It’s the same story every summer and there’s no way you can escape it. It follows you around everywhere. At home, in the car, in the shop, on the telly, on the radio, and yes, you did quite like it in the beginning. But 2131 times later, you are ready to pack your bags and move to a nice and remote place in the north where it possibly couldn’t reach you. No, I’m not talking about mosquitoes, wasps or visiting relatives, I’m talking about the unavoidable and very much irritaiting summer hits of course! The Swede’s call them “sommarplågor”, meaning something like summerpain, summertorture, summerterror…

We all know them, can sing them and possibly do the moves as well. Macarena, The Ketchup Song, Bailando, Mambo nr 5, We’re going to Ibiza, Barbie Girl… And to be honest, every summer needs it silly sing-a-long hit that can unite drunk tourists all over the world.

I don’t know what it’s like where you are from, but we tend to have at least one or two Swedish summer hits every summer. They follow the same pattern. Silly, repetitive, easy to song along to, catchy melodies that sticks in your head like chewing gum. So, don’t say I didn’t warn you! But please feel free check out the seven songs below for some classic sommarplågor that every Swede knows. And possibly hates as well.

The classic ones!
Sommartider (Summer times)  is the ultimate number 1 summer hit that everyone knows. It’s from 1979 and by Gyllene Tider, Per Gessle from Roxette’s former band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR24-N3OEuI

Sommaren är kort (The summer is short) is another unbelievably popular summer song. Performed by Tomas Ledin (sorry, couldn’t find any video.).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVdGOz_ptDg

The odd ones!
Hej hej Monica (Hello hello Monica) tormented the Swedes during the summer of 2004. Click here for an overwhelming experience, possibly not the best one you’ve had…

The summer of 2004 did not only give us Hej hej Monica, we also had the joy off listening to Ingen vill veta var du köpt din tröja (No one wants to know where you bought your sweatshirt) around a million times. The song is by the band Raymond & Maria and the video will also give you the lyrics in Swedish, something I strongly recommend. Does they make sense to you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Bp-kyE7_Y

The really enoying ones!
Warning! If you mention Boten Anna to any Swede over the age of 18, you might end up getting punched in the face. Some of you might know this song as “When You’re gone” and some are probably familiar with the singer, Basshunter, who is getting big worldwide. But god how we hated this song back in 2006.

Glassigt (Flashy) is actually quite (I said quite…) a fun song in my opinion, but I’m sure you can understand why the “glasiiiiiiiiiigt” -bit might get a bit annoying after a while.

What this year’s Swedish sommaplåga will be is still up in the air. Some people claim it is this one, Skaka rumpa (Shake your butt) by Sean Banan. I sincerely hope not, might have to chose another holiday destination if so. And please don’t get confused if you don’t get the lyrics and all of a sudden start questioning your Swedish knowledge. It is mainly just nonsense about…well, butts. (read: why I couldn’t post the official video). Annoying? You bet!