Posts tagged with "melodifestivalen"

Learning Swedish with Janne Lucas

Posted by Marcus Cederström 1 Comment
Nov 22 2011

I’ve written a couple of posts about Melodifestivalen here at Transparent, one titled (creatively enough) Melodifestivalen and the other (again, my creativity knows no bounds) Swedish Schlager. I am a shameless promoter of schlager music, whether it be Swedish, English, or German. I find the performances hilarious and the catchy songs even more so. It took a while to get used to, but by the time I left Sweden, I was hooked.

Of course, the challenge for me now, while living in the US, is trying to keep my love for schlager alive while also making it halfway useful to learning Swedish.  Luckily, old school Swedish schalger can do just that.

A friend of mine introduced me to this song after I mentioned that I was in search of a song that used the preteritum a lot.   She did not disappoint.

What I’ve done below is included the lyrics to the 1980 Melodifestivalen song Växeln Hallå by Janne Lucas. You’ll notice though that there are some holes in the text. I’ve removed several verbs in the preteritum (for a review of preteritum see the post Preteritum – the Swedish Past Tense). Watch the YouTube clip below, and try to fill in as many as you can. It’s a quick song at times, so I suggest you watch it a few times. Don’t be frustrated if you don’t nail them all the first time. Once you’ve done as best you can, check your answers below.

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Växeln Hallå by Janne Lucas

Det _______ en kväll jag _______ ingenting för mig
Jag _______ till stadens hotell
Jag _______ i baren och där _______ hon framför mig
Wow, vad hon _______ sensationell

En liten blick, det _______ jag, sen _______ jag
Liksom i trans och _______ henne gå
Mitt hjärta _______, det ticka och ticka
Och där _______ du på rum tjugotvå

En telefon och jag _______ slå nummer nio
Och någon _______ då:

Växeln hallå, hallå, hallå
Växeln hallå, hallå
Fröken hallå, hallå, hallå
Koppla mig till tjugotvå
Det blir inget svar där, hon är inte kvar där
Ja, jag är ledsen, försök på nytt igen
Växeln hallå, hallå, hallå
Koppla mig till tjugotvå

Där _______ jag ensam på mitt rum och fundera
Tänk vad man kan hitta på
Som ni förstår så ville jag veta mera
Om henne på tjugotvå

Min telefon, den _______ jag, sen _______ jag
En nia till och vänta på svar
_______  det nåt fel? Det ringde och ringde
Sån tur att hon i växeln _______ kvar

Det spraka till och jag _______ höra en stämma
Och sedan _______ jag till svar:

Refräng

Växeln hallå, hallå, hallå
Växeln hallå, hallå
Fröken hallå, hallå, hallå
Koppla mig till tjugotvå
Växeln hallå, hallå

Check your answers here at LetsSingIt.com.

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!!

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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