One of the most entertaining forms of schlager music is when it takes on the guise of latin music. Not only is the song ALWAYS good and the performance ALWAYS incredible, but we also derive great amusement from the fact that Scandinavian writers ALWAYS feel the need to throw every tired latino cliché into the mix when they make these songs! What do people of Spanish descent like to do with their days? Why they love to dance the dance of love with each other, that’s what! Viva la fiesta etc etc! They’re all meeting each other whilst doing a rumba on the dancefloor, exchanging phone numbers via a cha-cha-cha, spending first dates embraced in a tango, and then conducting a salsa down a back alley. Syncopation is a must, and it’s vital to literally throw the performer around the dancefloor regardless of their inability to hold a satisfactory breathing technique. The signature elements of schlager are still evident, but they’re multiplied and intensified – as volume and bpm are used by the writers and producers as being indicative of latino musical passion!
And here are the three best examples of this very special sub genre of schlager!
3. Guri Schanke – ‘Ven A Bailar Conmigo’
Out of all three of these performance, Guri’s is the least ludicrous – and given the fact that she’s approaching 50 and dirty dancing with two gents twenty years her junior, well that just goes to show you what we’re talking about here. We loved Guri’s performance though. It was as polished to perfection as her legs obviously had been that morning! Said legs barely touched the ground – and when they did, they were walking seductively back and forth the stage, with one guy behind her and one guy in front. It’s a marvellous example of a schlager dame using latin rhythms to seduce the man of her dreams – all quick jerk hips and shoulders, topped off with a threatening grin! And of course there were TWO different costume changes, although we’ve always wondered why she left them so late – the last one occurs with less than five seconds to go until the end of the song. But she finishes off sat atop the shoulders of two men to heighten its impact!
2. Petra Nielsen – ‘Tango Tango’
You know what you’re getting with that title don’t you?! Phew, this performance is quite something. The speed at which she glides across the stage is mightily impressive, and she’s flanked the whole time by two unrelenting male admirers. The tone is set right at the beginning when the two guys put a whole performances worth of energy into the intro. Then Petra is revealed, wearing a dress which has black and red stripes to warn of her poisonous taste, and horizontal stripes at that, to accentuate her bust! ‘Tango Tango’ not only displays espanola seduction in its choreography, the lyrics also inform the listener step by step exactly what Petra is doing, and how and why she’s doing it. It’s tango by numbers – and calculated perfectly!
1. Anna Book - ‘Samba Sambero’
From the berserk intro to the manic key change, this song really doesn’t let up. The whole three minutes is an eye opening, mind boggling display of breathless vocals being delivered by a raving woman in time to frenzied horns and demented beats. And we absolutely adore it. It’s one of our favourite schlager songs and performances of all time, and it probably gets the best reaction out of any song we’ve ever played at the scandipop club nights. It’s just unadulterated fun in the form of a song. And what makes the song even more fun, is that it’s taking on the form of a genre that’s the polar opposite of what everyone involved in the track is normally used to! Samba Sambero indeed!
The next round up of our much beloved schlager music, looks at, and salutes, the confident delivery! It’s all very well having a killer tune at your disposal, but even the best songs can get lost if their performance is a train wreck of shattered nerves and shaky vocals. So we’ve selected three of the most confident, almost cocky deliveries of schlager music for you to see how it should be done!
By nature, schlager is a rousing, feelgood genre, and there are usually pivotal points to each song; the bit in between the first bridge and the first chorus where the song often changes pace, the middle eight, the key change etc etc (it’s different for every song obviously). But these moments need to be conveyed perfectly, otherwise they’re tainted! For example, when a schlager song starts off as a ballad, there needs to be that knowing glint in the performer’s eyes and smile, that says ‘’I know this tempo is going to go nuts in 30 seconds, YOU know this tempo is going to go nuts in 30 seconds, isn’t this exciting, don’t you just LOVE it?!!!!!’’
These three performances display an uncompromising confidence. You can just see it in their faces that they’re well aware of the fact that they’ve got a good song and that you’re going to love it whether you like it or not!
3. Sanna Nielsen - ‘Vagar Du Vagar Ja’
This is perhaps the best example of what we were talking about above – when a schlager song starts off as a ballad, but the singer makes us well aware of what’s to come once the first verse is over. Sanna can actually barely contain her excitement at the fact! Once the song really gets going though, she doesn’t slip up. The dance routine is in absolutely perfect synch with the backing dancers, and she manages to strut around the stage waving her arms at the right moments all whilst getting every camera shot correct. The fact that she does all this with an air of effortlessness and a permanent smile is all the more endearing. Nobody could have watched that performance and questioned her status as a top notch scandipopstar. It was inevitable really that her next appearance at Melodifestivalen a year later in 2008 would see her enter with a ‘nation’s sweetheart’ type ballad. Come back to schlager Sanna, we miss you (although granted, it should be pointed out that ‘Nobody Without You’ and ‘Strong’ from her last album are both amazing!!!)
2. Charlotte Perrelli - ‘Hero’
1. Shirley Clamp – ‘Att Alska Deg’
Nine years after winning the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden, Charlotte Perrelli returned to Melodifestivalen with ‘Hero’. And for three minutes she managed to hold an expression on her face that said ‘’I’m back! I know you’ve missed me and needed me, but don’t worry – I’m here now. Everything’s going to be fine”. And to be fair to her, she was right! She walked it, and rightly so. ‘Hero’ is a monster of a schlager anthem – it’ll be a classic for years to come. Plus, for anyone with that much botox and plastic surgery to hold any expression on her face for that long, is impressive enough!
Poor Shirley. 2005 was supposed to be HER year. In 2004 she’d risen through the ranks of schlager with her anthem, ‘Min Karlek’, but had had to settle for second place at the Melodifestivalen competition. Why? Because that was the year that Lena Philipsson decided to stage her comeback with ‘Det Gor Ont’. 2005 however had no such regal schlager divas (we always think of Nanne as a Dame rather than a Queen!) to get in Shirley’s way. And with an anthemic song to enter with, ‘Att Alskar Deg’, everybody told her that she was the sure fire winner that year. As a result, Shirley believed them, and turned in what was possibly the most confident performance of all time on the Melodifestivalen stage. She was practically laughing during some moments! Her arms outstretched to the camera bordered on ecclesiastical divinity. And for three minutes viewers were treated to a perfect performance lacking any flaw whatsoever. This got her straight through her Heat and into the final. But in the final for whatever reason, nerves got the better of her. There was no way she’d be able to equal her performance in the Heat, but anything less would disappoint. And it did.
One of the greatest traditions of schlager music is that it brings artists of yesteryear out of retirement and provides with them with one more hit. In particular, the ladies see it as a great vehicle to get back out there and feel what it’s like under the stage lights, in front of the camera lens, and broadcast into the cosy homes of Scandinavia. It doesn’t matter how big or successful they were in their heyday – the seasoned schlager songstress is more than happy to roll up her sleeves, belt out a melody, dance ridiculously to a camp backing track, and just get lost in the fun of it all. And it’s just as fun and heartwarming for the viewer to watch and the listener to hear.
When the Glamorous Granny lends herself to schlager music, it’s impossible not to smile a little and feel a bit warm inside. We’ve chosen the three songs that best represent this feeling, and this wonderful little sub-pocket of schlager music.
Watch, and feel good about the world again!
3. Kikki Danielsson – ‘Idag & Imorgon’
Ah, the good ol’ double ring before the refrain. Is there a happier song in existance? We doubt it. ‘Idag & Imorgon’ makes songs from Barney seem like satanic worshipping, virgin raping, death metal. On record it is pleasance personified, but the performance is even more charming! Not only does the legendary Kikki take to singing again with great gusto, but she also performs a frankly exhausting dance routine and even indulges in a spot of gratuitous flirting with her young male dance trinity! And just how adorable is that pink, orange and yellow pauncho?
2. Nanne Gronvall - ‘Hall Om Mig’
In all seriousness, this is one of our favourite performances, of any song within any genre, of all time! Its energy and good mood is infectious. Nanne comes across as the picture of a seasoned professional. The dance routine is demanding, yet the vocal is flawless. The performance is hectic, yet she gets every camera angle right and greets every camera shot on time. And the two backing dancers may be half her age, but Nanne made sure that they were also twice her size – so as to ensure that all eyes remained on her. Brilliant! ‘Hall Om Mig’ is one of the most rousing schlager anthems of all time. When the opening bars of this come on when your iPod is on shuffle, you know about it straight away! Everything about this song is an absolute triumph. If Kylie had been born in Sweden and 50 years ago, ‘Hall Om Mig’ would be her ‘Your Disco Needs You’!
1. Hanson, Carson & Malmqvist – ‘C’est La Vie’
Have you ever seen a group of ladies look like they’re having this much fun?! They look like they’re having an absolute ball on stage. Never has a comeback looked so good for the soul. Or the joints! Three artists that had been having hits since the seventies, got together in 2004 to show the likes of the Sugababes how its done. Siw Malmqvist (the only one who’s taking it seriously in that performance), Anne-Louise Hanson (the one who had a bottle of whiskey to calm her stage nerves, and smoked 40 Marlboro Lights too by the sound of it), and Towa Carson (the one who’s having the most fun) combined forces and provided the world with this gem, composed by Thomas G:Son. A soaring string intro turns into a pop beat within five seconds, and the unadulterated audio silliness just carries on from there. It’s a shame that they never got together since then to record another schlager anthem, but then perfection isn’t easily topped is it?
The next sub category of Schlager music we’re going to take a look at are the undervalued songs, and their equally dismissed performances. We all know about the classics, the songs that get name checked on internet sites and forums, the standards that all new schlager songs are measured against and compared to, the songs that sell, or indeed, get hundreds of thousands of views on youtube.
But the type of Schlager that we’re going to celebrate now has been passed over and cruelly forgotten about. All three examples that we’re going to discuss and present to you have inexplicably come last in their respective heats in Melodifestivalen. And we think that for once, the Swedish public got their opinions on music very VERY wrong. So there were a few bum notes…….so a lot of the lines came out off-key…….so some of the lyrics were spoken, when the melody that the song requested couldn’t be forged by the out of breath singer. They’re STILL amazing songs, and even more incredible performances! These songs didn’t deserve to come last.
On record, the Wrongly Overlooked Schlager song is one of the most listened to type of track on our iPod. And one of the most played type of song at the scandipop club nights! It’s had an unfair lot in life. Coming last at Melodifestivalen has scarred it for life, and meant that many people refuse to give it the time of day. So we’re giving the genre a few more minutes in the light, and even hoping that some readers adopt a song od three for good – sharing its virtues with more and more people.
Here are our top three Wrongly Overlooked Schlager gems;
3. The Nicole - ‘Razborka’
Not just Nicole – The Nicole. This lady stormed the stage at Melodifestivalen 2008 with an extensive Russian themed stage show. She was clearly only misunderstood as a result of being ahead of her time – it was only in 2009 that the public and participants realised that the Melodifestivalen winner would be heading to Moscow. Poor The Nicole, if only she’d waited a year later to treat us to ‘Razborka’, she probably would have stormed the whole contest. Nevertheless, she should take some solace in knowing that the ENTIRE Melodifestivalen interval act this year was inspired by her performance (obviously…probably), and as a result, the soundtrack of the interval, ‘Tingaliin’ went to number one in Sweden for 4 weeks! A lot of ‘Razborka’s genius lies in its lyrics; ”he’s kinda cute….in a retarded way’, ”not impressed by champagne and cash, get me VODKA, and baby shake that ass”, and, ”you are sweet, but you’re full of crap”. All delivered by a jumping, skipping, The Nicole, in a baby doll dress – taking it in turns straddling thrones and men! Culminating in a fake snowstorm. Magical!
2. Verona – ‘La Musica’
All nerves and no knickers, Verona really shone in her Melodifestivalen Heat in 2007. Sashaying aimlessly across the stage in a lemon coloured mini-dress, Verona unwittingly gave us one of the club anthems of our generation – ‘La Musica’! An addictive Italo-Disco beat pulsates its way through the song, as Verona softy sings in Italian. The studio version on record, is absolutely superb. The live version above is also amazing – but for very different reasons, as you’ll see and hear. We met Johan Fjellstrom, the guy behind this song, earlier this year and will forever remember the look of sheer surprise and dibelief on his face when we told him that we absolutely loved ‘La Musica’ and thought it was brilliant. He probably doesn’t get that very often unfortunately.
1. Arja Saijonmaa – ‘Vad Du An Trodde Sa Trodde Du Fel’
One of the most captivating intros to any song of any genre EVER, we were engrossed straight away. Further hypnosis came from the visual – a strong, defiant (translated into English, the song means ‘whatever you believed, you were wrong’) Arja towers grandly and regally over her four male cohorts, furnished in a floor length white fur coat! Even when she climbs down from the box, she’s still taller than the lot of them. Good ‘ol Arja then goes on to take part in a dance routine with the guys throughout the duration of the song – the strain of which on her vocal, becomes quite apparent during the middle eight. But of course, all is rescued seconds later by the phenomenal key change! Finishing last was a big disappointment. It was supposed to be a triumphant comeback performance from the lady who has given Scandinavia one of its biggest hits of all time – ‘Hogt Over Havet’ from 1987. And it should have done a lot better. But unfortunately, Sweden was having none of it for whatever reason. As a result – it’s our number one Wrongly Overlooked Schlager Gem!
Next up in our celebration of our favourite sub-genres of Schlager, is the countdown of our top three prop-centric performances!
Sometimes, coming on stage and singing your song just isn’t enough. You’re confident that your song is amazing enough to captivate people’s ears, but how are you going to make sure that their eyes focus on you, and only you during those three minutes? You don’t want their eyes wandering over to check out the stage or the audience. And heaven knows you don’t want to be competing for their attention with the bowl of Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference cheese & onion crisps they’ve placed on their lap! No no no! You want to make sure that you capture their attention from the very beginning, and mesmerize them for the duration of the performance, spellbinding them into submission.
The next three performances demonstrate perfectly how to do this………by using a prop! We love each of them because they’ve coupled a flawless schlager track with a compelling stage show. And we really believe that there is no better form of entertainment.
Here they are;
3. Lena Philipsson - ‘It Hurts’
Lena Philipsson gave what has been one of the most memorable performances in both Melodifestivalen and the Eurovision Song Contest in recent years. The song is undeniably fantastic and was always going to do well in both competitions. But leaving nothing to chance, Lena decided to implement a very special element into the performance – having a microphone stand as a dancing partner! Strutting onto the stage, grabbing her willing cohort, and suggestively humping it and throwing it around the stage whilst belting out her opus, meant that EVERYBODY’S eyes were glued to her performance and positively stunned at the breathtaking final victorious moment of the Lena & Mic tango.
2. Carola – ‘Evighet’
This use of prop is all the more spectacular here because you actually can’t see the prop in question! It’s a wind machine. And to this day, no artist has ever mastered the use of a wind machine like Carola did for ‘Evighet’. She didn’t just stand there in a light breeze, crooning away. No. She insisted that the wind machine was turned up to full power, poised herself defiantly as the wind bellowed through her hair and chiffon, and then proceeded to march around the stage and its attached catwalk, commanding that the wind machine follow her five steps ahead at all times, and directing it to perfection for every single camera angle. All this whilst belting out one of the most spectacular Schlager songs of all time. Like Lena Philipsson, this was another Melodifestivalen winner that went on to do well at Eurovision.
1. Anne-Lie Ryde – ‘Sa Nara’
Eight years after cinema goers had been terrorised by the 40ft monster in the film, Anaconda, Anne-Lie Ryde took to the stage at Melodifestivalen and unleashed an even bigger and wider beast – her brown feather boa. Taking notes from the Lena Philipsson performance the year before, Anne-Lie was fully expecting 2005 to be her year. After all, she’d carefully made sure that she had all the same elements as Lena’s winning show; a middle aged woman making a long overdue comeback with a Schlager song, and a clever prop! Anne-Lie was actually favourite to win her Heat that week, and you can tell by the look on her face during that performance that she was expecting nothing less. Unfortunately though, she failed to qualify. Why? We’ll never understand. We were engrossed in her performance from the second we saw those manic staring eyes and that crazy smile. On her back, on a bench, writhing around in ecstacy whilst trilling a perfect Thomas G:Son song, the performance only got better and better once the boa was introduced. It kept expanding more and more, until it was elevated all on its own, and even dancing over Anne-Lie’s head at one stage. For a moment we were sad when it was pulled away from the stage by the camera, through the audience, tickling many spectators as it went its way. However, we were happy again when we saw the tech man in full shot whilst Anne-Lie was singing, putting the boa back behind the bench to be used later. And sure enough, it came out again at the end to be clutched one more time by its lady. An incredible lady, an incredible song, but most of all – an incredible spectacle!
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be presenting to you a few of our favourite sub-genres of our absolute favourite type of music – schlager! In each genre we’ll compile a top three of the best examples, enlightening your eyes and ears with the most brilliant performances of the most fantastic songs in that sub-genre!
First up….is Drag Queens!
Nobody does over the top style, ostentatious choreography, and ridiculous key changes like a man in a frock! The following three songs are sublime in every way. See for yourself;
3. DQ – ‘Drama Queen’
This song hails from Denmark, and represented the nation at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Despite its heroic achievment in the national finals (where it failed to make the finals the first time round, but made the second chance round, qualified from that, and then went on to win the final!!!), this didn’t qualify from the Eurovision semi final. Nevertheless, it became an instant fan favourite, and one of the most memorable performances of the year. THREE costume changes!
2. Queentastic – ‘Absolutely Fabulous’
This pair hail from Norway, where they competed in the Melodi Grand Prix in 2006 with this and finished second, and again in 2007 where they didn’t do so well with ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’. Matching ginger bouffant hair, regal pink gowns cut off just below the kinicker line, and surrounded by grand crystal chandeliers. PLUS listen to those amazing lyrics….”cos I can be your Galliano girl”!!! Absolutely fabulous indeed.
1. After Dark – ‘(Ah) Nar Ni Tar Saken I Egna Hander’
This was massively successful drag act After Dark’s second attempt at Melodifestivalen in 2007. They first tried in 2004 with ‘La Dolce Vita’ where they were triumphant and made the final, ending up in the top half of the final leaderboard. Unfortunately though, this failed to qualify from its Heat in 2007. Nevertheless, it’s one of our favourite Schlager songs of all time. Our Swedish friend tells us that the song is an ode to masturbation and fisting. Lovely! And we DEFY any woman to look at this video and not be envious of those legs!
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@JLucas86 A 'hit' in Sweden is too difficult to define these days! In AOB's case, it's too early to guess until seeing their promo schedule. - posted on 10/09/2010 16:20:22
Ace of Base have revealed that a UK release of their new material probably won't happen until next year, and a US release until next summer. - posted on 10/09/2010 16:06:49
*scream* Just been sent the Ola album! Will listen and review over the weekend. - posted on 10/09/2010 15:49:35
Annikafiore goes through her Alcazar wardrobe in her blog at http://www.annikafiore.com Nice to hear she has fond memories of her time with them. - posted on 10/09/2010 14:08:28
