Tuesday, March 06, 2007
10 Things We State About...
We're off to Stockholm tomorrow for Melodifestivalen. How exciting! We've been spending most of the last few weeks earnestly practicing our Swedish in preparation, though as our definition of "earnestly" begins and ends with "watching a few Muppet Show episodes", we're currently holding firm to the belief that the language is mainly based around variations on the word 'Bork'. To celebrate us buggering off on holiday, here's ten entirely true and in no way made up facts about Swedish Pop:-- ABBA famously took their name from the initials of the band members. It runs Attractive, Beard, Beard, Attractive, referring to the members, Agnetha, Björn, Anni-Frid and Benny respectively.
- Roxette's It Must Have Been Love was written after Per and Marie had a heated argument about which band released the Forever Changes album.
- Despite hitting number one, most copies of Europe's The Final Countdown, most copies of the single were returned to the point of purchase, with angry consumers demanding to know why there was such a glaring misspelling in the song's name.
- Despite what they claim, The Cardigans weren't the first band on the moon. That was The Police, who were walking on the moon in 1979, a full 17 years before Nina and the blokes in the background made their fraudulent claim.
- In reality, Crying at the Discotheque is unlikely to be soundtracked by the pop genius of Alcazar, but instead with the concerned and pitying murmurings of other people in the nightclub before this is drowned out by the angry voice of the bouncer demanding you leave as you're putting the other punters off their drinks.
- Ace of Base saw The Sign. Unfortunately for them the sign said "Warning: Career stops abruptly. End of nineties imminent".
- The Hives garnered many compliments for all wearing exactly the same clothes. For some reason this is seen as being incredibly cool if you're in an indie band, but if you're in Steps it seems to lose a certain kudos.
- Max Martin makes remarkable pop music for someone whose name sounds like a brand of dog food.
- A*Teens were forced to split up in 2004 after someone realised that A*Adults was a name which wouldn't look very good on a t-shirt.
- The Dancing DJs' remix of Roxette's Fading Like a Flower was sorely underrated.
Labels: 10 Things, eurovision, Sweden, Swedish Pop
