Sweden 1998

Swedish Melodifestivalen

The Swedish Melodidestivalen took place at Malmö music theatre on March 14th, 1998, and Sweden has selected "Kärleken Är", sung by Jill Johnson (right) to represent them at the final in Birmingham.

I heard the second hour of the show on P4 radio via satellite, and this preliminary report is based on that hearing.

You can read the scores and my view below, or go to this link to read three other reviews from people who saw the whole show! - thanks!
These are now illustrated. See Nanne's "Mr Spock" ears!!

The presenters were Pernilla Månsson (the unforgettable presenter in the 1995 Melodifestivalen - she started by taking her shoes off!) and Magnus Karlsson.

The two-part jury system was again used, with the ten songs listed below, whittled down to five to be played a second time in the show, so the juries get a better chance to pick a good one. So far, I have only heard those five in the second round, but here are my comments:

Here are the songs in order of presentation (those which got to round 2‡):

1. När En Stjärna Faller /When A Star Falls (Annika Fehling)

   • Performed by Annika Fehling
2. Ingen Annan Väg‡ /No Other Road (Peter Evenlind/Peo Thyren/Erika Evenlind/Stefan Almqvist)
   • Performed by B.I.G. (MF '97)
     
   • Rock number, a bit like the Beatles in their latter days - OK.
3. Ta Dig Tid /Take The Time (Margaretha Nilsson/Gertrud Hemmel)
   • Performed by Elisabeth Melander
4. Avundsjuk‡ /Jealous (Peter & Nanne Grönwall)
   • Performed by Nanne Grönwall (Sweden 1996 in 'One More Time') - pictured right.
     
   • Thudding bass, Nanne mostly talks this rock song.
5. Bara Månen Får Se /Only The Moon Gets To See (Torgny Söderberg)
   • Performed by Linda Eriksson
6. Kärleken Finns Överallt /Love Is All Around (Frank Ådahl)
   • Performed by Helena Eriksson
7. Långsamma Timmar /Slow Hours (Peter Svensson/Fredrik Karlsson)
   • Performed by Fredrik Karlsson
8. Julia‡ (Cläs Andreasson)
   • Performed by Myrra Malmberg
     
   • Folksy romantic piece about him dancing with Julia.
9. Cherie‡ (Stephan Berg)
   • Performed by Black Ingvars
     
   • A driving rock song, faintly reminded me of the likes on 70's groups like Rainbow.
10. Kärleken Är‡ /Love Is (Bobby Ljunggren & Håkan Almqvist/Ingela "Pling" Forsman)
    • Performed by Jill Johnson
      
    • Jill's strong Skåne accent is noticeable in this slow, bit soul-like song. She sings about Heaven & Earth and one belief, "Love is". Good song, and singer.

Rätt låt vann? - well the press asked after the show thought the best song won - I like the winner, but haven't heard the five that lost round 1.
Congratulations, then, to Jill Johnson, and her famous writing team Bobby Ljunggren, Håkan Almqvist & Ingela "Pling" Forsman.

Score table, for the interested:

There's a web site with much more about Jill at this link.

The rest of this page is the earlier preview:

Tobias Larsson provided the list of songs and song writers for the Swedish National final, held on March 14th. Daniel Bergquist completed the list, and provided some more background below.

Lasse Holm withdrew his entry in the last second, due to bad publicity lately that he might let people participate in his TV-show just because he decided to sign them up for a record contract. [Thanks very much Tobias!]

Daniel Bergquist adds:
I thought I'd send you some more info about the Swedish National Final. In the last weeks there's been quite a lot of talk about the song "Julia", by Claes Andreasson and Torbjörn Wassenius. Apparently the composers had asked Myrra Malmberg (swedish musical star, who's received rave reviews for her role as Christine in "The Phantom of the Opera" in London) to perform the song, and she'd accepted. SVT (Swedish Television) had agreed to this.

Andreasson's and Wassenius' publisher, Bert Karlsson, who owns the rights to the song, had however asked Arja Saijonmaa (who finished second in Swedish national final in 1987, with the song "Högt över havet") to sing it. Bert wouldn't accept Myrra as singer (mainly due to economical reasons, he had already made recordings with Arja), and threatened to publish a recording of the song, with Arja singing, before the national final, thus causing the song to be disqualified. Two days ago though, he agreed to letting Myrra perform the song in the final, but still refuses to let any record/CD with the song sung by Myrra ever being published. I suppose this isn't the last we'll hear about this.

The song Cherie, by Stephan Berg, will be performed by the group Black Ingvars. They're most known for making hard rock versions of swedish dance-band songs and childrens songs. They've been quite a hit, believe it or not :-).

Thanks to Daniel Bergquist!

Your editor adds: Some very familiar names in there. Stephan Berg wrote the 1997 Swedish entry sung by 'Blond', and Carola's 1991 winner. Peter & Nanne Grönwall are the writing part of 'One More Time' who were the Swedish trio in the 1996 contest. Torgny Söderberg has written many songs for the Swedish contest, as has the Ljunggren/Almqvist/Forsmann team.
Looks very promising!

Further thoughts from contributor Tobias Larsson:
"Kärleken är" is to be performed by Jill Johnson, a young promising singer, who had a minor hit in duet with Jan Johansen last year "Kommer tid, kommer vår" (placed 2nd in the Swedish heat of the OGAE Song Contest 1996).

Annika Frehling is a jazz-singer, mainly known for appearing in a commercial for betting, and maybe a touch of jazz in MF could do some good (it works well when Poland brings jazz-singers to the ESC, right?).

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