So, this Saturday in Sweden begins the 4th series of Dansbandskampen. And since we’ve moved here and learned that a lot of dansband music is actually highly enjoyable, we’re going to be following the series. And we’re going to be covering it on here too – as we think it’s something that many of you will like if you give it a chance (based on the logic that you obviously like most of the other stuff we deem good enough to write about, since you’re here reading this now!).
The simplest way to explain how Dansbandskampen works is that it’s basically X Factor or Idol, but for dansbands. And that comparison is more true than ever now that they’ve changed the competition rules this year to echo the Idol elimination process more closely. Quite simply, 10 dansbands will compete from this Saturday, with one getting eliminated every week until there are three left to compete in the final just before Christmas. In previous seasons it used to be a lot more complicated than that, so we’re glad that it’s been simplified a lot more now. However, in one small twist before the season starts this weekend, tonight there’s an hour’s show on SVT introducing us to 9 dansbands that are already safely guaranteed a place in the final 10, and 2 which will be competing tonight for the final spot in that final 10. The two will perform tonight and viewers will be able to vote for their favourite up until Saturday. Oh – and the incredible Christine (Inget Konstigt Alls) Meltzer is presenting the whole thing!
So – these dansbands then! Some of them are new, some of them have been going since the 80’s, some of them have competed in Dansbandskampen before (it’s not a series for amateurs, like Idol and X Factor is), some of them sing schlager dansband (YAY!), some of them sing country music dansband (BLEURGH!), some of them are hot, and some of them are not! What we’ll be doing each week, is showing you only the very good or the very interesting performances from that weekend, and letting you know who’s been eliminated. At the very least you’ll see some great pieces of dansband music, a genre which you might not already be familiar with. At the very most, you’ll get right into it, become a fan of one or two of the dansbands, and start exploring all of the old gems that the genre has to offer (which is what we’ve been doing for the last few months!). Trust us, there’s a LOT of good stuff to uncover – although yes, there’s a lot of awful dross too!
Amongst the dansbands, we already have a few favourites. There’s CC & Lee, who we’ve written about on here already over the last few weeks thanks to their AMAZING new single ‘Better Best Forgotten’ (and below you can listen to their previous AMAZING single ‘Honey’). There’s Wizex, who are Charlotte Perrelli’s old band (yes, that’s how she started!) and who are very much on the poptastic side of dansbands. And there’s Elisa’s who are new, but are signed to Lionheart and also seem to veer more towards the poppier sound of things. Also, we quite like the look of Sweetshots and Divine. And Donnez look like they’re going to be quite Scotts-esque, which is a good thing.
We’re actually attending the first night on Saturday, in Norrköping arena, and we’ll be backstage and meeting some of the dansbands too. So next week we’ll give you a proper introduction to each of them – or at least the ones we like anyway.
For now though, here are the two bands that will be competing tonight for the final place in the final 10. It’s Elisa’s and Zlippers. Elisa’s are a brand new dansband. They’re all aged between 19 and 21 and so are obviously part of a new generation of bands doing this. Plus their new single, ‘Om Du Säger Att Du Älskar Mig’ is delightfully bright and bubbly. We definitely want to see more of them, and so we hope they win the duel. Zlippers on the other hand, are more on the older generational side of things. They’re the traditional ‘old man dansband’, and we’re not a fan at all. It’s all a bit too country rock for us. However, these will probably be the most likely to win the duel, as they’ve been going for quite some time now and have got a fanbase already.
Below you can see both bands in action with the songs they’ll be competing with, and see exactly what we mean!
Right – and so begins our coverage! Hopefully over the next few weeks we’re going to be seeing us some serious schlager goodness in all of this.
