Scandipop.co.uk has gone and given us fans a treat…….a very special treat…..they have only gone and opened their own radio station online playing all my (ok….and our) favourite songs and artists from those lovely Scandinavian countries!   

Scandipop have released their new station on www.we7.com and I know many of my friends have all been listening since they saw it on my facebook page over the last week. Playing lots of Melodifestivalen songs as well as ones from the Norwegian and Danish National selection for Eurovision, they also play songs  from the artists of these competitions as well as other artists who have not competed. 

The great advantage,well…. many great advantages to this website is that you can “like” and/or “share” any of the songs being played so that they are displayed on any of the other social media that you might use (Facebook, Twitter,Myspace, Google, MSN, Dig, LinkedIn and many more) so that any of your friends or family can see it and pick it up very easy!  You can also play requests once you sign in to have your own account.

Another great advantage is once you are logged in and if you are not listening to a particular station, the website will play music that it thinks suits you based on some that you have already listened to and I have to admit, it has hit the target for me a good 95% of the time!

Over the past week, I have been stuck listening to this new station and I cannot get enough, it goes on whenever I am online!

What a great place to hear all you favourites throughout the day AND night! No more boring national or local radio stations!

Now you can listen to all of your favourites and more with the click of your mouse to the link below:

http://www.we7.com/listen/ident/h2301817/radio?play

The utturley fabulous world of Scandinavian music is making it’s way on to Dance Nation TV!

Dance Nation will be trialling “Scandipop’s” list of Scandinavian hits for one hour, every week for four weeks.

If this proves to be popular, they will continue to show it every week.

This is a huge coop for Scandinavian music lovers in the UK and Ireland.

I am personally very excited at the prospect that this will be shown every week from now on. I can’t get enough of the Scandinavian music scene and already being a huge fan of Dance Nation TV, I am totally obsessed already!

The show is set to feature lots of Scandinavia’s biggest stars including September, Eric Saade, Agnes, Infernal, Swedish House Mafia, Eric Pridz, Star Pilots, Ola, Elin Lanto and Danny & Freja!!

Also I will be hoping that they will feature some other artists not released commercially here but still well known in Eurovision/Schlager circles such as Velvet, Alcazar and Jenny Silver to name a few but I have to admit Velvet being aired is an absolute must for me!

This one hour “Scandipop” extravaganza , which is starting on Friday 7th October on Sky, will also be repeated on two other occasions throughout the same week for anyone who may miss it.

The times are:

Every Friday morning at 10AM

Every Saturday afternoon at 4pm

Every Monday Night/Tuesday Morning at 12 midnight.

Sky Channel 376.

Visit “Scandipop’s” website for more updates and info on all the best artists coming from Scandinavia! www.scandipop.co.uk

Here are some video’s you can enjoy which I think will most likely feature on the programme:

Danny & Freja with “If Only You”:

Elin Lanto with “Discotheque”

September with “Resuscitate Me”

Star Pilots with “In The Heat Of The Night”:

Agnes with “I Need You Now”:

And my personal favourite, Velvet with “Victorious”:

And more Velvet with an absolute stomper “Come Into The Night” (This is only audio but an excellent song):

As reported last week, a couple of us here at Escireland.com were heading over to the much hyped Schlager party being held at the Loom bar in London last Friday. For anyone who did not know what this is all about, a specific group of people organise a party every month or so for those ever growing legion of fans of “Schlager” music.

We headed over in plenty of time on an early flight last Friday, did some early shopping and had a bite to eat before getting ready in our very modern self catering apartment and finally taking just a few steps down the same street to the lovely Loom Bar on Clipstone Street.

Chris Henderson, one of the organisers of the event welcomed us at the entrance, thanked us for making the trip over from Ireland and reminded us of our free drink (Kopparberg Cider) once we reached the bar.

We arrived fairly early as we wanted to get a good spot and hear all the music that was on offer throughout the evening. The music consisted of the early years of Eurovision, 60′s through to 90′s from approx 8.30pm up until around 10.30-11pm, then there was a mixture of more modern Eurovision and Melodifestivalen (Sweden’s Eurovision preselection).

The Loom Bar filled right up to it’s limit as it was sold out before the event and with the mix of all types of people there, filling the floor, the place was hopping for the night! I think there were people who did not leave the dance floor all night, such was the appreciation for the music!

There were lots of favourite songs on the night provided by the wonderful DJ Dave Simmons, but one of the highlights for me and for most of the crowd from the way they raised the roof, was this years Hungarian entry “What About My Dreams?” sung by Kati Wolf.

Also high up on the fan play list was Carola Häggkvist with “Evighet”, Velvet with “The Queen”, Jenny Silver with “Something In Your Eyes”, Sanna Nielsen with “Vågar du, Vågar Jag” and “I’m In Love”, a remix of Linda Bengtzing  with “Jag Ljuger Så Bra”, Turkey’s very catchy entry into Eurovision in 2009, “Dum Tek Tek” sung by Hadise, Shirley’s Angels with their Melodifestivalen entry this year, “Thought It Was Forever”,” Samba Sambero” sung by Anna Book, Shirley Clamp in her solo effort “Att Älska Dig ”,  ”Etymon” by Sonia Alden, “Kalla Natter” from the beautiful Jessica Andersson among many many more…..!!

The very popular and well known “Schlagerboys” (pictured here in the last picture above) were not going to miss out on another night of huge hits on their Eurovision journey!

Overall, a great night was had by all, drinking, dancing, meeting people and some of the best music ever to come from Scandinavia and Eurovision was enjoyed on the night!  Thanks to Chris Henderson and “Schlagerfest”!!!

Pictures courtesy of Chris Henderson and Evan Condon.

The list of nominees for this year’s Rockbjörnen awards in Sweden have been released. The awards are concentrated around pop and rock and this year there are a plethora of former Eurovision and Melodifestivalen favourites amongst the nominees.

This year’s Eurovision 3rd placer, Eric Saade, is nomianted for Best Male Artist along with Melodifestivalen runner up this year, Danny Saucedo.

Will Eric make it a double victory or will Danny steal his thunder? Either way a publicity kiss is likely on the cards.

Also nominated in this category is Ola (MF 2008 “Love in Stereo” and 2010 “Unstoppable”).

Ola faces off against Saade in the Best Swedish Song category for “All Over the World” and “Popular” respectively. You can decide which you like best here.

Ola – \”All Over the World\”

Eric Saade – \”Popular\”

2007′s entrants for Sweden, The Ark, are nominated in the Best Group category while the wonderful September is amongst the Best Female nominees.

Isn't she fabulous?

However perhaps most surprising and best of all, Jedward are nominated in the Best Foreign Song category for “Lipstick”.

The boys are up against Adele and Lady Gaga amongst others but who knows they could pull off a coup and snatch the award from Gaga’s grasp. You can help by voting below

Vote here

It’s the first time London has had a proper “Schlager” night for a while and we Melodifestivalen fanatics here at Escireland.com could not be more happy!

Schlagerfest, London’s new and independent regular schlager club night, launches on Friday 29th July 2011 at the Loom bar on Clipstone Street, W1W 6BB. The party will start at 8.30pm and run right through the night until 2 am. Entry is £5 with advance booking from www.schlagerfest.co.uk and that entrance fee also includes a free Kopparberg cider. A limited number of tickets will be available on the door on the night but will cost slightly more at £8. All proceeds from the tickets are going to the charity, The Terence Higgins Trust.

The wonderful DJ Dave Simmons will be belting out schlager hit after hit for the night with the classics being played from 8.30pm to 11pm, then moving on to the more modern schlager with a special tribute to the truly original schlager dance stompers Alcazar as they are due to be taking a break after next weekend with their last performance at Schlager Pride in Stockholm.

Along with Alcazar’s hit, you will hear plenty of the Sclager favourites like Charlotte Perrelli, Carola, Linda Bengtzing, Velvet, Lena Philipsson, Sanna Nielsen, Timoteji, Eric Saade, Danny Saucedo among many, many more!

So if you are in or around London, get over to Clipstone Street for one of the best parties on the Schlager/Eurovision circuit. Just because some of you are in Ireland, no excuses, pack ur bag and get a flight over to the shopping and partying capital of London and get yourself down to Schlagerfest!

Escireland.com will be there to soak up the atmosphere, take in the sights, feel the rhythm of the dancefloor and just get completely carried away in all the Schlager madness that is Schlagerfest!  Having been to this event before, Escireland.com can highly recommend a truly hopping, fun night at Loom bar tomorrow night!

If you are lucky, Escireland.com may reward it’s wonderful readers with some pictures of all the goings on from the event!

Friday lunchtime had to have been beyond the most excited I have been for a little while with the information appearing before my very shocked/thrilled/unbelieving eyes. Yes, Alcazar, the utterly fabulous, schlagertastic pop group all the way from my beloved adopted country Sweden, were to play that very same night in the most well known gay bar in Ireland, The George.

Alcazar, who have entered the Swedish National selection “Melodifestivalen” numerous times, were going to be in front of my very eyes in a matter of hours and I could hardly contain myself. Original member Andreas Lundstedt has actually made it to Eurovision  once before in 2006 with five other members calling themselves “Six4One” while latest Alcazar member Lina Hedlund also tried her luck in Melodifestivalen alongside  her sister Hanna Hedlund in 2002 with “Big Time Party” and going back for more with her solo effort in 2003 with “Nothing Can Stop Me”.

Coming back down to earth at home, I don’t think I took in the news for a while, walking around, making plans, packing a bag, still all the while, waiting for someone to tell me the Facebook post was either a sick joke or in fact a tribute act which I could not stomach!

Thankfully, with no sign of anyone putting me off with tales of it possibly being a figment of my imagination, I headed off to Dublin with my other half  to meet up with one of our best friends, Emma, who after a very excited phone call where not much made sense, offered to put us up for the night in return for the chance to go see one of her favourite groups too!

So, as we brush swiftly past the bouncers of The George, we head in early to get a good seat, stool,standing area or anything that puts me beside the stage in preparation for what I expect to be a fun filled, naughty spectacle!

Well I certainly wasn’t disappointed! Alcazar came down the stairs to the stage to a rapturous welcome from a very eager gay and one straight (that I know of) hyper audience! (Myself included!). They sailed effortlessly through a list of their most popular hits along with a few other lesser known songs (although not lesser known to me!). They sang “This Is The World We Live In”, “Burning”, “Crying At The Discoteque”, “Headlines”, “Funkytown”, “Alcastar”, “Not A Sinner, Not a Saint”  and my personal favourite “Stay The Night”. They also threw in very good versions of Abba’s “Dancing Queen”, “Does Your Mother Know?” and “Thank You For The Music”.  They sang, danced, flirted there way through the night engaging the audience the entire way through! I could still hardly believe they had come to Ireland but I wasn’t about to argue at ANY point!

They were amazing, they set the place alight and seemed genuinely happy to be there and performing.

You can tell for yourself if u fancy judging the pictures below!

Jenny Pettersson from Sweden, professionally known as “Velvet” is back with a new song “Lovestrukk”.

The single is not due to be released until sometime in the summer with the Extensive Music label so this is a remix of the song from the wonderful “7thHeaven Productions”.

I think the song is bang on target for Velvet’s faithful fan-base, however this is a remix so we will have to wait for the release of the actual song to get the full overview . I still think this will be a successful song for Velvet though!

You can listen to the clip here (Song number 4): http://www.7hproductions.com/#/4

Velvet competed in the Swedish National Final “Melodifestivalen” as a solo artist three times:

Song 1 (2006) Mi Amore:

http://youtu.be/ZckANwQnI4k

Song 2 (2008) Deja Vu:

Song 3 (2009) The Queen:

She did enter the following song (With Linda Bengtzing) into Melodifestivalen in 2010 but it sadly did not make it through to the televised shows. A real tragedy in my opinion! This would have been great in Melodifestivalen!

Song 4 (2010) “Victorious”:

Thank God she is back, I think I am slighty in love with her and of course her music!!

We love these girls a little too much, they have to be in MF next year Sweden!

Watch the new video now! (Popup)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aoVL3EzXis

Melodifestivalen rehearsals seem to be conjuring up some high jinks and steamy kissing for two of its entrants for tomorrow night! Danny Saucy-do & Eric Saade seem to be enjoying themselves in full glare of the international media this afternoon!