Happy new year, everyone! I hope it has been a good one so far and that at least some of the new year-phrases have come in handy.<\/p>\n
I spent most of the day listening to the Swedish radio station P3 and their “10 timmar av 00-tal” (10 hours of the noughties<\/strong>) where a whole decade of music, books, film, TV and people were summarised. And as always, there was a list.\u00a0A list of the best Swedish song of the decade. Over 15 000 people voted and I can assure you,\u00a0there was\u00a0never really\u00a0any doubt who was going to be number\u00a0one.\u00a0Dear blog readers, I hereby present to you a man who is dividing the Swedish nation into many lovers and a few haters. H\u00e5kan Hellstr\u00f6m [\u02c8ho\u02d0kan \u02c8h\u025bl\u02d0\u02ccstr\u00f8m<\/strong>].\u00a0Almost every Swede\u00a0has an opinion about this man, be sure about that.<\/p>\n You might even have heard H\u00e5kan’s music in other parts of the world, because\u00a0this 35 year old has made it across some oceans. Weirdly enough, because he sings in Swedish, lyrics mostly about walking the streets of Gothenburg,\u00a0his love for the\u00a0Gullberg pier and\u00a0what it is like to be in love with the ugliest girl in the world. When H\u00e5kan released his first single ten years ago, “K\u00e4nn ingen sorg f\u00f6r mig G\u00f6teborg” (Feel no sorrow for me Gothenburg<\/strong>)\u00a0everyone was amazed, but not\u00a0only in a good way. He sang out of tune, the lyrics\u00a0were irritatingly\u00a0naive\u00a0and on top of it all, the critics loved him.\u00a0Who was this boy and why did he get a record deal? But during a ten year period, five albums and tons of hits, H\u00e5kan has won most of the Swedes over. Today he is as publically loved (folkk\u00e4r<\/strong>) as ABBA-Benny and he\u00a0performs\u00a0on Saturday night family-TV\u00a0and national celebrations as well as festivals and clubs.<\/p>\n How did it happen? I’m not sure, I was not convinced from the beginning, but quite quickly I had to surrender\u00a0to his charm\u00a0and the\u00a0mix of happiness, melancholy and pure energy that he presents. In short, H\u00e5kan has become pretty irresistible (oemotst\u00e5ndlig<\/strong>). Or, at least I thought so, until I took my British boyfriend to a H\u00e5kan gig, a huge one with thousands of screaming and dancing H\u00e5kan fans in the audience.\u00a0He didn’t get it AT ALL, he just looked at me and the crowd with raised eyebrows and mumbled something about “solo-boyband-pop” and “false notes”. And to be fair, when I tried to translate the lyrics, it did not come across as poetry.<\/p>\n \u201cAnna had a friend with a car and we travelled very far. We might even have left Sweden, because this is a new game and I don\u2019t want to be in it\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0(A friend with a car) <\/em><\/p>\n “She was lying on the street while the space ships were sending messages through the atmosphere” (This is how I say it) <\/em> But it doesn’t matter. H\u00e5kan is H\u00e5kan, today we love him unconditionally despite false notes and naive lyrics. In\u00a0Sweden this man is considered as a genius and an icon. And this has been voted the best Swedish song of the decade:<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>“Anna hade en v\u00e4n med en bil och vi \u00e5kte l\u00e5ngt bort vi kanske till och med l\u00e4mna sverige, f\u00f6r det e nytt ett spel \u00e5 jag vill inte va med” (En v\u00e4n med en bil)<\/p>\n
\n“Hon l\u00e5g p\u00e5 gatan medan rymdskeppen s\u00e4nde meddelanden genom atmosf\u00e4ren” (Det \u00e4r s\u00e5 jag s\u00e4ger det)<\/p>\n