Lopez Blogs

It's always heart-melting when huge artists make some charity activity releasing new music to help those who really need it. This Autumn Idol-show has made successful shot when show participants released song "All I Need Is You" that reached #2 of Swedish chart and a bit later we've got another release from whole bunch of the loudest names of Swedish pop - Ola, Darin, Alcazar, Jessica Folcker, Sarah Dawn Finer, Plura, Velvet, Hanna Hedlund, Martin Stenmarck, Lasse Berghagen, Anna Maria Espinosa, Claes Janson, Dolly Dolores, Jasmine Kara, Anna Sahlin, Kim Fransson, Promoe and Jakob Hellman. Something incredible? Whole project was initiated by Tess Merkel from Alcazar in collaboration with SOS Barnbyar organization to help kids who lost parents or who live in financialy especially problematic terms. The song "Ta Min Hand", very kind hopeful a bit funky and a bit gospel-breathing track, was written by Christopher Dominique and Mårten Edh and released physically and digitally.
Company around "Ta Min Hand" was also supported by big concert in Kungsträdgården and performances on TV and radio, so below you can watch official video for this song and performance in Efter Tio.

Finally we'd like to present you one of our most beloved Swedish Christmas songs "Merry Christmas" recorded by amazing Jenny "Velvet" Pettersson and Chris Lind (aka Bobby Summer and ex-Barbados) and released on Christmas compilation "Idrottens Julskiva" three years ago. This song doesn't sound like classic song you can expect from this kind of tracks, it starts with blues-verses giving with whistle very special impression of not that white positive Christmas fairytale with only positive characters, it's still faiytale but not that simple fairytale where everything's more complicated like it's in a real life but has a good final or to be more exactly - blasting shiny chorus spreading energy, happiness and Christmas mood with bells, kids singing and crazy cool live arrangement. We love Velvet, we love Christmas and we adore this song! Hope you too, one more time Merry Christmas dear readers and all our best wishes to you!

Velvet has taken part in series of Christmas concerts Julgalan together with Alcazar, Brole, Darin, Pernilla Wahlgren and Hanna Lindblad and look what a great cover of Rihanna she performs there! One of the best dance hits of this year could have not be missed by Swedish dancing queen and it's fitting her perfectly, unfortunately video quality hardly allows to watch performance but sound is recorded quite well to enjoy it. Sure we'd like to get some new stuff from Jenny, earlier this year she released her version of "Stereo Love" and though we're eager to get completely new single we won't refuse to get cover of "Only Girl (In The World)" in studio as well!

The official Swedish Eurovision fan club celebrated 25 years anniversary last weekend. In Sweden the club goes under the name Melodifestivalklubben. Many of the beloved schlager artists started their career at the same time as the club was born. It was natural to invite some of them to perform for the 200 fans who participated in the party.


Den officiella svenska Eurovisionsklubben firade 25 års jubileum i helgen. I Sverige går klubben under namnet Melodifestivalklubben. Många av Sveriges mest uppskattade schlagerartisterna startade sin karriär samtidigt som klubben föddes. Därför var det kul att några av dem ville uppträda för de ca 200 fans som deltog i festligheterna. Under dagen hölls årsmöte och jubileet firades med en specialbakelse.

Here are the schlager celebrities we enjoyed during a two hours show.
Här är celebriteterna vi lyssnade till under en två timmars show.

Anna Book always seems to be happy and smiling. She was only 15 years when she did her debut in Melodifestivalen 1986 with the song "ABC". She also participated 1987 with "Det finns en morgondag" and 2007 with "Samba Sambero". She will try once more in 2011 and hope to pass thru the jury with a song in English this time.
Anna Book verkar alltid vara glad med ett leende till hands. Hon var endast 15 år när hon blev kändis i Melodifestivalen 1986 med låten "ABC". Sedan dess har hon medverkat två gånger: 1987 med låten "Det finns en morgondag" och 2007 med "Samba Sambero". Nu gör hon ett nytt försök inför 2011 och hoppas passera juryns nålsöga med en låt på engelska.

Lili & Susie, the two sisters, participated in Melodifestivalen 1989 with "Okey Okey" but got their first hit already 1987 with "Oh Mama". 20 years later they did a comeback in Melodifestivalen with "Show Me Heaven". On this picture Lili is missing as she didn't feel well and went home right after the show. The blond lady to the left is Ankie Bagger and before she started as a solo artist she did backing vocals for Lili & Susie.
Lili & Susie eller systrarna Päivärinta, deltog i Melodifestivalen 1989 med "Okey Okey" men fick sitt genombrott redan 1987 med "Oh Mama". I Melodifestivalen 2009 gjorde de comeback med "Show Me Heaven". Lili saknas på bilden eftersom hon inte var i form och åkte hem direkt efter showen. Den blonda damen till vänster är Ankie Bagger och innan hon gick solo, körade hon bakom Lili & Susie. Och även bakom Tommy Nilsson när han vann 1989 med "En Dag" 


A popular and frequent Melodifestivalen artist is Kikki Danielsson. Both as solo and in various constallations such as Chips, Sweet'n Chips and Kikki, Lotta, Bettan. All in all she has participated 9 times. She won twice. 1982 with "Dag Efter Dag" which ended 8th in Eurovision Song Contest. In 1985 she won with "Bra Vibraioner" and ended 3rd. Kikki is going to release a new album this autumn. Last time she released an album with new written song was 17 years ago. At the same time her self biography will come out. The book is named "Gökungen".
En mycket frekvent Melodifestivalenartist är Kikki Danielsson. Både som solo och i olika konstellationer som Chips, Sweet´n Chips and Kikki, Lotta, Bettan. Totalt har hon deltagit 9 gånger och vunnit två. 1982 vann "Dag Efter Dag" med Chips och duon kom åtta i Eurovision Song Contest. 1985 tävlade Kikki själv med "Bra Vibraioner" som sedan blev trea. I höst släpper hon sitt första album på 17 år med nyskrivna låtar. Samtidigt kommer även hennes självbiografi ut med titeln "Gökungen".

A frequent artist in the Danish Melodi Grand Prix is Kirsten Siggard. She and Sören Dundgaard competed in MGP six times in a row, 1983-1988, and won three of them. In 1984, 1985 and 1988 they represented Denmark in Eurovision Song Contest under the group name Hot Eyes. Kirsten is still active as an artist and Sören as a producer and composer.
En frekvent artist i Danska Melodi Grand Prix är Kirsten Siggard. Hon och Sören Dundgaard tävlade i MGP sex gånger i rad 1983-1988, och vann tre av dessa. 1984, 1985 och 1988 representerade de Danmark i Eurovision Song Contest under namnet Hot Eyes. Kirsten är fortfarande aktiv som artist och Sören som producent och låtskrivare.

Last but not least the show got a royal opening with Queen Silvia singing Velvet's song from 2009 "The Queen". Well - not the original Silvia but beautiful Conny Bäckström from the showgroup After Dark.
Sist men inte minst ska nämnas att showen fick en kunglig öppning i form av Drottning Silvia som sjöng "The Queen" - Velvets bidrag från 2009. Nåja - inte den äkta Silvia men en snyggare, yngre version i form av Conny Bäckström från After Dark.

All good parties need a DJ. Thanks to Louis Klomp from the Netherlands for playing many old and new favourites. Our guest from Athens, Alexandros, seems to be happy about the music as well.

Usually I'm not that big fan of mashups but I should undoubtfully share with you what I've found today! About year ago schlager-community have got ultra-tasty mash-up of Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" and Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" from DJ King Rollo and today I've discovered another few melo-mixes on his youtube channel. I wonder how perfectly suits EMD's "Baby Goodbye" Briney's "If U Seek Amy" and I've got a biiiig smile listening Kelly Clarkson with a low base singing "Sice U Been Gone" along with Sanna Nielsen's "Empty Room" instrumental. But my prize goes to mashup of Lady Gaga's "Love Game" with Velvet's classsics - "Mi Amore", pure brilliance of "Mi Amore"'s arrangement makes Gaga's hit completely epic! All the mixed songs were written by Swedes so maybe that's why amazingness can't work bad with amazingness?
Oh, and another mix I'd like to show you is old good "Hero" mixed with Timbaland's "The Way I Are". Probably you've heard it before but still it's brilliant!

Every year a lot of Swedish artists represent country in two huge Polish festivals in Sopot (both are very spectacular and you can see many European big international stars there). This year plans of both festivals were broken with reconstruction of Opera Leśna which was always a place for these events. However though Sopot Festival had to be cancelled, another one - Sopot Hit Festiwal was moved to Bydgoszcz and surprisingly visually it almost didn't affect beauty of this show featuring such stars like Ameerah, Locnville, Lou Bega, Safri Duo, Tom Boxer and others.
This time we could see Sopot-veteran Velvet on the stage, I think Jenny performed almost all tracks of her second album for the last few years of her participance so now it was turn of "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" that she presented in a torn bridal veil, not that we know for sure but obviously it was made by her jealous rivals and isn't it great that Jenny was able to show such a flawless vocals and nice performance after it? Another Swedish contestant was Pauline with one of her latest hits "Never Said I Was An Angel", it was sweet and funny performance with Pauline walking around the stage like she came out there ocassionally, she was waving to audience and asked "How are you?", audience obviously felt fine and Pauline probably even better. Third Swedish contestant was newcomer Carina Dahl with debut single "Screw" and this performance was otherwise overfilled with concentration and energy of the singer, Carina looked and sounded like she was ready to tear stadium to pieces, very appreciated confidence for newcomer! Though Poland didn't appreaciate it enough and Carina took 13th place, Pauline - 8th and Velvet - 7th. However Ameerah with Didrik Thott's written "The Sound Of Missing You" won first round of voting with Anders Bagge's written "Drip Drop" by Safura on 5th and final voting was won by another Scandinavians - Safri Duo so let's hope next year will be more successful for Swedes as every year they try to provide really worthy artists and songs.

Another famous Swedish artist competing in Polish music contest these days was Anna Bergendahl who performed her hit "This is my life" at Orange Warsaw Festival and took 3rd place, watch fan's recorder performance here.

As you can remember year before after giving birth to first child Linda Bengtzing has made her comeback on the stage of Liseberg with big schlager-medley of her songs "Alla flickor", "Jag Ljuger Så Bra", "Hur svårt kan det va?" participated in Melodifestivalen. Yesterday audience could get deja-vu watching Linda with this schlager-medley again but this time in a full power and expression she usually provides on the stage of MF, also together with Velvet they performed "Victorious" and it feels like every new performance of this song is stronger and stronger. Velvet as another representive of schlager-royalty couldn't leave audience without her Melodifestivalen-hit and performed "The Queeen" (around 40:00) in all her brilliance. Also you can check performances of another guest-artists Robert Wells and Joel Alme and karaoke with public of Arja Saijonmaa's "Högt över havet" and Ted Gärdestad's "Satellit", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and others here.

Linda Bengtzing - Alla flickor
Velvet och Linda - Victorious
Robert Wells, Velvet & Linda Bengtzing - Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Robert Wells - Satellit
Robert Wells - Nocturne
Joel Alme - No Class
Joel Alme - The Queens corner

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!

Magnus Carlsson releases new single "Feel You" - another amazing disco-anthem from Pitchline sounding like brother of Velvet's "Take My Body Close", Pitchline being young production company has recommended itself like a great team releasing high-level stuff with Velvet, Alice Svensson, Kick and Magnus. Single includes some nice mixes from Pitchline and Ruff & Jam and b-side "Take Me To Your Heart" another dance track obviously inspired by music of Modern Talking (seems like Man Meadow has got a serious rival).

Magnus Carlsson - Take Me To Your Heart

Magnus Carlsson - Feel You (Ruff & Jam Remix)

If you didn't hear the story of this song it's quite simple but touching. Last year schlager-daddy Thomas G:Son gave a birth to the new schlager-anthem and has sent it to Melodifestivalen - the place where all (almost all) schlagers become legends but evil people didn't accept it and threw it out. How dramatical! Well, as long as this world has some hot schlager hearts beating these stories still can finish with happy ends. Two schlager-moms Linda Bengtzing and Jenny "Velvet" Pettersson adopted this pure child and has made it as glorious as only these faboulous ladies can. The story goes and we've got new really nice mix of this song!

As it happens every year this summer we'll be able to catch many open-air tv-performances on Swedish TV, probably it won't bring as much joy to pop-followers as attendance of famous Rix-FM festival and if you come to Sweden in closer few months I extremely recommend you to visit it. Well, those who can't visit Sweden can follow shows like Sommarkrysset, Allsång på Skansen and Lotta på Liseberg (to name a few). Yesterday we could see first show Sommarkrysset this year from park Gröna Lund in Stockholm and it has given us premiere of Orup's new single "Tiden Bara Gick", spring hit of this year "Manboy" by Eric Saade and performance of Swedish pop-queens Velvet and Linda Bengtzing with "Victorious" in all their fabolousness and amazingness with guest performance of the winner of Brittish X-Factor Alexandra Burke, not less than EMD were the hosts of the show yesterday and next week show will be hosted by fröken Bengtzing with performance of Timoteij, Eric Gadd and Rebound.

Orup - Medley (Live Sommarkrysset 2010)
Eric Saade - One Summer (Live Sommarkrysset 2010)
Alexandra Burke - Bad Boys (Live Sommarkrysset 2010)

11.000 people joined the schlager evening with mainly Swedish artists. Unfortunately only a few international Eurovision celebrities participated this year: Yoanna from Iceland, who ended up as second in Moscow, and the winner himself, Alexander Rybak.



The host turned out to be Shirley Clamp (MF 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009). She entered the stage in her turquoise “Min Kärlek-dress” from Melodifestivalen year 2004, joking about the size due to “additional 10 kilos and one kid later”.

Velvet has participated in Melodifestivalen several time but has never managed to reach the top-position she is worth.


For the first time the event was produced by the show group Schlagerfeber. All in all the show was okay with some highlights but many of us missed the International touch and the unexpected surprises from long-time-forgotten artists.

(Photos by David Elder of Velvet and Shirley)