Lopez Blogs

Seems like label has taken The Provider's comeback really serious as today few weeks after release we've got premiere of the video for the newest artist's single "(They Won't) Play Me On The Radio".
Video is according to song's lyrics is about guy getting absolutely insane about the radio not playing his song, it's pretty qualitative work and we're starting to love this song even more. You can check video right below.
Among another pleasant news - soon Danny is gonna release "Tonight" (amazing track from his album we've been talking about before) featuring The Provider as another single and we keep our fingers crossed for both songs to be played on the radio as massively as it's possible.

After making pretty fantastic job home this winter Danny Saucedo who has become runner-up of Melodifestivalen-2011 is back to his normal life and breaking through internationally - process that he actually didn't finish since 2007 and quite successfully at least in Eastern Europe.
Still nothing is as desired as breakthrough in UK for many Swedish acts as it can give a key to the rest of Europe and Danny currently prepares his debut in UK. Surprisingly it's not "In The Club" or any new track from the latest album. It's old good "If Only You" with new vocal partner Freja, renovated arrangement and new video, whole pack you can already check below.
Our thoughts? We like how Freja sounds and definitely like how gorgeous she looks but Therese sounded more personally to us though when we've heard their duo with Danny after his solo-version it was pretty unnatuaral for us too. New arrangement is exactly what's required to switch from Swedish pop-fans goodies to something pretending to get the rest of pop-audience. And the video, well, isn't it too much? It's shot well and Danny's superbody is gonna get girls melting and guys jealous but if this is "clean version" how dirty is gonna "dirty version" look like?!

Melodifestivalen fever is getting calm, artists are going on tour to sell new released albums trying to stick into folk's memory not to waste such incredible opportunity.
Silver place of Melodifestivalen-2011 Danny Saucedo is back to his band EMD for upcoming tour and says he's not disappointed about not winning contest as it would mean real incredible hardworking closest months. Also he says EMD are going to send entry for next year MF so who knows - maybe it will be the winning song of next Melodifestivalen.
Right now promotion of Danny's new album "In The Club" in a full mode and one of songs that probably will make you interested if you haven't listened to this album yet is "Tonight" - drive-dance-pop track, pretty classic for Danny's previous albums but more mature sounding and featuring The Provider.

Samples of new album "In The Club" from melofavorite Danny are out on amazon so here you can get a first taste of it right below.
Album obviously gets much more international sound than previous albums, it's still Swedish pop but Swedish pop of new generation. Danny has made breaktrough internationally few years ago and it feels like exactly that growth on the album that's gonna turn heads of DJs playing previous Danny's hits to his new stuff. I already presented 4 songs of the album before and not once so let's take a look at the rest and it's a killer dance track "Tonight" featuring The Provider on a heavy drive and high tempo in recognizable Danny's style, powerful r'n'b ballad "In Love With A Lover" in "What Come Around Goes Around" style, "Never Gonna Take Us Down" featuring Swingfly - modern pop-song with anthemic chorus and slight taste of "Written in the Stars" and another ballad "Cassandra" - big emotional with slight Disney taste but still it's closer to r'n'b sound. Gorgeous pop-stuff, check yourself!

Don't forget that tomorrow you'll be able to watch last 4th semifinal of Melodifestivalen in 20:00 by Stockholm time here and maybe tomorrow we'll see the winner of this year. Snippets of rehearsals were presented yesterday and below you can find links and our thoughts about them.
Melody Club - The Hunter - very warm melodic pop-rock track with Spring positive feeling and cool guitar-part, much warmer and schlageristic than we could expect from Melody Club with stable professional performance.
Julia Alvgard - Better or Worse - beautiful ballad performed by sensual Julia's voice with dark blue background and Julia looking very charismatic and nice.
Lasse Stefanz - En blick och nånting händer - "Simply The Best" in dansband-arrangement, sorry, but it's SO not our style.
Linda Pritchard - Alive - song was written by Oscar Görres and Fredrik Kempe so on one hand it's what you could hear from previous presented Linda's songs and on the other hand it's a lot in a style of Linda's "Hollow". It's all about incredible Linda's voice that makes whole pack sounding amazing but remembering that even "Moving On" hasn't reached the final directly we're especially scared for Linda.
Anders Fernette - Run - Anders' dynamic guitar pop that we use to love and this song doesn't seem to be exception, but it's hard to judge by snippet of rehearsal where Anders obviously doesn't feel comfortable vocally, we'll love it in studio-version however.
Linda Bengtzing - E de fel på mig - probably biggest disappointment, it's s classic Linda's track sounding a lot like Värsta schlagern but weaker and without whole-packed performance of Hur svårt kan det vå, still Linda gives it all on the stage but I guess she won't qualify to the final directly.
Nicke Borg - Leaving Home - classic big rock-ballad with loud guitars and everything you can expect, I'm not sure that it's song for Nicke though, I'd imagine it better with some more screaming loud vocal, otherwise it doesn't go whole road for me.
Love Generation - Dance Alone - very effective performance with 90s eurodance song that screams to get into Globen and girls are gonna be on fire this year in Sweden but is the song will be as big favorite as press now claims? I'm not sure, it's still not what Gaga could release but wishing luck to girls, they do great job on the stage and I'm not gonna be against if they'll win whole contest.

After rehearsal due to public voting Melody Club has colected 47% (!!!) of votes today (that is not much less than after Eric's performance), so do we have new favorite that will be able to slip into first place of the final while Danny will be sharing votes with Eric and Sanna with one of schlager-ladies Jenny/Shirley/Linda having big chance to get there? We'll see tomorrow but due to svenskaspel Melody Club currently goes 2nd for the win.

Four new singles covers have come from Danny, Eric Saade, Melody Club and Sara Varga, you can check them above. Melody Club's EP will also contain b-side "Anyone Else" and Joniverse Remix for "The Hunter". Probably now you say - oh my! Is it gonna be the first or the only melomix this year? And I say - no. In a few days mix for Dilba's "Try Again" from Jacob Czitrom is gonna be released and we really like that Romanian-dance sound in verses with dark baseline decorating chorus so fine! And hope it's not the last mix for "Try Again", this song deserves maxi-single after charting so successfully on iTunes. By the way talking about not qualifying songs success in common chart - it's obviously not so well comparing with last year. Week ago Dilba debuted at #20 and Le Kid - at #31, this week chart has only Christian Walz at #30. Hope it'll go better when the rest of the songs will be released after 4th semifinal.

Mark March 11th in your calendar in red as it's the day when new Danny's album "In The Club" will see the light and do you have any doubt it wil be less than great? We have not as we heard already half of songs and like every of them!
Album will contain previously released Danny's cover of "In Your Eyes", sure Melodifestivalen single "In The Club", "Catch Me Of You Can" performed earlier this year in Poland and surprisingly "Just Like That" (I wonder if this track is in the same version that was released on previous album?) + 4 new tracks that we can't wait to listen to but for now we just can already be excited by the fact of getting studio-version of "Catch Me Of You Can" in our player. What a song!

Tracklist:
1. In Your Eyes (Ozgo Radio Mix)
2. Tonight
3. In The Club
4. In Love With A Stranger
5. Never Gonna Make Us Cry
6. Catch Me If You Can
7. Just Like That
8. Cassandra

Everyone wants to be in the best shape going to the highlights and looking stunning and sexy in front of millions of viewers so artists are working to get perfectly fit by any possible means.
Danny decided to reach success with a really hard training. You can follow his trip to the world of health here.

Guy is hardly breathing but we hope something will be left from him before his performance on MF. Though wait... He's looking more than alive, isn't he?

Sara Lumholdt has quite original way to keep her shape perfect - pole dance and what she makes with pole is just unbelievable! That what happens with A-Teens when they become A-Women, but we still love you little hot Sara! Though maybe we love you even more!

Participants who are already in a perfect shape are Love Generation! Girls are shooting video that will be used during their performance with the song "Dance Alone" and due to pics idea is going to turn to something stunning. At least catwoman suits already look gorgeous! Check for more pics here and here.

Danny keeps promoting his latest single "In Your Eyes" and presents brand new music video.
It's only week before Danny will be singing new song "In the Club" co-written by him with Figge and Peter Boström in the first semifinal of Melodifestivalen and the last number gives a hint that we can expect a lot from him. Danny was eagerly awaited solo at MF by many since 2007 when he successfully launched his career internationally so now here's a chance for him to show what he's really worth.
New released video for single "In Your Eyes" another time shows great ability of Danny to provide nice dance-show and idea to place Danny in some dark cold empty place with lighting manequens works really interesting and visually fresh. Check yourself!

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.

A little more than 2 weeks are left before Melodifestivalen fever when press will be listening and giving reviews to rehearsals, we'll be catching the most interesting pieces, news, photos, videos and giving you tips!
Schlagerzoot reports that since February 3rd every Thursday we'll be able to watch one minute clips from artists rehearsals on Melodifestivalen site. But already now we can catch pics and videos from started rehearsals.
Rickard Engfors this time works on show not only for Sebastian but as well for Jenny Silver and on his blog you can check pics from Jenny's rehearsal and video that you can see below. Also check video of casting for Danny's dancers team. And above you can see picture of Sara Lumholdt rehearsing with her team. Feels like after many static performances with nothing but microphone on a stage year ago we're gonna get a lot of complicated well-choreographed shows. And we love it! Don't we?

Poland has got another pleasant New Year's present from Sweden! Danny has arrived with his great disco-gig to entertain celebrating audience and though his performance was lip-syncing mix of his greatest hits from both albums and absolutely fresh ones, Danny has delievered impressive festive atmosphere full of life, energy and dance mood. Straight from effective intro of "Only Wanna Be With You" to huge international hits like "Radio", "Tokyo" and "If Only You", latest Polish singles "Emely" and "Just Like That" and newest Danny's single "In Your Eyes". But Danny hasn't left fans without completely exclusive stuff and brand new song "Catch Me If You Can"!
"Catch Me If You Can" is club-breathing track built on "o-o-o" sample reminding Rihanna's "Don't Stop The Music", it's quite direct and pretty strong modern Swedish pop dance-track that Danny's so skilful in with tasty r'n'b bridge and ultra-catchy chorus. In a month Danny will perform in first semifinal of Melodifestivalen-2011 in Luleå with the song "In The Club" and we keep our fingers crossed that song will be not any worse than "Catch Me If You Can".

Danny - Only Wanna Be With You
Danny - Radio
Danny - Just Like That
Danny is talking (part 1)
Danny - Blue
Danny is talking (part 2)
Danny - Hey
Danny is talking (part 3)
Danny - Catch Me If You Can
Danny - Emely
Danny - In Your Eyes
Danny is talking (part 5)
Danny - If Only You
Danny is talking (part 7)

Danny has temporary left his friends in E.M.D to go solo in Melodifestivalen 2011. In 2006 he participated in Swedish Idol and was appointed the “7th sexiest man in Sweden”. 2007 he did success together with his Idol-friends in the group E.M.D with a cover of ”All for Love”. 2008 he represented Sweden in Eurovision Dance Contest and the same year he ended four in Swedish “Let’s Dance”. He has been number one on the top charts in Russia, Japan and Poland with the song ”If Only You". In 2009 E.M.D became third in Melodifestivalen with ”Baby Goodbye”. This is the short biography version of Daniel Gabriel Alessandro Saucedo Grzechowski. It’s indeed an impressive record for a guy who is only 24 years.


Danny, you participate in the first semi final. How does it feel?
- It feels great. I’m excited. Many new faces and some old ones. I just want to get started now.

How come that you decided to participate in Melodifestivalen again?
- I always wanted to do it by myself. Last time was two years ago with my group E.M.D and we ended up third in the final. E.M.D works fine nowadays and we are a well known group in Sweden. I want to know if I can do Melodifestivalen on my own and if it works as good as with E.M.D.

So E.M.D still alive?
- More alive than ever. We are releasing a new album on the 3rd of December. We are also doing the official movie theme song for ”Narnia”, which has its premiere during Christmas. And after Melodifestivalen we will be touring so it’s a busy schedule.

Tell us something about your song?
- It’s called “In the Club” and by the name people may guess that it’s a club-song. It’s a R’n’B dance-pop song. I want people to dance to it. It’s like a club-anthem.

Is it a typical song for you?
- It will be. It’s a bit of a new style. I have added some urban beats and vibes. My soul stuff have always been a kind of a European dance style and now I’m taking on some urban stuff. I have always been listening to R’n’B and hip-hop and now I have started to collaborate with hip-hop producers to create a new picture which is a combination of my style and theirs.


If you present yourself to our readers – what do you want to tell them?
- I’m a Swedish blonde dude. My mother is from Bolivia and my father from Poland but as you see I look very Swedish. I sing and dance. I love to dance – that’s the best thing to do on this planet! If I didn’t have a voice I would probably be a dancer. I love when people get together, dance and have fun and I believe that this feeling can be heard in my music as well.

What is your relationship to Melodifestivalen and Eurovision Song Contest?
- I have done Melodifestivalen once before in 2009 and every year I’m watching the show and enjoying the music. I like to get a glimpse of the participating countries and their songs. It very good the watch Eurovision because you get an idea of what is happening on the music scene in the European countries.

Thanks a lot Danny and good luck in Melodifestivalen and your coming E.M.D projects.



P.S:
E.M.D is equal to Erik Segerstedt, Mattias Andréasson and Danny Saucedo.
Their new album is called “Rewind”.

 Today I attended the press conference where SVT presented the artists in semi final 1 and 2. Without having a clue about the songs (they are not allowed to be played until the event kicks off in February) it seems to be a cocktail of known, unknown, young and older artists, English and Swedish language and a dictionary in music genres. Very often the participation is connected to an album release. Melodifestivalen is the best PR you can get for your new album.

Christer Björkman, the producer of Melodifestivalen, said he was happy with the mix. He looked a bit tired - maybe it was because of spending the last week in Minsk with Junior Eurovision Song Contest. And if you heard that Sweden will arrange the contest next year it is only a rumour without any essence.   


I had the possibility to interview some of the participants. Among them was Elisabeth Andreassen who is very close to a world record in this context. Her CV includes five times Melodifestivalen, five times Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix and four times in Eurovision where she won 1985 with Bobbysocks and "La de swinge".



 Another wellknown artist in Sanna Nielsen. She celebrates 15 years as an artist and this is her sixth attempt in Melodifestivalen. Keep in mind that Sanna is only 26 years so Elisabeth Andreassen might lose her record one day to Sanna.

All the interview will be published here but already on Wednesday you can listen to Sanna and Elisabeth on www.radiointernational.com or www.oikotimes.tv.


Here are the entries in alphabetic order - the running order has not yet been decided. Next Monday the semi final 3 and 4 will be presented.

Semi final 1, Luleå, 5th March 2011










 Pernilla Andersson: "Desperados"
Danny: "In the Club" 
Swingfly: "Me And My Drum"
Le Kid: "Oh My God"
Jonas Matsson: "On My Own"
Rasmus Viberg: "Social Butterfly"
Jenny Silver: "Something In Your Eyes"
Dilba: "Try Again"

Semi final 2, Gothenburg, 12 March 2011:











Anniela: "Elektrisk"
Babsan: "Ge mig en spanjor"
Sanna Nielsen: "I'm In Love"
Christian Walz: "Like Suicide"
Loreen: "My Heart Is Refusing Me"
The Moniker: "Oh My God!"
Brolle: "Seven Days And Seven Night"
Elisabeth Andreassen: "Vaken i en dröm"

Photos: Lilian

Finally studio version of new Danny's single "In Your Eyes" has leaked!!!
If you didn't read my Summer post about single I'll remind you that it's cover of popular Swedish dance-project The Attic's single released back in 2005. As you can see new Danny's version seems not to change notably and it only shows how brilliant original was. We still don't have information when it's gonna be released and it looks pretty weird as Danny's going to participate in next year Melodifestivalen with the song "In The Club" and obviously needs some preliminary promotion. However he doesn't fall out of audience spot releasing album "Rewind" with E.M.D. on December 3rd and guys have presented new single "What Is Love" no so long ago. E.M.D. also recorded soundtrack "There's A Place For Us" for new episode of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" (to be exact - local version of soundtrack) that's going to appear on their album and even shot music video planned to be out very soon.

I've got 3 important news regarding Melodifestivalen-2011 which I'm gonna share with you right now!
First one and the most important that we oficially have got new 8 announced artists and the most exciting word here is new! Just like Linda Bengtzing from the first bunch only Sanna Nielsen can be called here schlager-veteran and just like Linda she's coming with support of Thomas G:Son (I guess we're gona have a lot of G:Son's songs this year after his Top-5 on Eurovision this year). But not alone - Peter Boström, Bobby Ljunggren and Irini Michas are hard team behind the song "I'm In Love" so it's gonna be schlager of higher calibre.
Another one participant who already participated in Melodifestivalen but not solo is international sensation Danny and again song is co-written with Peter Boström (yesss!!!), Figge Boström and Danny, song is called "In The Club" so everything's pointing to the saddest heartbreaking ballad in the world, nah, this team is made for dancefloor killer-hit and the final in Globen without any "if" and "but"!
But the name I'm completely blown away is Dilba! One of the most inspiring artists of Sweden with music that's completely out of time is finally back after a long break and I'm so happy she's coming to Melodifestivalen. What makes it more interesting is that she's coming with Niklas Pettersson (responsible for some Velvet's and Daisy's hits) and Linda Sonnvik (who worked with Belle before) who wrote the song "Try Again".
Second ex-A*Teens part Sara Lumholdt is coming to Melodifestivalen with the song "Enemy" by Niclas Lundin (this year's song of Erik Linder) and Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad (Le Kid). Unfortunately Sara hasn't managed to properly establish solo-career so hopefully she'll make it this time.
Among loud names of this bunch you can also find Melody Club - popular pop/synth rock band that rotates in speculation lists not the first year and can easily be this year The Ark with the song "The Hunter".
More fresh names are Loreen (first Idol participant who completely disappeared for years after the show) with the song "My Heart Is Refusing Me" co-written with Moh Denebi and Björn Djupström and even newer for big audience Simon Forsberg with Fredrik Kempe's song "Tid att andas" and Rasmus Viberg with "Social Butterfly" written by another schlager-veterans - Amir Aly and Henrik Wikström. I'm gonna tell you about them a bit later.

Another exciting news are for all who's gonna visit Sweden to see Melodifestivalen next year. Tickets sales will be open this Thursday on October 21st so you'll be able to buy them from outside of Sweden on http://ticnet.se Prices and dates of concerts and general rehearsals are mentioned here.

And the last news. This week has shortened amount of webbjokers participants to 100 so you can check the chart and take a look at which songs are still in competition and which are going to leave it next week here. We have 25 favorites left so keep hoping that someone of them will reach the final!

Рор-solo
Nadina - Change of heart (127)
Engla - Don't stop (142)
Jonas Matsson - On my own (240)
Mona Ersare - Over the Rooftops (245)
Ghena - Stand here (269)
Maliq - Believe in me (115)
Anna Palmér - Echo (147)

Eurovision pop
OneVoice - Varje steg (299)

Schlager/Dansband
Emil Johannisson - En sekund (153)
Göran Frödin - Kan du inte välja mig (#206)
Trison - Lovar & svär (211)

Pop-group
Fredrik och Magnus - Get out (162)
Adam Sandahl - Att vakna vid din sida (112)
Marcus & Fredrik - She's making my day (261)
Predicament - A fist full of maybe (104)
MLVNS - Denight (139)

Jazz/Visa
Natalie - Just a dream (204)
Conny Andersson - Kura Skymning (208)
Lise Edman - Ta mig som jag är (329)

Rock
Ann-Christine Johansson - Sanningen ska segra (255)

Ballad pop
Julia Alvgard - Better or worse (118)
Niklas Dahlquist - Här står jag för dig (180)
Fabian - Simple life (262)

House/techno
Keylas - Crying in my dreams (131)

Various
Anton & Dejo - I wanna be with you (185)

By the way you can already mention logo of Melodifestivalen with silver gradient background in sales shops so seems like we've got new color of Melodifestivalen-2011!

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

OMG! Iconic Swedish pop-song gets rebirth by another Swedish pop-icon. Can it be any better? Definitely!
My newly discovered very interesting blog Swedish Rush supporting a lot of great pop-artists which I support too (so you should check it!) has found out recent performance (this June to be more accurate) of Danny in Poland when he was singing his own version of The Attic's probably biggest hit "In Your Eyes" and though arrangement stays 100% the same Danny's vocal makes it different. I really-really like Michael Feiner's vocal but if Michael sings it in more intimate and thoughtful way that is more proper for club records, Danny shows more expressive vocals bringing a lot of his own personality and making this a little bit poppier. Due to rumours on Polish forums (even google has "danny in your eyes" as autofilling tips so the song seems to becoming really popular among massive Danny's fanbase) new single is planned for release in Sweden and Poland very soon so get ready for a new music from Danny!