Say it ain't so, Johanna? But the sad news out of Sweden Thursday was 100% true: sweet, talented, hard-working and conscientious Johanna Pettersson, aka @tweetsbyjohanna, is leaving Timoteij, and heading to New York to build a career centered on dance. What was once four sweet voices singing in harmony will now be but three :-(

Just 4 years ago -but another lifetime ago- in Göteborg @SVTmelfest 2010, Deltävling 3, Timoteij wows with Kom, :-) http://t.co/UdnVlslYnk
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) April 17, 2014

Taggiga törnen i blomsterängen! Nu hoppar Johanna av Timoteij för att det är ”svårt att jobba med sina bästa vänner”. http://t.co/isEIadL5nH
— Nöjesbladet (@ABNojesbladet) April 17, 2014

Johanna has left Timoteij and they're now continuing as a trio. pic.twitter.com/lJ0r6aUYtn
— scandipop (@scandipop) April 17, 2014

Just nu: Johanna lämnar Timoteij http://t.co/tS0ObEpRuo
— P4 Skaraborg (@P4Skaraborg) April 17, 2014

Jag har beslutat att lämna Timoteij! Tusen tack till alla fina fans för allt ni har gjort och gör! 😘 pic.twitter.com/lTcsjBblSK
— Johanna Pettersson (@tweetsbyjohanna) April 17, 2014

Guess this decision means we'll never see that Kom video after all, eh?

That Timoteij vid they filmed recently isn't for a new song. It's for an English version of Kom, which they will release internationally :(
— scandipop (@scandipop) August 16, 2013

http://www.timoteij.se/

Smiling Cecilia Kallin! :) Sweet! Nobody but nobody can smile as often when she speaks and with as much appeal as talented and vivacious lead singer and guitarist Cecilia Kallin of Timoteij. She's such a charmer!; #Timoteij, #CeciliaKallin, #BodilBergström, #PontusTidemand, #gopontus

Smiling Cecilia Kallin! :) Sweet! 

Nobody but nobody can smile as often when she speaks and with as much appeal as talented and vivacious lead singer and guitarist Cecilia Kallin of Timoteij. 

*This post was updated with additional videos and text at 11:55 p.m.

Does it really matter what Cecilia was asked about here at the Helmia car show in Arvika? 

Not really.

Cecilia's friendly and infectious smile just knocks me out every time I see her in an interview, even one as semi-awkward as this. 
She's such a charmer! :) 

Also seen in the top video in Arvika: bandmates Bodil Bergström, fleetingly: Elina Thorsell, and, rather abruptly: Johanna Pettersson. Uploaded April 21, 2013.

After they sang a few songs, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm0I6JzzMGI
and had finished signing autographs at the record signing, Cecilia and Bodil, separately, were among a number of passengers in a rally car driven by 22-year old Swedish professional rally driver Pontus Tidemand, which resulted in some great photos of him, Cecilia and the band -and a very smart and well-produced video that's definitely worth checking out.



PTMRacing YouTube Channel video: Pontus Tidemand Videoblog EP09 Helmia Show-driving in Arkiva, Sweden. Event was on April 20th, Uploaded April 22, 2013. http://youtu.be/pVWknesYt0I

Above, you can see a truly striking-looking Bodil getting into the car at 1:15 and then the whole band from 1:31 to 1:38, with Cecilia happy and clearly relieved to be standing on her own two feet again and Bodil looking calm and cool. 
From 2:08 to 2:15, Bodil is recounting the experience to Elina, standing next to her, sipping a drink.

There's a great photo of a smiling-but-nervous and helmeted Cecilia in the rally car on her blog page on the group's website at http://www.timoteij.se/2013/04/22/det-svanger-om-arvika/ 
where she admits that for at least part of the ride, she had her hands directly in front of her face and was peering thru her fingers, while, not surprisingly, 'driving' and 'braking' with her feet.

Here's the photo of her and the band on Pontus' wonderful website and Instagram account: 
http://instagram.com/p/YVYMIqiw0R/

*I received a link to the below-the-radar video at the top of this post courtesy of an eagle-eyed reader of the blog living in -wait for it- Sweden, who wanted me to see it and share it with you all, but remain anonymous.
Tack så mycket, Anonymous!

On Saturday the band will be performing in Cecilia's hometown of Falkirk, so I'm sure she will be snapping lots of photos that will soon be appearing on the band's always amusing blog and her Instagram page at http://www.timoteij.se/ and http://statigr.am/ceciliakallin

Timoteij tour schedule:  http://www.timoteij.se/turne/

Pontus Tidemand's official website, which is very attractive and , well-designed, is at:
http://www.pontustidemand.se/

Summer 2012 is officially here as Timoteij's new album, Tabu, drops today. And they also celebrate a new-and-improved website that's delightfully more-colorful, engaging and pleasing to the eye -and more intuitive!

Summer 2012 is officially here as Timoteij's new album, Tabu, drops today. And they also celebrate a new-and-improved website that's delightfully more-colorful, engaging and pleasing to the eye -and more intuitive!

The top of the new website, which changed slightly from the original template a few weeks before their participation in the 2012 Melodifestivalen two months ago, now sports new photos for both the website and the blog, and I must say that in the week since I first saw the photo of the new album over at Swedish Stereo blog in Damian's description of the songs and their order, http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/2012/05/timoteij-tabu.html which seems to be fresher, more upbeat and dance-friendly but with all of the Timoteij folk and authenticity trademarks we love, I've been eager to see what it looks like in a new and improved online environment.


Well, in my opinion, the new features and photos really POP off your computer screen in a way that the old pinkish/purple ones really didn't after awhile because... well, we just got so used to them.  http://www.timoteij.se/


The new group photo for the website now is, left-to-right: Elina Thorsell, Johanna Pettersson, Cecilia Kallin and Bodil Bergström, and the photo is the same as the album but in the header photo, you don't see their instruments, while the header above the blog text 
http://www.timoteij.se/category/timoteij/ is a variation of that: Cecilia, Elina, Johanna and Bodil.


I also saw that last week's news also had this great teaser: Buy the new album and enter a contest to have Timoteij perform at your home/place of work -in Sweden: http://www.ginza.se/product/timoteij/tabu-2012/11863/


Correct, it's remarkably similar to what the amazing Full of Keys (Anni Bernhard) did on her tour in February for her winning fan, Victor: http://fullofkeys.com/blog/?p=228
I was so envious!


On Monday, the girls were still busy promoting the new album and swung by the Sveriges Radio (SR) studio in Skovde, and fortunately for us, the folks at P4 recorded a bit of what happened, which is how I can share it with you here now:



SverigesRadio P4 Skaraborg video: Nytt sound men ändå  som vanligt på Timoteijs nya. May 14, 2012. Related article at: 
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=97&artikel=5107583


I also came across this great SR photo from this past January which I hadn't seen before:
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=789&artikel=4312611


Here's the text of the interview:
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=399&artikel=4312609


Not to give away too many teasers about some future posts you'll be seeing here soon, but as some of you reading this particular post already know, I actually have hopes of seeing these talented ladies perform -as well as the fabulous Florrie, whose new album drops next week- in a few months in their native habitats, though I'm still working on exact dates and logistics.


My original killer post about Timoteij and Melodifestivalen 2012, scheduled to run the morning of the Second Chance competition, with a complete recap about what happened to them and other acts like Molly Sandén during the competition, was actually killed by a freak power outage one night when my electricity didn't come back on for quite a few minutes, and Blogger lost what I'd written.


Hours of work down the drain!
I was so beyond frustrated! 


Below are some odds and ends from that the draft of that post which I'd thought to save to an email draft before I started trying to finish up and the electricity went kaput, my post going adios! Obviously, there were lots of what I thought at the time were some well-chosen words, photos and videos that ought to be below but which aren't.


-----


Today is D-day for Timoteij and its fans: Clear sailing to next week's Melodifestivalen Finals in Stockholm, or, Stormy Seas? (Stormande Hav) 


It's the day we've all been waiting for... "Andra chansen." The second chance. 
One last chance to make the grade for the chance to represent Sweden at Eurovision.


Yesterday the band posted this short acapella version of them singing an excerpt of Stormande Hav in one of their hotel rooms onto their official YouTube Channel.



Timoteij - Videoblogg - Stormande Hav -acapella. March 2, 2012.
http://youtu.be/s7wk3p0Y8hg


Like many of you out there, I've wondered, too, why they and the record company still hadn't posted a HQ copy of their performance at the Second Heat as good as the one that uris1 posted two weeks ago, or done a series of occasional updates on their YouTube Channel since then on their preparations the past few weeks, a variation of what they've been writing on the blog.
But now at least, somebody finally decided to do something positive. 

uris1 video: Timoteij - Stormande Hav. Second Heat of Melodifestivalen 2012 in Göteborg, Sweden. February 11, 2012. http://youtu.be/Nw73WHckdNY


Meanwhile, over at SVT's Minimello, where Ylva Hällen and sidekick Skvallerbyttan have good seats to watch all the performers -and keep the laughter coming...
http://svt.se/2.140234/minimello
http://svt.se/2.140629/


SVT video: Jag är lik Timoteij!!!! 
Skvallerbyttan hittar likheter mellan henne och Timotej.
So funny!

-----

http://www.youtube.com/user/LionheartSweden
http://www.youtube.com/user/TimoteijOfficial


Fans of the band may want to start looking at this page to see what's also being written about them on Social Media: http://whotalking.com/flickr/Timoteij 

Timotiej appearing on TV4's Nyhetsmorgon performing a mellower version of "Kom"

Timotiej appeared on TV4's Nyhetsmorgon back on April 30th,
performing two songs and doing a four-and-a-half minute sit-down
interview about what's new with the girls and their new album.

The two singing performances included a mellower version of Kom,
performed sans drums and with three of the girls without their trusty
instruments, which seems very strange at first, but without the drums,
you can really hear Bodil Bergström on the accordion in a way that
you really couldn't in their great Melodifestivalen performance of
a few months ago.
The harmonies are just perfect, of course, especially towards the end.

In the Kom video, performed as the show was ending, are, from
left to right, Johanna Pettersson, Bodil Bergström (on accordion),
Cecilia Kallin and Elina Thorsell.

Hjärtat rusar, pulsen slår...

http://www.tv4play.se/aktualitet/nyhetsmorgon?videoId=1.1619851




Here's the sit-down chat about the new album, Längtan.
Tjejerna i Timotej släpper skiva

http://www.tv4play.se/aktualitet/nyhetsmorgon?videoId=1.1619538



The girls also performed Längtan till landet (Vintern rasat)
which I haven't heard in a while.
http://www.tv4play.se/aktualitet/nyhetsmorgon?videoId=1.1619474



This is the new TV ad for their new album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfowcDq27A0




For more on Timoteij, see their Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Timoteij/286938310265

Their wry and very amusing personal videos can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Timoteij/286938310265#!/pages/Timoteij/286938310265?v=app_2392950137