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.
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.
In a Melodifestivalen season full of scandals and surprises, one of the biggest has to be the downfall of pre-contest favourites Johnson & Häggkvist (aka. Carola and Andreas Johnson). Carola has won the contest a record three times, and Andreas Johnson has made the top 5 in the final each time he has participated. So expectations were high, maybe a little too high?
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.
Mr. Memory was Shirley Clamp's first foray into the mad old world of Melodifestivalen, back in 2003. The first and only time she has participated with an English-language song, which unfortunately didn't make it past the qualifying round. The track was co-written by Bobby Ljunggren, who wrote no less than 3 of the tracks in this year's MF final!
With the Melodifestivalen final just a few days away, it seems only fitting that this week's featured artist should be one of the '00s most popular schlager-princesses... Shirley Clamp was born and grew up in Borås, but has an English father, hence her very English name... He wanted her to have a name that couldn't be Swedicised, so naturally he chose Shirley (!?!). The Clampinator, as she is affectionately known, by me at least, has participated in Melodifestivalen three times since 2003, and she was also the backing singer for Antique's Greek Eurovision entry Die For You in 2001! Shirley has recently announced that she is pregnant with her first child, and we, of course, wish her and her baby all the best!
