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EUROVISION

Sweden’s Loreen emerges as frontrunner in Eurovision Grand Final

The 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is set to conclude on Saturday, May 13th. Swedish participant Loreen has qualified to the Grand Final and is currently the favourite to win Sweden’s record-equalling seventh victory.

Published: 13 May 2023 09:01 CEST
Singer Loreen
Singer Loreen representing Sweden performs during the first semi-final of the 2023 Eurovision Song contest at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, northern England, on May 9th, 2023. Photo by: Paul ELLIS / AFP

This favourite status has befitted Loreen ever since journalists first saw her three-minute performance at Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s selection show for Eurovision that concluded in March. The odds for Loreen currently see her trading around 1.5, making her one of the shortest-priced favourites in Eurovision history.

After Loreen qualified from Tuesday’s Semi Final her entry ‘Tattoo’ streamed over one million times in one day, placing it clear as the only Eurovision song to hit the global Spotify charts this week.

It would be historic for Loreen to win the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday. Firstly it would mean Sweden would equal Ireland for having seven years of the Eurovision Song Contest. This would bring the competition to Sweden fifty years since their first victory with the world-famous ABBA.

Furthermore, this would also be Loreen’s second victory after she won the 2012 edition in Baku, making her the first female artist with two victories.

The odds for success suggest Loreen is likely to bring the trophy home, but still, there are 25 other songs that are competing for victory. The nearest challenger is the rap artist Käärijä from Finland. His rap/pop hybrid song ’Cha Cha Cha’ is a crowd-pleasing number that produces one of the most crazy parties on stage that Eurovision has ever seen.

Two other competitors likely to challenge include Spanish modern flamenco singer Blanca Paloma with an incredibly enchanting voice and last year’s winners Ukraine. The band TVORCHI bring the song ‘Heart of Steel’ to Liverpool, which took inspiration from the Ukrainian army’s resistance in defending the Azovstal Steel Plant.

On Saturday night viewers can watch the show from 21:00 CET on SVT 1, and also vote for their favourite entry. The voting at Eurovision is decided roughly half by professional juries and then half by the voting public, and should conclude at around 00:50 CET on Sunday morning.

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CRIME

C.Gambino: Who is the Grammis-winning rapper shot dead in Gothenburg?

On May 4th, masked rapper C.Gambino was on stage to receive a Grammis award for the best Swedish hip-hop artist. A month later on Tuesday, he was gunned down in a Gothenburg car park.

Published: 5 June 2024 14:54 CEST
C.Gambino: Who is the Grammis-winning rapper shot dead in Gothenburg?

What happened? 

According to police, the 26-year-old rapper was ambushed by one, or perhaps two, gunmen as he entered a carpark near the Hisings Backa district north of Gothenburg, at about 10.40pm on Tuesday. He was rushed to hospital in an ambulance with at least two bullet-wounds, but died shortly after arrival. 

The rapper lived in the district, which is classed as a “vulnerable area” by national police, and had just parked his car at the time he was shot. 

Police say the assailants escaped in a silver Volvo V70 car.

The Expressen newspaper reported on Wednesday that police had raided an apartment in Gothenburg after the shooting. 

READ ALSO: ‘Supply and demand, motherfxxker!’: The real crime behind Sweden’s gangster rap

Who was C.Gambino? 

C.Gambino, whose real name was Karar Ramad, was one of Sweden’s leading rappers, with about a million listeners a month on Spotify.

His latest release, whose title Sista Gång, meaning “last time”, is rather macabre in retrospect, has been streamed 700,000 times on Spotify since it was released on Friday. 

Adopting the practice of the UK drill rap genre, Gambino always wore a mask for publicity photos, for music videos, in concerts and other public appearances.

The rapper came to the attention of hip hop fans in 2019 with his track Rebell. His debut album, Sin City, hit number two on the Sverigetopplistan of most sold records in 2022, primilarly on the back of its two main hit tracks, M5 and CCTV. 

His second album, In Memory of Some Standup Guys, was one of the most popular releases of early 2024, helping to win the rapper the Hip Hop of the Year award in the Grammis, Sweden’s oldest music prize, on May 4th. 

C.Gambino is not to be confused with Childish Gambino, the rap name of the US actor Donald Glover, although both presumably took the name from the Gambino crime family, which is one of the notorious “Five Families” that comprise the New York mafia. 

Was C.Gambino a criminal? 

Diamant Salihu, crime reporter for Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT, said that he had information that the rapper had “certain gang connections”, and had been found guilty of some minor crimes, but stressed that he seems to have focused on his music career. 

“He does feature in the crime register but he primarily devoted himself to the music,” Salihu told the broadcaster. 

Police in Gothenburg told the Expressen newspaper on Wednesday that they were investigating whether the shooting was connected to the long-running conflict between gangs in the northern and southern parts of the Biskopsgården suburb.  

The Aftonbladet newspaper, reported that the 26-year-old had a ran a joint business with a man police believe is a member of the Norra Biskop group, and who has previously been found guilty of gang crime offences. 

“I can only say that he is known to us from before, and there is a network connection. But I don’t want to give any more details than that,” Thomas Fuxborg, from the Gothenburg Police, told the newspaper. 

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