Svenska Hjärtan

In case you haven't been paying attention lately, I have been talking a lot about Sweden- or more specifically the Swedish Melodifestivalen which is the Swedish national preselection contest for the Eurovision song contest. It's almost better than the contest and possibly more fun. Well, it makes a change from blogging about the weather...

This week saw heat 3, the best one yet. It featured a broad range of song styles- the usual schlager (done very well), electro pop, house, and for the first time bhangra. And I dragged Terese along with me to the Harcourt Arms to enjoy it.

Terese is Swedish, but is not one of those that is crazy about this contest and the Eurovision. But the atmosphere at the pub won her over even if the songs didn't. We craned our necks to see the screen through the tall people that stood in front of us and whooped and booed and drank. And drank. The crowd were appalled when one of the favourites didn't get through to the final, and even moreso when a drippy ballad did.

We made friends with people from many countries, a blonde Swedish lady started chatting me up and and after the show the pub stereo blasted out old schlager and we danced, chatted and sang. Everyone sand along, and each song was met with a cheer or a scream. And then they played "Give Me Your Love".



"Give Me Your Love", sung by Fame, is as close to perfect as a song can get. It is genius. And they played it. And as they played it, something took over control of my body (or, at least, this is what I like to claim). I ended up dancing on the bar, making a ridiculous show of myself, even carrying on dancing while I was being "assisted" down. And after the bar finally closed Terese, Johanna (Swedish, not LeeJay) and the Dutch guy headed to the Phoenix on Cavendish Square. And danced, and drank more. Until Terese and I eventually wondered off home. I arrived at 6, and spent Sunday in bed wondering what had gone wrong...

Here are songs from this week's Melodifestivalen. It continues to be genius, although the Swedish public aren't demonstrating good taste. These two should have got through, but didn't in favour of drab ballad/floaty dress combo and something else:

1. The Attic feat. Therese - The Arrival


2. Magnus Carlsson - Live Forever