Melodifestivalen
So, on the 6th of February it was time for us to enter the biggest music event in Sweden – Melodifestivalen. This contest is as bound by our contemporary national cultural history as the Olympics, Christmas and resolutions and fireworks on New Year’s. It’s on the level where it doesn’t matter whether you like it or not – you will have a relation to it either way, and it is part of your national legacy. Nearly half the population is watching it on tv. I will repeat that again. Nearly half the population is watching it! That means that whenever you are walking down any random street in Sweden – half of the people you meet will watch you on tv. Any given television show you watch – half of the people in it will watch you on tv. Half of all national celebrities will watch you. And so on. Quite mind boggling I’d say. The gap between my front teeth has never been more disturbing…
So anyway, we did the impossible. We entered the stage with an extremely mellow song, without crescendo or key change, with the simplest and cheapest stage outfits ever seen in the history of the contest, standing absolutely still on stage, with a minimal light show and NOT ONE MOVING CAMERA, dressed in the simplest and cheapest stage outfits ever seen in the history of the contest, on the first contest day on a dreaded fourth position, with pretty much a non-existing national fan base. We really had nothing working for us to make it easier. We even had the lowest press coverage of all participating artists (thank you Sweden, as usual). But choreographically that was my intention – going back to letting the song be the focal point, not the fancy dresses or the recipe production and structure of the performance. Just us. Playing a song meant to touch your heart. Stripped down. Naked. Brave. Old-school. Zero chance to make it to the second round.
And yet we did the impossible. Enough people voted for us to take us to the second round – thus in the process sending home national musical hero Anders Ekborg. And that means we get to participate in this wonderfully insane circus one more time – in Andra Chansen (Second Chance), with the (basically non-existing) chance to make it to the grande finale. But for that to happen we need a massive support! Massive! In any case, we hope that people living outside of Sweden will follow us online during the contest, and go to our Facebook accounts immediately after the contest and let us know that we SHOULD have won and how stupid the Swedish voters are anyway :)
If you live outside Sweden (like Daniel’s brother Kristoffer) or have a foreign operator (like Léo), you can apparently vote through Skype…?
Andra Chansen: March 6th on SVT at 20:00 CET.
Visit us at www.painofsalvation.se and say hi on our Message Board and listen to our music and watch our videos – show your moral support!