There is a strange habit of 'band-hopping' amongst Swedish pop stars, and the groups themselves change members nearly as often as they change their outfits! Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than with 21st century
disco-defenders Alcazar.
Alcazar was the brainchild of S-pop king (or queen...) Alexander Bard, who himself has been in at least three different bands!). Basically, he'd written some songs and simply needed someone to sing them. Bard enlisted the help of singer Andreas Lundstedt, who had formerly been a member of the group Stage Four and who had had some moderate success as a solo artist. Lundstedt invited friends Annikafiore Kjærsgaard, who had previously been in two relatively unsuccessful groups The Dreamettes and Primitive Cool, and Tess Merkel, known for her work as a backing-singer and in theatre. Alcazar version 1.0 was complete. The band's first couple of singles went largely unnoticed, but their big-break came with the unbelievably camp
Crying At The Discotheque, which achieved a great deal of success all over Europe, and led to a re-release of the band's début album
Casino. Shortly after the band finished promoting
Casino, Andreas drafted in his then-boyfriend Magnus Carlsson, lead singer of the hugely popular dansband group Barbados. The first release by Alcazar 2.0 was the Melodifestivalen entry
Not A Sinner Nor A Saint, which became the band's biggest hit to date, peaking at #1 on the singles chart, and becoming something of a schlager-classic. This success led to a string of hit singles, a #2 album (
Alcazarized), a greatest-hits package
Dancefloor Deluxe and another attempt at Melodifestivalen with the song
Alcastar. However, as is so often the case when band members get together, as the relationship soured, the band suffered.
After the release of the single
Start The Fire in 2005, the band officially decided to 'take a break'.
Magnus almost instantly began working on solo material, and has since released three successful solo albums and several hit singles. Andreas turned up in 2006 as part of the multi-national group
Six 4 One, who performed the Swiss Eurovision entry
If We All Give A Little, and released a couple of singles as a solo artist, including Melodifestivalen entry
Move, though he failed to mirror Magnus' success.
Skip forward to 2008 and Alcazar are back, now in their third incarnation. Magnus decided against returning to Alcazar, preferring to concentrate on his solo career. Perhaps more surprisingly, Annikafiore also officially left the group for good. Andreas and Tess were joined by a new member, Lina Hedlund, who had previously released material both as a solo artist and with her sister Hanna. Alcazar 3.0 launched their comeback with the single
We Keep On Rockin' which is still riding high on the Swedish singles chart.
Now, make sure you remember all of that, you may be tested on it later!
S-Pop would like to recommend the excellent
Alcazarland blog, for Alcazar news and rare tracks!
The Attic's first entry into Melodifestivalen, The Arrival was a duet with former Drömhus lead singer and Stonebridge collaborator Therèse Grankvist. Sadly, the song came 7th in the qualifiying round in Önsköldsvik, and was out of the contest. Despite that, it recieved a high amount of airplay, and became the Attic's most popular track to date!
The Festival Theme is without a doubt The Attic's most well known track, even though most people probably don't realise it. The very imaginitively titled The Festival Theme is the current Melodifestivalen theme tune, and has been for some years now. The track never got a proper commercial release, and is only available as a digital download.
It's Beautiful was the last single to be released from Remeber Tomorrow, in May of 2007. The single only managed number 57 on the singles chart. The single featured only remixes by the Attic themselves, and as individuals.
Another Rainbow was the 3rd single to be taken from Magnus's hit album Live Forever, released at the end of 2007. The single failed to make an impact on the Swedish singles chart, but was a sizeable radio hit!
Start The Fire was the final Alcazar single before their three year hiatus. The chorus is borrowed from Billy Joel's classic hit We Didn't Start The Fire, though the verses are completely new. During the filming of the video, poor Annikafiore managed to break her foot! The maxi single contains two previously unreleased tracks Glamourama and Nothing But The Video On. These tracks are rumoured to have been recorded for a third Alcazar studio album, which was never finished. The track reached #10 in Sweden, and, randomly enough #67 in Switzerland.
Ever wondered what Magnus Carlsson was up to before Alcazar? Well, from 1992-2002 he was the lead singer of the Swedish dansband group Barbados. During Magnus's time with the band, they released 8 studio albums! Världen Utanför is the most tolerable of all of these. It was the final album recorded with Magnus, and was released in 2002 and reached #2 on the album charts. The lead single, Världen Utanför was also the band's 3rd Melodifestivalen entry, where it came 4th in the final.
Alcastar was Alcazar's 3rd attempt at Melodifestivalen success. The second song they submitted, Grillvagn, a Swedish-language track, was not selected to participate, and was never released, except for a live performance in the interval of Melodifestivalen's Andra Chansen. Alcastar, however, faired somewhat better - it made it to the final via Andra Chansen, where it came 4th. Upon release, the single shot straight to #1.
Here I Am was a bit of a departure for Alcazar... A ballad! The track had been featured on the album Alcazarized, but was used in the promotion of the greatest hits compilation Dancefloor Deluxe, and was released just in time for Christmas 2004. The track failed to make a big impact on the charts, peaking at #40. However, over in neighbouring Finland, it proved much more popular, climbing to the #6 spot on the Finnish single charts.
There is a strange habit of 'band-hopping' amongst Swedish pop stars, and the groups themselves change members nearly as often as they change their outfits! Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than with 21st century disco-defenders Alcazar.
Here we have a bit of a rarity, a Shirley Clamp single that has absolutely nothing to do with Melodifestivalen whatsoever! Don't be fooled though, it's still schlager in its purest form! Critics accused the song of sounding a bit too much like her biggest hit Min Kärlek, and it can't be denied that the tracks are 'related'! Unfortunately, Eviga Längtan failed to impress the Swedish public, and landed at #24 on the singles chart. But it's still a polished, catchy schlager tune!
Yep, it was 3 in a row for Shirley! In 2005, she competed in Melodifestivalen again! This time with the song Att Älska Dig, another energetic, uplifting schlagerpop tune. However, this time she was not quite as successful, though she still managed to achieve 4th place in the final. The track also reached #4 on the Swedish charts.
Skip forward one year, and the Clampinator pulls out all the stops, and reaches 2nd place in the Melodifestivalen final - a fantastic achievement, considering the winner that year was the incredible Lena Philipsson! S-Pop would like to point out that her success was entirely due to the fact that Min Kärlek is a schlager classic, and nothing to do with Shirley's extremely bouncy boobs and tiny dress.
