165/917 Östen Warnerbring: Som en dröm (Sweden 1967)

Dramatic ballads were hardly Sweden's main area in the Eurovision Song Contest (and it still isn't). In 1967 they tried in that genre and resultwise they succeeded. Performancewise I am not so sure.

After several, more or less joyful songs Sweden changed the pace in 1967 with a pompously arranged ballad sung by Östen Warnerbring. The recorded version of Som en dröm is masterfully arranged and the toneful voice of the singer fits the mood perfectly.

In Vienna, for some reason, the song is nowhere as convincing. Maybe there was something in the sound mixing of the television broadcast, or the orchestra was not up to the task but the overall package just does not work on stage (in front of the dreadful rotating mirrors). The melody is there and Östen sings his heart out which makes the entry plausible, but the orchestra sounds lazy and dull compared to the passionate recorded version. It could have been so much better.

The juries didn't seem to mind and the song finished in the middle of scoreboard with plausible 8th position. One can only wonder how it would have fared with better sound.

Östen Warnerbring tried many times after 1967 to get to Eurovision Song Contest again both as an artist and a composer. My favourite of these entries is the 1983 song Se, which he wrote for Karin Glenmark to sing. But in 1983 it was impossible to beat certain miss Häggkvist.

My points 3/5.

812/917 Charlotte Nilsson: Take me to your heaven (Sweden 1999)

Each decade has one or two Eurovision winner that I don't get. The winner of the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest is one of the songs that I could not have predicted as a winner even in my wildest dreams and I am still puzzled how this particular song managed to please that many telephone voters to win the hela sjuttaballongen.

There is nothing particularly wrong in the Swedish entry in 1999. The melody of Take me to your heaven is catchy and Charlotte Nilsson (later to change her name to Charlotte Perelli) captures the attention of the viewers with ease.

The song was, already in 1999, violently out of date. This style was popular in Eurovision in the early 1980's, but among the neon tubes and laser lights of the Jerusalem Eurovision stage the song does not work at all. Originally titled Tusen och en natt the song loses it's particular charm when translated to the lingua franca.

But I was in the minority. The Swedish entry won the contest with convincing margin before Iceland and Germany. If the song was old fashioned, the 2000 contest arranged by the Swedish Television started the new and considerable more modern era of the contest. So one could deem Sweden the right winner of the last Euroision Song Contest of the second millenium after all.

My points 2/5.

252/917 Family four: Härliga sommardag (Sweden 1972)

Warm summer, beautiful landscape and all the rest of the delights of your homeland have been constant subject for songs in the event that, apart from being a contest for songs, is a good opportunity to market your country for tourists and visitors. Sweden used the first two years of the 1970's to sing about lovely winter (in 1971) and summer (1972) of this Scandinavian kingdom. To sing both these well crafted tourism commercials Sweden chose a four member folk group Family four.

Their 1971 entry Vita vidder (to which I will hopefully return in the near future) was a melodic masterpiece by Håkan Elmquist, a song of many dimensions and stages. Perfect performance by the Family four gave this song one of the best results Sweden had ever had in the Eurovision so far.

The Swedish entry from 1972, composed as well by Elmquist, was much simpler and less structured praise of wonderful summer days. Family four did, again, a wonderful stage performance of the song with the girls starting the verse and the boys continuing. The verse is followed by a peppy and almost irritatingly hilarious refrain which is interrupted by a gorgeous middle eight with wonderful harmony singing by the group. Although not as perfect as the 1971 entry, Härliga sommardag manages, once again, be a delightful and very Swedish song to which Family four does justice with a big J. The recorded version is even better.

Unfortunately the juries, consisting of two members from each participating country, were not as thrilled of the Swedish summer as they were of the winter a year earlier. The song placed 13th among 18 participants.

Family four continued its career until 1974. Two of its members, Marie Bergman and Pierre Isacsson continued their careers as solo artists. Bergman would represent Sweden for the third time in 1994, and the same year Isacsson would, tragically, die in the Estonia ferry accident.

My points 4/5.

496/917 Kikki Danielsson: Bra vibrationer (Sweden 1985)

Composer Lasse Holm dominated the Swedish Eurovision scene in the mid 1980's. Between 1982-1986 he wrote four succesfull entries for Sweden and the 496th eurosong was no exception.

Kikki Danielsson was almost as succesfull as a singer. After several second places she managed twice to be chosen to represent Sweden on the Eurovision stage, both times with a song written by Lasse Holm. When the contest was held on the home ground in 1985 team Holm-Danielsson provided Europe with a song that was the purest prototype of a Swedish Eurosong of the 1980's.

It was catchy, it was jolly, it was well performed, and finally it did better in the results than anyone had expected. Third place was the best result that Lasse Holm would ever get in Eurovision. Bra Vibrationer combined everything that one could expect from a Swedish Eurosong in the mid 1980's.

To me it sounds too polished and planned a package. Every expression and movement (not to say the choreography by the background dancers) seems too perfect and too rehearsed to me. Even the double meaning of the title sounds very calculated (the presenter Lill Lindfors thought it best to explain to the english speaking audience that the title means "Good vibrations" and had nothing to do with ladies undergarments).

Eurovision classic, for sure, but not really my cup of tea. At least not anymore.

My points 2/5