Swedish~ Stereo~

Erik Linder's newest album has included really nice surprise - the song "Så Länge Hjärtat Slår" written by Måns Zelmerlöw and Hanne Sørvaag together with Dan Sundquist (producer of Anna Bergendahl's "This Is My Life" and Didrik Solli-Tangen's "My Heart Is Yours").
The song has turned to be a schlager-ballad slightly old-school but with a good classic growth from intimate piano-intro to a big cinematic culmination. Hanne has provided vocals for album version of the song but it was Erik's girlfriend - Timoteij's Elina who has performed it in Bingolotto few days ago.
I should remind you that Måns has also co-written track "Hello Goodbye" for another hot Swedish-Norwegian duo of Erik Segerstedt and Tone Damli and they'll be performing it in the second heat of Melodifestivalen-2013.

Like probably it happens in every country some Swedish pop-stars are usually involved in doing voices of Disney cartoons and I already told you about Joakim Berg and Ola making their Disney contributions.
I already mentioned Måns and Molly singing in Swedish parts of Tangled characters but as a new Disney compilation (including also tracks with Jessica Andersson, Peter Jöback and Brandur) is out it's a good reason to remind you about beautiful duo of Måns and Molly "Nu När Jag Ser Dig" which has become its first track.
Thanks for the tip to Popdrömmen.

Lotta and Måns have finished seasons of their summer TV-shows this week, anyway we still have three Sommarkryssets more and a bunch of great performances from Skansen and Liseberg to re-watch.
Except Sarah Dawn Finer's, David Lindgren's and Hagsätra Sport's performances I already told about I should mention wonderful Lena Philipsson's TV-comeback after her husband's betrayal that she has accepted very hard. Linnea Henrikson has got a green light from Christer Björkman to take part in next year's Melodifestivalen. Måns has shaven his beard right during the show. Gina Derawi with Justin Bieber's cover was already a big highlight of the concert in Skansen (she's curent favorite to host Allsång next year by odds if Måns will refuse).

Linnea Henriksson - Alice
Linnea Henriksson - Härligt härligt men farligt farligt
Christer Björkman och Lotta Engberg - Sånt é livet
Linnea Henriksson - Alice
Lena Philipsson - Stjärnorna
Petra Mede & Anna Granath - Peace 3007
Anders Lundin och Måns Zelmerlöw - Gå upp och pröva dina vingar
Måns Zelmerlöw - Änglahund

Måns Zelmerlöw's upcoming album (planned for this Autumn) seems to be much more real than we expected after "MZW" non-cover album released more than 3 years ago. As a proof we've got a piece of a brand new song played by Måns on the radio from his mobile phone and it has turned to a beautifully growing piano-based ballad, hard to judge by such a small sample but it already sounds really promising.
Right now Måns hosts the last show of Allsång på Skansen and he doesn't close the door for SVT to invite him next year.
As a bonus I attach recent Måns' performance at Sommarlov.

Ladies and gentlemen, here's the greatest schlager-medley I've seen so far! Melodifestivalen-stars have joined forces on Gaygalan to perform for Christer Björkman and it has turned to 15 minutes of schlager-classics from Shirley Clamp, Love Generation, Andreas Johnson, Sarek, Sanna Nielsen, Linda Bengtzing, Afro-dite, Jenny Silver, Malena Ernman, Swingfly, Måns Zelmerlöw, Charlotte Perelli. Incredible summarizing of the latest Melodifestivalen decade!

Swedish TV-channels keep presenting some nice music surprises and we've got pretty...unusual combination of artists from TV4. Shirley Clamp and Thomas Di Leva. Seems like this company was missing Dead By April to make idea of this concert even more weird but as Di Leva has become a new schlager-star and undoubtedly on the way to deliver new "Min Kärlek" we can see a point. TV4 has blocked whole concert from foreigners again so we can't watch everything Shirley has performed but still here are some videos appearing on youtube.

Kalle Moraeus is responsible for Christmas mood on SVT and he has got three incredible guests in a series of small acoustic performances you can watch online as well - Malena Ernman, Sarah Dawn Finer and Måns Zelmerlöw. We already start loving TV-Sarah and now absolutely sure she can be amazing host.

Merry Christmas, dear readers! Swedish TV presents a nice set of Christmas concerts with wonderful bunch of Swedish pop artists and we're gonna check what you've probably missed but still can watch online.

TV3's Julkonsert was visited by Thomas Di Leva with new single "Julens Stjärna" (5.15), Takida performing their latest promoted track "You Learn" (11.50), Jill Johnson expectedly singing "I väntan på julen" (16.07) and "Away in a manger" (33.12), Erik Hassle and (seems like really new track, I still can't find any info) "Stay" (24.30) and wonderful Loreen making acoustic version of "My Heart Is Refusing Me" (28.40) with One Voice featuring Caroline Jönsson, Britta Bergström and Simon Hassle.

Last snippet of JulLotta included performances of Magnus Carlsson with new Christmas single "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" (7.35) and "O Helga Natt" (38.30), Elisa's "Jag Säger Som Det Är" (10.55) and they've even made folk-and-artists-karaoke "White Christmas" in duo (26.40) and "Vi Äro Musikanter" (35.40).

Yesterday we've got special Bingolotto show with premiere of "Last Christmas" from Youngblood I already wrote about, guys have come back once again to perform "All I Want For Christmas Is You" with their future schlager-rival Molly Sandén (1.57.15), you could also watch Robert Wells with Vocalettes (00.40, 2.50.08) and Sofia Källgren singing recently released Christmas duo "I Julens Tid" (2.14.00), Jill Johnson making "Christmas With You" solo (54.34) and singing "En julsaga" in duo with Niklas Hjulström (1.44.50). Idol-2011 runner-up Robin Stjernberg was performing cover of Beyonce's "Halo" (1.09.50).

And finally a small acoustic piece of Christmas-Måns who should've appeared on any/every of these concerts but has just performed newest single "Kära Vinter" at #AdamLive.

New album of Måns Zelmerlöw "Kära Vinter" has turned not that new as we expected being just new edition of last year's "Christmas With Friends" containing two new tracks - "Kära Vinter" and classic cover "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", both songs were performed today in Nyhetsmorgon. Måns always delivers a lot of charm and warm friendly atmosphere in his live-performances and this one wasn't exception.

Grand surprise from Måns Zelmerlöw! Second year in a row Måns is going to release a new album with classic Christmas covers of his favorite songs and the brand new single "Kära Vinter" is written by him with Peter Nordahl och Moh Denebi, one of Måns' old collaborators.
Earlier I wrote about Måns' work on new album where he planned to keep on searching his own music image and half of the album in Oskar Linnros style he previously recorded but has decided not to release after Oskar's album. And "Kära Vinter" really has vibes of Oskar's stuff rather than sounding like classic Christmas track and it's quite far from "Christmas With Friends" swing but it's really warm atmospheric tune Swedish audience should enjoy listening on the radio in this period.
Though there's no official press-releases regarding new album you can already check the single below.

Måns Zelmerlöw who was keeping Swedish pop fans like forever since the last pop-album he made in 2009 right after his Melodifestivalen participance (we don't mention his Christmas album as it was pretty experimental step aside from his pop-trend) has revealed to Aftonbladet what he's currently about musically.
Around year ago Måns' have written half of album in Swedish and was pretty satisfied with the result before he has heard albums of Daniel Adams-Ray and Oskar Linnros which sounded so complete for him that he has decided that he'll need either loads of time to rework his own texts or to move in completely different direction.
Currently Måns is back to his album project and as he revealed he doesn't want to sound like he did before, it will be either songs in Swedish or more pop-rock sounding material but the main idea is that Måns is going to sound different and to get more honest in his music.
Singer doesn't plan to come back to Melodifestivalen next year and Aftonbladet admits a chance he'll get back to Allsång på Skansen next year though it will be clear only this winter when contracts are gonna be signed.

New week - new pleasant summer evening in Skansen with Måns Zelmerlöw and his star guests.
This time bunch of artists was completely uncategorizable. Bo Kaspers Orkester performed their hits "Undantag", "I Samma Bil" and "En sländas andetag". Melodifestivalen-2011 participant Pernilla Andersson was singing her "Desperados" and "Som en ö". Vocalettes (female trio that you probably haven't heard about but you should know one of its members - schlager-veteran Caroline Jönsson) and Lena-Maria Klingvall were covering old songs. Petter was making "Stockholm i mitt hjärta" with Vanessa Falk. What?! Oh, Vanessa!!! It was unexpected!
Finally fantastic Malena Ernman was as fantastic as she usually is presenting her new single "I det fria" and making fantastic performance with Måns! You can watch whole show here.

Allsång På Skansen starts new era with new host Måns Zelmerlöw and first episode has got two Swedish international stars - Danny and September, Benny Andersson's Orchestra with Helen Sjöholm, Tommy Körberg and Kalle Moraeus and Lunds studentsångare ensemble as lovely bonus.
Fantastic September performed probably the biggest hit in Sweden of this and last year "Mikrofonkåt" with new "Party In My Head" and Evert Taube's "Så Skimrande Var Aldrig Havet". Danny was singing two of his latest singles - "In The Club" and "Tonight" and making two fantastic covers of "Vart ska vi sova i natt" and "Sverige" with Måns. BAO team has performed three songs from the newest album - "O klang och jubeltid", "Allt Syns När Man Är Naken" and "Kära syster" (all three songs are written by Benny and Björn by the way). Sure Måns hasn't missed expectations, showing the best of his vocal and charisma and there's no doubt that he'll lift this year's show with the help of many amazing artists. You can watch whole show here.

Breaking news of popular Summer live-music TV-show Allsång på Skansen!
New season will get new host and it will Måns Zelmerlöw who'll replace Anders Lundin who was host since 2003. Last year has met critically low viewing rates and loads of press claims show needs to change host, format and everything to keep going (read more about it on EuropeCrazy) so Måns' name was constantly rolling along with this negative wave as new host who could save it all. And today it was officially announced that Måns will be new host. What can we say about it? Sure we're glad as Måns is amazing live-artist and hope that it'll also bring some renovations among invited artists. Usually we don't complain but still it would be better to get more starting and younger artists so we could enjoy some really fresh music in orchestral arrangement through Summer music season.

Idrottsgalan is annual awards where Sweden as sport-loving and health-caring nation praises people achieving success internationally and proudly representing Sweden in the world of sport.
Every year Idrottsgalan becomes show connecting all country together in front of TV-screens with breathtaking pre-win pauses, funny jokes and big pop-stars with some special performances. This year among biggest music guests of the show in Globen were Darin, Molly Sandén, Johnossi and Måns Zelmerlöw. Darin delivered colourful disco-performance of opening and closing the show with The Jacksons' "Can You Feel It" (yep, we remember that Michael is the biggest Darin's Idol), Molly Sandén performed classic cover of "Forever Young" (this girl was born to stand on the stage in hero poses singing some anthemic ballads and she did it again as stunning as she can), Måns Zelmerlöw with Lisette Pagler performed some sort of trailer for musical Romeo & Julia (that was hmm...not trivial!), Johnossi was singing Summer hit "What's The Point" and Lena-Maria Klingvall (amazing singer, swimmer and painter born without hands but achieving so much more than people use to!) performed cover of "You Raise Me Up" with Nacka Musikklasser. You can check all performances below.

It's quite popular among singing artists to become voices of cartoon heroes and Swedish stars as many others get involved in animations so Swedish kids has a great chance that many Swedish pop-fans wouldn't refuse to get.
For example few years ago EMD have become voices of Disco-Daggarna (Disco-worms) joined by Anna Sahlin, Helen Sjöholm, Nanne Grönwall and Tommy Nilsson. Impressive team? And quite funny cartoon for sure. "Disco-Daggarna" has also got soundtrack with some classic disco-anthems performed by Velvet, Magnus Carlsson, Martin Stenmarck and others.

Another example of stars collaboration was "Tingeling" ("Tinker Bell") cartoon getting Marie Serneholt as voice of main charecter, Anna Book, Hanna Hedlund and Emma Lewin (Sheelah) were among other involved artists.

And now new stars plan to bring success to another recently released cartoon "Trassel" ("Tangled") - Måns Zelmerlöw and Molly Sandén have become voices of Flynn Rider and Rapunzel. Due to trailer it's not easy to realize that it's Molly's voice but you can hear Måns very well.

If there were few candidates for position of this year Christmas pop-queen there's only one guy pretending to be Christmas schlager-king. Alright, alright, if we'll take a look at sales we'll see someone else who sold more copies of Christmas album but at least title of this Christmas schlager-prince belongs to Måns Zelmerlöw and no one else can't pretend!
Few days before Christmas Måns was invited to Bingolotto to perform his two singles "December" and "Vit Som En Snö", second song was performed with Sonja Aldén - it wasn't the first time when audience could see them in duo as they use to perform this song in their Christmas tour and can you even suppose Sonja could sound bad in romantic ballad-duo? No! This woman is made to sing goosebumps ballads and this time she has also become perfect couple for Måns.
Another Christmas appearance was delievered by Måns at Christmas concert on TV3 where he was singing "Tomten Jag Vill Ha En Riktig Jul" with child choir - very lovely performance that I also recommend to you.
P.S. Picture above is taken from musical "Romeo och Julia". Funny? Hot? Weird? Whatcha think?

One of the most long-awaited winter releases of this year "Christmas With Friends" was provided by Måns Zelmerlöw. Album was released in charity collaboration with ICA market and sold nowhere except ICA shops but supported by digital singles "December" and "Vit Som En Snö" featuring Pernilla Andersson - the only original tracks of the albums. The rest of the songs are traditional Christmas covers as it happens usually on this sort of albums. But it wouldn't be fair to speak about Måns' album as another Christmas album because actually it's quite nice experiment in completely new style for Måns being almost 100% jazz-record with quite special mixed atmosphere of retro, musicals, it's not trying to sound like big band-jazz of 30-40ies, it sounds very naturally like it was recorded then, sure with modern production but Måns just floating out in your mind in black and white colour performing at some glamourous VIP-party entertaining public in old suits and dresses. You're diving into this atmosphere of retro-party right from the opening "Jag drömmer om en jul hemma/White Christmas" and this track presents another trend - this album contains both Swedish and English covers. You'll hardly find here any sadness or Christmas melancholy, mostly it's playful happy mood and loads of energy and big wide smiles in such beloved gems like "Christmas (Baby please come home)", "Christmas song" and "Winter wonderland". Though fans of classic religious ballads also get amazing treatment with "The angel Gabriel" - probably the deepest track of the album - epic and spiritual and being one of a kind becoming especially precious. Another ballad-highlight of the album is duo "Vit Som En Snö" with Pernilla Andersson that in contrast with cheerful jazzy "December" is fragile and delicate love-ballad single. Another duo on the album is arranged for cover of "All I want for Christmas is you" performed with Pauline, earlier Måns recorded this song with Agnes and when Agnes was felt like primary vocalist artists are equal in this version, on the one hand track's losing identity on the other hand it's still as good as any track that could be performed by such pleasant voices. The album serves as great treatment for Christmas mood creation so if you'll just put it as background making some Christmas preparation I can promise you'll fall into this festive atmosphere not later than in 4-5 tracks.
Örebro had ability to watch amazing Christmas show "O, Helga Natt" with Måns as main artist this year and we're also becoming luckies to watch it now! Whole show was held in Allsång-format so beloved by Swedish public where everyone was involved in singing traditional songs with artists, Måns performed "Tomten Jag Vill Ha En Riktig Jul", "All I want for Christmas is you" and "Vit Some En Snö" with Pauline. Another invited artists were Moa Gagnert with quite impressive schlager-smelling performance and French tenor Avi Klemberg. I really recommend you to watch this Allsång-concert to get taste of real Swedish Christmas.

Don't you mind a bit more Christmas mood from Måns Zelmerlöw?
That's good as I'd like to share some with you. Today Måns album "Christmas With Friends" is gonna be released in Sweden and Warner generously provides a taste of some other tracks. First one is "Vit som en snö" recorded with Pernilla Andersson, both Måns and Pernilla are going to appear on stage of Melodifestivalen next year so this duet looks like something very special but mostly it's all about beautiful original ballad track with utterly charming and gentle atmosphere. Another one is classic hit "Christmas (Baby please come home)", previously it was released by Mariah Carey and U2, not that it's a good decision to compare them. Let's start and stop on that we love them all equally. And don't forget to check another cover of "Winter wonderland" performed by Måns live at Nyhetsmorgon. I guess Sweden has just got new male Christmas-Carola with annual massive winter tours being held every year and not becoming less popular at all!

Måns Zelmerlöw's album "Christmas with Friends" will be released already tomorrow!
This weekend single "December" written by Jörgen Elofsson, Andreas Carlsson and Niklas Strömstedt was premiered on the radio and TV. What to say about the song, it's jazzy retro-pop smelling 50ies and bringing joy of old good Christmas feeling. Would you say it's written by Swedish hit-monsters Jörgen Elofsson and Andreas Carlsson responsible for tonnes of Swedish export-music? I wouldn't. Seems like team just forgot about all commercial part of work and decided to just enjoy by creating their little Christmas music miracle. And we're gonna enjoy it with them as the song sounds like real hit with chorus catching from the first listen and soulfull warmth that won't let fans get cold this winter.
For peformance at Nyhetsmorgon Måns took whole band, pack of happiness and huge bunch of charisma. You can enjoy it and studio version below!

Unexpectedly fast Måns' already releasing his brand new Christmas album "Christmas With Friends" - album that turned to be collaboration with charity organization World Childhood Foundation and market net ICA and it's coming out already on November 15th. Album will include tracks recorded with Björn Skifs, Lunds Studentsångare, Pauline, Göteborgs symfoniorkester and Pernilla Andersson and produced by Peter Nordahl.
Mostly album contains some popular Christmas hits but also you'll find completely new song "December" written by some biggest Swedish songwriters Jörgen Elofsson, Andreas Carlsson and Niklas Strömstedt. Another new song "Vit som en snö" is written with participation of Måns himself.
Below you can already get the first taste of this album with classic "Christmas Song" recorded in quite classy and very pleasant way with soft Måns' vocal that turned to be much better Christmas treat than I even could imagine.