Malena Ernman has been revealed as the 18th participant and 2nd wildcard to be competing in Melodifestivalen 2009. She’s another debutante but nonetheless, a very well known singer with a successful career behind her. She’s previously made her name as a classical opera singer, having spent the last ten years performing in operas and classical music concerts all around Europe. This will be her first crossover into the pop music genre, as she’s only ever released classical albums. But who better to mentor a singer’s first foray into pop than Mr Fredrik Kempe! Fredrik has written the song ‘La Voix’, and it’s been described as a pop-opera crossover track – we can only hope that it’s in the same vein as 2007’s ‘When You Need Me’ by Therese Andersson. But with Fredrik Kempe at the helm, we imagine that it will be even better.
Reading career biographies of Malena online throw up a plethora of previous releases, performances, and roles that we aren’t going to pretend to know anything about – they’re outside our usual jurisdiction! However, she’s clearly had an impressive career and is both respected and sought after in her musical circles. So she’s quite the surprising coup for Melodifestivalen. Her song and performance should be one of the most interesting next year.
