Way to go Sweden!

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By Mari Manninen in Stockholm
     
      First I thought that I had just had some bad luck when choosing my friends. I found myself growing tired at Swedish parties where the others could talk for ages about the Eurovision Song Contest. Who won in which year? Which song should win this year?
      Then I was asked why Finland always has such dreadful songs. How should I know?
      After spending two winters in Stockholm, I am now aware that the Eurovision Song Contest - Melodifestivalen in Swedish - unites Sweden and makes the whole country go wild.
      The Eurovision competition is what people discuss while sipping their coffee during breaks, and the events are closely covered by the media.
      Now you are wondering what the big deal is - after all, the competition is being followed in Finland at the moment as well.
      But I am not talking about this weekend. I am talking about the entire Swedish spring.
     
In Sweden, the Eurovision Song Contest lasts for months. First come the national qualifying rounds, which take place every weekend for over one month, followed by the grand finale. The qualifiers are quite a spectacle, broadcast live on television from sports arenas all over Sweden. Around ten new songs and performers fighting every weekend for the honour to represent Sweden!
      The artists always include some big names as well. This year, Baccara and E-Type vied for the Swedish Eurovision slot.
      The people then vote en masse via their telephones, earning various charities handsome sums.
     
The progress of the national race is covered with huge headlines and in minute detail in the tabloids, and the regular broadsheet newspapers also devote quite a bit of space to the national rounds.
      Even the presenters of the national qualifiers become big stars. Last year, the presenter was Mark Levengood, a Swedish-speaking Finn who has long lived in Sweden. The popularity of the already liked man skyrocketed.
      Women in bars even sighed to my husband that he speaks just like Mark Levengood. This is a sign of the emotional Eurovision mood that the Swedes get in: it is still a long stretch from the Swedish spoken by a native Finn to Levengood's Swedish, which is considered extremely sexy.
     
The public debate does not only concern how good the songs are, but particular attention is paid to how well they fit the Eurovision profile: is there a suitable amount of pop, jingles, and glitter?
      And a question that is by no means the least significant: Is the singer's outfit appropriate? The skirt too long or too short? Is the colour right? A decent amount of sexiness in the back-up dance group, but not too much?
      Comments like these are published by the leading daily newspapers in Sweden.
      The Eurovision competition is also pondered more profoundly. In an interview with Dagens Nyheter, researchers discussed if the high culture has already accepted the schlager songs of the lower classes. The answer was that perhaps not, but more and more Swedes love schlager.
     
In the same interview, the researchers also answered the question that always amuses the Swedes, or why Finland never does well. "We are more upbeat. It simply is so. Finland is too gloomy, too sombre - they get no points for glamour", explained Tiina Rosenberg.
      The success of Sweden is surely also based on the fact that Swedes have always sung more than Finns, both at family gatherings and fancy banquets.
      And since Sweden has done so well in the Eurovision competitions with their ABBAs and boys singing diggi-loo diggi-ley, the competition has become a self-fulfilling ritual that the Swedish people adore.
     
For the Swedish music producers of this particular genre, the Eurovision competition is naturally a huge money-making machine. The annual rounds of the national competition need numerous new, catchy songs.
      In addition to the old names, they need to find new attractive female and male performers, and preferably girl bands as well.
      When such entertainment machinery has been set up, is it any wonder that the Swedes are so successful in the Eurovision competitions?
      When you watch the Eurovision competition tonight, root for Sweden's Lena Philipsson! The Swedes have deserved it!
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 15.5.2004
     
     
Translator's Note: The cheering wasn't enough. Sweden came in 5th, level on points with Cyprus. Then again, do not let it be said that the Finns let them down: Finnish televoters placed Sweden on top of the pile, as did Norwegian voters. Local loyalties? Perhaps, but then again the poor Norwegians got nothing out of us, and had it not been for the three charity votes supplied by the kindly Swedes, they would have been in the "null points" club that the UK joined last year. Finland is an honorary life-member.


Links:
  Eurovision Song Contest

MARI MANNINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
mari.manninen@hs.fi