Eurovision Song Contest finals are tonight in Mälmo, the Christmas Morning of Europop! Anticipation is in the air and the smart money says that the title will be a battle between Norway's Margaret Berger and Demark's Emmelie De Forest; Anouk's 'Birds' has a powerful ending; #Eurovision2013

SVT video: Norway's representative at Eurovision 2013 is 27-year old Margaret Berger shown singing "I Feed You My Love" during Thursday's Semifinal Heat.
http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/norge-i-eurovision-2013-margaret-berger-i-feed-you-my-love

Eurovision Song Contest finals are tonight in Mälmo, the Christmas Morning of Europop! Anticipation is in the air and the smart money says that the title will be a battle between Norway's Margaret Berger and Demark's Emmelie De Forest; Anouk's 'Birds' has a powerful ending;
#Eurovision2013

Margaret will be singing her ballad ‘I Feed You My Love’ while I'm feeding myself some cheddar-flavored popcorn and watching the show LIVE from Sweden around 3 p.m. Miami time on my desktop, via SVT Play, wondering if anyone will pull an upset. http://www.svtplay.se/

Who wants to be a star? (Som vill vara en stjärna?)

We'll know in a few hours.


Video: All the Scandinavian nations are represented in the finals: Iceland, Norway, Senmark, Sweden and Finland. Above, left-to-right: Denmark's Emmelie De Forest, Sweden's Robin Stjernberg and Norway's Margaret Berger.
Article: Vilken fest – Nordiska superfemman i final, Träffa de nordiska artisterna – som alla gör upp om segern i lördagens final av Eurovision Song Contest 2013.

(What a party - Nordic super fifth in final, Meet the Nordic artists - all of which makes up the victory in Saturday's final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013)

17 May 2013 19:49; Reporter: Mirja Bokholm 

Backstage look at a rehearsal, as it happens, Margaret's.

Margaret Berger gears up for #Eurovision. Watch her rehearsal, a guest performance, and her greeting to Scandipop! scandipop.co.uk/margaret-berge…
— scandipop (@scandipop) May 15, 2013

Outside the arena, first rehearsel. Outfit of the day: #pants #americanapparell #sunglasses #burberry… instagram.com/p/ZGQbs4vGrS/
— Margaret Berger (@MargaretBerger) May 9, 2013

SVT video: Denmark's entry, twenty-year old Emmelie De Forest was the fans' and critics' pre-competition favorite and sings the very catchy tune, "Only Teardrops."


Sweden's entry is 22-year old Robin Stjernberg singing "You," as seen here at the 2013 Melodifestivalen in Stockholm in March.

Not that it seems to have much of a chance to win, but one song I wanted to bring to your attention is a song sung by 38-year old Anouk Teeuwe -a.k.a. Anouk- from The Netherlands, called simply enough, 'Birds.'
The lyrics are okay, though I'm really NOT so crazy about the phrasing, but I just love the music and the orchestration!
The last minute of this song is sweeping and awesome!

THIS is what an adult female singer who knows what she's doing sounds like, not some dopey twenty-something who wants to be a carbon copy of any of a dozen iconic female singers we can all think of and name who are so copied to death, with the same mannerisms -and desire to hit high notes for no reason other than to show off- that it's positively draining the life and originality out of popular music in the U.S. and why so much of today's pop music is SO awful and dull.
And why so many so-called stars of today can't sing LIVE, only lip-sync and we can all name THEM!


MrHaagsesjonny1 YouTube Channel video: Anouk singing 'BIRDS'  (The Netherlands]- From first Semifinal heat of 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, Malmö, Sweden. Uploaded May 14, 2013. http://youtu.be/jAe9b-9xA7c
I selected this particular video since it shows the lyrics. 
Starting at 2:05 thru the end, this song is wow! 

This song makes me think of a really memorable song from a good 1970's film that comes up when a female character is thinking long-and-hard about what she will do to change the course of what's been happening thus far.
That, or a song you'd hear in a Broadway show where you wish the whole play was as good as that one song that you are humming the next day at work

Of course, that's the oldest story on Broadway -a musical with one good song or one good act in search of others!

What do you think of it?

Is it just me or does Anouk's face somewhat resemble actress Peggy Lipton, circa mid-1980's? http://www.spokeo.com/Peggy+Lipton+1/Feb+26+1984+Other+Photos#4887941:28568541

I wish I was smart enough to know how to describe it here on the blog in the precise and cogent musical terms and phrases I need to make myself understood, but the first time I heard the last minute of this song, and every time since, it immediately made me think of parts of the orchestration for the version of Cole Porter's "Night & Day" as played in the fictionalized 1946 film of the same name with Cary Grant playing the life of the Hoosier-born Porter, one of my all-time favorite bio-pics, even with some of the artifice.
That orchestration is like honey to me, so whenever that's playing on TCM, no matter how many dozens of times I've seen it, I can't help myself and watch it again. Always.

I just wish I could explain it!

Last-minute addition at 2:55 p.m.

Scoresheet for tonight's #eurovision show. Thank you @schlagerfiasko. twitter.com/Scanditwitchen…
— Scandinavian Kitchen (@Scanditwitchen) May 18, 2013

-----

@MargaretBerger https://twitter.com/MargaretBerger

Sweden's nationally-televised WTF (musical) car crash moment of Saturday night -Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li., performing "Mirakel"; a new low for Melodifestivalen?

Sweden's nationally-televised WTF (musical) car crash moment of Saturday night during Melodifestivalen -Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li., performing "Mirakel"

Proof that, at least in Sweden, some people love a (musical) car crash as long as they are not in it...

No, it's NOT your imagination.

I really HAVE been avoiding mentioning what's been going on thus far at this year's installment of Melodifestivalen, the iconic and nationally-televised song selection contest over five weeks that annually leads to Sweden's choice for the Eurovision Song Contest, this year, taking place in Azerbijan in a few months.

I could get into the reasons why I've NOT mentioned what's doing with familiar Hallandale Beach Blog favorites like Molly Sandén and Timoteij so far, but it's easier to say why I've broken that silence -Sweden's nationally-televised WTF (musical) car crash moment of Saturday night -Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li. 

As always, seeing is believing!

*All screen grabs on this page are from SVT by South Beach Hoosier

To say the least, the reviews of Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li are in and they are so angry, scathing and unmerciless in their pummeling, that it's a wonder that many of my friends and folks I know, like Sofie and Pernilla -who keep coming back to the blog!- who watched the show LIVE Saturday night didn't, well, blow a gasket.

Or make like Elvis and shoot their TV set! 

Though now that I think about it, maybe some of them did, since as of early Monday morning, I have NOT heard from some of them after Saturday night's deltävling 3 -Third heat-of this year's competition in Leksand, like I did after the two previous weeks the past two Saturday nights in Växjö and Göteborg, respectively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1keVBfBrVI4

I urge you to watch this video ASAP because this video will probably be yanked-off YouTube very soon by SVT for copyright reasons, but it's the only one I've seen that shows how truly horrendous the act was.

Oops! Too late. 

They already hit it and removed it since I saw it a few hours ago.

Since that's the case, watch their performance here on SVT Play's website, which will have the entire show online for viewing until MIDNIGHT Tuesday morning Stockholm/Central European Time (CET), which is one hour ahead of GMT and six hours ahead of yours truly in Miami, in U.S.  Eastern.
So the deadline for seeing this is 6 p.m. Eastern.

Get moving, because the clock is ticking!

Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li appearance starts at 0:45:58 on the vid, ends at 0:50:05.

http://svtplay.se/t/102943/melodifestivalen

I watched the show in its entirety on Sunday afternoon, taking notes.

So, did I mention that people were angry?!!!!

Apparently, more than I thought, there were thousands of people watching TV in Sweden on Saturday night who thought they'd say a big f-ck you to the Swedish music industry, and do it by spending what amounts to about two bucks to text this "car crash" -the favorite metaphor being used among Swedish bloggers to describe this performance the first 36 hours afterward- and send them directly to the Finals in Stockholm on March 10th, at Globen.

Hmm-m... imagine if a participating country's national Eurovision song selection competition was hijacked by the country's usually-friendly folket in order to send the worst possible act to Baku, Azerbijan for the actual European competition...

Hmm-m... now that's a question so preposterous and diabolical that even Stieg Larsson never thought of it while toiling away in Gamla Stan thinking of things for Lisbeth Salander to get upset about!

Yes, it's sort like what the Florida Marlins did in November in announcing their new Miami Marlins logo and uniforms for their new stadium in Little Havana... which was, itself, a rainbow-colored WTF moment as far as most fans were concerned!
Yet typically, the condescending Marlins owners and management act like this finished product is what they always wanted, and don't much care what fans really think.
They're so in love with the idea of being "bold," of marketing themselves in Latin America in pastel colors, that they've lost sight of what the real fans who actually attend their games think.

For those of you reading this outside of South Florida, I honestly DON'T see anyone wearing this stuff around the area, that is, except for the sort of person at the shopping mall who does so clearly to bring attention to themselves.
Like the sort of woman who purchases a new expensive purse or accessory and takes it with them to Sunday brunch and tried to appear blase about it, even while craning her neck to see who notices it.

Miami Marlins New Logo and Uniform

http://youtu.be/mC-zle_rk4g

Here's what some of the Usual Suspects, music-wise, have been saying so far.

Over at Scandipop, 

...it certainly got people talking, as well as voting – “Björn Ranelid” and then “Ranelid” both became wordwide trending topics on twitter last night after his performance.

At the ESC Xtra, which LIVE blogged the show, when it was finally announced that Ranelid & Li  had qualified to go directly to the Finals in Stockholm, along with Molly, they wrote simply,

I am lost for words Sweden. See ya next week…

At the more action-oriented Schlagerblog, which was not so crazy about Molly's song, either, they wrote

The big surprise for the Schlagerboys was how excited we got about Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li. Who'd have thought a bonkers orange bloke wandering around the stage rambling on in Swedish while his granddaughter prances around for the chorus in a glittery frock would be so fab! The best bit was near the end where the key change should have been, when he clearly forgot his microphone was live and started mumbling the words to the chorus. Love it!

I'll have my updates on Molly Sandén and Timoteij and what else is going on in the competition later in the week before Saturday's competition from Malmö.

-----

http://svt.se/melodifestivalen/


http://www.visitsweden.com/

Amos Barshad asks, 18 years later, How Does Ace of Base’s 'The Sign' Hold Up?; Answer: Weather's fine, jump into the pool, it's like you never left; @scandipop

Amos Barshad asks, 18 years later, "How Does Ace of Base’s The Sign Hold Up?"; Answer: Weather's fine, jump into the pool, it's like you never left.

Ace of Base - The Sign (Official)

http://youtu.be/DNPjeIamsck

In the past year or so, I've probably only wanted to post something about Ace of Base's The Sign album about... oh, 8-10 times, esp. when I saw a perfect example or analogy to the lyrics of one of the many singles that float around in my brain.

But each time, I 'pocket vetoed' myself -and you know how painful that can be.

That album, one I actually have on a shelf just a few feet away from me and my computer right now as I write this, is one of the building blocks of "Scandipop," to utter the word that is also the name of the very popular U.K.-based music blog that I've mentioned here before, which I follow and subscribe to via my Blogger Dashboard/Google Reader function, which allows me to see the first paragraph of any blog post I subscribe to within seconds of it going online, instead of waiting for an email -cool!

I subscribe and read Scandipop in large part due to Karl Batterbee's enthusiastic and wide-ranging eyes and ears for all things pop music, Scandinavian and schlager, plus so much more, namely, a keen and discerning sensibility for understanding of what music appeals to people
and why.

Even when music groups, singers or producers I'm personally not too familiar with on account of being located here in South Florida get mentioned, they're always mentioned with some helpful context for understanding them in the bigger music picture I do know very well.

You know, the "pop pantheon"?

http://www.scandipop.co.uk/

scandipop, @scandipop  https://twitter.com/scandipop

Plus, well, and it's only my opinion, Karl's a bit of a Pied Piper on his blog and because people know inherently that he pays close attention, folks in the know in and around the music business let him know what's what, which is all to our advantage, no?
.

He has an entrée to the music world that is VERY different than most bloggers or pop music reporters, because Scandipop doesn't just have enthusiastic readers who 'like' music, it has enthusiastic readers who actually BUY music, a difference WITH a distinction.

Record labels and media types in Europe pay close attention to what he says/thinks.

So, all that said, I've now got a good excuse to post something here about that album from 1993, thanks to the really expansive post Thursday at the Vulture blog of New York magazine, which I've also given a head's up to others about as well, including Karl.

(You remember 1993, right? Dan Marino injured and the one-year era of Scott Mitchell as Dolphins QB?)

Posts about the the national debt limit, meaningful cuts in spending and President Obama's flip-flopping and gamesmanship will have to wait 'til later.

I saw the sign

And it opened up my eyes

I saw the sign

No one's gonna drag you up

To get into the light where you belong

But where do you belong

New York magazine

Vulture blog

Nostalgia Fact-Check: How Does Ace of Base’s The Sign Hold Up

By Amos Barshad

July 7, 2011 at 3 p.m.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/07/nostalgia_fact_check_how_does.html

-----

Be sure to also read Karl's interview earlier this year with the two remaining members of the band: Jonas Berggren and Ulf Ekberg.

Scan magazine

The Return of Ace of Base

By Karl Batterbee

February 11, 2011

http://www.scanmagazine.co.uk/2011/02/the-return-of-ace-of-base/

Ace of Base - Don't Turn Around (Official)

http://youtu.be/INi7srItF6g

The band's official hemsida, I mean website, is at http://www.aceofbase-music.de/ but does NOT seem to be as well-maintained and updated as you'd think it ought to be considering everything. Like for instance, releasing a new CD, The Golden Ratio.

In the year 2011, you simply can't go four months without any new and original content on your website.

Just saying...

Scan magazine: http://www.scanmagazine.co.uk/

Pop culture kitsch and traditions straight from the heart of summer-loving Sweden -Lotta på Liseberg 2011 - A new year of music memories begin

TV4 Play video: Lotta på Liseberg - Direkt från Liseberg i Göteborg bjuder Lotta Engberg på allsång och kända artister June 20, 2011.

http://www.tv4play.se/noje/lotta_pa_liseberg?title=lotta_pa_liseberg&videoid=1711216&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se

Pop culture kitsch and traditions straight from the heart of summer-loving Sweden -Lotta på Liseberg 2011 - A new year of music memories begin.

Yes, I have the whole sixty-six minute long first show of the summer here, above, plus the TV commercials that will no doubt give some of you some insight into the minds of what Swedish ad agencies think will catch the attention of savvy, consumer-friendly Swedes.
Lotta's musical guests: Alexander Rybak, Orup & Le Kid, Loa Falkman, Sanna Nielsen, Matts Paulsson... with band conductor Curt-Eric Himquist.

Oh, and EVERYONE knows the lyrics.

Nobody loves celebrating sun-filled summer like Swedes, even when they have to wear jackets to a summer ritual like Lotta på Liseberg in Göteborg, a weekly Monday night music and pop culture get-together for eight weeks that's a middle-class family entertainment TV tradition that appeals to cute Soccer Moms, IM-ing teens and their younger siblings and blue-haired grandmothers -and everyone in between.

(Like the Indy 500. Feel the need, the need for speed.)

It's sort of like a combination of the current Live with Regis & Kelly TV show and the 1960's Lawrence Welk Show but on tour on a cruise ship-cum-beloved amusement park, yet with impressive audio and video technology and a pop sensibility that is uniquely Swedish, heavy on the cornpone -and schlager.

Yes, in that sense, it's got a lot in common with the next few months before the Iowa Primaries -especially the part closest to Minnesota!

The required rituals that make that political dog-chasing-its-tail routine what it is: national news reporters from New York and Washington complaining about the candidates, the summer heat -and corn- and the bicycle races -and their boredom- and corn- and pancakes breakfasts...

All of which is likely to be organized to a 'T" by someone whose last name is Petersson, Larsson, Luhrsen or Svensson, displaying some sharp organizational and logistical skills that are in very, very short supply in South Florida, as the evidence all around us clearly shows.

(Editor's Note: The Quad Cities in summer - with no ocean breezes: Good times! LOL!)

Because this particular episode of the show aired LIVE nationally on Monday night at 8 p.m., June 20th, it'll only be available to watch on TV4's Play website until probably about 6 p.m. or so Sunday U.S. Eastern.

There's currently a six-hour time difference between Sweden and Miami, and they DO keep to those time constraints, so if you are west of me and want to watch this, even for a few minutes out of curiosity, you best keep that deadline in mind.

http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/

http://goteborg.com/en/

TV4 Play's homepage for Lotta på Liseberg is chock full of embeddable clips from the show if you want to just see the songs and not the banter. More get added with each show.

http://www.tv4play.se/noje/lotta_pa_liseberg

Par exemple, here's a clip of Sanna Nielsen from Monday singing I'm in Love, which was actually taped during one of the show's commercial breaks, since they want to keep the vibes going with the LIVE audience at the famed Gothenburg amusement park.

While there is, of course, no sign, per se, at the park's entrance that says "No Hipsters Allowed," it's just sort of assumed that they would never go anywhere so happily middle-class and fun, hence, the lack of signage.

Sanna Nielsen - I'm in Love - Lotta at Liseberg, Gothenburg, Sweden, June 20, 2011

http://www.tv4play.se/noje/lotta_pa_liseberg?title=sanna_nielsen_-_i_m_in_love&videoid=1711076&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se

Just in time for the summer, Timoteij's wonderfully infectious new single "Het" hits the airwaves -with a BRILLIANT video, too!

Timoteij - Het (Officiell Musikvideo)

http://youtu.be/AzoRucqYers

Make sure you watch this on a full screen for maximum effect.

En somrig hit? (A summer hit?)

Yes!

It will probably come as no surprise to those among you reading this blog who have an interest in this subject that I've been reading and hearing a lot about the new Timoteij single being released for awhile now.

But the first time I actually heard "Het" for myself -sans video and the rap opening that both jolts you and catches your attention- came last weekend, a few days after it was featured on May 12th P4 homepage for Sveriges Radio's Daniel Kjellander and Jenny Lindeborg, who host a four-hour morning show.

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=730&artikel=4500881

Obviously, I don't listen to SR all the time, probably more like a couple of times a month out of curiosity, and the truth here is that I simply got a tip from someone I trust and followed it up -and took a listen myself.
You may well remember that I previously mentioned here that I'd been having some computer problems and all last week, esp. with my speakers?

In any case, it's just as well that I didn't post about that SR link, because I didn't have access last weekend to this tres charmant video and THAT's what really makes this particular song POP and sets it apart!

And didn't Johanna (Pettersson) tell us only on Wednesday, on their blog, how truly sick -"cruel"- it would be when we all saw it for ourselves?

Yes, she did, saying "Den är grym! Såå bra! Hurra!?"

http://www.timoteij.se/2011/05/18/musikvideoteaser/

OMG, it's even better than advertised!

First off, there's a whole lot more going-on in this sweet and catchy -and ingenious- video than seems readily apparent at first viewing -a whole lot more, which is why you have to watch it a number of times on full screen to catch some of the clever touches.

To me at least, parts of both the song and the video have an almost Nashville-centered feel to it, like certain very popular female Country Western acts you and I can both think of.

Giving a video a real sense of place and reality is very, very smart, actually.

I dare you not to be hooked by the second time you play it, and actually know what to expect with the whole switch in tone at the beginning from the typical rap 'intro' and the appearance of the long white stretch limousine

and paparazzi at the ready, to the looks of, first, dismay

"That's NOT schlager, that's hip-hop!"

and then quickly, delight on the faces of the little girls and boys wearing those popular pink and blue Timoteij skull caps when the band cruise in,

"Here they come!"

emerging from their sweet cherry red Skoda -embossed with their name in script on the hood and a silhouette of them on the sides.

Adorable autograph hounds at the ready!

Oh-so much cuter with a Skoda!

http://www.timoteij.se/2010/05/05/timoteij-kor-skoda-2/
http://www.skoda-auto.com/COM/Pages/homepage.aspx

http://personbilar.toveksbil.se/artikel/17088/det-finns-en-fabia-for-alla.html

Photos of the band with their individual cherry red Skodas back in Skövde:

http://personbilar.toveksbil.se/101/artikel/351/timoteij-kor-skoda.html
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=390108438751

(Johanna didn't have her license yet when they got the sponsorship deal.)

And in case you were wondering, yes, those pink and blue Timoteij-embossed skull caps ARE ridiculously popular, as even a cursory look at many of the photos or video of their touring the past year has made abundantly clear, where you see them everywhere, and NOT just on kids.

I almost bought one of them last year for my youngest niece, aged ten, up in Maryland, and while not naming names, I have some friends in Sweden who bought a lot of them for stocking stuffers and such, even giving some blue ones to their more hard-edged heavy metal male friends and work colleagues as a joke.
(But they had to wear them out in public, of course.)

The slower, quieter part of the song that kicks in at 2:30 or so, starting with a shot of Elina (Thorsell), is a great change of pace and really brings the attention back to the quartet's sweet harmonies that these four do so consistently, seemingly, effortlessly.

Here's a video they recorded of their behind-the-scenes preparation for the "Het" music video, and yes, that is Taylor Swift playing in the background; they love Taylor Swift!

Timoteij spelar in musikvideo - Förberedelser

http://youtu.be/wtnYFjsBaeg

(Pictured above: Elina)

This is the quartet's first video on their "official" YouTube Channel.
More on that in a minute.

Speaking of summer, or as one person I know who has spent many, many winters in Sweden puts it, the first time you have seven days in a row when it's NOT freezing, here's a short vid from Expressen TV last August, showing how willing the girls are to indulge the media to get some attention for their self-evident talent -singing while swimming in a pool.

http://tv.expressen.se/noje/1.2086679/har-badar-timoteij-i-bajsvatten

One of the other things I've sort of been waiting to mention here on the blog for a bit, thinking the new single was the time to mention it, was that there is -FINALLY- an official YouTube Channel for Timoteij, even though their fans have been pretty good the past year at uploading videos they shoot of them on tour around the country or even their TV appearances -per Nyhetsmorgon, Lotta på Liseberg, Sommarkrysset and Allsång på Skansen.

http://www.expressen.se/1.2078733

Timoteij - Högt över ängarna (Hoch Ubber Den Wiesen) Live Habo FestivalenTag [Ultra-HQ] -High Above the Meadows.

http://youtu.be/owoZ6gBHj4M

(Pictured above: Bodil, Cecilia and Elina)

Timoteij - Ingen idé

http://youtu.be/JKqpY4ve_xY

(Pictured above: Cecilia and Johanna)

Here's the URL for their Official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TimoteijOfficial

As it turns out, your faithful blogger and friend Dave was their second subscriber.

For what it's worth, I have actually mentioned to them via an email that I thought that their very amusing videos on their official -not fake- Facebook page, located at

http://www.facebook.com/timoteij.official were full of personality and often hysterical, especially the ones where they were traveling and Elina was acting as cinematographer from the back seat -82 videos as of a few days ago at http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=286938310265&s=0 - and really needed to be shared with more people via an official YouTube Channel they controlled.

Whether or not they will start putting those sort of funny videos up at this new channel, I can't say for sure, but this first one is certainly a good sign and when I hear something, I will share the news with you here.

Timoteij's official blog: http://www.timoteij.se/

See also:

You’re Making Me….HET HET HET!

by SCANDIPOP on MAY 20, 2011

http://www.scandipop.co.uk/?p=5859

Lionheart Sweden's YouTubeChannel

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

http://www.leg.se/

Only in Sweden, my friends! Drag act 'After Dark,' Timoteij, et al perform on dynamic kids show 'Den Flygande Mattan'; Nothing like it in U.S.!

Christer Lindarw (After Dark) - La Dolce Vita/Mamma Mia from SVT Barnkanalen's "Den Flygande Mattan" March 2011. (With lyrics)http://youtu.be/boVS7_XETBA
Only in Sweden, my friends, only in Sweden!


Ever-vigilant Darin over at popular music blog Scandipop got it right a few months ago regarding fashion designer Christer Lindarw's alter ego musical drag act, 'After Dark' performing on SVT's Children Channel's dynamic show, 'Den Flygande Mattan' -The Flying Carpet, just a few weeks after the talented women of Timotiej performed there, too.


Don’t mind doing it for the kids…
by scandipop on February 14, 2011
http://www.scandipop.co.uk/?p=4862


I was laughing, smiling and crying at the same time at the image of the whole thing, above, whether the young boys in suits and fedoras dancing like they were a Vegas act during La Dolce Vita, http://svt.se/content/1/c8/02/35/27/57/dfm_after_dark.jpg
or the eager little girls doing their best Agnetha and Anni-Frid impression during Dancing Queen, when Christer was walking into the audience and they sang along without any coaxing.
It was fabulous!


FYI: The dancers are students at BASE23 Stockholm Dance Academy


I actually started a blog post about SVT's wry, whimsical and pop music-heavy kids show 'Den Flygande Mattan' back in January after I came across a particularly cute clip while looking for something else from the SVT Play website.

Here's the show's animated intro:


http://youtu.be/HAzAMpUvjOY
(The name of the show's band -with a cute female drummer no less- is The Flying Carpets.)


I added a little here and there as various artists I know and have followed performed their songs on this popular show, which is hosted by the talented and vivacious Sara Edwardsson.


She is a DYNAMO and has the perfect personality for the show, upbeat like a favorite aunt who knows lots of interesting things she wants to share and impart and never talks down to you just because you are a kid.
Not that I had an aunt like that, but I sure wanted one.


(Slight digression: When I was in high school, a popular and otherwise smart girl I knew somehow, on her own, mistakenly got it into her head that actress Jaclyn Smith was my aunt, since my mother and I were both born in Texas, my mother's hair looked very similar and we had the same last name. Really.
I let that confusion play itself out over a few weeks, but it was a nice thought and certainly a 'fact' that I could've happily lived with!)


Then, in early March, Timoteij performed some songs and I took some notes about that:
http://www.timoteij.se/2011/02/03/den-flygande-mattan-2/
http://svt.se/content/1/c8/02/35/27/57/dfm_timotej.jpg

Timoteij - Kom - from SVT Barnkanalen's "Den Flygande Mattan" February 2011. (With lyrics). http://youtu.be/zj4B2BEvRks



Then, almost as if on cue, everything about that post I'd spent time on disappeared when the power in the neighborhood suddenly went out.

Oh, and that fail-safe automatic Save function on Blogger that's supposed to automatically keep my stuff here from disappearing entirely into the ether by accident or screw-up, well, not so much. It did save the title, but, of course, that was the least important part of the effort.


A few weeks later, I noticed that Darin at Scandipop had written on March 14th about Christer Lindarw performing his drag act on the show -after I'd already seen it for myself via the SVT Play website.

After Dark, but pre-watershed!
by scandipop on March 14, 2011http://www.scandipop.co.uk/?p=5227


I decided that I'd needed to re-write my original post as best I could remember, so that those of you who have never seen it, 100% of you, can get some sense about how truly cute and amusing it is. But I'd already forgotten a lot so...


The 'one-of-these-days' post about why South Florida currently seems to have about ZERO original LIVE English-language programming for children in what is supposed to be such a "creative community" -go ahead, just ask them over at LIV on South Beach and they'll tell you how clever they are!- will have to wait for another time.

Until then, I will just throw out a small south Florida shout-out into the blogosphere for:

a.) Chuck Zink and The Skipper Chuck Show on the old Channel 4 when it was WTVJ, which I was at a few times as an audience member when that was a very tough ticket to score;

b.) Banjo Billy's Fun Boat on Channel 10, WLBW, not WPLG-TV, in the late '60's, where the hook was amiable host Dave Herbert playing Dixieland music, not exactly that hip then -or now- but definitely outside-the-box thinking.

c.) Sunday Funnies, the Sunday morning staple of the then-WCKT, wherein actual Channel 7 news reporter Wayne Chandler -when it was an NBC-affilate during the Dolphins' heyday- read the Herald's Sunday comics along with a robot named Toby, that for all the world looked to be in a very large plastic garbage can.
http://www.theparklander.com/previous/july04/Toby.htmYes, what a potpourri: New Orleans Dixieland music, a dark blue Captain's cap and the Sunday comics and a robot when Charles Schultz's Peanuts was still the most popular newspaper comic strip in the country.
And now on local TV we have... what?
ZERO!

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Speaking of children's television, tell me where the local equivalent in South Florida was this past week for this story I found on SVT's Lilla Aktuellt, about a Swedish girl named Anna that was born on September 11th, 2001, about what it's like to have your birthday be a day that most people think of in such a negative way, or what she thinks about what happened to Osama bin Laden?
http://svt.se/2.62895/hem


In the South Florida media market of today, kids under 13 get on TV because they are cute or fat or stupid or are shot dead in drive-bys or graduate from high school when they are 11 or have rich parents who book a big-name music act for their bar mitzvah or call 911 when their mother falls asleep in a drug-fueled haze and their baby sister has wandered out of the apt. or fallen into the pool or...
But mostly, when they are on TV, they are shown in a store buying something.
It's so predictable!


But where's the Miami TV stations' attempt to serve that particular demographic?



SVT's Lilla Aktuellt video: Anna föddes samma dag som terrordåden
(Anna was born on the same day as the 9/11 attacks)
Video available for watching on website until May 3, 2012.
http://svtplay.se/v/2415038/anna_foddes_samma_dag_som_terrordaden


Lilla Aktuellt homepage/hemsida: http://svt.se/2.62895/hem


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See also:
http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/