the openning of the final. Later in 2008 she also took participation in casting of Idol and without any doubts she passed it succefully but unfortunately left the show quite fast (Stop, All the man that I need). Though this little unluck was followed by big luck - contract with Warner/Chappell Music and recording her debut album. Already in 2009 she released her first single "Fast Car" (cover of Tracy Chapman's song) and finally was invited to perform on Melodifestivalen-2010 with the song "You're Making Me Hot-Hot-Hot" (demo of this song was performed initially by Sibel, Linda has sent other songs - "Glorious" and "Not Even Halo" which almost reached the contest but was left near qualification border) and Linda took this mission really seriously showing all amazingness of her talent, vocals and choreographic skills with fantastic show and great song from schlager-veterans Tobias Lundgren, Johan Fransson and Tim Larsson. Though the song didn't reach the final it reached the highest chart-position (#8) from all songs not qualified to the final and not less than 4 of 10 finalists.
Now after a lot of Spring touring around country Linda is ready for a new amazing single "Miracle" and she already performed it at Sommarkrysset few weeks ago with all her drive, power and perfectness, now it's officially out!

New set of brilliant performances was shown this weekend on Sommarkrysset. Linda Pritchard performed her new single "Miracle" and it was in my opinion the greatest Sommarkrysset performance that I've seen since Lady Gaga appeared on the stage of Gröna Lund in 2008! E.M.D. has also presented their new single "Save Tonight" that was released a week ago. Another highlight of the show was Stephen Simmonds (very interesting artist that I feel like I need to tell you about later) with his latest single "Adiyeah" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". We've got also some classics of 90s from Dr. Alban performing medley of his hits. And finally Lazee performed big hit of this spring "Calling Out" with Apollo Drive.

Det som alla väntat på kom i natt - nämligen startordningen på lördag. Det finns säkert många kalenderbitare, experter och fans som kommer att ägna veckan till att analysera hur detta kommer att påverka slutresultatet i finalen. För att nämna några klassiska slutsatser:
* Darin eller Eric Saade kommer att ha störst vinstchanser eftersom de startar som 1:a och 10:a.
* Pernilla Wahlgren kan omöjligt vinna eftersom hon startar som 2:a. En 2:a har statistiskt aldrig vunnit.
Jag drar min egen slutsats - nämligen att allt kan hända. Det har de senaste veckornas skrällar bevisat.

Startordning:
1. Darin - "You’re Out Of My Life"
2. Pernilla Wahlgren - "Jag vill om du vågar"
3. Andreas Johnson - "We Can Work It Out"
4. Timoteij - "Kom"
5. Peter Jöback - "Hollow"
6.Ola -"Unstoppable"
7. Jessica Andersson - "I Did It For Love"
8. Salem Al Fakir - "Keep On Walking"
9. Anna Bergendahl - "This Is My Life"
10. Eric Saade - "Manboy"

Det fanns många glada personer på andra chansens efterfesten på Elite Hotel i Örebro. Gladast var givetvis Pernilla och Jessica men även de som blev utslagna verkade lika glada. Pontus Assarsson är en av låtskrivarna till Pernilla Wahlgrens låt. Han var uppriktigt förvånad över att ”Jag vill om du vågar” nu är i final. Han hade också en teori kring Kalle Moraeus & Orsa spelmäns vinst över Neo och menade att deras fans var tillbaka i och med att OS var slut.


NEO var trots allt sprudlande glad över sin framgång från helt okänd till NEO med hela folket. Han var rörd över allt berör och den uppmärksamhet han fått under de senaste veckorna. Nu kommer snart hans album och det lär säkert sälja en del. Festivalgeneralen Christer Björkman var inte ett dugg förvånad över att NEO inte gick vidare. Han menade att det hela var en mediabubbla.





Alcazar var heller inga sorgens barn. Tess Merkel var på topphumör. Eller som Andreas sa ”Melodifestivalen är över men Alcazar lever sitt eget liv”.
Pain of Salvation verkade trivas på festen och hårdrockarna syntes dansa till schlagerlåtar. När man träffat sångaren Daniel Gildenlöw med sina fantastiska ömsinta blå ögon så undrar man hu bandet överhuvudtaget kan sjunga nåt annat än smäktande ballader.

Programledarnas insatser har utvecklats storligen sedan debuten i Ö-vik. Framför allt har Christine Meltzer och Måns Zelmerlöw börjat prata i normalt tonläge.

















Linda Pritchard från första deltävling hade uppträtt i Örebro på torget under dagen. Det fanns ingen anledning att åka hem när hon kunde stanna kvar på efterfest.
Pauline verkade betydligt mera uppåt än i samband med sitt uppträdande.
Kalle Moraeus dansade till sin låt med Annica Jankell och hela församlingen sjöng allsång i ”Underbart”. Dethär är en låt som alla verkar kunna texten till. Den har förvisso inte hamnat i finalen men den har redan vunnit 2010-års allsångsmedalj. Kalle passade också på att låta sig fotograferas med snygga Jessica och Lina Hedlund i Alzazar.

Foto: Lilian

Har någon missat att det är Melodifestivaldags? På lördag sparkar första semifinalen igång från Fjällräven Centret i Örnsköldsvik. Till och med Tunnelbanan vid Odenplan hänger på.

Det är fortfarande mycket hysch-hysch kring låtarna. Det förvånar mig att ingen suddig mobilsekvens lyckats nå YouTube ännu. Trots detta så finns det många åsikter om artister och bidrag. Här är ett axplock från diverse media:

• Ola och Jessica går vidare till final.
• Frispråkarn kan skrälla.
• Anders Ekborg går in i en roll när han sjunger.
• Salem Al Fakirs låt är tråkig.
• Jenny Silver har gått från dansbandsångerska till alternativ underground.
• Hårdrockarna Pain Of Salvation har en ballad som är så seg att man somnar.
• Linda Pritchard har bäst röst och snyggast stövlar.
• Jessica Andersson har bytt minimala hotpants till lyxig och värdig långklänning. Dessutom är hon nykär.

Startordning på lördag: 
1. "Unstoppable" med Ola
Upphovsmän: Alexander Kronlund, Hanif Sabzevari, Dimitri Stassos, Ola Svensson

2. "A Place To Stay" med Jenny Silver
Upphovsmän: Torben Hedlund

3. "You're Making Me Hot-Hot-Hot" med Linda Pritchard
Upphovsmän: Johan Fransson, Tim Larsson, Tobias Lundgren

4. "Road Salt" med Pain Of Salvation
Upphovsmän: Daniel Gildenlöw

5. "The Saviour" med Anders Ekborg
Upphovsmän: Henrik Janson, Tony Nilsson

6. "I Did It For Love" med Jessica Andersson
Upphovsmän: Kristian Wejshag (text), Lars "Dille" Diedricson (musik)

7. "Singel" med Frispråkarn
Upphovsmän: Håkan Bäckman (text), Hamed K-One Pirouzpanah (musik)

8. "Keep On Walking" med Salem Al Fakir (semifinalens joker/wildcard)
Upphovsmän: Salem Al Fakir

Now we (almost) know who will perform in semifinal 1 and 2. Some surprises and many new names. A resume of semifinal 2 will follow tomorrow.
15 av artisterna i Melodifestivalen 2010 presenterades vid en presskonferens idag. Nu vet vi (nästa) alla deltagarna i semifinal 1 och 2. En resumé över semifinal 2 kommer imorgon.

Resume of semifinal 1 in Örnsköldsvik, 6th February
According to my impression it will be a very tough start with well known artists such as Salem Al Fakir, Anders Ekborg, Ola Svensson and Melodifestivalen veteran Jessica Andersson.
Min bedömning är att det blir en tuff start med välkända artister som Salem Al Fakir, Anders Ekborg, Ola Svensson och Melodifestivalen veteranen Jessica Andersson.


Anders and Salem are newcomers
but have a broad audience among
the Swedish people.


Anders och Salem är nykomlingar men har en bred beundrarskara.




Ola Svensson recently won “Körslaget” - a TV-program with competition between choirs. He has participated in MF 2008 with the song “Love In Stereo”.
Ola tog hem segern i TV-programmet Körslaget helt nyligen. Han deltog 2008 i MF med låten “Love In Stereo”.




For Jessica it is the 5th session in this circus. First time was 2003 when Fame (Jessica and Magnus Bäcklund) won and ended up 5th in the Eurovision Song Contest in Riga with the entry “Give Me Your Love”.
Jessica Anderson gör sin femte session i denna cirkus. Första gången var 2003 när duon Fame vann och sedan blev femma i Eurovisionen i Riga med “Give Me Your Love”.




Pain of Salvation and Frispråkarn (his real name is Håkan Bäckman) are both completely unknown for me.

Pain of Salvation och Frispråkarn(eller Håkan Bäckman som han egentligen) är båda helt obekanta för mig.


Jenny Silver (born Öhlund) has a back ground as singer in a traditional dance band, Candela, during 1991-97. Since that she a changed her style dramatically and it will be very interesting to see what she comes up with.
Jenny Silver, född Öhlund, har en bakgrund som dansbandssångerska i bandet Candela under 1990-talet. Sedan dess har hon fullständigt ändrat stil och det ska bli intressant att se vad hon kommer att framföra i MF.



Linda Pritchard is a professional dancer and has worked with Magnus Uggla, Ace of Bace and in Melodifestivalen 2008 and 2006. She participated in Idol 2008 but was not very successful.
Linda Pritchard är professionell dansare och har arbetat med Magnus Uggla, Ace of Bace i Melodifestivalen 2008 och 2006. Hon deltog i Idol 2008 men utan speciell framgång.



At www.oikotimes.com you can read my interview with Jessica Andersson from today’s press conference.