Taggad: Eric Saade

Sara: Mellanmjölkssverige har sagt sitt!

Låt oss ta några minuter till att reflektera över gårdagens deltävling. Tydligen var resultatet chockerande och något som alla twitter-tyckare skulle ”rasa” över. Jag själv, å andra sidan, rycker mest på axlarna och tycker att resultatet känns ganska logiskt om man kan hur svenska folket brukar rösta.

Det är nämligen inte alls så upprörande eller konstigt att State of Drama springer hela vägen till Friends Arena med sin nickelback-rock eller att Janet Leon hamnade på en snörplig femteplats. Det är så det brukar se ut i den här tävlingen.

Eddie Razaz låt kan kategoriseras in i kategorin ”Snygg kille som dansar och sjunger bra och har ett dansbreak och massa körer på backtracket” – låt. Vi har överösts med sådana låtar de senaste åren. Eric Saade, Danny Saucedo, David Lindgren och nu senast Anton Ewald. Svenska folket är ett lagomfolk. De gillar när det kommer nytt men det får inte överdrivas. Vi tröttnar ganska fort. Jag själv anser att det är ganska tydligt med Lindgren som fick en finalplats, Ewald som fick en AC-plats och Razaz (som nog faktiskt hade den bästa låten i kategorin) åkte ut. Tråkigt för Razaz men inte speciellt förvånande. 

Att Elin Petersson hamnade på en oförtjänt sistaplats i deltävlingen var ungefär lika förvånande som att Sean Banan gick till final förra veckan. Inte alls med andra ord. Synd på en mysig låt och fantastisk röst.

Så kommer vi då till Ravaillacz som knep en finalplats framför ögonen på Janet Leon och sedan säger till kvällstidningarna att de ”skäms” över att ha snott finalplatsen för ungdomarna. Ja, vad ska man säga? Jag tyckte att Ravaillacz var roliga. Jag skrattade hemma i tv-soffan. Att jämföra låten med värsta schlagern, som många gjort, tycker jag är ganska taskigt mot VS som ligger ohotad på sin plats som varje schlagernörds kamplåt. Killarna (jag vägrar kalla dem gubbar!) gjorde en rolig låt med glimten i ögat och det stack ut. Jag tippade dem till final tidigt i tävlingen och se så rätt jag hade!

Att Amanda Fondell endast hamnade på en sjundeplats verkade vara en av de sakerna som twitter-tyckarna retade sig mest på. Amandas låt var det inget fel på heller, även om jag aldrig fastnade för den men den var ju alldeles för svååååår för svenska folket. Det var för konstigt. Inte på ett ”Caroline af Ugglas-konstig” sätt utan mer på ett ”Jag är creddig och mörk och spelas bara på P3″ sätt. Den gruppen svenskar som gillar det tittar inte på melodifestivalen och skulle de göra det så skulle de ändå inte vara tillräckligt många för att rösta någon vidare. ”Men Loreen var ju också konstig” tänker ni säkert nu. Jo, det var, och är, hon. Men hon hade en i sammanhanget enkel låt som vägde upp det hela.

Martin Rolinski körde 80-tal och yoghurtkupp och jag ska erkänna att jag är lite förvånad över att det faktiskt funkade. Han gjorde sin grej, det lät bra. Såg lite kul ut och slank vidare till Andra Chansen utan att riktigt ha upprört någon. Han vara bara där.

Jag älskade Caroline af Ugglas låt. Mer än jag någonsin trodde jag skulle göra faktiskt. Att hon inte gick till final förvånade mig lite faktiskt men att hon skulle vidare kändes ganska självklart. Sedan 2009 har hon lyckats gå från ”konstig” till folkkär vilket jag tycker är så himla fint.

Jag tror jag låter min tweet tala för sig själv här.

Skärmavbild 2013-02-17 kl. 13.02.11

Så har vi nickelback-rockarna i State of Drama. Jag ska erkänna att jag gick och poppade popcorn när de körde så jag såg inte mycket av numret. Jag har så oerhört svårt för Nickelback-rocken som övriga Sverige älskar. Att de gick till final är ju dock föga förvånande just eftersom svenska folket älskar sånt här mellanmjölksrock. Kommer antagligen hamna i mitten i finalen.

Sist ut har vi stackars favorittippade Janet Leon som inte gick vidare någonstans utan slogs ut av Ravaillacz. Visst kan tjejen sjunga och visst var låten bra men det skrek ju Love Generation 2.0 över allting. Låten, numret, tjejerna. Allt! Och har inte Love Generation lyckats så betvivlade jag att Janet skulle göra det. Det är börjar bli ganska tydlgit att svenska folket inte gillar när det blir för polerad. När det känns för mycket som en produkt. Vi kan gå tillbaka till i mitten på 2000-talet och hitta hur många tjejer som helst som inte nått final för att det var för polerad. För bra. Velvet (2008, 2009), Hanna Lindblad (2010, 2012), Love Generation (2011, 2012), Charlotte Perrelli (2012), Elin Lanto (2007), Jenny Silver (2011), Shirley’s Angels (2011). Ja, ni fattar. Listan kan göras lång. Janet kan dock vara lycklig över att ha en låt som kommer spelas på klubbarna under våren och sommaren och som vi kommer spy på i oktober för att den spelats så mycket på radio. Det är alltså inget fel på låten. Det var liksom för bra.

Vad tycker ni? Tycker ni jag är ute och cyklar? 

There was no schlagerfiasko!

Apologies for the lack of updates, Gothenburg did me in. Efterfested until 6am on Saturday night/Sunday morning and had a thoroughly good time.

I’m getting too old for this.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the show. And yes, I’ve been crowing about the fact that I was one of the few people backing David Lindgren from the moment I heard his song (click to hear the interview). I don’t crow about much, so let me have this one.

Much has been made of David and the reasons why he was so popular – so here’s my contribution. First of all, far from being some ‘random’ act brought in to make up the numbers at the last minute, he’s an accomplished stage performer who has appeared in musicals like Hairspray, High School Musical, and Mamma Mia! – and is currently appearing in the successful Tomas Ledin show. So he was one of the most experienced on that stage.

Then there was the song – upbeat, involving, and contained the breakdancing surprise. So he challenged himself with a performance that could have easily gone wrong, just like Loreen did last week. And he clearly enjoyed every second of the experience.

What about that supposedly wrong image? Well, at least he was being honest. He’s clearly not the sort of person who wears Saade and Danny-’street gear’ (for want of much better phrasing) – he’s a 29-year-old dad, for goodness sake! And let’s face it, we’d never have had all those trouser-splitting moments otherwise.

Is he a popstar? Who knows. But he’s being the wise one. He’s not walking away from the stage, and plans to continue in his current show, working on new material if it becomes a possibility. And after all the carping about him, I really hope that is possible.

So he’s through, along with Ulrik Munther, a hugely confident (but not arrogant) teenager who toasted his victory with Pommac sparkling apple juice. Although he’ll be able to drink once he’s at the Stockholm efterfest, so let’s see how many pictures will be taken of the poor lad taking a sip of his champagne there.

Gothenburg will be remembered for the exits of two established names – Sonja Aldén and Andreas Lundstedt. Sonja stuck to her usual formula of schlager-ballad, with the totally expected strong performance. It’s big shame that it didn’t even get a second chance, and there was lots of muttering about the ‘death’ of the ballad at Melodifestivalen. Well, as David Lindgren demonstrated, anything can happen in the contest, so I’m not going to agree.

Andreas was a different matter. With Alcazar on indefinite hiatus (”that’s a posh word meaning ‘break’,” I declared to him during our interview. I’m such a loser.), we’re not going to get anything new from them soon. Aldrig aldrig was Andreas showing off a more mature sound, and with a performance that was just as gay, if slightly more, well, posh, then he would have put in with Tess and Lina. If some were disappointed that his song didn’t sound more like Alcazar, then I think they’ll have to get used to it. It’s hopefully going to produce a great album that marks a new era in Andreas’ career. Plus, Andreas is turning 40 this year, and has perhaps decided that cavorting around in neon pink really isn’t the way forward.

We did, however, get plenty of neon from Mimi Oh. It’s a shame that she was compared to Veronica Maggio all the way through her time in Gothenburg. I’ve never heard a Maggio song that sounds like Det går för långsamt, so I can only assume it’s because they’ve both got blonde hair – which, as we all know, is very rare in Sweden.

Written by Anton-formerly-of-Le Kid and Niclas Lundin, Det går för långsamt is fresh pop, and always faced an uphill battle to get a top-five placing. The opportunity for Mimi Oh to get a huge audience was great, though, and I hope she’s producing more of this soon. I’m really enjoying her progress from the 1986 EP to Säkerhetsnål, and now this. I’m going to keep on saying it: more, please.

Top Cats isn’t really my thing, and sounded a bit too much like last year’s The King for my ears. But the boys were all very lovely at the party. But I never saw Thomas Di Leva smile once at any point.

Timoteij came back! Sticking with the if-it-ain’t-broke formula, it was folk-pop all the way. It’s clear that the girls have definitely got a lot more confidence this time round, and they’ll be determined to get their way through Andra chansen. As I’ve said before, I’m not actually that much of a believer in the need to do well at Eurovision (more of that down the line), but Timoteij has the potential to be an outstanding act there, and could actually do really well from it afterwards. Good luck to them.

The circus moves on from Sweden’s second city to the small town of Leksand today. So here we go again…

A rant about Saade, Vol 1

First things first. Eric Saade’s album has received some scathing reviews in the mainstream press, so I’ll begin this review with the conclusion: Saade, Vol 1 is OK. It’s just OK.

Some of the antipathy towards Eric may be derived from his attitude – or the perception of that attitude. Apparently, going around saying you’re better than Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake is frowned upon. Who’d have thought? But, when you’re a 20-year-old being told that you’re amazing by a legion of girls, gays, ‘yes’ people, and fawning newspapers and bloggers because you came third at Eurovision, that’s bound to rub off. And I actually think that’s quite healthy in a certain way. If you’re going to be a pop star, you have to believe that you’re amazing, no matter how osvensk – un-Swedish- that may be. But when you tell people you’re amazing, you’ve actually got to be. So, does this album deliver that?

No. I’ve listened to this album all the way through five times before writing this, and I honestly can’t remember a single song (apart from the ubiquitous Popular, of course) after it’s over. And that’s a real shame – mainly because Eric is Swedish, and if you’re reading this on Schlagerfiasko, then you’re more than likely to agree with me that Sweden’s producers and writers are the best in the world. However, that seems to have been forgotten in the rush to get this out while Eric’s Eurovision success was still fresh in everyone’s mind. As a consequence everything’s a bit under-produced (to my ears, at least). Like there’s a layer that was remaining, but time ran out. So the result is a ‘cheap’ sound that would suit a nine-year-old’s tinny speakers in her bedroom. But not something that’s going to set the world on fire, or get people excited.

I’m really interested in Eric’s enthusiasm to emulate Justin Timberlake. They come from similar backgrounds – from kids’ TV and boyband to solo artist. The difference between these two, however, has nothing to do with that. Early on, Justin worked with Timbaland, and they created Cry Me A River. It’s a fantastic pop song that changed Justin’s career completely. With a single track, he positioned himself just far away enought from the *NSYNC bubble to win himself a more mature fanbase, without totally alienating the younger fans he already had. Most of his material since has been in a similar vein, and it’s probably why he’s so successful. Eric needs the same thing to happen to him. He needs a producer who can look past what has arrived already and mould him into the star-with-an-edge that he so clearly wants to be.

With Saade, Vol 1, Eric’s music isn’t leaving the iPods of pre-teenage girls any time soon. It’s listenable, enjoyable pop, but there’s little focus to it. The album seems to promise a lot in the first few bars of the opener, Timeless. But that soon fades away to reveal that there’s not much going on under the surface. And it soon becomes clear that Timeless is one of the stronger tracks. Another track, Me And My Radio actually sounds like something that could be offered to Sweden’s foremost teen, Amy Diamond. Not a good thing when you’re trying to be street.

Made Of Pop should be just that. It should be one of the key tracks on this album – encapsulating everything about Eric’s style in three minutes. However, all we get is, “I can make you hot, hot; I am made of pop, pop”. Really? Is that the best we can do? Girls Aloud are made of pop. This isn’t.

Plonked in the middle is a wholly unnecessary mix of Popular, sounding like some bouncy techno number from the late 90s. Quite why it’s there isn’t clear – if any of Eric’s songs needed work, Popular isn’t one of them. Why mess with something that the fans love already?

Eric’s first ballad is Someone New – straight out of an early Britney album. That’s not a bad thing, of course, but a Britney album is where it should remain. See, I’m just quite confused by this point. I’m not sure what Eric’s trying to do.

That flowery ballad is followed by Killed By A Cop. Now, I accept that this is a metaphor in the best tradition of pop writing. I’m sure I read that on Popjustice once. But nine-year-old girls don’t read Popjustice and discuss such nuances in the playground. If I were a parent, I’d be furious that little Wilma and Ulla were listening to this. And who is Eric kidding anyway? We all know he isn’t from the streets. This just comes across as immature, the complete opposite of what Eric says he wants to achieve.

The best song on the album is still Popular. It’s three minutes of pop excellence. In the hands of Fredrik Kempe, Eric shows us what he may be capable of in the future.

This has been a fairly negative review, which is disappointing. I actually do want Eric to succeed – I don’t want him to change his ambitions. I’d love for him to come out and give us something amazing and memorable. But he isn’t doing that on this album. I’m not sure what he’s doing, actually. As the title suggests, there’s a second part to this album. I hope that Eric and his production team look at what’s being said and consider what to do. None of Eric’s feisty personality comes through in the tracks, and that’s such a shame. All of these songs could be so much better. I really, genuinely hope that I’m praising Saade, Vol 2 to high heaven when it’s released.

In the meantime, Saade, Vol 1 is OK. It’s just OK.

Allsang på Grensen

So, we’ve had Lotta and Måns and now Kalle Moraeus. But there’s more, across the border in Norway, with this year’s Allsang på Grensen. Fortsätt läsa →

The Hit Parade: Danny & Freja – If Only You

The song that refuses to go away. Not that I’m complaining, of course. Fortsätt läsa →