Melodifestivalen 2009 Update - Start positions

Start positions for the 4 semi-final shows for the Swedish Eurovision participant selection 2009 are officially announced:

1st Semi, Göteborg, Scandinavium on February 7th:
1. Disconnect me - Marie Serneholt
2. Jag tror pĺ oss - Scotts
3. Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus - Shirley Clamp (picture)
4. Snälla, snälla - Caroline af Ugglas
5. Stay the night - Alcazar
6. Tick tock - Nina Söderquist
7. Welcome to my life - Jonathan Fagerlund
8. You're my world - Emilia

This I think will be a tough semi-final. There's the popular singers Marie Serneholt & Shirley Clamp, we also got Alcazar, Emilia & Jonathan Fagerlund who reminds me a bit of Ola. I don't see Alcazar getting directly to the final with these contestants... but of course it depends a bit on the songs and singing as well.

2nd Semi, Skellefteĺ, Kraft Arena on February 14th:
1. 1000 Miles - H.E.A.T
2. Hope & glory - Måns Zelmerlöw (picture)
3. Jag ska slĺss i dina kvarter! - Lasse Lindh and Band
4. It's my life - Amy Diamond
5. Kärlekssĺng frĺn mig - Markoolio
6. Never been here before - Jennifer Brown
7. Show me heaven - Lili and Susie
8. What If - Cookies'n Beans



This must be a piece of cake for Mans I pressume...

3rd Semi, Leksand, Ejendals Arena on February 21nd:
1. Alla - Sofia
2. Du vinner över mig! - Mikael Rickfors
3. Här för mig själv - Maja Gullstrand
4. I got U - Rigo & The Topas Sound feat. Red Fox
5. Sĺ vill stjärnorna - Molly Sandén
6. The Queen - Velvet
7. Wildcard
8. You're not alone - BWO (picture)

Maybe this year luck will be on Velvet's side and with some good vocals she might actually get the chance to go to Andra Chansen. BWO & Molly Sandén might do good as well. I wonder when the wildcard will be announced...

4th Semi, Malmö, Arena on February 28th:
1. Du är älskad där du gĺr - Susanne Alfvengren
2. Esta noche - Next 3
3. Higher - ?
4. Killing me tenderly - Anna Sahlene & Maria Haukaas Storeng
5. La voix - Malena Ernman
6. Love love love - Agnes
7. Moving on - Sarah Dawn Finer (picture)
8. Sweet kissin' in the moonlight - Thorleifs

Anna & Maria seem like a good duo, though I don't get why Maria wants to participate this year for Sweden when she finished 5th in last years Eurovision Song Contest for Norway. I'm thinking that Agnes and Sarah Dawn Finer might finish somewhere at the top of this semi.

This (not so) Delicate Film We've Made....

About 2 months ago a message on the official website of singer Darren Hayes appeared: a new DVD would be released in the UK in February 2009. This DVD will feature about half of the album tracks (12/13) of his latest album "This Delicate Thing We've Made" in video format e.g. animated videoclips. It also said that a deluxe edition (limited to 2000 copies) would be released in December this year already which could only be ordered through the official site. And silly me ordered that immediatly of course... big mistake!! I got my copy of the deluxe edition today.

It has 13 video tracks, all animated and I've only seen 2 where Darren appears in himself. There's also a booklet included which just shows some pictures of the videos and some special 3D-glasses... (basically some carton frame with red/green paper glasses). And this all cost me about 35 GBP if I remember correctly... Truly a waste of my money. I should sell this on eBay very soon I think. Anyway below there's a picture of the deluxe edition. The size is the same as a standard dvd box.

By the way, the other thing about this Deluxe edition is that it includes a bonus video (which is spelled incorrectly on the tracklist... very annoying, and I think tracks 3 & 4 are also switched... more annoying). However the Standard edition will feature the promotional videos for his two (not very succesful) UK singles. Shame those ain't on the Deluxe....

Melodifestivalen 2009 Update - 30 participants

Over the past few weeks SVT has announced more artists that will participate in 2009's edition of Melodifestivalen. The list is almost complete, only 2 more participants will announced, including 1 wildcard.

So far the list contists of the following singers:

Alcazar - Stay the night
BWO - You're not alone
Caroline af Ugglas - Snällä, Snälla
Emilia - You're my world
Jennifer Brown - Never been here before
Lasse Lindh and Band - Jag Slåss I Dina Kvarter
Måns Zelmerlöw - Hope & glory
Sarah Dawn Finer - Moving on
The Scotts – Jag tror på oss
Markoolio - Kärlekssång från mig (first wildcard)
Mikael Rickfors – Du vinner over mig
H.E.A.T - 1000 miles
Molly Sandén – Så vill stjärnorna
Maja Gullstrand – Här för mig själv
Next 3 – Esta Noche
Jonathan Fagerlund – Welcome to my life
Rigo & The Topaz Sound feat. Red Fox – I got you
Malena Ernman - La voix
Velvet - The Queen
Agnes - Love love love
Shirley Clamp - Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus
Sofia Berntsson - Alla
Lili and Susie - Show me heaven
Marie Serneholt - Disconnect Me
Amy Diamond - It's my life
Susanne Alfvengren - Du är älskad där du går
The Scotts - Jag tror på oss
Anna Sahlene and Maria Haukass Storeng - Killing me tenderly
Thorleifs - Sweet kissin' in the moonlight
Nina Söderquist - Tick Tock
Cookies 'n Beans - What If

I'm quite excited about the participation of Shirley Clamp. Back in 2005 she competed with the track "Att Alska Dig" one of my favourite MF tracks. She did reach the final with that (4th place over all). Let's hope she will manage to get to this year's final as well. Other singers I am really looking forward to are Sofa, Agnes, Velvet, Jonathan Fagerlund & Marie Serneholt.

We still got 2 months to go before the first show will start on February 7th. I will probably be on holidays that first week to Finland so hopefully I will be able to get SVT on a television overthere...

Melodifestivalen 2009 Update - 8 participants announced

SVT (broadcasting channel of Melodifestivalen) has announced 8 of the participants for Melodifestivalen 2009 that will start in February:

* Alcazar - Stay the Night (Anders Hansson, Mårten Sanden, Andreas Lundstedt, Tess Merkel och Lina Hedlund)
* BWO - You're Not Alone (Fredrik Kempe, Alexander Bard, Anders Hansson)
* Caroline af Ugglas - Snälla Snälla (Caroline af Ugglas, Heinz Liljedal)
* Emilia - You're My World (Emilia Rydberg, Fredrik Figge Boström)
* Jennifer Brown - Never Been Here Before (Jennifer Brown, Peter Kvint)
* Lasse Lindh & Bandet - Jag Slåss I Dina Kvarter! (Lasse Lindh)
* Måns Zelmerlöw - Hope & Glory (Fredrik Kempe, Måns Zelmerlöw, Henrik Wikström)
* Sarah Dawn Finer - Moving On (Sarah Dawn-Finer, Fredrik Kempe

So it seems that the rumors of Alcazar, BWO, Mans & Sarah performing at this years festival are true. Alcazar will participate for the 3rd time while BWO is now participating for the 4th time. Mans & Sarah are both trying their luck for the second time.

Sanna, Shirley & Sonja

Apparently not only Charlotte Perrelli is releasing a Christmas album this month as her Swedish colleagues Sanna (Nielsen), Shirley & Sonja decided to team up and record a (all English) Christmas CD which will be released in two weeks time. It is called "Our Christmas" and includes 12 well known Christmas tracks:

1 Another Winter Night
2 All I Want For Christmas Is You
3 Oh Holy Night
4 Ave Maria
5 My Grown Up Christmas List
6 Christmas Song
7 Have Yourself A Merry Little X-mas
8 This Christmas
9 Driving Home For Christmas
10 Light A Candle
11 Silent Night
12 First Noel

Crush on David

This week I have been listening to American Idol winner (of the 7th series) David Archuleta. I must admit when hearing his first single Crush a while back I wasn't convinced at all. Though this week his album has leaked onto the internet and I thought why not give him another chance? I'm glad I did so cause I found out that Crush doesn't sound so bad after all, and even better; the album includes some amazing tracks.

Most of the songs remind me of the record What's Left Of Me by Nick Lachey. Especially David's songs Desperate & A Little Too Not Over You are definitely tracks in the same genre as What's Left Of Me and I Can't Hate You Anymore.
The album is being released November 11th featuring the below cover which, besides some great tracks, is another reason to buy it:




The regular edition has 12 tracks, the Wall-Mart edition includes a bonus track. On Itunes (and probably other digital stores) a deluxe version is available with a few bonus tracks.

Rimfrostjul tracklist

The tracklist of Charlotte Perrelli's forthcoming Christmas album has been revealed:

1 Rimfrostsjul (The Christmas Song)
2 Snöa på, snöa på (Let It Snow)
3 O helga natt
4 Hur kan man leda en kung (Who Would Imagine A King)
5 Mitt hjärta slår för dig (Little Drummer Boy)
6 Ave Maria
7 Mitt önskebrev till dig (Grown Up Christmas List)
8 Sen kom en vinter (Miss You Most At Christmas Time)
9 En släde för två (Sleigh Ride)
10 Som i en julnattsdröm (I'll Be Home For Christmas)
11 Dagen är kommen
12 Känner din värme (Maybe This Christmas)
13 Låt julen förkunna (Happy Christmas War Is Over)

This looks quite promising :) I can't wait to hear all the tracks!

Kylie re-releases X

On other CD news, Kylie is re-releasing her 2007 album X this December with a bonus disc. The new package will come with new artwork (though the artwork isn't completely new as it has been used for singles from the album) and will be titled "X Tour Edition". Back in 2000 Kylie also released a Tour Edition of her highly succesful album Light Years which then featured a 9-track bonus remix disc. Australia also got an additional bonus track (cover of the famous track Physical). The only interesting thing about the X Tour Edition is neither the cover art nor the tracklist but the fact that there will be released 2 different versions. For as now there will be an Australian Edition featuring the artwork of the UK In My Arms Singles that includes a 10-track bonus remix disc. Nothing spectacular, but always nice to have. I actually prefer the Australian Tour Edition cover art more than the original album art. Besides the Australian version of the X Tour Edition there will be an Asian edition featuring a picture from the photoshoot for the Australian single release of WOW. It will not include a bonus remix disc as with the Australian release but a bonus dvd including videos for 2 Hearts, In My Arms & Wow + behind the scenes for all three. So again; nothing spectacular, but always nice to have. That is when you are a bit of a fan... I mean why do you need an additional version of X when there are no new songs but only remixes already released on CDS & Itunes? Though I must not forget to mention that the Asian edition will feature four (already released on either singles or Itunes) bonus tracks/mixes. And then I also must mention that everyone connected to the internet or buying singles already has those tracks. So in the end I am wondering what is the point in buying this tour edition? And why did I already do so....

Early Christmas

It is going to be an early Christmas this year as the wonderful Charlotte Perrelli is releasing (an all Swedish) Christmas CD next week! Charlotte, most famous for her hits "Take Me To Your Heaven" & recently "Hero" only just released her latest studio album in April. About two years ago I bought a Swedish Christmas album by Magnus Carlsson ("Spar I Snon", if I remember correctly) which I totally love (when it is either Christmas or snowing of course), so this news is quite exciting I must say. It would be cool to see what Charlotte will come up with, only one more week to go!

Expensive months

As probably everyone knows, December is one of the most expensive months in the year. Christmas says it all. It is about dining and drinking (lots and lots of both) and spending money on gifts. Besides that there's also New Year's Eve with lots and lots of firework (and drinking?) which makes the month December even more expensive. On top of that we have another celebration in the Netherlands in December, called Sinterklaas. It is similar to the famous Santa Claus, which by the way we also celebrate). Sinterklaas is also about giving presents and lots of candies to each other (meaning spending lots of money AGAIN!).

Besides all of these, a lot of singers are releasing their new records during the last three months of the year. Of course I can not resist buying them all immediatly. Luckily I found out that Play.com is selling CDs for a very reasonable price compared to other internet sellers as you pay no shipping costs at all. Anyway here are some CDs that I recently bought and that are really worth the money:

Sugababes - Catfights & Spotlights
At first I wasn't really sure what to think about this since it is different from their previous records, though some songs of their last record Change come close. The lead single "Girls", which samples the famous track "Here Come The Girls" I think is a great track. Quite surprisingly it wasn't a no.1 hit in the UK Singles Chart as it only reached no. 3. The new album features a lot of ballad style songs which I must say is nice for a change. I can still remember the babes releasing "Stronger" a few years ago which had a huge impact on the charts. Unfortunately after ballads like "Too Lost In You" & "Caught in A Moment" it was all about the up- or midtempo tracks. A lot of songs on Catfights & Spotlights are recorded big warm ballad style making this new album great to listen to in dark winter times.

Sonja Aldén - Under Mitt Tak
I have always been a fan of Swedish music, which explains the posting about Melodifestivalen. Sonja Aldén is one of many Swedish artists who have been performing at this music festival. Sonja was born in St. Albans, United Kingdom, a town which I happened to visit in August this year though I did not know at that time that Sonja was born there. In 2006 she performed at Melodifestivalen for the first time with a great uptempo track followed by a ballad in 2007. The album she then released wasn't appealing enough for me. Last month however she released her second CD "Under Mitt Tak" with some amazing uptempo and ballad tracks. All is sung in Swedish of course, but what does it matter when the melodies are great?

Will Young - Let It Go
Never been really into Will to be honest. I must say Switch It On and Your Game are great tracks (only discovered those a few months ago) and his 3rd album Keep On has some good songs. But those are nothing compared to his latest release Let It Go. The first single Changes is a great track which failed a bit in making a big impact on the charts. Strangly it was voted no.1 on London's Capital 95.8 FM's London 10 Most Wanted for several weeks. Hopefully his second single Grace will do better. It has an amazing melody and great lyrics. There also is a Freemasons produced track on the album ("I Won't Give Up") and a very cool over-6-min track called "Love". Great album to listen to, but no good for dancing.

These records are only 3 of probably 10 I bought this month and there are still some cool ones being released over the next few weeks. I will have to make sure that I make enough hours at work to pay for all these extra costs...

Anyway that's it for now. I've had some very busy days the last week so that would explain why I did not post at all. Hopefully there'll be more time this week.

Melodifestivalen 2009 Update - Alcazar

I just noticed that the following message was posted on the official website of Alcazar about two weeks ago: "Stay the Night by Andreas, Tess, Lina, Anders Handsson and Marten Sandén is one of the 28 entries in next year's Melodifestivalen".

As I see it, there is now no doubt the song Stay The Night definitely will be sung by Alcazar in February.

Melodifestivalen - Dates & Speculations

As I was explaining earlier on, I will devote some of this blog's posts to the wonderful and exciting Swedish music festival Melodifestivalen. During six live shows the Swedish participant for the Eurovision Song Contest is chosen. First four shows will be the 4 semi-finals, followed by the Andra Chansen round (second chance show) which ultimately will lead to the final show where 11 participants will compete.

Recently the dates & locations for the live shows were announced through the official Melodifestivalen website:

February 7th, Göteborg / Scandinavium 1st Semi-final

February 14th, Nagpur / Skellefteå Kraft Arena 2nd Semi-final

February 21st, Leksand / Ejendals Arena 3rd Semi-final

February 28th, Malmö / Malmö Arena 4th Semi-final

March 7th, Norrköping / Himmelstalundshallen Andra chansen

March 14th, Stockholm / Globen Final

What is more exciting is that the writers & song titles that will compete in the contest already have been announced (with the exception of 4 wild cards). Though the names of performers have not yet been made public, there can be made some speculations on the following tracks:

Stay the night M&L: Anders Hansson, Mårten Sanden, Andreas Lundsted, Lina Hedlund, Therese Merkel

Interesting about the above track is Andreas Lundstedt, Lina Hedlund and Therese Merkel; all members of Alcazar who participated in MF twice (2003 & 2005), but Andreas also solo in 2007 with the track Move (he did not qualify for the final that year). Most likely this will be the new Alcazar track before their upcoming 3rd studio album.

It's my life M&L: Alexander Bard, Bobby Ljungren, Oscar Holter

This could be a new BWO song who then will be trying for the 4th time (sounds a bit desperate to me..?) to win the festival. Of their three participations the last two were most succesful (2006's Temple Of Love reaching no.2 in final just behind Carola's Invincible, however it reached no.1 in the Swedish single charts and made their album Halcyon Nights quite a succes. 2008's Lay Your Love On Me did not have the quality of Temple Of Love after a first listen to me, though it reached no.3 in the final show. If BWO is to participate again, it is most likely with this song as Alexander Bard is band member and Oscar Holter a frequent remixer of their latest tracks.

Moving on M&L: Sarah Dawn Finer, Fredrik Kempe

Sarah Dawn Finer participated in the Melodifestivalen before, in 2007 to be exact, with a beautiful ballad called I Remember Love reaching the 4th overall position. Afterwards she released her album A Finer Dawn which I believe has some good tracks. This track Moving On however might be the return of Sarah Dawn Finer?

Hope and glory M&L: Fredrik Kempe, Måns Zelmerlöw, M: Henrik Wikström

From one 2007's edition participant to another; Mans Zelmerlöw. He reached the 3rd place with Cara Mia, which was also composed by Fredrik Kempe. Mans is a 2005 Swedish Idol contestant who appeared in the Swedish adaptions of the musicals Grease & Footlose. After competing in MF 2007 he released his debut album Stand By For.. which included singles as Cara Mia and Work Of Art. This contribution (Hope and glory) might be the forthcoming single for a new album and perhaps Swedish 2009's Eurovision participant. Let's "Hope"!

You are not alone M&L: Fredrik Kempe, Alexander Bard, Anders Hansson

As I was speaking about BWO earlier on, this could be a possible track for them as well as it is written by band member Alexander as well, but also by Anders Hansson who wrote more songs together with the band on their previous records. Though I have to say I'd give It's My Life a bigger chance. It will be interesting to see how it turns out when the performers are announced, they might not even perform at MF 2009 at all...

Du vinner över mig M&L: Thomas G:son

Translation; You Win Me Over. As Thomas G:son composed this song all by himself, I wouldn't be surprised if this will be a true Swedish pop track in the likes of Carola's Invincible (2006) and Ven A Bailar Conmigo (Guri Shanke - Norway ESC 2007).

1000 miles M&L: Jarl Niklas , David Stenmarck
This track is written by David Stenmarck, the younger brother of Martin Stenmarck whom we all know from 2005's Las Vegas. This could possible be a next single for Martin? After 2005's poor ESC result with Las Vegas Martin released 2 huge succesful Swedish albums including the no.1 hit (for 10 weeks!) 7milakliv. His latest release is an English track in collaboration with Scandic Hotels. So it wouldn't be surprising if he's trying his luck with an English language album soon?

Studying, working & blogging don't go well together..

Yes finally! This evening I had my last (of in total 2) exam of this first semester for my new study at University. The first one (Strategic Management) last Friday I totally fucked up. Although I did prepare quite well for the test, the implementation of the theory on cases was really difficult so I am quite sure I did not pass it. Luckily tonight things went a lot better on my exam for Informationmanagement. I did prepare a lot for it and the questions weren't too difficult. Anyway now it is time to do some relaxing instead of stressing out though I'm already starting with work from tomorrow onwards.

On the blog front I've just decided to merge the two blogs (this & Melodifestivalen 2009) I just started before the weekend into a single one. As I'm pretty sure I do not have enough time (due to college, exams & work) and I probably do not care enough to keep both up to date. So I thought why not put them together as I know I'm gonna be al thrilled about Melodifestivalen when more information about performers on the festival becomes public and especially when the live shows take place in February and March next year. It will be impossible for me not the dedicate a lot of posts on the event. So instead of going into every detail of Melodifestivalen (as I originally planned for the Melodifestivalen 2009 blog) I will try and combine some (for me atleast) interesting facts in a few posts over the coming weeks/months.

First post on Blog Baszjuh

So here it is; my first post on this blog. Today I finished the artwork for the header and I am quite satisfied with it. The font for the text part was the hardest. I think I've used over 50 fonts to try out what soothed the picture best. Though it was nothing compared to the lay out for the blog. I totally messed up the HTML codifications so I could get ride of the text header and make it into a picture header instead of the length I wanted. It all resulted in what you are seeing now. Stil have to figure out how to get the sidebar "links" on the page as for some reason I can not get this to work. Will have to look into this further later on as tonight I was mainly busy with starting up another blog called Melodifestivalen, a nation wide music festival in Sweden which usually provides some great tracks: http://melodifestivalen2009.blogspot.com/ It will be challenging for me to keep both blogs updated as I already started up a blog some months ago resulting in only 8 posts or so...