Lopez Blogs

Pernilla Andersson is competing in the first semifinal with her own composition “Desperados”. It's her first attempt in Melodifestivalen but that doesn’t mean she is a newcomer in the music-business. She is a singer, pianist, guitarist and composer. Since 1999 she has released seven albums of which the latest one Ö (= Island) came out this autumn.
Pernilla Andersson tävlar i semifinal 1 med sin egen låt ”Desperados”. Det är Pernillas debut i Melodifestivalsammanhang men hon är ingalunda någon nykomling i musikbranschen. Sedan 1999 har hon utkommit med sju album, varav den senast, med titeln ”Ö”, utkom nu i höst. Förutom kompositör och sångerska kan hon också lägga till pianist och gitarrist på sitt visitkort.

You are an experienced musician but a debutant in Melodifestivalen. How does it feel?
- It’s a bit mind-blowing and I'm still trying to get it into my head but I think it will be a great experience. 
Du är en mycket erfaren musiker men debutant I Melodifestivalssammanhang – hur känns det?
- Jag har fortfarande inte riktigt greppat det och försöker få det in i mitt huvud. Men jag är övertygad om att det kommer att bli en fantastisk upplevelse och erfarenhet.

How come that you decided to participate in Melodifestivalen?
- This year my latest album went very well on the Swedish charts and I did a big tour around Sweden, which was sold out. When this opportunity came up I thought it might be a good possibility to play one of my songs for an audience of three million people. My entry “Desperados” was supposed to be on my album but I didn’t have time to finalize it time. The song ended up being a really good one and with Melodifestivalen I found the purpose for it. In many ways it's a perfect timing for me to take part in the contest.
Hur kom det sig att du bestämde dig för att delta i Melodifestivalen?
- Mitt senaste album har gått väldigt bra på de svenska topplistorna plus att jag har turnerat för utsåld hus runtom i Sverige. När denhär möjligheten dök upp så tänkte jag att det är en enorm chans att låta tre miljoner människor får höra en av mina låtar. ”Desperados” var tänkt att ingå i mitt senaste album men jag hann inte få den klar i tid. När den väl blev klar så var det en toppenlåt men utan en given plats. Med Melodifestivalen fick den ett sammanhang och ett syfte. Det är bra timing helt enkelt att vara med i tävlingen just nu.

What kind of song is “Desperados”?
- I call is “spaghetti-western”. It’s a kind of singer-songwriter, pop-style song with some country elements, as well as guitars with tremulous and string arrangements which associate to a Clint Eastwood movie. If I may say it myself - it’s a good pop-song and I’m very proud of it!
Vilken slags låt är “Desperados”?
Jag kallar stilen för ‘spagetti-western”. Det är en singer-songwriter poplåt med lite country influenser, gitarrtremolos och stråkarrangemang med association till en Clint Eastwood film. En bra låt som jag är väldigt stolt över.

Can you tell us something about your background?
- My parents are jazz musicians so I grew up with music. At the age of 15 I started to support myself by touring with various artists as piano player. I have released seven albums in Sweden and now I mainly tour with my own band. I also write music for other artists.
Berätta lite om din bakgrund?
- Mina föräldrar är jazzmusiker så jag har växt upp med musik. Från 15 år har jag försörjt mig själv i och med att jag började turnera som pianist med olika artister. Jag har gett ut 7 album i Sverige och nuförtiden turnerar jag mest med mitt eget band. Jag skriver också musik till andra.

 Have your music been released abroad?
- I have been working both in Belgium and The Netherlands as a songwriter. One of my songs sold gold in Belgium with a singer called Eva de Roovere. It gives the music another dimension when you write for others and it’s something I like very much.
Hur är det med din karriär utanför Sverige?
- Jag har arbetat i Belgien och Holland som låtskrivare. En av mina låtar har salt guld I Belgien med en artist som heter Eva de Roovere. Musiken får en annan dimension när man skriver för andra.

What is your relationship to Melodifestivalen and Eurovision Song Contest?
- I do not have a very strong relationship but I remember when ABBA won. ‘Remember’ is maybe not the correct expression as I was too little by that time but it influenced me as I’m a huge ABBA-fan. I also have a great memory from 1983 when Carola won Melodifestivalen with “Främling”. The last couple of years I have been following the contest as I have friends who have participated, like Salem Al Fakir last year. I loved his song and he is a great artist. I’m so convinced that he would have won the whole contest. So in other words – I do not have a very close relationship – but I’m getting one now!
Vilken relation har du till Melodifestivalen och Eurovision Song Contest?
- Jag kan inte påstå att jag har en jättestark relation men jag minns när ABBA vann. ’Minns’ kanske är fel ord eftersom jag var för liten men det påverkade mig ändå eftersom jag är en stort ABBA-fan. Jag minns också när Carola vann med ”Främling”. De senaste åren har jag följt tävlingen eftersom jag haft vänner som deltagit. Till exempel Salem Al Fakir som jag tycker borde ha vunnit hela tävlingen. En fantastisk låt med en fantastisk artist. Med andra ord har jag inte haft en nära relation till tävlingen men jag kommer att få det nu!

We wish you the best of luck in semi-final 1.
Learn more about Pernilla: www.pernillaandersson.com

Salem al Fakir is currently on the way to promote his new single "Split My Personality" I've been talking about few weeks ago and finally single gets remix-treatment from who would you guess? Bassflow!!! So gentle autumn melancholic soundtrack turns to a loud powerful pop-anthem. I promise you're gonna love it! Thanx for the tips to Planet Salem.
From another Salem's happy news he was nominated as Best Composer on Swedish Music Publishers Association awards that will be held this Friday competing with RedOne, Max Martin and Oskar Linnros, impressive list? "Keep On Walking" was also nominated as Best Song with Johnossi's "What’s The Point?", Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and Oskar Linross' "Från och med du".
Darin doesn't seem to be in a hurry with promotion of his single "Lovekiller" (not that I complain, this song should confirm the status of massive hit of this year) and premiering "Lovekiller" video in a few months after single release he's officially releasing bunch of "Lovekiller" mixes. We've already heard Steffwell mix but here goes another one - Red Top mix - more clubby and energetic track with adorable hard beat.

After wild summer of tours around Sweden Salem Al Fakir's ready to promote his successful album "Ignore This" with new single "Split My Personality" that's already playing on the radio and planned to be released soon digitally.
"Split My Personality" sounds like the best choise for Autumn single, it's very touching sad track with dark mysterious instrumental part opening in beautiful melody of chorus. It's a bit more commercial and accessible than "4 O'clock" and atmospherically it's just made to be released in this season so it's gonna give a new push to Salem's music.
Thanx for the tips to Planet Salem.

Weekend has started so let's celebrate it with doze of dance-music! From today till Sunday night I'm gonna present you some recent nice mixes I haven't told about but undoubtfully should. So let's start with first three!
Participant of Melodifestivalen-2011 - Jenny Silver has released pack of mixes from Soundfactory for her single "A Place To Stay" right before Stockholm Pride this year. Jenny unfortunately didn't qualify to finals but turned to be one the highest non-qualifiing entries this year (#12). We wonder a lot if Jenny's solo-career will go further as this March she was presenting some other really good new songs in Stockholm and sure Soundfactory's works are always what gets to our spot.

Thanx to Planet Salem for mentioning new amazing mash-up of Axwell & Ingrosso feat. Salem al Fakir's "It's True" and smash hit of Kylie Minogue's "Get Outta My Way". Before this year collaboration of Salem with Swedish House Mafia was one of the brightest highlights of Salem's discography so talented variations of this great track are always welcome!

And finally here's video-tratment for Mikey's Dance Version Remix of the latest Ace Of Base single "All For You" - this is probably most close to original and radio-friendly mix so hope you'll like it as well.

This year Rockbjörnen seems to collect more pop-names than rock ones. Ola, Anna Bergendahl, Oskar Linnros, Salem al Fakir, Eric Saade, Kent, Mando Diao and foreign Tokio Hotel, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber look especially on fire. I don't even have a clue how Justin Bieber got to (as I thought) Swedish category but seems like this guy has really powerful fanbase in Sweden. Linda Sundblad is going to be host of Rockbjörnen and you can watch interview with Rock-bear and her here.

Best female artist
Robyn
Melissa Horn
Amanda Jenssen
Anna Bergendahl
Agnes


Best group
Kent
Mando Diao
Hoffmaestro & Chraa
The Ark
In Flames


Best Swedish song
Från och med du – Oskar Linnros
Keep on walking – Salem Al Fakir
Unstoppable – Ola
Nothing without you – Mando Diao
Manboy – Eric Saade


Best breakthrough
Oskar Linnros
Eric Saade
Anna Bergendahl
Justin Bieber
Andreas Grega


Best male artist
Salem al Fakir
Oskar Linnros
Lars Winnerbäck
Eric Saade
Ola


Best foreign song
Tokio Hotel - World behind my wall
Lady Gaga - Bad romance
Justin Bieber - Baby
Lady Gaga - Telephone
Lady Gaga - Alejandro

Best concert
Tokio Hotel
Mando Diao
Lady Gaga
Kent
Lars Winnerbäck

Best festival
Peace & Love
Getaway
Sweden rock
Metaltown
Arvika

Creative activity of Eric Saade this Summer is quite high to hardly follow all of events he participates in and it's obviously effective as his album keeps in Top-20 since its release in May and currently its at #5. Surprisingly third Eric's single "Break Of Dawn" didn't succeed quite well and as debut "Sleepless" has spent only one week in chart but one position lower - at #45 and though his team released new mix version of the song being made not less than Le Kid it didn't help a lot. You can check Le Family remix below and convince yourself it's a really worthy track.

Right now Eric starts promoting his new single - effort to comeback to his Manboy-pop with a song "Masquerade" written by Eric with Anton Malmberg and Tony Malm of Le Kid. In my opinion it's not as successful choice as "It's Gonna Rain" but still it's a good radio-pop song - modern, catchy, well-produced and finally it works very well with just released video. Plot of the video continues previous video for "Break Of Dawn" with Eric playing role of servant fallen in love with the noble girl and coming to masquerade ball rushing all of his passion right on her. Surprisingly noble family's not so enthusiastic about this schlager-orgy right in front of all the guests and right after Eric's losing his head on a ball he's losing it literaly in the end of the party.

Last week Eric was also honoured to present his new single on tv-show Lotta På Liseberg and as always performance turned to a huge entertainment for obviously happy audience with nice choreography and costumes.

And finally great news! You have a chance to visit Eric's concert virtually. Set of concerts is organized by Aftonbladet's awards Rockbjörnen and right here you can book your free ticket to Eric's concert that will be held on August 18th at 21 of local time. Among other performers who will also arrange such virtual concerts that you can get tickets for are Mando Diao, The Ark, Salem al Fakir, Ola, Robyn and Anna Bergendahl.

These days I'm sorta lost track of the biggest music TV-shows of Sweden and seems like the most actual thing around them recently was not even performances but drama around low viewing figures of Allsång På Skansen and some radical decisions media required from this show like replacing Anders Lundin with Måns Zelmerlöw as a new host, you can read it more detailed in interesting article of our dear friend EuropeCrazy. Speaking about performances I'm not gonna give give a full review this time but mark some most interesting highlights. Let's start from Allsång På Skansen.

Huge public favorite Salem Al Fakir gave performance of his 2 last singles "Keep On Walking" and "4 O'Clock" well supported by audience, the last one turned to be especially joyful with such a wonderful public feedback.

Salem Al Fakir - Keep On Walking

Oskar Linnros has recently released album "Vilja Bli" that peaked at #2 and as I still can't write review of it you should also visit EuropeCrazy to read interesting review there. Oskar also performed his 2 last singles "Från och med du" and "Ack, Sundbyberg".

Oskar Linnros - Ack Sundbyberg

Jasmine Kara who just released her debut album "Blues Ain’t Nothing But A Good Woman Gone Bad" and autobiography "Hälsa henne att hon ska dö" performed already familiar for audience songs "In The Basement" and "Try My Love" showing all of her sweetness and amazing voice (still one of my top-candidates for Melodifestivalen-2011).

Jasmine Kara - In The Basement

Mando Diao has chosen 2 biggest chart favorites "Dance With Somebody" and "Gloria", very high-level performance that you can expect from one of the most popular Swedish rock-bands.

Mando Diao - Gloria

And sure I need to mention amazing medley of Real Group singing some most notable Swedish export-hits mostly from Golden Cheiron era, much appreciated!

Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello have just released video for their new single "One" that already entered Top-30 of Swedish single-chart and on the way to dancefloors and radio-stations around the world.
Swedish House Mafia is the title of three world-known Swedish DJs union that was formed when Axel "Axwell" Hedfors moved to Stockholm and met Sebastian Ingrosso and later Steve Angello and Eric Prydz but currently Prydz moved to Lodon and is not considered as the part of Swedish House Mafia. However guys stay friends and support each other in their sets. Sure previously members of SHM released some stuff together, probably you were on another planet if you didn't hear any of these brilliant samples of their work - Supermode's "Tell Me Why" (project of Axwell and Steve Angello), mix of Salem Al Fakir's "It's True" made by Axwell and Ingrosso and "Leave the World Behind" where all three DJs collaborated with Laidback Luke and Deborah Cox.
This time Swedish House Mafia decided to work with Pharrell and if someone has doubts about it becoming another future world hit of Swedish House Mafia - just don't!

Tove Östman Styrke was one of undoubtfully brightest spots of Idol-2009 starting from her first appearance on casting. Already after her first performances in the last season of TV-show girl quite fast became one of main Idol's contenders for the victory. Artistical uniqueness, surprisingly strong vocal for 16-years old girl, light craziness (in a good sense) and incredible sweetness, this combination should've made this girl winner of the season but unforunately one step before the final Tove got the biggest unluck and two songs totally not corresponding what this hurricane rock-girl was about and though Tove has made her best she expectedly missed the final. What went wrong and why jury decided not to let Tove to the final will stay a mistery but sometimes what artist achieves after Idol matters much more than his place in the contest and Tove's talent couldn't be unnoticed by record companies.

Sony generously adopted the girl and since the beginning of the year worked hard on new Tove's stuff and was preparing the girl for a big career, by some sources Tove's music had to be mix of Knife, Robyn, The Sounds and Blondie. Finally recently two intriguing bits of this music has leaked - "Young Heart" and "Million Pieces" confirming that Tove goes really speacial and her own direction mixing stadium rock spirit that she widely provided on Idol and electro-pop with Robyn-The Knife-Salem al Fakir-Björk vibes, something that can really make Tove next Amanda Jenssen who didn't manage to win Idol but reached so much through these 2,5 years totally breaking ex-pop-Idol status and developing her own image, music style and audience. Today Tove's official site is finally open and you can listen full-length first single "Million Pieces" - beautiful original soft synth-pop song written by Adam Olenius (Shout Out Louds) and produced by Lotus & 2 Freckles.

In August Tove will perform also at Allsång på Skansen and the album release is planned for this Autumn. If you didn't watch last season of Swedish Idol I'll give you a guide of Miss Styrke's way in this show.

Listen (Beyonce)
All These Things I've Done (The Killers)
Life on Mars (David Bowie)
Hot 'n' Cold (Katy Perry)
Will You Be There (Michael Jackson)
We're Not Living In America (The Sounds)
Mack the Knife (Bobby Darin)
In the Ghetto (Elvis Presley)
I Wish I Was A Punkrocker (Sandi Thom)
Kids (with Erik Grönwall) (Kylie Minogue & Robbie Williams)
Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics)
Himlen är oskyldigt blå (Ted Gärdestad)
Pride (In the Name of Love) (U2)
Since You Been Gone (Russ Ballard, Head East, Rainbow)
Can't Get You out of My Head (Kylie Minogue)
The greatest love of all (Whitney Houston)

Swedish music lovers keep enjoying by all the music stuff and events currently being held in Stockholm and yesterday everyone could've got a pleasure to watch a great concert in Konserthuset with some top-artists and surprisingly alive responsing audience, Victoria herself was incredibly charming and beautiful, but don't worry if you've missed it, you still can enjoy it here. You can find some really brilliant performances there. For example Sarah Dawn Finer performing her beautiful new single "Kärleksvisan" (Swedish version of song "For A Friend" from her last album), Salem al Fakir with his new devotional song "All Day Love" (that you can download for free on this site if you'll manage to be one of the first 5000) and magical charming performance, Lisa Nilsson with her version of Kent's song "Utan Dina Andetag" (that really loked like my personnal discovery of this artist who seems like a real classics of Swedish music), Peter Jöback with his cover Charles Aznavour's "She", Malena Ernman with some absolutely brilliant performances proving her like a real Goddess of the stage, Roxette with their comeback to a big stage, performance of "The Look" and standing ovations and other performances of Helen Sjöholm, The Real Group, Jazz Divas of Scandinavia (Cæcilie Norby, Silje Nergaard, Rigmor Gustafsson), Lars Cleveman, Magnus Uggla and others. You can check some of these performances below.

Sarah Dawn Finer & Lisa Nilsson - At Last
Peter Jöback - She
Helen Sjöholm - Hymne à l'amour
Magnus Uggla - Värsta grymma tjejen
Lars Cleveman - Nessum Dorma
Malena Ernman & Roland Pöntinen - Jeg Elsker Dig
Various artists - Can't help falling in love

Darin's releasing another devotional single "Can't Stop Love" for Victoria's marriage written by Tony Nilsson, very beautiful modern huge ballad that you can listen here, if you like Darin's ballads you should be totally satisfied with this song!

And don't forget to check some performances from Bröllopsstudio, you can enjoy by some amazing covers from EMD, Carola and Fibes, Oh Fibes!

One of the most actual names of this Spring Salem Al Fakir releases his new single "4 O’Clock" and new video for it. Quite original, interesting and nice electronic track with verses you probably can compare with some Lykke Li's and Robyn's songs and cosmic synth sound choruses. If you expected something in the key of "Keep On Walking" (Salem's previous single that made him runner-up of this year Melodifestivalen), it sounds different but mixes will help you to understand the taste of it better. Especially I recommend you to give a listen to a mix of Adrian Lux, another one was made by Damien Adore, also there's cool mix of Claes Rosen. Don't forget to check brilliant Salem's performance of "4 O’Clock" in Nyhetsmorgon and to visit our dearest blog-friend Planet Salem for loads of interesting information about this talented artist.

Friday 26th March 2010: Salem Day. The day that I had waited for, for so long, finally arrived, bringing with it an surprisingly relaxed feeling over breakfast. Being a rather classy establishment, coffee was accompanied by Goteborgs-Posten, which I scoured from cover to cover to see if there were any features about Salem, or tonight's concert. I had to make do with a very small preview paragraph, with the paper choosing to focus on Moto Boy's Stadsteatern show tomorrow.

Salem is particularly gifted when it comes to producing strong melodic songs and this is one of the best on the album. It’s commercial and radio-friendly, with an anthemic ‘here we go again’ chorus, an irresistible, almost calypso-styled rhythm. The feel of the song reminded me a little of "New Song" by Howard Jones (if you are old enough to remember that!). We’ve known long enough about Salem’s natural melodic ability, but this time he’s thrown in a distinctive lyrical twist which initially shocked and surprised me. However, the result is one of the strongest tracks on the album, which turns into a massive singalong, and which will, for sure, be one of the biggest songs in Salem’s live concerts this year. I can’t get this song out of my head...!

For the three people in the world who don't know yet, I'm off to Sweden tomorrow to go and see Salem Al Fakir in concert in Gothenburg on Friday - I'm hoping to update Planet Salem whilst I'm over there, but this here blog should be back either late on Sunday night or definitely at some point on Monday.

See you all soon.

Chanée & Tomas N'evergreen tog hem vinsten Danmarks Melodi Grad Prix igår kväll med svensklåten "In a moment like this" skriven av Thomas G:son, Henrik Sethsson och Erik Bernholm. Det är en pop-schlager-låt där refrängen fastnar omgående och givetvis finns modulationen med. Det är bara att gratulera svensktrion till segern.

Gratulationer går också till förhandstippade Didrik Solli-Tangen som tog hem vinsten i Norges Melodi Grand Prix med ännu en svensklåt "My Heart is Yours"skriven av Fredrik Kempe. Som kanske framgått så var det inte min favorit direkt. A1 som borde ha vunnit slutade tvåa. I och med Didriks vinst så behöver i alla fall inte Norge vara rädd för att vinna Eurovision ytterligare en gång.


Samtidigt med dessa finaler pågick Melodifestivalens första semifinal i Örnsköldsvik. Något förvånande tog Salem Al Fakir hem flest röster med sin något flummiga låt "Keep On Walking". Förhandstippade Ola med "Unstoppable" tog sig också direkt till Globen. Pain of Salvation och Jessica Andersson är vidare till Andra chansen i Örebro. Pain of Salvations låt "Road Salt" måste gå till historien som Melodifestivalens mest sparsmakade låt. Jessica Anderssons ballad "I Did If For Love" framfördes även den utan en massa kringtjafs. Salem satt lugnt och still bakom sitt piano. Inte ens Ola hade nån annan än sig själv på scenen. Kvällens mesta favoriter präglades av temat "less is more".

En timme senare startade Islands final och veteranen och förhandsfavoriten Hera Björk vann med "Je ne sais quoi".Jógvan Hansen slutade tvåa med "One more day". Congratulations to the winner!







Resultatlistan från Ö-vik:
Direkt till finalen i Globe:
- Salem Al Fakir - "Keep On Walking" 
- Ola - "Unstoppable"
Till Andra Chansen:
- Pain of Salvation - "Road Salt"
- Jessica Andersson - "I Did If For Love"

Utslagna:
5. Linda Pritchard - "You're Making Me Hot-Hot-Hot"
6. Anders Ekborg - "The Saviour"
7. Frispråkarn - "Singel"
8. Jenny Silver - "A Place To Stay"

(Foto: NRK, DR, SVT, RUV)

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.

Did you really think I wouldn't mention it?????

Today SVT revealed the second 'joker' (wildcard) entry to next year's Melodifestivalen - and it is none other than my most favourite singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/musical genius, the outstanding Salem Al Fakir.

I've been through a lot of different emotions about this today - extreme excitement, disbelief, shock, further excitement, even more excitement, you get the idea :)

Anyway Salem will be appearing in Melodifestivalen 2010, where he will sing a song called "Keep On Walking" which of course he has also written himself.

For those who haven't heard any of Salem's music yet, I would recommend you take a trip over to Salem's MySpace (www.myspace.com/salem) or do a search for some of his videos over at YouTube.

And (quick plug time) don't forget to visit Planet Salem, which is my very own international fansite for the great man!!!! http://planetsalem.blogspot.com

Salem Day.

Gothenburg was bathed in sunshine and blue skies this morning and there was a feeling of magic in the air for me, coupled with nervous anxiety and uncontrollable excitement about tonight.

Taking the Salem-theme to ridiculous lengths this morning, it was an almost "cold shower" which let me tell you was not a blessing :(

Before breakfast I was listening to P3 and they played "Astronaut" so needless to say I was rather excited :) there's just something great about hearing Salem being played on the radio.

Off to breakfast, and a very good selection in the Scandic Crown breakfast room - yum, lots of lovely fruit and crispbread which did the job. There was a shop in the hotel reception selling various items including this month's issue of Damernas Varld magazine. Which had an interview and rather gorgeous picture of Salem on page 38 :) anyway as I reported at Planet Salem, I couldn't buy it as there was no room in my hand luggage to bring the magazine home :(

The main objective on Saturday morning was to get on a tram and make our way to the ticket office over in the other side of the city, to exchange my confirmation email for....

...two tickets to Salem Al Fakir.

Job done.

Walked back to the city centre but not before stopping off at a lovely little part of the city called Haga. This is very reminiscent of Gamla Stan in Stockholm with its lovely old buildings.


There is also a lovely city park behind Storan, with a little canal running through it. I thought this was a perfect photo opportunity.


And so to lunch. I'd forgotten how difficult it was eating out in Sweden: I don't eat red meat, pork, lamb or fish/seafood, but "when in Sweden" I had to break the beef ban to do the ultimate Swedish food experience - köttbullar!!

Cue my latest food-photography attempt to get into Blogs of Note.



After lunch it was off in search of a record shop, and as usual I wasn't able to find one at that time (we were nowhere near Bengans so an alternative was needed) - and just like our 1996 trip to Gothenburg we ended up at Ahlens City, in the Nordstan shopping centre. Again I had to limit my purchases to this year's Melodifestivalen 2009 DVD and Måns Zelmerlöw's new CD. The shelves were full of Melodifestivalen artists' CDs, and of course I saw Salem's "Astronaut" proudly displayed too!

Was Nordstan always this big or did my memory play tricks on me? Whilst we were in the shopping centre, we heard the Gothenburg Gospel Choir who were singing on the Nordstan stage.

After shopping we had time for a quick coffee and then it was back to the hotel to get ready for the big event.

I should have been wired up to a blood pressure monitor between 4pm and 6pm: it would probably have exploded with my high-as-a-kite ramblings of a mad woman, repeating the setlist over and over again, pacing up and down the hotel room, re-doing my make-up, random singing of Salem songs over and over again, and failed attempts at trying to stay calm.

On my way through reception I so wanted to yell "I'm going to see Salem Al Fakir !!!" but I managed to restrain myself.

Dinner at a Greek/Turkish restaurant beforehand which was rather nice, although my nerves were at complete breaking point and my hands were shaking non-stop.

Yet somewhere on the road to Trädgår'n, I found the calmness and composure that I needed.

Meeting Salem was like all of my dreams coming true...and I will remember it forever.

Before the concert we took our places near the front of the stage, and for once I didn't have an eight-feet giant standing in front of me, blocking my view :) Just prior to Salem and his band going on stage, they were playing some music and the last song was "Wonderchild" by Christian Walz, which I thought was totally ironic as these two artists are always compared with each other!

The concert was brilliant. Salem was a fantastic live performer and I feel privileged to have had this experience: I hope it won't be the last time I see him play live.

(You can read my posts about meeting Salem or my full review of the concert at my other blog Planet Salem of course)

I also met the Norwegian girls after the show, purely by accident - an unexpected and happy pleasure!

On the way back to the hotel, I was in another world. I sang, I screamed, I was on such a natural high that I was flying, not walking!! And once back in the hotel I phoned mum, probably the most hysterical phone call that she has ever received in her whole life!!

And I only got 30 minutes sleep that whole night.

The best night of my life.

Unfortunately it all had to end on Sunday, but not before two final Salem-related moments:

1) The Axwell/Ingrosso dance mix of "It's True" got played on P3 on Sunday before breakfast. Scream-time again.

2) Had SVT on briefly and a trailer came on for "Vi i Femman" which is presented by Nassim Al Fakir - Salem's brother!!

After breakfast we headed for the bus station and got the bus back to the airport. Even our flight home was on time - and that never happens.

All in all, the best weekend ever!