It ALL KICKED OFF this morning.
SVT held the first press conference for Melodifestivalen 2013, which revealed the artists, the songs, and their composers who will be competing in the first two heats of next year’s contest. We were in attendance, interviewed the acts that we’re most interested in, and those interviews will be published on here at some point between now and the contest.
For now though, let’s take a look at the list, and we’ve added in some comment under each of the names;
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Heat 1: Karlskrona, February 2nd
Cookies N Beans – Burning Flags (Fredrik Kempe)
A girl group that plays their own instruments, but boy have they got a long way to go before being ‘up there’ with our Timoteij. We didn’t like these girls (or rather, their song) last time around, and nor have we enjoyed the incarnations of them since (Abalone Dots anyone?). However, with Fredrik Kempe on board as the sole songwriter, we’re setting our expectations higher than we normally would. What the actual fuck is with that bloody band name though? ‘Burning Flags’ sounds like a right laugh too, doesn’t it?!……
Mary N’Diaye – Gosa (Johan Åsgärde, Mattias Frändå, Mary N’Diaye)
We’re very pleased to see her name on the list. She’s a graduate of Sweden’s first series of The Voice, and this masterpiece is her most recent single. We had a chat with her, and she revealed that while her Melodifestivalen track is nothing like ‘Big Dreamer’, it’s still an up-tempo song that you can dance to. Praise be.
YOHIO – Heartbreak Hotel (Johan Fransson, Tobias Lundgren, Tim Larsson, Henrik Göranson, YOHIO)
The phrase “big in Japan” is banded about all too often sometimes, but in the case of YOHIO, it’s actually quite accurate. A young gentleman from the south of Sweden who has made himself look like an anime cartoon girl from Japan. And actual girls from Japan love him for it apparently. Lots of followers and fans on Facebook and Twitter, YOHIO normally releases songs of a rock variety, which ain’t exactly our bag. What IS our bag though are the songwriters on board here, who have come up with some of our favourite Melodifestivalen entries in recent years. Alcazar, Linda Bengtzing, Anniela…..there’s potential here.
Jay-Jay Johanson – Paris (Jay-Jay Johanson)
A 43 year old singer/songwriter who peddles indie music and dabbles in electro music. Joy.
Anna Järvinen – Porslin (Björn Olsson, Martin Elisson)
A pretty successful and hugely acclaimed indie artist. In Melodifestivalen these always seem to do either really well out of it all (Lisa Miskovsky and Pernilla Andersson), or really really badly (Caroline Wallin Perez and Anna Maria Espinosa). We usually *like* those songs, but rarely love them. But give us this over the odd succession of indie-tastic older men who appear on today’s list all too often, any day of the week.
David Lindgren – Skyline (Fernando Fuentes, Henrik Nordenback, Christian Fast)
Melodifestivalen 2012’s debutant success story didn’t exactly win us over with his song from the contest ‘Shout It Out’, but he did with the album that followed, ‘Get Started’. It’s a fantastic, well produced, dance pop record. We spoke to him today and he told us that we can expect more of the same (as in, from his album), but that ‘Skyline’ is a fresher sound with an even bigger bassline, and harder beat. Sounds very promising. And he is such a lovely guy.
Eric Gadd – Vi Kommer Aldrig Att Förlora (Eric Gadd, Thomas Stenström, Jacob Olofsson)
There’s lots of excitement in other quarter’s surrounding the inclusion of this chap’s name. He’s had big hits in the (distant) past, but he’s not exactly our cup of sugary tea.
Michael Feiner & Caisa – We’re Still Kids (Michael Feiner, Caisa Ahlroth)
Now these two, we ARE very excited about. Michael is one half of Swedish dance legends The Attic, and Caisa is the singer and songwriter that brings out the poppier side of his sound (their own words to us today). If you needed any more convincing, check out their current single ‘I Do‘. They promise more of the same, and we await with wide eyed hope.
Heat 2: Göteborg, February 9th
Joacim Cans – Annelie (Joacim Cans)
Joacim is the lead singer of Swedish rock group Hammerfall. And he looks like the lead singer of a Swedish rock group too. He’s also competed in Körslaget though, so he’s down with the lolz.
Anton Ewald – Begging (Fredrik Kempe, Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad)
A professional dancer turned singer. Although he told us today that he’s been wanting to sing for an absolute age. In Melodifestivalen 2012 he danced back-up for Danny Saucedo and Andreas Lundstedt. ‘Begging’ will be his first single, and he tells us that it’s an up-tempo pop number with strong r&b influences. He’ll also be doing his own choreography, and it’s gonna be a proper show.
Sean Banan – Copacabanana (Sean Banan, Ola Lindholm, Hans Blomberg, Joakim Larsson)
The joker of the pack. You sort of know what you’re getting here, after his entry to this year’s Melodifestivalen ‘Sean Den Förste Banan’. And you sort of hope that it doesn’t progress any further than its heat, thus potentially taking the place of a song that’s actually any good. Harmless fun – until it gets in the way of your favourites.
Rikard Wolff – En Förlorad Sommar (Tomas Andersson Wij)
An old man who is most famous for being an actor. (well – he is)
Erik Segerstedt & Tone Damli – Hello Goodbye (Robin Fredriksson, Mattias Larsson, Måns Zelmerlöw)
EMD’s Erik teams up with Norway’s sexiest (and most decent) popstrel Tone Damli. This is penned by one of our favourite songwriting teams Robin & Mattias (who have done great work on Eric Saade’s second album, amongst other things), along with Måns Zelmerlöw. Mid-tempo pop with a touch of country, and hugely melodic. An interview with Erik will be published on the site soon. Erik’s got the same management as Danny Saucedo, and Tone has the same (Swedish) management as Eric Saade – so we can expect a lot of weight to be thrown behind this song in the press in the run up to the show.
Felicia Olsson – Make Me No 1 (Amir Aly, Henrik Wikström, Ingela Pling Forsman, Maria Haukaas Mittet)
Lionheart Music’s latest songbird. Felicia is a very young lady that we don’t know too much about, with a song that we don’t know too much about either. But it’s another composer list full of promise.
Pernilla Wahlgren, Hanna Hedlund, Jenny Silver – On Top Of The World (Peter Boström, Thomas G:son)
Three schlager MILFs team up with the two chaps who wrote Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’. “it’s NOT schlager though, it’s KLUBB“, Pernilla was quick to point out to us today. And any comparison to Kikki, Bettan & Lotta from us was shot down with a raised eyebrow and a polite grimace. Oh well. This is OBVIOUSLY still going to be amazing, right? Right.
Louise Hoffsten – Only The Dead Fish Follow The Stream (Louise Hoffsten, Sandra Bjurman, Stefan Örn)
What’s not to love about a song title like that?……A middle aged rock, jazz and blues songstress from Sweden, with multiple albums to her name, and some classic and much loved radio hits. The writer of a former Eurovision winner (‘Running Scared’ for Azerbaijan) is on board here. See our comments on Anna Järvinen, for we are boxing these two ladies together until further notice, and that’s that.
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This morning when we arrived, we were warned that there weren’t very many “Scandipop friendly” names on the list. But while it most certainly isn’t the most exciting list of names we could have hoped for, the big highlights are undoubtedly still highlights.
On name alone, Heat 2 has the schlager (but don’t call it schlager) veteran trio that we can look forward to, plus Anton, Erik & Tone, and then Lionheart’s little Felicia. And Sean Banan is at least capable of a catchy chorus, right? As for Heat 1, Michael Feiner & Caisa, Mary N’Diaye, and David Lindgren look to be bringing the pop, and all signs point towards this YOHIO character pulling something good out of the bag. And then naturally we can’t quite write off all those other names at this early stage, the borefests that they might well read on paper right now.
