Thomas G:Son, who has already composed two Swedish Eurovision Song Contest entries and uncountable songs for various national finals, seems not to be tired at all. In fact, just like last year, his songs reached the national selections in three different countries, Sweden, Norway and Spain. If he won all these finals, he would be the first composer to represent three countries at a time! In 2006, he already participated as a composer for three countries: in Sweden (six entries), Norway and Latvia, winning only in Sweden. Tonight he and co-writer in Spain, Antonio Sánchez-Ohlsson spoke exclusively to esctoday.com.
Sweden (complete line-up here)
Likeevery year since 2001, some of his songs qualified for Melodifestivalen. Being last year's winner with Evighet, performed by Carola (5th in Athens as Invincible), he will havetwo songs in the semi finals: Samba sambero (Anna Book) andAmanda (co-composer, to be performed by Jimmy Jansson). In 2001, he already co-composed the Swedish entry Listen to your heartbeat that finished also 5th, performed by Friends.
Norway (complete line-up here)
For Norway, he co-composed the entry Rocket Ride to be sung by Jannicke Abrahamsen andwrote the songVen a bailar conmigo for Guri Schanke by himself. Last year, he has been already succesful in Norway as the composer of Queentastic's Absolutely Fabulous that finished third in the final and second in the OGAE second chance contest.
Spain
Today, the 15 songs the Spanish entry for 2007 will be chosen from were published, two of them (co-)composed by Thomas G:Son: Bailame and I love you mi vida.
Speaking exclusively to esctoday.com this evening, Thomas told us:
"I'm so excited, it's a great song, I've been working on the song for a while now with Rebeca, and we actually recorded it first time. I'm honoured to be involved with a song selected for the Spanish comptetion"
With Rebeca co-writing and also performing as a singer in the heats, we asked Thomas G:son if she would have an advantage in the final if both she and the song qualified. Heexplained that: "I write a song for an artist, That's the way I work, and this song was written for her. We then work the mix and improve it, so if the song wins, I guess she may have an advantage but I haven't heard the other songs or artists, so it's impossible to even guess what will happen".
In one of our favourite replies to an interview question, we asked Thomas if he speaks Spanish, the reply was short, sharp and sprinkled with hillarity: "No! But I sing it alot".
Thomas was brought into the Spanish process by Antonio Sánchez-Ohlsson. We also spoke exclusively to him via telephone this evening and asked how it felt to been successful in getting not only his first national selection acceptance, but two at the same time:
"It's what I've always wanted to do. I know the recent history in Spain is not so promising, and I decided that I want my coutnry to win and I hope I can help to be part of it, it is really great".
Antonio explained that Rebeca's song "is not a traditional Schlager song. It was written especially for Rebecca, and we had no idea that the format would change to Mision Eurovision. Rebeca decided not to withdraw, and put the song up for grabs to anyone in the hope that she could win the competition. She was very brave and very generous, and we're just hoping that the gamble pays off. We think it's a song that appeals to all people, you can hear hints of the Spanish guitar, some lyrics in English, an arabic twist".
If Thomas G:Son succeeds in all three countries, he would be the first composer to represent three countries at one Eurovision Song Contest. There are strong rumours that he has a song ready to submit to the United Kingdom as well, so he can afford one slip if that is accepted. Previously, Ralph Siegel (Luxembourg & Germany in 1980) and Dieter Bohlen (Austria & Germany in 1989) managed to do so for two countries. All in all, he might already be called the busiest composer in the 2007 national final season!
