And so the first participant of Melodifestivalen 2010 has been announced…..
It’s Darin!
The most successful male artist this decade in Sweden has finally succumbed to the bright lights of the yearly song competition and it will be his first time entering. He appeared at the show this year as the interval act, singing a cover of the 1995 winner, ‘Se Pa Mig’ – which many saw as a good indication that he would take part in the competition next year. And it’s come to be true! 2009 has been a strange year for Darin commercially. His 4th album ‘Flashback’, whilst still a hit, was his least commercially successful album in Sweden. However, it gave him some of his first hits outside of Sweden, and has even led to him getting a UK deal for the album’s lead single, ‘Breathing Your Love’. That gets a UK release at the end of this month, with the album being released digitally two weeks later. So it seems a fitting time that he should enter a competition that would more than likely see him thrust back to the top of the charts in Sweden, but at the same time could see him being introduced internationally at the Eurovision Song Contest, should he win the Melodifestivalen competition.
And what of the song? Well it’s been written by Tony Nilsson and Henrik Janson. And the last time those two got together with a pen and paper we got ‘The Queen’, which was recorded by scandipop Queen herself, Velvet! This excites us a lot. Darin has confirmed that it’s a mid tempo ballad though, so we aren’t expecting a (mirror)balls out club anthem. But still, those three names mean that the song is probably going to be quite special, and should be in with a very high chance of winning. Also, despite Darin’s last album not selling as well as previous records, he’s still nowhere near the position that he NEEDS Melodifestivalen to get a hit single or album. In fact, he’s currently got the number one single in Sweden with his cover of Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’. So we can’t imagine Darin entering unless the song was nothing short of incredible!
One name down, thirty one to go – and we’re already giddy with excitement!!! Hooray for the greatest show on Earth!
