Esctoday.com reporter Alexander Borodin was present during the Stockholm Schlagerkvällen, last Thursday. Read the report and check out the pictures!
Check out the gallery here!
The Eurovision night, (Schlagerkvällen) a part of the Stockholm Pride Festival was held for the 7th time last night. The event has become a tradition since 1998 and is always the most popular and well-visited event during the Stockholm Pride. The organizer and host Christer “Mr. Melodifestivalen” Björkman (Representative for Sweden 1992) wanted to create a little bit different show this year compared to what it has been the latest years. In the same time not forgetting the old goodies and classics of the Swedish Melodifestivalen and the Eurovision. The theme for this year was “tradition and renewal” and the night was also called “Eurovision hardcore” in the program. This meant that many of the artists and songs selected this year is a part of the forgotten classics and not always the selection those people who are used to hear the famous Eurovision classics expects.
As always Björkman puts a lot of effort into finding all those old Melodifestivalen and Eurovision artists across every corner of Sweden and Europe. This means a lot beloved returns and a lot of surprises for the audience. This year 33 artists appeared in total on stage, 29 of them were performing for the very first time on the Eurovision night at Pride Park. As usual the artists participating are kept a secret until they finally enter the stage � this makes the Eurovision night at Stockholm Pride so entertaining and exciting every year!
The evening become wonderful with a blue sky, sunshine and a temperature of 25 C. The first day of real summer weather this year after months with only dark clouds and rain over Northern Europe. An audience consisting of approximately 25,000 very happy people had gathered for this special event at the Pride Park Area at Södermalm, Stockholm. The Eurovision night is by tradition divided into two acts, the songs and artists from the Swedish Pre-selection Melodifestivalen and the second act consisting of the International artists and songs from the Eurovision.
The Swedish act become very intern and many of the songs are quite forgotten even for a Swedish audience. But as usual many of the artists from this year�s edition of Melodifestivalen dropped by and sung their songs. From this year: well-known names as Petra Nielsen, Shirley Clamp, Pay-TV, Anne-Lie Rydé, Towa Carson and After Dark amongst others appeared on stage. All of this mixed with various anecdotes, medleys of classic songs and also a special “Melodifestivalen” version of the TV gameshow Jeopardy. When Towa Carson (Melodifestivalen 1967, 2004) sung her song, a mysterious lady accompanied her on piano. This lady turned out to be no more less than the legendary Inger Bergren, Swedens contribution to the Eurovision 1962. She sang her song “Sol och vår” with huge enthusiasm, and all the people in the Pride Park loved it and took her to their hearts. Other things that might interest an international audience was the re-union of the group Chips, (Eurovision 1982) with famous group member Kikki Danielsson (Eurovision 1982, 1985 and a lot of Melodifestivalen) she performed her Eurovision hit from 1985, “Bra Vibrationer”.
The Swedish act ended with After Dark, consisting of the Drag-Queen performers Chriser Lindarw and Lars Flinckman (Melodifestivalen 2004) “La Dolce Vita.” But at the end of the song when Lars Flinkman is supposed to enter the stage and join Lindarw on stage. The legendary Eva Dahlgren instead appeared on it! Eva Dahlgren is very famous in Sweden and very beloved. The audience gave her a big applause and the atmosphere become almost a bit religious in the Pride Park. She performed her legendary Melodifestivalen entry from 1980 “Jag ger mig inte” (I will never surrender). This marked the end of the first act of the Eurovision night 2004.
The second act began with loudspeakers welcoming the audience to the 50th Eurovision Song Contest. Christer Björkman entered the stage together with Karin Falck as the evening�s presenters. Björkman looking older and more tired than ever before with his new haircut. Falck however, the legendary program leader of the Eurovision Song Contest from Stockholm 1975 was looking more young and energetic than ever before. Tonight she took revenge for her wrong doings and blunders she did back in 1975. Karin Falck was very professional the evening through and proved that she truly belongs to the Eurovision hall of fame. Some cut outs from the Eurovision of 1975 was showed on the big screens at the stage. Björkman and Falck then declared that this Eurovision night would be a 50th birthday celebration for the Eurovision in advance. A lot of medleys were sung throughout the evening with historic Eurovision hit songs all the way back from the 50�s until the present day.
The first international guest was Ines from Estonia (Eurovision 2000) performing her Eurovision hit “Once in a lifetime” a song that has already become a true classic. Ines seemed to enjoy her performance at Pride Park, and she was truly loved by the audience, although she is not seventeen years old anymore. Then Malta�s favorite son, Fabrizio Faniello entered the stage with his European summer hit of 2001 and his Eurovision entry from the very same year “Another Summer Night”. Fabrizio looked more handsome than ever before and many in the audience probably took him straight to their hearts. It�s a pity that his later career in Malta after the Eurovision has not been so noticed yet. But he still continues to participate in Malts national selections and his performance at Pride Park proved that he is still young and has an outstanding star quality that should give him a good chance to do a comeback in Eurovision in the future.
Finlands Laura entered the stage with her “Addicted to you”. People in Pride Park liked this song, and it�s a mystery that it scored so badly in the Eurovision 2002, Björkman also commented that this song should have earned more points then.
Two maybe less known artist of the Eurovision then showed up. The three time competitor for Denmark, last time in 1988, Kirsten Siggard, part of the group “Hot Eyes”, dazzled the audience with her star quality. Maybe a bit forgotten in Eurovision history and less known by the younger Eurovision audience, but she is a true star in Denmark who have continued to have a great career after the Eurovision. The professional stage performance of her was one of the best this evening.
After Kirsten Siggard, Cyprus Alexandros Panayi (Eurovision 1995 and 2000) performed his eurovision entrys ” Sti Fotia” and when performing his song “Nomiza” he got help by Sweden�s new star Shirley Clamp (Melodifestivalen 2003, 2004), filling in for Christina Argyri who sang in the original version. This new constellation looked really great and Shirley sang it in a way that made you wonder if Greek is her native language.
Alexandros was not the last Cypriot of this evening. Lisa Andreas suddenly entered the stage. Pride Park become totally silent when listening to her enchanted voice. People holding their lighters above their heads and the atmosphere in the Park become magic when she performed her entry “Stronger Every minute” from this year�s Eurovision. Although so young, she is very secure on stage and can create that aura and special direct contact with her audiences as usually only the most professional artists can do.
Turkeys best placing before last years victory in Riga. Sebnem Paker, from the Eurovision 1996 and 1997, performed on stage with her two very Turkish songs that was her entrances those years . “Besinci Mevsim
Coming closer to the evenings Grande finale the last super stars of the evening now entered the stage. Linda Martin, from Ireland remembered for her victory in the Eurovision 1992 with Johnny Logan�s song “Why Me” performed it as if she just had won the Eurovision again. Linda Martins performance was truly one of the most beautiful this evening and many people got small tears on their eyes. After Linda, Lou from Germany entered the stage with last years smash hit “Let�s get happy”. The audience in the Pride Park now becoming very enthusiastic and Lou was creating a great sing-a-long. Everyone now thought that this was it for the evening. Who can top Lou with her Let�s get happy and be gays? Yes, there is someone who can do that, no more less than Greeks favorite hunk Sakis Rouvas of course!
Entering the stage under the Rainbow flag – Sakis Rouvas stunned the audience whilst performing “Shake it” from this years Eurovision. With enormous energy and heat he did his song better than during the ESC in Istanbul. Sakis was not afraid of showing off on stage. Half-naked he satisfied the even most skeptic people present at the Pride Park. It was almost close that people in the Park began to take of their clothes too! But before that happened the evening was finished. As a tradition all the participating artists rejoined on stage and got their flowers whilst singing ABBA�s “Waterloo” from 1974. Christer Björkman and Karin Falck welcomed everyone back next year.
After the concert some artists gathered for a while at the backstage but some could also be seen walking around the many tents in Pride Park and enjoying themselves. Stockholm Pride is an event open for all happy people that likes gay cultures as for example the Eurovision. There has been an increase of visitors from all over Europe and if you like the Eurovision, The Eurovision night at Stockholm Pride has almost become an institution as obvious as the Eurovision Song Contest itself. It�s definitely worth a visit to Stockholm if you like the Eurovision.
This didn�t mean that Stockholm�s Pride�s Eurovision hysteria is over for this year, Saturday Ruslana will pay a visit in Pride Park with eight dancers. As a part of the great After-Parade concert. My guess is also that we can expect some more surprise visits on Saturday. Because there was a lot of other artist�s many people missed as for example Sweden�s own Lena PH.
Esctoday.com will of course give a full report on all upcoming Eurovision related activities on Stockholm Pride, Stay tuned!
