We have just heard the news that a song composed by Danne Attlerud of Sweden is one of the songs in the 2015 Irish selection. I went Danne for the first time in 2004 in Istanbul when he composed (with others) the song for Norway that year – HIGH – which remains one of my top songs. I will dearly like Danne to be at Eurovision again, he has come so close several times, like with Malta in 2013 and Denmark in 2014. I can ask so many questions over this, but I will keep it easy – who sang HIGH for Norway in 2004?
All posts by Roy van der Merwe
GOOD LUCK MESSAGE – GEORGIA 2015
ANNE GADEGAARD
It has been brought to our attention that Anne Gadegaard who was in the Danish 2015 Eurovision selection with SUITCASE has taken part for Denmark way back in 2003 at JUNIOR EUROVISION – her song was called ARABIENS DROM
ANTI SOCIAL MEDIA FOR DENMARK
After an evening of lights and glitz from the Gigantium in Aalborg, the winner of the Dansk Melodi Grand Prize was announced, and Denmark have choose the band Anti Social Media to represent them in Vienna with the song The Way You Are.
You can watch their winning entry below. Do you think it is Denmark’s year again in 2015?
NINTH QUESTION – of 12
I have not forgotten but with load shedding – 5 hours last night, it is difficult to get to everything. The latest question is quite simple – name one of the two countries who have TWO artists in the 60th anniversary show hosted by the BBC on 31 March.
NEW BLOOD AT ESC COVERS
As of today, Fred Medeiros joins us as an editor and he will concentrate on Melodifestivalen which starts this Saturday. He will report jointly for us and for ESC UNITED. During the semi finals he will report from home, but he and camera man Liam will be physically present at Andra chancen and the Stockholm final. We look forward to a lot of news. I have also more or less finished the library index for the SA covers of the Swedish selection songs and should have it 100% finished by Saturday.
ONE MORE TIME – HIGHLAND
ONE MORE TIME – VINYL SINGLE
With the 2015 Melodifestivalen starting this weekend, I have been listening to music by ONE MORE TIME, one of my favourite groups from Sweden. Pity they never had the same success as ABBA for example. Here is an vinyl single by them which they signed for me during EUROVISION 1996 in Oslo.
KATRINA AND THE WAVES IN SOUTH AFRICA
Often an artist from Eurovision visits South Africa but the media hardly give attention to it. The latest is KATRINA AND THE WAVES who are in South Africa and I did not even know it until yesterday. They are part of a show called BACK TO THE 80’s and it is on at several of the casino’s around South Africa. Cole van Dais was one of the backing singers at the show on 31 January at Carnival City and she informed me that Katrina and the waves were part of the show. Other people who are here are the likes of Billy Ocean, Hazel Dean, Nick Kershaw and M People.
SOUTH AFRICAN COVERS
The titles of over 400 covers of Eurovision songs by South African artists have been loaded in the library and this is more or less complete with there and there the original title of a song to be added once I have checked the spelling. That is the first part of the library – the covers are done alphabetical by original country and inside each country, by date order. The second part is the covers of melodifestivalen songs and this index is in date order and is about 40% complete. I hope to have it finished before the 2015 edition of melodifestivalen starts. I also got requests to do a third section – this is covers of songs by EUROVISION artists, for example not just Abba’s Waterloo but every ABBA song that has been covered in South Africa. This has never really been done and so I have no idea how many such covers exist but I have already loaded a lot – covers from Euro artists such as ABBA, Nicole, New Seekers, Celine Dion, Karel Gott, Nana Mouskouri, Vicky Leandros, Olivia Newton John, Mouth & Macneal etc. Hopefully some fans will see some interesting covers and go and search for them on Itunes or Youtube or wherever. 99% of the songs listed are in my own private collection- either on CD or vinyl single.