Lopez Blogs

Excuse me Lena but THIS is how your comeback single had to sound like to become bomb of the season. I don't say that I didn't like "Idiot", it's pretty lovely disco-song but was I the only who was missing some...toughness, heaviness? I think this brilliant mashup from DJ Gauffie shows really well where Lena should move further to bring her title of Swedish disco-queen back. As she really can!

You can also listen and download mashup here.

TAIO CRUZ vs LENA PHILIPSSON - Higher Idiot (Gauffie mashup)

Lena Phillipsson is back with brand new single "Idiot" and brand new sound!
Few weeks ago we've got a first alert about Lena's new single written by Magnus Lidehäll who worked before with Kylie and sure have got some high expectations about this comeback.
Finally "Idiot" has arrived and work has turned to be quite pleasant disco-pop, very soft, very gentle, with some Kylie vibes. Sure many expected some hardcore disco-anthem in a vein of "Det Gör Ont", but it's completely different story. The most important things here in my opinion are:
1) Lena's back from retro-style of her duet album with Orup realizing that her fans need more dancey stuff;
2) she looks very fresh and charming as always;
3) she has really modernized her sound and if she'll decide to make some disco-bomb in future it'll be something truly explosive. Let's hope it's just a matter of time!

I guess you guys have already mentioned how crazy this blog is about Melodifestivalen and everything MF-related. It's just a week left before first semifinal preparation will take part but as I want this great music celebration to start already now I'll be giving you daily tips about what's going on in schlager-bubble before the start of Melodifestivalen-2011.
Let's begin with this recently premiered exciting melotrailer with Marie Serneholt, Rickard Olsson, Eric Saade and taxi driver who's not gonna drive anywhere before discussing Melodifestivalen with someone on the phone.

And the latest exciting news! Earlier it was announced that Lena Philipsson and The Ark will perform in interval act, now Dalarnas Tidningar reports that other artists will be Christer Sjögren and Nanne Grönvall. Common idea of interval acts will be rolling around character of world producer "The Hurricane" (played by Peter Stormare) able to make a star of completely any artist. Firstly we'll see meeting of Peter and artist and then we'll get a live-performance of artist as probe of new star. Details about every interval act are kept in secret but it's gonna bring a lot of fun. Check the first photo of Lena and Peter, thanx for tips about this pic to new terrific blog Schlagerfiasko.

Two of the biggest Swedish pop-divas Carola and Lena Philipsson are ready for comebacks and already announced about it this week.
Whole last year Carola was busy promoting her tribute-concerts devoted to Elvis Presley and Barbra Streisand. Quite successfully as DVD "En magisk kväll på Dalhalla" has debuted at #1 of DVD-chart in November and Spring is already full of tour dates. Tribute album is going to be released on March 23rd and below you can see Carola working in studio on records for it. Today release of new single was also announced for January 25th (less than in a week!) on Carola's facebook page. Thanx for information to Carola International blog.
Another pop-diva ready for comeback is Lena Philipsson. Due to new published press-release from Universal new single "Idiot" will be released in the beginning of February and it's written by Magnus Lidehäll (Afasi & Filthy, Maskinen) who wrote Kylie's "Cupid Boy". Popdrömmen promises a lot of autotune and dance-music that undoubtfully sounds like a great news!

Sometimes it happens that Swedish schlager music suddenly appears abroad  in places like Patra in Greece. This time it was because of our friend Nisos who celebrated his birthday. One of his favourite artists is Lena Philipsson. We did our best to bring Lena to Patra but unfortunately without success. What to do? Well - one solution is to act as a Lena-look-alike. Up to you to judge the result......





The wigs might be flying around but this is something you have to handle professionally as being an artist in the fake-show-biz. 










The "Lenas" in real life!










The celebrity and the DJ


Thanks to Rotis for acting as camera man.

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)

Annual tv-show "Inför ESC 2010" currently takes place on SVT-channel. Every week you can see experts panel discussing songs of different participants of upcoming Eurovision. This year you can see among experts Marie Serneholt, Kayo Shekoni (ex-Afro-dite), Lena Philipsson, Thomas Lundin (Finnish artist and tv-host), Rennie Mirro (musical artist and brother of Sarah Dawn Finer), Christer Björkman is host of the show as always. In a third part of the show experts were amazed the most by Israeli singer Harel Skaat and on the other hand left Slovenian representatives - Ansambel Roka Žlindre & Kalamari without any points at all. In the end of the show experts revealed their favorite Melodifestivalen-songs who didn't manage to win the contest. Marie and Mirro chose "Moving On" by Sarah Dawn Finer, Thomas - Shirley Clamp's "Min Kärlek", Kayo - Alcazar's "Not a sinner nor a saint" and Lena - Nanne's "Håll Om Mig". You can see this episode here and see results below. Next week we'll see the last of 4 episodes.

By the way for all Eurovision followers now you can read official blog (in Swedish) of Swedish delegation where you'll find posts by both Christer Björkman (head of delegation) and Edward af Sillén (scriptwriter and director of Melodifestivalen) about everything regarding Anna Bergendahl's and her team's trip to Eurovision in Oslo.

I gårdagens program på SVT ”Inför Eurovision” så fick Israels Harel Skaat toppoäng av juryn som består av Kayo Shekoni, Rennie Mirro, Marie Serneholt, Lena Philipsson och Thomas Lundin (Finland) under ledning av schlagergeneralen och programledaren Christer Björkman. Som väntat fick också Anna Bergendahl höga poäng. Enbart Kayo var tveksam till Sveriges bidrag.
Stackars Sieneke från Holland. Hennes låt “Ik Ben Verliefd ( Sha-la-li!)”
blev totalsågad tätt följt av den Slovenska bidraget ” “Narodno Zabavni Rock”. Oavsett vad man tycker om dessa låtar så är det två av de bidrag som fastnar. Väck mig mitt i natten och jag lovar att sjunga “ Sha-la-lie! Sha-la-la!, Sha-la-lie! Sha-la-la!” för er. Återstår att se hur rätt panelen har. Tidigare har ju deras resultat varit sisådär.

På tal om Eurovision program, så gjorde jag min finska radiodebut i torsdag. Jag medverkade i direktsändning på Sisuradio, som är Sveriges Radions finska kanal. Tur att det inte var TV eftersom det är svårare att dölja fusklapparna i rutan. Känner ni för att lyssna på detta inslag så hittar ni det här:
Lilian och Soili pratar Eurovision i Sisuradio

Dessutom länkar Sisuradio till min blogg de närmaste veckorna. Det tackar jag för! Och här har ni länken till dem: Sisuradio. I fredagen program, 14 maj, medverkar Riki Sorsa som tävlade för Finland i Eurovision 1981. Hans bidrag ”Reggae O.k” var helt klart före sin tid. Resten av Europa förstod inte alls vad en reggaelåt hade att göra i ESC och resultatet blev därefter – en 16:e plats bland de 20 medverkande.



Några kreativa killar i Israel och Schweiz har spelat in denna hyllning till Finlands bidrag. Underbart eller hur!
A tribute video to the coolest Eurovision duo this year, Kuunkuiskaajat, from Finland. Made by 2 fans from Israel and Switzerland. Show your support! :)



Källa/Foto: www.eurovision.tv, www.sr.se, www.rikisorsa.com, JP, Lilian
Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Eurovision Song Contest, ESC 2010, Anna Bergendahl, Kuunkuiskaajat