Lena Philipsson and Orup will tour across Sweden this autumn. They have just released a new single, a new album is on the way and their successful show will air on Saturday, on SVT at 20:30 . And according to Lena Philipsson, she will not compete as a wildcard in Melodifestivalen 2009. In a recent interview, Lena spoke about the eastern countries' impact on Eurovision, the reasons behind Sweden's disappointing placings and gave her opinion on the next act to represent her country in Moscow.

Lena Philipsson and Orup have worked together since 2004, when their working collaboration began with the song Det gör ont/It hurts that won that year. Since then Oruphas writtensongs for Philipsson's latest two albums Det gör ont en stund på natten men inget på dan and Jag ångrar ingenting. They joined forces for the show Lena+Orup in Stockholm in January 2007. Since then the show has been sold out.

This autumn they are going to take the show on tour across Sweden. But first, SVT will broadcast 90 minutes of the show on Saturday 27th of September. The show Lena+Orup includes most of the team's big hits, lots of humour, glamour and show numbers.

Lena was one of the guests on the TV show Carin 21:30 on SVT last week, the topic was “The threat from the east”. Lena was there to talk about the eastern countries' impact on the Eurovision Song Contest and why Charlotte Perrelli didn’t get a better place in the final. Lena said that she thinks the eastern countries are hungrier for victory and their entries are more contemporary than Swedish ones.

She says that it seems it’srather the younger generation that writes the songs in the eastern countries. Melodifestivalen needs new songwriters, new selection and a more open audience that votes. An international jury in the Melodifestivalen will not make much of a difference, she believes, it is rather all aboutgetting the right songs from the beginning in the process. "In the final it’s a bit too late to do anything about it", Lena said.She also stated that she is not too enthusiastic about the idea of the juries in Moscow "Sweden has to endure setbacks and comeback and try to get back in the game.", she concluded.

Lena also stated she has no plans to be in Melodifestivalen 2009. It’s too close to the Det gör ont performance with the microphone stand still in fresh in the memory and maybe she should hand over to the new generation instead.When asked“which artist do you think Sweden should send to the Eurovision Song Contest next year" she answered "I think we should send BWO, so we can see if they are so international as they always say they are, that would be interesting. "

This week, the duo release the single Nu när du gått, that received good reviews on the Swedish media. The following album Dubbel will be released on 12th of November. The album includes eight duet songs and one solo for both Lena and Orup. Orup has written five songs himself and the other five together with Lena. The song Jag måste skynda mig på was also on the album Lena 20 år that was released in 2007.

Lena Philipsson & Orup – Nu när du gått video (new single)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IXl-jOuch0