ALCAZAR - INHIBITIONS

Alcazar have released there brand new sigle from their as yet untitled Album, the track is called 'Inhibitions' and it's simply fab! Alcazarworld.com ran a competition for fans outside Sweden to win a digital copy of the single, all the fans had to do was think of a title for Alcazar's new album... The Schlager Systems have suggested 'Triple Distilled' as the title and we think that should definitely win, we like our vodka triple distilled too! Alcazar will be appearing with BWO at this year London Pride at G-A-Y on July 5th and at Stockholm Europride on August 2nd.

Click below to listen to the full song!

Alexander Bard Talks to the Schlager Systems about BWO's Big Gay Summer!

Schlager Systems's Martin catches up with Alexander Bard to find out about BWO's Euro Pride 2008 anthem, 'The Bells Of Freedom', his thoughts on Melodifestivalen 2008 and Eurovision 2008.

Hi Alexander. How did you come to write this year's official europride anthem?

We were asked to do the Europride anthem because BWO is of course popular in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe already and Europride, while taking place in Stockholm, will have an Eastern European theme this year. So we couldn't really resist the offer. It seemed a perfectly natural thing for us to do.

Did you work on the song with co-writers?

"The Bells Of Freedom" was co-written by me, Martin Rolinski and Anders Hansson. The same team that writes most of BWO's songs. There was really no reason why we would write the Europride anthem differently from the way we write all other BWO songs. All we were concerned with was to write an all-inclusive pop anthem but with a slight political touch. The wedding bells in the chorus section stand for the political aspect.

The song is up-tempo and full of energy. How important is energy to the music of BWO?

We love pop, pure pop! And pop includes both energetic up-tempo songs and gorgeous ballads. We just do our best to write the very best songs we can come up with. Songwriting is always at the center of everything BWO do.

BWO will be headlining at Europride in Stockholm! What can we expect from the performance?

A full-on live performance. We're proud to perform on the same stage as our friends Alcazar who will also perform together with us on the stage of G-A-Y in London four weeks earlier at London Pride.

Were BWO disappointed not to make it to Eurovision this year?

No, not at all. It's actually a kind of luxury, to perform at Melodifestivalen, place third as the edgiest and freshest entry, have a massive and now also an international hit single with "Lay Your Love On Me", and then hear from everybody afterwards that "Sweden should have sent BWO instead of Charlotte to Eurovision". It feels quite good, to be honest about it.

You told us in Stockholm that 'Lay Your Love on Me' had outsold Perrelli's 'Hero' on the day of MF08 final, that must have felt good?

We don't actually compare our songs that way. Both Charlotte, Sanna and BWO were winners at this year's Melodifestivalen in the sense that we were the Top 3 at Globen at the MF finals and then all had massive hit singles and albums afterwards. Our other common demoninator is of course that Bobby Ljunggren co-wrote all three songs (!) Bobby is really a hero.

Cheeky question – was it true you guys never got any 'good luck' flowers from Carola at the MF final?

It's hardly a secret that BWO and Carola dislike each other. A lot. But I absolutely love and adore Ani Lorak from Ukraine. Ani has all the charisma and modern sexiness that Carola and Charlotte lack. I would love to work with Ani one day. She has both the charisma and the amazing voice I like in a good performer.

Did you get a chance to watch Eurovision this year? Any favourites?

Ani Lorak, of course, Are you kidding? She blew all the others away. I also liked Switzerland's song but the guy who sang it came across as being so pale and insecure while performing that he blew it all already at the sem-finals. There was no charm there, for sure. Martin and Marina loved Sebastien Tellier from France, But that's of course because Tellier does modern and cool electro and not some dated old eurovision fodder. But God, we LOATHED the German and UK entries. They were sooo bad! In every aspect! Why can't the UK and Germany send something better? Maybe BWO could help them out?

It's such a shame you didn't get to compete as you would have gained a lot of votes as you are hugely popular in easter Europe, aren't you?

I suppose that's true. It certainly didn't hurt Dima Bilan that he is already a major star in lots of Eastern European countries.

Are you playing any UK dates soon?

Yes, of course, BWO and Alcazar will perform live together at G-A-Y in London on July 5. And BBC Radio 2 are already playing "Lay Your Love On Me", set for UK release at the end of July. Life could be a lot worse.

Best

Alexander x

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'.