Swedes Please

We’re big fans of Eurovision at casa Homoeclectic. Even as a child living in Nigeria, I used to get the ESC’s taped and sent to me to play over and over again. I’m not sure whether it was the latent gay calling out from within me, or maybe Eurovision made me gay, but either way, it’s sadly one of the gay cliches that we subscribe to whole heartedly. Of all the countries to submit entries into Eurovision, the one that I always looked forward to was Sweden; guaranteed to be poptastic and cheesy as a slice of Herrgårdsost.

Unlike the UK , who never seem to get the pop stakes right, and keep trying to send novelty acts to the ESC, Sweden has a whole song contest of its own spanning mutiple weeks and getting entries from ‘real’ popstars and amatuers alike.

Melodifestivalen is an annual music competition organised by Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio to determine the song and artist that will represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It has been staged under various formats pretty much every year since 1959. The competition is broadcast live on television and radio, with considerable popularity, being the most popular television programme in Sweden every year since 2000. In 2006, an estimated 4.2 million people (almost 47% of Sweden's population) watched the finals.

The festivities kicked off last week, with the usual mix of schlager and europop, and I’ve posted the songs performed in the first two rounds. Come back next week for the third round.

Round 1

MP3: Elin Lanto – Money (expired)
MP3: Stefan Andersson & Aleena Gibson – Anything But You (expired)
MP3: Anna Book – Samba Sambero (expired)
MP3: Addis Black Widow – Clubbin' (expired)
MP3: Andreas Lundstedt – Move (expired)
MP3: Tommy Nilsson – Jag Tror På Människan (expired)
MP3: Sofia Berntsson – Hypnotised (expired)
MP3: Uno Svenningsson & Irma Schultz Keller – God Morgon (expired)

Round 2

MP3: Regina Lund – Rainbow Star (expired)
MP3: Marie Lindberg – Trying To Recall (expired)
MP3: Jimmy Jansson – Amanda (expired)
MP3: Cosmo4 – What's Your Name (expired)
MP3: Lustans Lakejer – Allt Vi En Gång Trodde På (expired)
MP3: Jessica Andersson – Kom (expired)
MP3: Svante Thuresson & Anne-Lie Rydé Första Gången (expired)
MP3: The Ark – The Worrying Kind (expired)