Posts tagged with "eurovision song contest"

Countdown to Eurovision Song Contest!

Posted by jennie 16 Comments
May 4 2011

As you all know by now, Swedes are crazy about the Eurovision Song Contest and we spend the whole winter meticulously choosing our winner through Melodifestivalen and the song who will represent the Swedish music honour in Europe. Well, I say honour, but the truth is the Sweden failed to qualify last year and must compete in a semi final before – hopefully – taking on the main stage and the millions of viewers all over Europe. This year, all our hope rest on Eric Saade’s shoulder. He’s a 21 year old pop-sensation, loved by all kids in pre-school and secretly adored by women of my age.  Two years ago, we tried opera – and failed. Last year, we tried indie-girl Anna with her acoustic guitar – and failed. Will “Popular” do the trick this year??

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This is what it looked and sounded like the last time Sweden was crowned the winner of Eurovision Song Contest. It was 1999 and it was Charlotte Perelli (then Nilsson) who did it with “Take me to your heaven”. Sweden has won the whole shebang four times before, amongst them ABBA famously did it in 1974 with “Waterloo”.

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Next Thursday, at 21.00 Swedish time, it’s showtime! If you want to follow the semifinal live, just click here!

And – heja Eric!!

Bring on the Swedish summer!

Posted by jennie 2 Comments
May 11 2010

Take out your calendars and make some important notes! This is what the Swedes (some of us at least…) are looking forward to at the moment:

Eurovision Song Contest 27-29 May
Since Sweden failed to deliver last year, we have to earn our place in the big Eurovision Song Contest on May 29th. But we have high hopes that our new songbird Anna Bergendahl will make it into the final. The former Idol contestant Anna won a landslide victory in the Swedish competition (we choose our entry extremely carefully – read more about that process here!) and the song “This is my life” have already reached no 1 on every Swedish chart. The semi final takes place on Thursday May 27th and at least half of Sweden will cross their fingers for Anna. Will you?

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Weddings/Confirmations/Graduations, mainly May and June
It kicks if in the middle of May and continues almost throughout the whole summer. The celebration season is upon us! Weddings are extremely popular in May (read more about Swedish wedding customs here!)  and thousands of 15 year olds get their confirmation (konfirmation)  in May/June. Sweden has a long tradition of  confirmation and it has always been an accepted part of society and looked upon as a transition rite leading to the adult world. During the 1970´s, however, the numbers of confirmands started to decrease steadily. Today, 40 percent of all fifteen-year olds are confirmed and the confirmation studies can take place on camps, abroad or in normal classes during a longer time period. The aim is to get the teenagers to explore the Christian faith from the background of their own life issues but today you can also choose a Humanist confirmation where the focus is more on human rights equality, racism, gender roles, love, sexuality and lifestyles. 

School graduations are are also very much in focus in May and June, especially if you are 18 and graduate from the third grade in upper secondary school (gymnasiet). Graduation day (Studenten)  is one of the most exciting days in a young Swedes life and is mostly filled with fizzy wine, party, presents and fun. Graduation day traditions varies all over the country, but it’s common that the students rush out from the school building where family and friends are waiting with flowers, presents and normally also a weird and fun vehicle to ride home in. Fancy cars, horse carriages, motorcycles, trucks, basically any kind of vehicle can then be seen – and heard!! – driving around the town with screaming and singing students wearing the white traditional hats.

The World Cup in South Africa 11 June-11 July
No, Sweden did not make it into the world cup, we where sadly beaten by Denmark in the final qualification game and Denamrk are now representing the whole of Scandinavia down there.  So, the big question is naturally, shall we support our red and white neighbours this summer?? It’s worth considering since Denmark  right this minute are surprising the whole ice hockey world by winning game after game in the world cup and potentially can end up playing Sweden in the quarter final… Will they kick our ass once again? Anyway, whatever flags we choose to wave this summer, the world cup will be big news in Sweden and we can at least be proud of having one Swedish judge amongst the judges. Yay, go Sweden!

Next time: The big fat and expensive royal wedding, taking place the 19th of June!

(Photo: Johnér, Sweden Image Bank)

Sweden: Deux points

Posted by jennie 4 Comments
Jan 22 2010

It’s quiet up there in the north at the moment. It’s still freezing cold, the days are still black and the snow is still covering most parts. But guys, this is about to change in approximately 15 days, 8 hours and 24 minutes and… So what happens then? The arrival of spring (våren)? Another weird pagan festival? Well, it’s not far off, I tell you. It’s time for Melodifestivalen 2010!

Our fellow European readers are probably very much familiar with the big Eurovision Song Contest. But for those of you who don’t know, the Eurovision Song Contest is a big music contest (tävling) that’s happening in May every year where almost all European countries get together and battle over who could come up with the best song (Read: who has the most neighbouring countries. Many neighbours – many public votes!) It’s a huge event, watched by hundreds of millions Europeans, and it has been going since the end of the 1950′s. In short, every country send one carefully chosen (utvald) entry to the hosting country (the previous year’s winner) and the singing battle of the nation begins. Eurovision Song Contest is the perfect mix of kitsch, cringe and fun and boy do we love it and love to hate it.

Anyway. Back to Sweden. I wrote “carefully chosen entry” above. Well, I think it safe to say that no other country in Europe chooses their entry with so much effort, passion and organization as the Swedes. In fact, we spend all of February and most part of March to handpick the nation’s favourite. Everything kicks off February 6 at 9.00 pm with the first leg of the competition. Eight artists perform (uppträder) in a big stadium, (sold out of course) live broadcasted (direktsänd) and watched by approximately 3 million Swedes (one third of the population). Out of these eight, the public televote for their favourite and in the end of the evening, two artists are crowned the winners. Well, the winners of the night that is, because the following Saturday, we do the same procedure all over again. And the following. And the following. In the end of February, we finally have eight handpicked entries that will compete in le grande finale where we FINALLY choose who gets the honour to represent Sweden in the great Eurovision Song Contest. Oh, almost forgot! Of course, we have one more live broadcasted gala where the “losers” get a second chance to steal a slot in le grande finale. Phew! That’s SIX galas before we are ready to face Europe. Add a month of headlines (rubriker) about or biggest artists, clothing scandals, voting scandals, new heart throbs, new bands etc. and I bet you can figure out what the coming months will be about up there.

So, do all these gala efforts pay off in Europe? Sadly, no. Sweden has not won the Eurovision Song Contest since 1999, and back then we only had ONE gala to chose the nation’s favorite. But, we still have a burning hope and it got fuelled last year when our neighbours Norway won the whole shebang. This year, our starting field is bigger, better, more credible and more good looking than ever (of course!) and contains everything from traditional ballads to a great all female metal band (all the songs are a well kept secret until the gala evening, thought) and this year our efforts should pay off…

Or? In the end, everyone always agree on that we picked the wrong song – despite all the efforts – and next year, next year we must… Well, that’s the beauty of Melodifestivalen and the Eurovision Song Contest.  It gives us something to talk, read, blog (watch this space…) and moan about. To be fair, does anyone really care about the music? Judge for yourself:

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The winner of the Swedish Melodifestivalen and the Swedish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, Marlena Ernman.

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 The winner of Eurovision Song Contest 2009, Alexander Ryback from Norway.

Swedish Entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Posted by Transparent Language 7 Comments
Mar 16 2009

I didn’t post about it yesterday, because I had to think about what to say. But there’s really no avoiding it, even a day later – I really don’t like the song that Sweden is sending to the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow in May. And the song is “La voix” sung by Malena Ernman.

Personally, I think it’s an operatic nightmare (wasn’t there an opera-style entry last year from one of the Balkan countries?), but still an improvement over last year’s Charlotte Perrelli’s fiasco.

First, I suppose, I should explain for those of you who are not in Europe. But then again how can you explain the Eurovision Song Contest? You can’t really. This is something that almost everybody in Europe professes to hate and makes fun of, yet at the same time, this is something that keeps almost everybody in Europe glued to the TV. And I’m no exception here. I watch it, I make fun of it, and yet, I still vote. Religiously.

But before a song goes to the Eurovision Contest, it must be selected first in the country that it will represent. I am not sure how it works in other European countries, but in Sweden, this selection process is known as “Melodifestivalen.” The winner of Melodifestivalen goes on to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest.

First, various songs compete around Sweden, and then the winners of the semi-finals proceed to the grand finale in Stockholm, which this year took place last Saturday – March 14th at Globen (Stockholm’s Globe Arena).

And the unthinkable happened – the song that won and that is going to represent Sweden in Moscow in May is sung not in English, not even in Swedish, but in French (at least it sounds like French). Ouch! But people seem to like it, think it’s an unusual and original song, and actually believe that this year Sweden has a chance of winning the Eurovision Contest. Yeah right! As if…

Now let’s see… We will get 12 points from Norway and maybe Iceland, and that’s it. The days of ABBA are long gone… But of course, come May, I might be forced to eat my words

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Melodifestivalen 2009 var ett musikevenemang som arrangerades av Sveriges Television i fem deltävlingar plus final under perioden 7 februari till 14 mars. Melodifestivalen var Sveriges uttagning till Eurovision Song Contest 2009 som avgörs i Moskva i Ryssland 12-16 maj.

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