Oh my god! How amazing was it???? I was on the edge of my seat feeling tied up in knots as the scores rolled in. Could it be true? Could Sweden win for the first time since 1999? Could the mysterious, amazing Loreen go all the way?
YES, YES, YES!!!
It was surreal to watch. I was watching the Spanish telecast which had been downloaded from the net and included Spanish Lotto! It didn’t matter….all that mattered was that Loreen triumphed and Sweden was victorious!!!
Today I took a giant Swedish flag to work and draped it over my desk. It caused quite a few double-takes and confused looks. I was happy to explain the reason.
Thank god for Google Translate – I was able to trawl Expressen, Aftonbladet and DN and at least get a sense of the “euphoria” happening in Sweden. In Stockholm, people were on the streets partying all night. I wish I was there. It would have been lovely to be part of it.
There are a million clips of the winning performance, Loreen interviews and of Mr. Melodifestivalen, Christer Björkman being thrown into a swimming pool fully-clothed (he is happier about Loreen’s victory than she is!)
But there’s one reaction that sums it all up and brought a tear to my eye tonight.
The Swedish Royal Guard band performing “Euphoria” in the courtyard of the Royal Palace. What a wonderful way to mark this historic and magnificent achievement for Sweden!
Oh my god….if you wait long enough, anything and everything can happen!
I’ve been living in Sydney for almost three decades and yet I have to fly back to Adelaide if I want to enjoy some of the best Adelaide Icons. If you’re from Adelaide, you know what I’m talking about. Balfours Pasties, Woodies Lemonade and Menz Fruchocs.
But not anymore. Praise Jesus!!!!
Menz Fruchocs now available at Coles Supermarkets outside of South Australia.
They’ve had to change the name (to protect the innocent). They are now called Menz Choc Apricot Balls and you can get them at Coles Supermarkets in Sydney (and around Australia apparently). It’s a miracle! Ex-Adelaide people, REJOICE!
But it isn’t just Fruchocs…er Menz Choc Apricot Balls…it’s also another couple of classic Adelaide Menz Icons: Choccy Snakes and Choccy Froggys! My flatmate’s dream of losing weight may now be lost forever – he only has to walk to the local supermarket to get a hit!
Yes, the world’s most awful supermarket – IGA Dulwich Hill – is selling Choccy Snakes and Choccy Froggys! If they are then you can bet other IGA supermarkets are doing the same thing (only better)! And I do have photographic evidence…
Menz Choccy Snakes and Choccy Froggys are now available in Sydney via IGA Supermarkets
This is big! It’s about time these and more Adelaide Icons went national! So ex-Adelaidians get out your wallet and get into Coles & IGA stores now!
And for everyone else….it’s about time you tried the taste of some true Adelaide legends!
It’s only a week away….Eurovision 2012. The artists are in Baku rehearsing for their big moment and the publicity campaigns are in full swing. There are a few strong contenders this year but the vibe seems to be that Sweden is in with a strong chance.
Loreen’s “Euphoria” had a dream run in Melodifestivalen, the Swedish competition to select their entry for Eurovision. It beat the other favourite, the gorgeous Danny Saucedo with his fabulous track “Amazing”.
But can Loreen go all the way?
Last year Sweden came third with Eric Saade’s Popular….can Sweden better that result. Who do you think should win Eurovision this year?
I’ll be hoping for a Loreen win although I’m disappointed Danny is not representing Sweden this year. He put so many months of hard work into “Amazing” and must have been hoping he’d repeat Eric Saade’s success from the previous year.
Meanwhile there’s an absolutely gorgeous cover of both songs sung as a medley by a Swedish lady called Caroline Borg. It’s just her and her piano and it is really quite beautiful.
Meanwhile, in just over a week it will be all over for yet another year!
Could this be the 6 o’clock news I’m talking about? No?
What about pop music?
Well, if we’re talking Kim Wilde, the answer is most definitely yes!
I’ve always had a love of drama in pop music. Songs that tell a story – quite often a depressing story – in 3 1/2 minutes. The amazing Cher did it in 2 1/2 minutes in the early 70s – Dark Lady, Gypsies Tramps & Thieves, Half Breed, Carousel Man, I Saw A Man And He Danced With His Wife…in fact Cher’s original Greatest Hits is wall to wall high-drama!
But in the early 80s there was another artist who excelled in this regard. Kim Wilde. Kim’s early 80s career, with hits written by her brother and father, was awash with 3 1/2 minute pop dramas. And I bought all these classic singles back then. Couldn’t get enough of them!
My good friend John McKechnie always refers to “View From A Bridge” as “View From A Pig” because that’s what he really thought the song was called back then. Talk about misheard lyrics!
Wikipedia succinctly talks about this song thusly: “The song told the story of a girl committing suicide by jumping off a bridge”
Hardly Top 10 pop fodder you’d think. And yet, like all of Kim’s early classics, the pop sensibilities of the song were beyond reproach. Stunning music, confronting lyrics and Kim’s unique vocal styles all wrapped up in 3 /12 minutes of pop perfection.
“Child Come Away” was hardly a “I love you love me” typical pop lyric…..
“I read the story ’bout a week ago
They found her on the beach that night.
They said the light had gone out of her eyes
And no-one thinks she’ll ever be right.”
I could only conclude way back then that the girl had been raped and bashed by an ex-boyfriend. No sunshine, lollypops and rainbows in this little ditty! The video for the song only seems to emphasize the drama…police, witnesses, curious onlookers…it’s all there!
These songs were just perfect for gay boys with a flair for the dramatic. You didn’t so much LISTEN to Kim Wilde’s hits as IMMERSE yourself in them – they fired the imagination. You made up the visuals in your head and cast yourself as the lead in the story!
Of “Cambodia”, Wikipedia tells us “The lyrics, telling the story of the wife of a Thailand-based RAF, whose husband mysteriously disappears after flying out to Cambodia and never returns, are inspired by some of the tragedies that occurred in South Vietnam. In writing the lyrics, Marty Wilde imagined an American pilot flying in a F-4 Phantom II and getting shot down by a surface-to-air missile.”
Um, okay. So we’re not doing “I love you love me” this time either? No, apparently not!
He used to cry some nights as though he lived a dream.
And as she held him close he used to search her face
As though she knew the truth – lost inside Cambodia.
But then a call came through
they said he’d soon be home.
She had to pack a case and they would make a rendezvous.
But now a year has passed and not a single word
And all the love she knew
Has disappeared out in the haze.
Again, the video for the song adds to the drama….jungles, screaming soldiers, writhing snakes…
So um, yeah, you can see why I might have trouble with today’s mega chart hits that have lyrics like…
“Yeah, yeah
When I walk on by, girls be looking like damn he fly
I pimp to the beat, walking on the street in my new lafreak, yeah
This is how I roll, animal print, pants outta control,
It’s Red-Fu with the big ass fro
And like Bruce Leroy I got the glow”
Today, we’re all living in a dumbed-down world with dumbed-down music for dumbed-down people: everyone knows the cost of an iPhone but the value of nothing.
So, when the emptiness gets a bit too much, go back and rediscover the exquisite drama of Kim Wilde in the early 80s…
Or maybe I should ask “why the hell did so many of the people who watched the first episode not return?”
The ratings for TV’s Outland are in the toilet and I have no idea why it isn’t at least a cult hit. The characters are just wonderful – I felt so comfortable and in love with them all immediately.
Outland, about a group of Gay science fiction fans, is rarely a laugh-out-loud comedy. It is much more of a character study. I feel compelled to watch to see what each of them do/say next. It kills me that there won’t be a series 2. Outland is something special that Australian TV has created and it is going to be condemned to the graveyard of television history. Very unfairly.
There is talk of international sales and I do hope that it gets a fair showing in the UK – I am sure it will find a following over there. I’m sure they’ll “get it” in a way that Australians seem incapable of.
Episode 5 (of 6) was far more dramatic than usual and featured a star singing and dancing effort by Ben Gerrard (who is apparently being rooted by cabaret-type Shaun Rennie in real life!) as Toby – the young, rich boy who revealed a lot more vulnerability than we’ve seen or expected from the character before.
Fab, played by the usually in-real-life f***ing annoying Adam Richard, is another character I just love to watch. I just want to see what he’s going to come out with next episode. He’s funny, bitchy and horrifyingly accurate and hits his targets with devastating accuracy (reminds me of…hmmmm not sure . I could imagine hanging out with Fab – there would never be a dull, safe moment!
Christine Anu – an Australian singer – has seemingly come out of nowhere to play Rae, the wheelchair bound lesbian on Outland. She’s brilliant. Just love her character.
I think Outland is an Australian TV gem…it deserves a much better reception. The DVD is out in April and I’ll be buying it immediately. Maybe some people will get a chance to catch up with what they’ve missed when the DVD is out?
After the final episode on Wednesday, I am really going to miss these oddball characters who have populated my life and brought a smile and a knowing glance to my face for the last few weeks.
Melodifestivalen 2012 is underway and the first semifinal had a pretty cool opening sequence. Not quite up to 2009 standards (my favourite year) but not too shabby!
Tonight is the second semifinal and then we have the third, fourth, second chance final and of course, the final itself!
Then you have to buy the CD from overseas and so on and so forth. It’s quite a commitment of time and emotion.
It’s become the main music I listen to over the last few years. Which does make it quite inconvenient…everytime you discover a new artist you like, you’ve gotta order their CDs from overseas and wait a couple of weeks (sometimes longer) for them to arrive. And it isn’t like you can pop down to your local shopping centre to see them signing autographs – unless your local shopping centre is in or around Stockholm.
And should you want to see them in concert? Well that’s about 16,000 kilometres away and a bloody expensive airfare.
But still, we subject ourselves to it every year.
This year Danny Saucedo is said to have a killer song to wipe out everyone else. But who knows? Sometimes the best songs don’t even make it the second chance final, let alone the main final!
It’s all fun and games. But hell, I wish it wasn’t so bloody far away!
I thought I’d take a look at the top search terms people have used to find this website in the last year. I’ve listed the Top 25 search terms below. There’s a very clear pattern: Eric Saade. Whether it’s Eric Saade being Gay or shirtless or nude…it seems the Eric fans find their way to www.thebestjudge.com Of course, they find out that Eric isn’t Gay, has been topless but hasn’t been (photographed) naked. Yet!
Where will he be on the popularity lists at the end of 2012? Who knows? Reaction to his most recent album “Saade Vol. 2″ has been rather subdued but there will be an international push this year so his star may rise even higher. And yet he still won’t be Gay or naked.
Still, the web surfers can live in hope!
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THE TOP 25 SEARCH TERMS WWW.THEBESTJUDGE.COM
eric saade gay eric saadeis eric saade gay eric saade is gay matthew mitcham eric saade gay? eric saade meleg eric saade hot eric saade schwul eric saade 2011 hugh sheridan eric saade nude is eric saade gay? hugh sheridan gay eric saade girlfriend eric saade popular uncircumcised penis eric saade vol 2 eric saade is gay? eric saade shirtless eric saade kiss eric saade danny eric saade vol 1 tom ballard eric saade es gay
How's this for a first order from Scandipop Store on Facebook!
If you love Swedish and other Scandinavian pop and schlager music, you’ll be excited to know about a new way to buy these CDs and have them shipped to you wherever you are in the world.
The creator of Scandipop.co.uk – the hugely popular blog about all things pop and schlager emanating from Sweden, Norway and Denmark – has branched out. First it was their TV show on Sky Pay-TV in the U.K., then their radio show and now………ta dah……Scandipop has an internet shop!
It is all based through Facebook, has an ever growing range of the music we love including….wait for it….CD Singles! PRAISE JESUS!!!
The Scandipop Store really deserves a rave – I’ve used it and my order took a week to arrive in Australia. Normally with Bengans or Megastore I’m waiting forever for delivery – but Scandipop Store ship fast and ship by airmail – not some 3rd rate delivery option.
Prices are good and competitive and it feels good knowing that at least a portion of the money you spend at the store goes towards funding the Scandipop.co.uk blog and other activities.
So do yourself a favour…check it out on Facebook.
At last there’s a better way to get your pop-schlager fix!
. I could imagine hanging out with Fab – there would never be a dull, safe moment!
