*sigh*
The final episode of Så Mycket Bättre went out last night. It’s been something of a phenomenon in Sweden over the last couple of months. Not just on television, but on radio and in the charts too. So it’s sad to see it draw to a close. But more on that below!
Firstly, onto last night’s episode. It was the duets episode, with each artists performing one of their own songs as a collaboration with one of the others. September did ‘Satellites’, with the gent who’s been her artistic other-half over the last few weeks – rapper, Petter Alexis. The rendition wasn’t too different from the original thankfully, with Petter’s rap and influencce only coming into play during the middle eight. And so we got to see September do a fun performance of the majority of one of her fan-favourite songs.
She also showed up in Christer Sandelin’s song of choice, ‘Luften Darrar’. And that was a more traditional duet, performed as a love song between two people. And doesn’t she look cute as a button in it?!
As reported on here already, Så Mycket Bättre has been a huge success in Sweden. And that’s turned into big success for some of the artists too. None more so than September though. She’s had a lot of success in Sweden before of course, but this has resulted in her getting her first number 1 single, a hell of a lot of press coverage, and at one stage last week, she had FOUR songs in the Swedish iTunes top five! We’ve spoken to some Swedish people about this, and asked why it’s taken this tv programme for them to finally fall in love with her. And they’ve all pretty much said the same thing. Quite simply, whilst they’ve known of her before through her hit songs, and her often documented international success, nobody really KNEW her, or knew what she was about. Så Mycket Bättre has been the first time they’ve been able to get to know her, and see that rather than just being the face of some dance records, she’s actually a very talented and highly likeable young lady! Plus, with the likes of ‘Mikrofonkåt’ and ‘Kärlekens Tunga’ in particular, they’ve been reminded that said young lady can kick out some MIGHTY tunes too!
Thankfully (speaking from a fan’s point of view) it’s also meant that her back catalogue has recieved a bit of a resurgance too. On iTunes, her ‘Gold’ compilation album made a reappearance in the top ten album chart for a while on the back of the show. And songs like ‘Cry For You’ and ‘La La La’ have been bobbing up and down the singles list as well. We were also slightly worried that all of this Så Mycket Bättre business would overshadow her ACTUAL comeback single, ‘Resuscitate Me’. After all, that’s her own music at the end of the day, and what we’d really like to see her succeeding with. And whilst ‘Mikrofonkåt’ has obviously taken over as by far the most popular song (not just over her own ‘Resuscitate Me’, but EVERY other song released by EVERY other artist in the last month!), ‘Resuscitate Me’ has still become a genuine hit in its own right. It spent a week in the top ten on iTunes, and hasn’t actually left the top forty since its release a month ago. Plus, Rix FM, the largest commercial radio station in Sweden, are still giving it heavy rotation. And it’s continuing to stay in the upper half of the national radio airplay chart too. So it’s nice to know that her own music has flourished as a result also.
Så Mycket Bättre might be over now, but she’ll still be reaping its rewards for the next few months at least. ‘Mikrofonkåt’ is still number 1 on iTunes, with ‘Kärlekens Tunga’ at 3 and ‘Vem Ska Jag Tro På’ at 9. And next week sees the release of a brand new single that she features on, from her co-star in the show, Petter. It’s called ‘Baksmälla’ (‘Hangover’), and unbelieveably, it’s looking like it’s going to be yet another huge hit for her. P3 Radio, the biggest pop radio station in Sweden gave it the ‘Flipp eller Flop’ (hit or miss) test last week, and the jury and listeners awarded it a ‘flipp’ by 85% – which is the highest result of any single this year! Finally, ‘Mikrofonkåt’s success has even trickled onto her UK plans. As we mentioned earlier in the week, an English language version has now been recorded and got its first play on BBC Radio 1 on Friday night. So feedback from that will probably play a part in deciding on her next UK launch.
Christ alive! All this from simply agreeing to take part in a new tv show. The wonders of entertainment, eh readers?!
Below, you can watch again all of September’s Så Mycket Bättre performances through the weeks.
