During the last six weeks we’ve seen them sparkle on the stage in different parts of the country – and many have been following them thoroughly through the television set every Saturday, putting out those musical notes correctly. But what happens when the lights will go out and it is time for the so called afterparty?
The Swedish paper Expressen takes us behind the scenes; where the alcohol flows and a new scandal is just around the corner.
Melodifestivalen 2017 is over and we finally have a winner in Robin Bengtsson and his song “Can’t go on” – who won in a rather controversial final where the Swedish people didn’t agree 100% with the jury vote. Anyway Robin partied all night long with Champagne, friends and his girlfriend Jennie, and according to the Swedish press; he couldn’t be happier!
Someone who maybe wasn’t as happy during the final weeks of the competition; was singer and songwriter Charlotte Perrelli; the acclaimed singer who won both Melodifestivalen and the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1999. Her comeback was marked by a new personal style. Gone was the pop queen – replaced with a rather mellow (no pun intended) Charlotte Perrelli with a guitar.
But viewers did not take the singer’s new style fondly and punished her with the last place. On top of that she was also accused of song theft, where her contribution sounded awfully alot like the song “Everytime We Touch” by German music act Cascada. Charlotte Perrelli, who even before the competition had “guarded” herself by explaining that she was indeed expecting a fiasco. Just like sports betting you sometime have to take chances in life, and despite this Charlotte held good face at the subsequent press conference, although she left the establishment rather quickly with her husband Anders Jensen, before the festivities kicked off in earnest.
With just hours to go until the tv transmission was going to start, someone on Eurovision winner Loreen’s record company; Warner Music, accidently release her song “Statements” on iTunes – something that violated SVT’s rules. The channel was forced to sit in a panic-meeting where appropriate actions were taken – all the songs for the night show would be posted on the SVT website for everyone to watch. Loreen barely avoided being disqualified as famous singer Anna Book was unfortunate to get last year – this under similar circumstances. What kind of impact Saturday’s events had on Loreen, we do not know; but it is clear that she lost her final place to Jon Henrik Fjällgren and Aninia and was instead relegated to the “Second Chance”, where she would compete against youngster Anton Hagman.
After the broadcast Loreen refused to appear at the press conference on time. Instead, she arrived about 20 minutes late. Journalists who wanted to interview the singer had by that time become quite annoyed, which led that many didn’t have the time to talk to Loreen. At the after party Loreen was comforted by her mother, and put on good face while the team around her felt obviously bad for the fiasco.
