On Thursday night we ventured to Grona Lund, as Eric Saade’s Made of Pop tour finally rolled into Stockholm after a summer of taking over the rest of Sweden. The 90 minute set featured all but one of the songs from his latest album (the priority tempo for the evening was set to high, so ‘Someone New’ was dropped!), and a few of his hits from 2010.
So what did we think of the whole spectacle?!
Well first and foremost, we were hugely impressed with his vocals. One of the main criticisms aimed at Eric is his lack of ability in the singing department. An accusation which hasn’t been helped by the fact that on a number of his high profile and televised performances, he’s often heard to be slightly off the mark, and sometimes going through sections of a verse or a chorus not singing at all. Maybe it’s the songs he’s been singing on these TV shows, or maybe it’s the extra nerves at being on television – because at Thursday night’s show, not only was he singing more or less everything, but he was doing it on note too. Granted that should be a given when you’re a professional singer, but with Eric the show is just as important. Tight choreography and an energetic stage presence don’t lend themselves very well to live vocals, but Eric managed it last night in a way we don’t hear a lot of other pop stars being capable of. After the show we’re in no doubt – the boy can certainly sing. And he can do a hell of a lot more on stage while he’s doing it.
Secondly, we loved his warmth on stage. We’ve been at concerts before both here in Sweden and when we live in London, where the performer is just going through the motions, singing their songs, doing their thing, but making absolutely no attempt to interact with the people in the audience who have come to see them. Eric bounded from one side of the stage to the other making sure that every section of the audience was addressed, like he was hosting some outdoor party that he’d dizzily invited a few too many people to. People in the audience were personally performed to. And there was lots of talking. And they were nice words too (from what we can understand of his Southern Swedish accent!). For example, before the encore he said goodbye with “thank you all so much for coming, for really I am nothing”. And then after the encore he once again said “thank you for coming tonight, and I hope that we see each other again soon”. Another huge criticism that Eric gets labeled with (a little more on that, below) is that he’s become very arrogant, and cocky. We genuinely didn’t see a hint of arrogance on stage on Thursday night. Just a young entertainer, doing what people had paid to come and see him do, and very well at that.
Finally, another thing we couldn’t help but pick up on, was the audience itself. As you would expect, it was mostly young teenage girls at the front, going mental. But behind them were hoards and hoards of much younger kids, sitting on the shoulders of parents. And they were really really enjoying the show. They weren’t getting bored and wanting to leave after half an hour. They were staring intently at what was going on onstage, and singing along to whatever words they knew. And then behind them, were families just generally milling around together, watching the show and dancing (DANCING) to the songs. Apologies if this reads like we’re trying to paint some perfect image of a pop star bringing a ‘Kum Ba Yah’ like unity and innocence to a crowd of concert goers. That’s not it at all. We just quite enjoyed being at a show where the crowd was so unapologetically into it. Plus, in an age where actual sales of music are in dire depths (particularly in Sweden where Spotify is so popular now), it was heartening to see that the next generation of music consumers do actually have the capabilities to be moved by pop music. As though to prove that connection, Eric’s latest album ‘Saade Vol.1’ spends a sixth week on top of the Swedish album chart this week. It’s gone platinum in just eight weeks – while the latest album from the biggest pop star in the world right now, Lady Gaga, has yet to reach a sales certification in Sweden, in the fourteen weeks its been on sale.
And that brings us to the last thing that we wanna touch upon. Not related to his concert per say, just a trend that we’ve noticed taking place in recent months where Eric Saade is concerned. It’s this sudden, but very common assumption that he’s become too arrogant. This criticism is in parts coming from the Swedish press. In other words, a few thirty-something and forty-something men have taken issue with how a twenty year old guy has dealt with becoming by far and away the most famous male pop star in Sweden in recent years. This attitude towards him has in turn been adopted by a whole other host of bloggers and online forum contributors – most of whom have of course never even met him. Who knows what’s really going on inside his head, and what he thinks of all the success he’s had so far, and of all the success that he wants to achieve in the future. All we know is that we’ve met him – and we’ve never found him to be anything other than very friendly, polite, and gracious to us. And to whatever friends we’ve been with at the time.
Hmmmm…what are we trying to say here. Perhaps we’re just a little bored of reading and hearing so much negativity about him, and want to contribute something a little more realistic and positive. What we know is that he loves his job, he does it very well, and he works ridiculously hard at it. He’s a good pop star, and we wish him all the best.
Right, that went on for a little longer than anticipated. Back to the concert. Below is the setlist, some video footage, and some photos courtesy of Grona Lund’s website.
SETLIST
Made Of Pop
Echo
Hearts In The Air
Break Of Dawn
It’s Gonna Rain
Manboy
Killed By A Cop
Me & My Radio
Still Loving It
Big Love
Timeless
(encore)
Stupid With You
Popular
