Melodifestivalen 2011: The final Linda Sonnvik blog

As you well know, the fabulous Linda Sonnvik was blogging for scandipop in the run up to her participation in Melodifestivalen as a songwriter and an artist manager. Giving us an insight into what goes on between the stages of writing a song, somehow finding it involved in Melodifestivalen, and everything that goes into preparing for the big event as a result.

She competed with the song ‘Try Again’ at Heat 1 in Luleå, and here, for the last time, she gives us an interesting glimpse into her experience.

Hello popoholics,

I hope you’re all doing great and are dancing in neon lights!

So, a couple of weeks back I was competing in Melodifestivalen as a songwriter for the first time. I also was there as Dilba’s manager. And as a Melodifestivalen fan. I stayed Wednesday-Monday and worked myself dizzy, slept too little, laughed a lot, met fabulous people, got my a fair dose of glitter, and watched “mello” from the front row 3 times. I had an amazing and memorable experience! At the moment, I mostly look forward to new challenges as a writer, but I could absolutely compete again sometime in the future.

Luleå was cold but beautiful. The welcome party was amazing with all the snow but it was freaking scary to be outside on the ice with actual fires burning on it!

Dilbis and the 7 modern dancers did a great job! Dilba was supposed to look somewhat like a futuristic Modesty Blaise (all hair in that fab hairdo was her own!), and as many noticed the dancers were inspired by “Tron”. So cool! When we sat down at the first choreography meeting, I threw an idea on the table of the vibe in the video “Around the world” by Daft Punk. I think you can tell it’s in there. Although I personally love everything schlagertastic, the “Try Again” performance needed a modern dignity and the choreographer Ambra nailed it. I did love the pure schlager style show some of the other acts put on also, such as Jenny and Le Kid – I love confetti…

We had some difficulties with the choir on the backing track getting higher in sound level than Dilba’s live lead vocals. That stole some effort that we would have liked to put in the show. Anyway, I am so very happy with the over-all performance, and very proud of Dilba taking that leap, throwing herself into the club scene. I hope some of you loved it as much as I did, today we already have more than 100 000 clicks at YouTube. Intense!

Although the song didn’t get through, I felt in my heart that the song had a bright future. I had a fantastic Saturday eve partying with the fab people I had got to know during my week in Luleå. So many wonderful people at SVT, dancers, artists and Melodifestivalen lovers! Rumours said that Dilba went to bed early, ehrm no, she also had fun and actually went to bed even later than myself that evening.

There was a lot of cool media there, people who actually are interested in Melodifestivalen – a kiss to the schlager bloggers who stalked us. 🙂 Unfortunately there were also some bitter media there. I won’t give them the satisfaction of being named here – but why do a paper send people that seem to detest commercial pop and glamour to write about Melodifestivalen? Let these people write about Ulf Lundell instead…

The good thing about not getting through was that we could release the single “Try Again” straight away! Although I felt that people liked the song (less than 10% who watched actually voted) I got kind of chocked when it went straight to number 1 at iTunes, even before the other Melodifestivalen songs. Wow! And it stayed number 1 for a while too. And today I got the news that it’s number 2 on DigiListan, the list that sums up all digital downloads in Sweden. As Le Kid or The Moniker would say – Oh My God!

This experience was fantastic!! I wish to thank X5 Music Group (especially Åsa), Dilbahar Blaise Demirbag, Biggis, my great co-writer Niklas Pettersson, the fierce Ambra Succi, the sexy dancers, Christoffer, Karl, Jane and the professional people working at SVT, plus everyone else involved. I had SO much fun! *MMMMWAH!*