3440 songs entered for Sweden National Final

SVT, the Swedish national broadcaster,has announced that 3440 songs have been entered for the national final Melodifestivalen which serves as the country's selection for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.

Melodifestivalen is the most watched show on Swedish television every year with approximately 4 million Swedes watching the exciting final which usually takes place in Stockholm's Globen Arena.
Lots of the 32 songs that reached the semi-finals in the previous years have become big hits in the Swedish charts and this year's compilation CD was awarded 6 times platinum.



source:eurovision.tv

Sweden LIVE - Second Semi Final - video

Charlotte Perelli "Hero" live in 2nd semifinal

Second Semi-Final -reactions after perfomance

The representatives of nineteen countries have presented their songs tonight in the Second Semi-Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest.

Watch the reactions after perfomance below:

The ten qualifiers of the second semifinal

The following countries have qualified for the Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest (in order of announcement):



Ukraine
Croatia
Albania
Iceland
Georgia
Denmark
Sweden
Latvia
Turkey
Portugal

Sweden rehearsal and press conference

Charlotte Perrelli is joined by five backing singers - one of them located at the back part of the stage - and it was revealed that she will be wearing a glamourous, silver dress.

Charlotte starts her performance on a podium and usess the whole range of stage tricks: a special, jewelled microphone, a windmachine and also a green laser will be used in her performance!



Press conference

In her press conference Charlotte said that she believes in her song Hero as it is a fantastic song and hopes that people around Europe will like it too. Charlotte admitted that it's her first time in Serbia and that she really likes the country.



source: eurovision.tv; esctoday.com

Romania: Shine - Biondo -video

Biondo with the song Shine won the 2nd semifinal of the Romanian national selection for Eurovision Song Contest with 278 points.


Shine - Biondo(Sweden) - Eurovision 2008

Romania: National final line up

Following the withdrawal of the semi final qualifier When we are together by Catalin Josan and its replacement by Railroad, Railroad by Rednex ft Ro-mania, a new draw has taken place today at TVR to decide the new line-up of the Romanian final to be held this Saturday.

The line-up for this Saturday's final in Romania looks like that:

1.Prea mici sunt cuvintele - Leo Iorga & Pacifica
2.Come this way - Zero feat. Marius Moga video
3.Seven Days - Paula Seling şi Provincialii
4.Fairytale Story - Nicola
5.Love is all I need - Tabasco
6.RailRoad, RailRoad - Rednex feat. Ro-mania
7.Dr. Frankenstein - LaGaylia Frazier(Sweden)
8.Shine - Biondo - (Sweden) video
9.Run Away - Cătălin Josan video
10.The Key of Life - Simona Nae
11.Follow Me - VH2
12.Pe o margine de lume - Nico & Vlad Miriţă

Helena Paparizou in Top 40 Swedish Charts

oikotimes.com reports:

Helena Paparizou, who famously gave Greece their first ever victory in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, has seen her new single go straight into the top twenty in the country of her birth- Sweden.

Her new song ''Three is a magic number'' has gone straight in at number 18, two above ''Cara Mia''- the last surviving Melodifestivalen song in the top twenty.

Ukraine and Sweden reveal dance styles & music

esctoday.com reports:

Sweden
The first dance to be performed by Cecilia Ehrling and Martin Lidberg is a Paso Doble.

The song they have chosen is a well-known classic from the 1980s: The final countdown by Europe.

The second dance will be a so-called disco fusion, which has been very popular in Sweden lately: it combines no less than nine different dance styles: Cha cha, Samba, Jive and Rumba as well as Street Dance, Hip Hop, Break Dance, Disco and Bugg, which has been added since the second dance has to include typical national elements. The song is called Disco Inferno and was originally performed by The Trummps.

Ukraine
Yulia Okropiridze's and Ilya Sydorenko's first dance will be a Quickstep. The song they have chosen is Istanbul (not Constantinople) by The Trevor Horn Orchestra; it appeared on the soundtrack of the film Mona Lisa smile. Their second performance will be based on a Showdance. The song is Ukrainian composition called Gop-tsya, it was written by Vopli Vidoplyasova.

Marija Serifovic at Pride Festival in Sweden

Maria Serifovic will sing at this years Pride Festival in Sweden on August 1st, during the Schlager special evening.

She is happy about coming to Sweden and wants to stay a little longer than the last time she was here reporters on Expressen reports. Marija hasn't been lucky in finding a record-label who wants to sign her and almost no radio stations outside Serbia is playing her winning song.

This means that Molitva is one of the least successful winning songs in Eurovision ever reports Expressen.

source;oikotimes.com

Sweden national final line up for Junior Eurovision announced

Frida Sandén is one of the eight finalists in the Swedish Junior Eurovision Song Contest selections. The Sandén family seems to be a talented one. Last year, elder sister Molly represented her country in Bucharest. Younger sister Mimmi reached the final of Talang 2007, the Swedish version of America's Got Talent.

Also this year, Swedish commercial broadcaster TV4 is responsible fot he selection of the Swedish Junior Eurovision Song Contest entry.

Sweden selects a song for Rotterdam during a national final to be held on 31st August, for which eight candidates have been selected.

National Final Sweden

. Felicia Warvne - Upp & Ner

. Emmalisa Norrhamn - Bara Du Kan

. Roshanak Hosseini - Ta Min Hand

. Marcus Sjöstrand - Utan Dig

. Rufus Blad - Superhjälten

. Vendela Palmgren - En Som Dig

. Frida Sandén - (to be announced)

. 2 times 2 (Conrad Olmos, William Johansson, Shenie Fogo, Nikisha Fogo) - Superstar

Link: www.tv4.se/junioreurovisionsongcontest

source:belgovision.com

Sweden moves JESC national final

from esctoday.com

Swedish broadcaster TV4 has announced that they will be moving the Junior Eurovision Song Contest national final from the originally scheduled 8th September one week earlier to Friday August 31st.


Escsweden.com exclusively reports that TV4 will be moving the Swedish JESC national final one week earlier due to the fact that they will be broadcasting the first Eurovision Dance Contest the next day and they wish to make it a special Eurovision weekend.

The names of the eight young artists that will compete for Rotterdam will be announced in the following months.

Ola says no more Melodifestivalen for The Ark

Ola Salo from The Ark said to Aftonbladet that the group will never do Melodifestivalen ever again. "Now we have won and that's it, it has been a great experience" Salo says. Salo continued by saying that he first wanted to meet Carola in Melodifestivalen but after meeting her he passed with a smile on his face he concluded.

source:oikotimes.com

Eurostars in Allsång på Skansen concert

Allsång på Skansen, the annual Swedish summer “singsong” kicked off on Tuesday in Skansen.

The community singing, which is the exact translation of the word “Allsång”, is all about eating, dancing and having fun watching famous stars on stage performing live in the Skansen wildlife park in Stockholm. The popular event sees this year, as well ,many Eurovision stars and hopefuls, amongst them The Ark, Lasse Berghagen and Nanne Grönvall.

The show is hosted by Anders Lundin known to Eurovision fans as the host of the 2000 contest in Stockholm. A day before yesterday saw the The Ark in their first appearance after this year's Eurovision Song Contest, as well as Melodifestivalen participants Pernilla Wahlgren and Electric Banana Band. In the weeks to follow the Skansen stage will see the following Eurostars:

July 3
Måns Zelmerlöw (Melodifestivalen 2007), Patrik Isaksson (Melodufestivalen 2006)

July 10
Lasse Berghagen, who participated for Sweden in 1975 Eurovision Song Contest and who also hosted the Allsång på Skansen from 1993-2003, managing to increase the ratings to an amazing 2 million viewers and, finally, Lasse Holm, composer of no less than five Melodifestivalen winners.

July 17
Svante Thuresson (Melodifestivalen 2007)

July 24
Peter Jöback (Melodifestivalen 1990) and Marie Lindberg (Melodifestivalen 2007)

July 31
E-type (Melodifestivalen 2004 and coach in this year's Lilla Melodifestivalen Artisterna with Shirley Clamp)

August 7
Nanne Grönvall ( Sweden 1996 and many times Melodifestivalen participant)

The show is broadcast on SVT in HDTV (High Definition) for the first time this year. Ticketing information in English can be found here .

The complete line up and more information in Swedish can be found here.

source:esctoday.com

Thomas Thörnholm accuses Martin Stenmark of song theft

Songwriter Thomas Thörnholm is accusing Sweden's 2005 Eurovision entrant Martin Stenmark of song theft. It's Stenmarcks song "Hand i Hand" that the songwriter is claiming is to similar to hes song "Simple Man Wishing". On Wednesday the stimm comitee will meet and decide if Martin Stenmarck is guilty of song-theft.

Martin Stenmark represented Sweden in Eurovision song contest 2005 with the Casino inspired song "Las Vegas". Martin has done a huge comeback last year after the disappointing result with a new album which was number one on the Swedish album charts for many weeks.


source:oikotimes.com

Sweden - The Ark Final Night - Video

Eurovision SC Final 2007 - Sweden - The Ark




source:youtube.com

The Ark perform in Norway

Yesterday the Swedish representatives in Helsinki performed in Oslo, Norway. They performed at the 'VG lista showet 2007'. An annual event organised by the newspaper. The show was broadcast yesterday on NRK. In previous years artists such as Wig Wam and Lordi have performed at the event.

The Ark - The Worrying Kind - promo video



source:oikotimes.com

No Melodifestivalen plans ahead, Paparizou says

The fiasco of the Eurovision result in Helsinki is not going to recur. Next year Sweden has to participate in the semi-final. SVT have already started to plan so they can send the best they have. Highest on the list of ‘wants’ are two names: Carola Häggkvist (40) and Helena Paparizou (25)

"There is place for them both"It could be a scramble between the schlager-divas.- The competition has room for both of them. We don’t see that as a problem. It might be rather them who do that, says the competition’s organiser Christer Björkman.As late as in the middle of May, Carola told in Icelandic TV that she is going to arrange something for next year:- Next year I’m going to celebrate that’s 25 years since “Främling” – it would be cool to be able to invite the audience in on that, since it’s a great way to come out in Europe.

read more HERE

photo:ANDREAS BARDELL - aftonbladet.se

Carola vs Helena Paparizou in Melodifestivalen 2008?

Swedish broadcaster SVT will do its utmost to make another spectacle of Melodifestivalen 2008.

The apotheosis of the Swedish selections for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade should be a duel between two former Eurovision Song Contest winners: Carola and Helena Paparizou.

In 2008 it will be exactly 25 years ago since Carola won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden with the song Främling. The 40 year-old singer wants as many people as possible to join the celebration. Carola already stated to be interested in another Melodifestivalen participation and another European adventure.

As for Helena Paparizou it is a matter of timing, according to Melodifestivalen organiser Christer Björkman. Ever since the Swedish singer won the Eurovision Song Contest for Greece in 2005, he has been in contact with Helena Paparizou concerning a participation in the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest selections.

Meanwhile, Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet asked for their readers' opinion. The participants in the poll clearly prefer Helena Paparizou to represent Sweden for the first time in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade, rather than Carola for the fourth time.

source:belgovision.com

Eurovision Dance Contest: Sweden has decided

Winners of "Let's Dance" show on Swedish TV4 channel Martin Lidberg and Cecilia "Cissi" Ehrling have been confirmed as representatives of their home country in "Eurovision Dance Contest" in London.

Martin is famous wrestler with Olympic Games experience, Cissi is professional dancer. You can see couple dancing here. "Let's Dance" show, that ended in April, was hosted by former Melodifestivalen entrant Anna Book and was one of the most watched programs on Swedish Television with over 2 million viewers for the final.Swedish commentary for the show will be provided by Tony Irving and David Hellenius.

During the preparation days for the contest, Martin, who has just announced his retirement from wrestling, and Cecilia will run a blog located at TV4 pages.

source:esckaz.com