Sweden 2000
48 year old veteran
of the Swedish contest Roger Pontare will represent Sweden
with "Spirits
are calling my name",
the English version of "När
vindarna viskar mitt namn".
Inspired by the film 'Geronimo' the perfomance features a Red Indian
and a Sami in the background - very colourful, but is it winning
material? I wonder if Sweden would do better with the very Eurovision
song by Friends (really catchy & somehow familiar), or with my
favourite "Anropar
försvunnen " by Hanna. The Balsam Boys
sang a rather annoying rap with a melodic chorus sung by Svenne
& Lotta - who sang Abba's "Bang-a-Boomerang"
in the 1975 Melodifestivalen. Svenne Hedland was the lead
singer in the Hepstars, the band Benny Anderson of Abba
was keyboardist in. So you're never far from Abba.
Roger's song is
written by Thomas Holmstrand, Linda Jansson and Peter Dahl.
Linda was a member of Angel who opened the 1992 Swedish
contest with the wonderful 'Venus Butterfly'. I must be one of
the few in the UK with the album!
The thing everyone
will remember from MF2000 will be the interval - a cavalcade of
famous MF songs sung by famous MF performers. We saw Tommy Körberg,
Lena Phillipsson (robbed of victory three times), Lotta Engberg,
Loa Falkman (whose 1990 Symphonin came last, but he
cried all the way to the bank), Lasse Holm, Arja Saijonmaa,
and Bjorn Skifs & Carola. These latter two were the
main presenters. I noticed Carola only ever sang her own songs,
unlike the others, and wasn't quite a good presenter, but she was
dubbed Queen of the Melodifestivalen but some professor. Voting was
the usual regional plus telephone, and Roger was always in front,
although Stockholm didn't go for him, but the professor pointed out
Stockholm usually disagreed with the rest of the country.
|
Pl |
Title |
Performer |
Points |
 |
|
1 |
När
vindarna viskar mitt namn (When the winds whisper my name) |
Roger Pontare |
227 |
|
=2 |
När jag
tänker på i morgon (When I think about tomorrow) |
Friends |
146 |
|
=2 |
Se mig (See me) |
Barbados |
146 |
|
4 |
Varje timma, var
minut (Every hour, every minute) |
Javiera |
139 |
|
5 |
Vi lever
här, vi lever nu (We live here, we live now) |
Guide |
97 |
|
6 |
Tillsammans (Together) |
Midnight Band |
58 |
|
7 |
Bara du och jag
(Only you and me) |
Balsam Boys |
54 |
|
8 |
Anropar
försvunnen (Calling the missing one) |
Hanna |
47 |
|
9 |
Alla änglar
sjunger (All the angels sing) |
Tom Nordahl |
32 |
|
10 |
När filmen
är slut (When the film is over) |
Avengers |
0 |
Meanwhile, the
preview remains below.
The 1999
Swedish final was one the finest national finals anywhere in
every aspect, and SVT Göteborg have much to follow, but 1394
songs were submitted and music publishers whittled them down to about
200, from which a 13-member jury selected the final ten below.
They will all
compete on March 10th in the Gothenburg opera house, and it will be
broadcast on SVT TV2 from 1900 GMT. The date is after the EBU cut-off
date of 28 February, but SVT tell me they have permission. All 1200
public seats for the contest were sold in just 12 minutes!
Tobias Larsson
has updated and expanded his preview of the upcoming contest below,
plus I have added a few extra details in italics translated from the Swedish
TV Melodifestival web site.
I'd also like to
thank Torbjörn Jons for contributing a similar list.
So here we go with
the correct running order and all singers:
1."Vi
lever här vi lever nu"
(We live here, we
live now)
Music/Lyrics:
Mattias Reimer & Lars Edvall
Performer: Guide
Reimer/Edvall took
part last year as composers and members of the group Crosstalk,
which seems to be no more. At first, they wanted a 14 years old girl
to sing in MF, but as she wouldn’t have been allowed to sing for
Sweden in Stockholm, SVT Göteborg turned the whole idea down.
Instead, we get a 26 y.o male singer from Eskilstuna, who says
he’ll record a solo album in the same vein as E-type, La Cream
and several other Swedish dance acts.
Mattias Reimer
and Lars Edvall competed in Melodifestival 1999 with "Det
gäller dig och mig", performed by Crosstalk
2."Bara
du och jag"
(Just you and me)
Music/Lyrics:
Gustaf Eurén, Stefan Deak, Karl Eurén
Performer: Balsam
Boys
Balsam Boys
are the same people as the composers, and they had a minor summer hit
in 1999 with "Här kommer sommaren". One would
certainly want their entry to be stronger than that... Very soft rap
in Swedish, with sing-along choruses is their trademark so far.
3. "Se
mig"
(See me)
Music/Lyrics: Danne
Attlerud & Thomas Thörnholm
Performer: Barbados
Did anyone miss Arvingarna?
No need for that anymore. Young dance band Barbados do
everything to take their place, and the singer, heart-throb Magnus Carlsson,
has actually made quite a few young girls go out and buy their
records. They ended second in "Dansbandslåten 99", a
contest for dance band music, and are currently having a hit with
their entry "Rosalita". Their MF entry is described
as a solid boyband ballad, and caused controversy, when the
newspapers revealed that it wasn’t at all selected by the jury,
but by the executive producers at SVT, just like two other entries in
the contest.
Danne Attlerud
has amongst other things, written the Swedish Davis Cup team's song
"Tennis Spirit" (1987).
4. "När
filmen är slut"
(When the movie is over)
Music/Lyrics: Suss
von Ahn & Henrik Wikström
Performers: The Avengers
This group,
consisting of the two composers, was initially called Soulmates, but
when it turned out another band owned the rights for that name, they
came up with the current name. Henrik Wikström composed
"Okej, jag ger mig" for MF’83, without much success.
This song is rumoured to be one of the stronger of the lot, reminding
a bit of Cher’s latest hits. Both bandmembers come from the
north of Sweden, and they are certainly chasing an international
career after MF.
Published by
Misty Music/Anders Mörén & Billy Butt (Suss von Ahn)
5.
"Alla
Änglar sjunger"
(All the angels sing)
Music/Lyrics:
Stephan Berg (pictured right)
Performer: Tom Nordahl
The second of the
three "scandal-entries" that were rejected by the jury, but
inserted by SVT. Stephan Berg has been supplying songs for MF
for the last ten years, with two wins: 91 and 97, and just like Ralph
Siegel he always promises never to come back to the contest ever
again. This ballad entry will be performed by a young singer that won
the Swedish final of Soundmix (Stars in their eyes) in 1999 with an
impersonation of Jon Bon Jovi.
Stephan Berg has
through the years had nine songs in the Swedish final, and two have
won through to represent Sweden, and one song, "Fångad av
en stormvind", sung by Carola, won the Eurovision Song Contest
(ESC) 1991.
6.
"När
vindarna viskar mitt namn"
(When the winds
whisper my name)
Music/Lyrics:
Thomas Holmstrand, Peter Dahl, Linda Jansson
Performer: Roger Pontare
(right in 1999)
Third time around
for veteran Roger Pontare, whose outfits keep getting weirder
and weirder... This is said to be the rockiest and most uptempo of
his entries, with rather patriotic lyrics. One of the composers, Linda
Jansson, was a member of girlgroup Angel in MF’92.
Published by
Scandinavian Songs AB. Linda Jansson took part previously in girl
group Angel, who opened the 1992 Swedish final with "Venus
Butterfly", written by Nick Borgen and Bert Karlsson. Pontare is
also a veteran, representing Sweden in 1994, and was in the 1999
Swedish final.
7. "Varje
timma var minut"
(Every hour, every minute)
Music: Johnny Thunkvist
Lyrics: Ulf
Georgsson & Patrik Ahlm
Performer: Javiera
Johnny Thunkvist
wrote the very 50’s-sounding "Jag kan se en ängel"
for MF’92, but now for something completely different. Javiera
is a 20 y.o female singer, unknown as yet to the public, aiming at an
international career, riding high on the salsa/latino-trend started
by the likes of Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias. If Javiera
wins, she says she’ll be singing in Spanish on the big night. If
she sings at all, two days before the list of performers was
official, Javiera had cold feet and decided not to take part, but
after some negotiations with the record company, she was back into MF
again. This is the third of the songs participating without being
chosen by the jury.
Published by
Scandinavian Songs.
8. "Tillsammans"
(Together)
Music/Lyrics:
Mikael Wendt & Christer Lundh
Performers: Midnight
Band
The songwriting
tandem of Wendt/Lundh have graced many a Swedish final,
especially in 1990, where they had written three of the ten entries,
of which Mikael Wendts "Som en vind" won the whole
thing. Now they are back after some years of absence, with a very
jazzy number. So, of course, there will be a jazz band performing it:
the Midnight Band, one of the members being the son of jazz
legend Stan Getz.
Published by
Bert Karlsson. Micke Wendt and Christer Lundh have both taken part in
the Melodifestival many times, most memorably with the 1987 Swedish
entry "Fyra bugg och en coca cola" (later renamed to
Boogaloo) with Lotta Engberg
9. "Anropar
försvunnen"
(Calling the
missing one)
Music: Bobby
Ljunggren & Robert Ullman
Lyrics: Robert
Ullman & Anna-Lena Högdahl
Performers: Whooopz
Sisters
Bobby Ljunggren
co-wrote Sweden’s ballad entries of 95 and 98, but now he
changed partners, and, most notably, style. This is a lively disco
number, performed by the three comic strip heroines Melody,
Harmony and Symphony, aka Whoops! At first, this
band’s name was Swing Sisters, but for unknown reasons, that
name was changed. The members of the group involves one MF-veteran, Lizette
Pålsson, who took part in 90 and 92, and another member is Annika
Ljungberg, who had a monster hit with Rednex and "Cotton
eye Joe" in 1994. The third girl in the group is Hanna Hedlund.
This dynamic threesome is said to be designed to win, and if they
do, the English title for Stockholm will be "Calling Major Tom".
Published
byTrippel Music.
Bobby
Ljunggren has been involved in six entries to the Melodifestival,
most recently 1998 with Kärleken är" (lyrics: Ingela
"Pling" Forsman), sung by Jill Johnson. The song came 10th
when it represented Sweden in Birmingham.
10. "När
jag tänker på i morgon"
(When I think about tomorrow)
Music: Lasse Holm
Lyrics: Ingela
"Pling" Forsman
Performers: Friends
Just like some
other people mentioned earlier, Lasse Holm keeps promising
never to return to MF and he has never kept his promise so far... Friends
are more a project than a group. They are a hybrid between a popgroup
and a danceband, created by the infamous Bert Karlsson for the
TV4 documentary soap "Friends on tour". After one
season, their album is selling quite well, but the last episodes have
implied that there may be tensions in the group. Will they split up
before the MF or rest intact? To be continued... The group has five
members, and there have been some controversy surrounding the line-up
for MF. Bert Karlsson wants to replace some of the members
with backing singers for MF, something some of the members are very
against. The song is described as a pop rhythm with positive lyrics,
and, starting last, it could very well be the winner. If Friends
stay friends, that is.
Lasse Holm har
taken part as composer sixteen times, and has won through five times.
Ingela "Pling" Forsman has written lyrics for 21 songs for
the Melodifestival.
Thanks Tobias!
Jan Jingryd
is again executive producer of the show.
If you have any
more news or comments, please e-mail me, Geoff Harrison, at my
contact page and I'll credit your contribution.