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What’s your view of Sweden’s Melodifestivalen?

Every week, we ask a regular panel of readers to discuss a particular aspect of life in Sweden. This week: Melodifestivalen.

What's your view of Sweden's Melodifestivalen?

Graeme Newcomb

Graeme Newcomb

Frankly my dear I could not give a toss! The sooner this national embarrassment disappears into the dustbin of tasteless entertainment the better. Or better still…syndicate it to Kazakhstan and have Borat present it!

Emma Chataway

Emma Chataway

Although I fear being hunted down by crazed, patriotic Swedes for saying this, I’m going to say it anyway. Before this question was put forward I never thought about watching it, I never wanted to and didn’t have a clue who or how many were competing. Actually that’s not completely true, when my boyfriend (ruler of the remote control) was zapping he stoped at The Melodifestivalen and said, “Hey that Sofia girl is my cousin!” – and continued flicking.

A few days later he read in the paper that she had been one of the people chosen by the International Jury but didn’t make the cut by Swedish voters. I just tried looking it up but I’m still confused about it all, still not sure if that means she is in or out or whatever. So if I want anyone to win its Sofia. I haven’t listened to any of the others’ songs besides hers and it isn’t at all ABBA-ish as I feared it might be, go Sofia!

Apart from anything else this show reminds me all too much of a glittery version of Idol, although to be fair I’ve only seen about five minutes of Melodifestivalen. I guess it’s just not my thing, plus I’m abit scarred by all of those singing/dancing shows since mum used to watch Dancing With The Stars back home. That’s probably the worst show ever made, I dont want to see a dead beat Neighbours star from the 90s do a come back because they learned how to tango. It’s just not right.

So maybe I’m being a little unfair in comparing the two, but I just refuse to watch any of it. I’ll let the Swedes take this one; they can watch and enjoy it all they want, just as long as I’m not in the same room, I don’t mind one little bit.

Igor Trisic

Igor Trisic

Last year I followed Melodifestivalen closely because I was in Sweden for the final and because the Eurovision song contest would be hosted in Belgrade, where I come from. I liked a couple of the songs then, specially “One Love” from Andreas Johnson and Carola Häggqvist. The song was knocked off in the Second chance so I guess my taste was not in tune with the average Svensson.

I listened to a couple of songs from this year but my first impression is that songs are a bit worse than the previous year. So right now I don’t have any clear favorite. If you add that to the pretty bad song that won in my country, Serbia, after voter irregularities and the jury deciding the winner at the expense of the voting public (the winning song got less than 4,000 text message votes) it seems that I will not be watching this year’s competition at all.

Thomas Smith

Thomas Smith

I would like to see Erik Segerstedt win. I was a big fan of Korslaget 2009 and enjoyed his enthusiasm and energy he showed with his group of singers. I also thought that he had the best choice of songs and thought that he should have won.

Daniel Nyström

Daniel Nyström

Well, I don’t really like (or follow) Melodifestivalen, but I did see “Andra chansen” a couple of days ago while eating dinner. The only band that had any character was ‘Rigo feat. Topaz Sound & Red Fox’ with ‘I got u’, so that would be my pick. The rest was crap.

Mary Uhlin

Mary Uhlin

I have to say that I don’t really have an interest or an association with the Melodifestivalen this year. Oops, I know that it not the right way to be in Sweden but it is just true. I have lived here for four years now and I have tried to watch and “get into” it, but it takes a bit of effort on my part.

Last year I actually voted in a couple of sessions if that counts, but I find it to be nothing more than an adult talent show and am shocked at the outcome of the votes – which are based more on a factor of culture, history, and reputation of the artist than on the song/talent being performed (at least I would hope so). On a more positive note, I do think Medlodifestivalen is much better than the Eurovision Finals – I find that extremely painful to watch.

CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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