Sanna Nielsen Gets So Much 'Stronger'

Well Sanna was the people's favourite at this years Melodifestivalen and on the back of 'Empty Room' Sanna releases her debut english language album in Sweden titled 'Stronger'. Stronger couldn't be a more fitting title for this long player and those out there hoping for a balled-fest will be sorely disappointed because 'Stronger' kicks ass in places. Sanna has somewhat suffered in Sweden for being 'too good', 'too wholesome' in the past but this collection of songs should definitely redefine her image at home and hopefully will lead the way for a global launch (one can only hope). 'Stronger' sees Sanna stray into unfamiliar territory which really opens her up as an artist and shows how vocally mature and diverse she can be. The opening track 'Strong' is a dead cert hit, upbeat pop/electronica number with treated vocals and a multi-tracked textured ambience, the complete opposite of 'Empty Room' which is Sanna stripped almost bare. The next track 'Nobody But You' changes the mood of the album and no expense is spared in the production, comparisson with Sanna's hero Celine Dion are inavoidable in the super charged chorus, but Sanna has enough of her own prescence to make the song her own. 'I Believe it's You' - Sanna's band get their guitars out for this one, uptempo and uplifting, this track should kick it live, nice key change and big stadium sound, one of my personal favourites. 'Heart of Me' draws you into a classic Sanna power ballad where her vocal performance is faultless. 'Tomorrow End's Today' is dreamy mid tempo song which has a trancy quality where Sanna's voice is more restrained than on the previous track. If there are songs on this album that could break Sanna in the US then 'Impatiently Waiting on You' is one of them, the band get the guitars out again and rock up a storm, the other song that could do well in the States is 'Thoses Were the Days and Nights of Loving You' which is almost nu-country with an anthemic chorus. 'Out Of Reach' is another great power ballad with lush orchestration and a punchy dramatic middle eight which has a a slight spanish feel. 'I Know What I Want' starts suspiciously like Lionel Ritchie's 'Dancing on the Ceiling' then we hear Sanna sing 'Dancin' on the ceiling ain't my style', just then the song rocks into the guitar driven chorus almost Lavigne like in style. 'Broken in Two' reminds me very slightly of a slower 'hold on be strong' by Maria Haukaas Storeng and is one of the less strong songs on the album. 'Magic' again is a departure for our schlager star and schlager this is not as Sanna grooves into a heavier jagged chorus. 'I Can Catch the Moon' - this is more familiar Sanna territory, with the big strings and key change. 'This Is My Thanks' is a piano song which brings the album to it's close... or dose it! At 6.59 of 'This is my thanks' a hidden track is revealed, 'I'm In paradise' sounds like a demo that Sanna and her team just couldn't let slip from the album, then the track breaks down with laughs and speaking in Swedish (Abba undeleted style).

We here at the Schlager system hope that this will album will be a new dawn for Sanna, she has developed so much, from child star to schlager star and now we are ready to see the emergence of the superstar!

The Schlager Systems at Melodifestivalen 2008: the Road to Globen

Well that's us back from the Schlager event of the year and we had a great time! SVT certainly know how to put on a show! The atmosphere was electric in Globen for the final of this years Melodifestivalen. The only disappointing thing for us is how totally predictable the results are every year. While in Stockholm we managed to catch up with Sanna Nielsen (thank you Lotta), she was very nice to us and we managed a little photot oppertunity. Sanna was appearing with Amy Diamond at Globen shopping centre signing their new CD's. Sanna's manager Lotta told us her new CD will be out in April and will be called 'Stronger' and that she feels that the title reflects Sanna's strenthened personalitly, which is a view also shared by Anna Book, as she told us on Friday afternoon. Anna was at the Friday and Saturday evening shows and was there in her capacity as TV presenter for a talk show on the Telia TV channel where she gets to interview her schlager friends. Thanks to Torbjörn Ek from Aftonbladets's Schlagerblog for taking the photo for us together with Sanna. We chatted schlager with Torbjörn for a while while Sanna was signing copies of 'Empty Room' and he featured a little story and picture of us with Sanna on his blogsite http://blogg.aftonbladet.se/7/perma/764561/.
We hung around the shopping centre for a little longer as we were keen to see this years, at the time winner in waiting, Charlotte Perrelli. Charlotte was very nice, we thanked her for the interview she gave us last year and she gave us a big kiss in return!

Charlotte and Marty

Charlotte and Kethan

Marty receiving his Degree in Schlager from Professor Perrelli!

We headed back to Globen for the Saturday Genrep of MF08 but stopped off on way to catch Alcazar's live appearance outside McDonald's. The group sang Not a Sinner, Not a Saint, Alcastar and their new single We Keep on Rockin'! They sounded great! Kethan shot some footage.

Later that night we headed back out for the final and below is a few pic of us from Globen!

Kethan and Marty at the final in Globen in Kilts
Penny and Shona in Globen
The Schlager Systems

Below is our first feature film caputring the excitement of Stockholm and Melodifestivalen. Filmed entirely on location and no expense was spared in the making of this film so sit back, relax and have a laugh at our 'Road to Globen'.