Countdown to Eurovision Song Contest! Posted by jennie on May 4, 2011 in Culture
As you all know by now, Swedes are crazy about the Eurovision Song Contest and we spend the whole winter meticulously choosing our winner through Melodifestivalen and the song who will represent the Swedish music honour in Europe. Well, I say honour, but the truth is the Sweden failed to qualify last year and must compete in a semi final before – hopefully – taking on the main stage and the millions of viewers all over Europe. This year, all our hope rest on Eric Saade’s shoulder. He’s a 21 year old pop-sensation, loved by all kids in pre-school and secretly adored by women of my age. Two years ago, we tried opera – and failed. Last year, we tried indie-girl Anna with her acoustic guitar – and failed. Will “Popular” do the trick this year??
This is what it looked and sounded like the last time Sweden was crowned the winner of Eurovision Song Contest. It was 1999 and it was Charlotte Perelli (then Nilsson) who did it with “Take me to your heaven”. Sweden has won the whole shebang four times before, amongst them ABBA famously did it in 1974 with “Waterloo”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qe1NNxeN7w
Next Thursday, at 21.00 Swedish time, it’s showtime! If you want to follow the semifinal live, just click here!
And – heja Eric!!
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Comments:
Nikki:
Oh my gahhhd I love Eurovision. It’s a complete tradition in our house. So excited!!
jennie:
@Nikki Me too!! Obviously! 🙂 Who are you supporting, then?
Jan:
This has nothing to do with the Swedish language.
jennie:
@Jan True, but we all need a break from our language studies every now and then, right? The Swedish blog is about anything Swedish – food, people, custums, culture, movies, trends as well as language! Hope you will enjoy it!
steph steele:
… I’m afraid that England may just have a better one this year!
jennie:
@steph steele I might have to agree on that one… Blue is great! But since I’m living in the UK, it’s all fine 🙂
Jan:
If you consider this to be Swedish you can better stop your language studies completely.
Nikki:
Well I for one find this blog brilliant. It has never been just about the language! And Eurovision is extremely popular in Sweden so I really don’t understand what you’re talking about Jan!
Jan:
If Eurovision is so popular in Sweden it shows how useless it is to learn Swedish.
Sweden has not been able to send a song in Swedish to the Eurovision Song Contest since 1999. It is all in bloody “English”.
Nikki:
Well part of Norway’s entry is in Swahili! There are no longer any rules about what languages the contestants sing in. Anyway, nobody stated that it was a good way to learn Swedish, Jennie is just blogging on something that is of interest to her and a lot of people in Europe!
Jan:
No public funding should go to such events in which the use of our native languages is discouraged. It is actually European cultural policy to encourage the diversity of European languages. So should this blog.
Jan:
So I Should learn Swahili to understand a somng from Norway, a country with a lacking native language music scene ? Completely ridiculous. The Swedes have their own language, Swedish and the Norwegians have their own language, Norwegian. And we can enjoy the meaning of the lyrics through subtitles in our own languages unless you have a real interest in the country and LEARN THE LANGUAGE OF THE COUNTRY ! It is completely ridiculous that knowledge of Swedish is not sufficient to understand something from Sweden !
Nikki:
Lol I really, really think you are taking this way too seriously. It’s one night a year, and it’s a lot of fun. If you don’t like it, you didn’t need to read this post or comment on it!
Jan:
It is not just one night a year. Until 1999
Eurovision was a good tool to encourage new music with a national indentity instead of being plagued with an overdosis of anglophone commercial junk. This helped to shape an European indentity. The Eurovision Song Contest was founded to improve our European indentity. In the 1970s it was still normal to hear music in German, Italian, Spanish and French all over Europe. Now it is rare. The Eurovision Song Contest was one of the rare occasions in one year to hear something in Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic or Serbo-Croatian instead of this junk English.
Nikki:
I take offence at you calling my native language junk!
Jan:
I have not called English junk but the way English is used in popular music by non-natives junk. Just listen to the lyrics in what they call English tonight !
Here you have the best examples of junk English in the ESC : http://youtu.be/Y8UGb7ItzfQ
http://youtu.be/5s7t78H_TKI