SWEDEN 2010 - This Is My Life

OK, this is really immature, but I just have to say that the title of this song, before I'd ever heard it - heard the song, I mean :-) - prejudiced me against it. Well, I've said so before, I'm just bubbling with prejudice, you know it. But I just think that This Is My Life as a song title is so ... totally cheesy. I don't know. It's not in the song's favor, as far as I'm concerned. I wonder if there is anyone else out there like me.

The lyrics back up my negative first impression - This is my life, and I can't be no one else, sheesh - and I also don't like the choreography where they have her first with the guitar, like she's going to accompany herself and she's a musician, ooh, but then it turns out it's just a gimmick. I don't like that. But other than that, well ...

I mean, apart from the fact that this is so weirdly similar to another Swedish song a couple of years ago ... 2007, was it? ... when another young woman performed with a guitar. Marie something ... Marie Lindberg. The song was called Trying to Recall, she was a total unknown, a schoolteacher (it was Once in a Lifetime come to life!!), and although she didn't win the national finals she got pretty far, and everyone just swooned over her. Although not enough to vote her to the top, that was the year that The stupid fucking Ark won. Blargh. Although they shouldn't have sent either of these songs, but that's another blog post. Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah, they could have gotten something quite like this song three years ago, but didn't. Now, this year, I don't know. It's a good song, a good melody, but it doesn't really stick in the mind. It's really nice to listen to, but when it's done, it's gone. I like her voice, it's a little unusual, it may help the song be remembered. But I don't think it's enough. A spot in the final, yes, maybe, but no more than that either.

Anyway. This is Anna Bergendahl performing This Is My Life by Bobby Ljunggren and Kristian Lagerström. They will be competing for Sweden on Thursday, May 27th.

Lyrics here.

Speaking of Sweden, here's one of my pet peeves when it comes to these lovely people and their mostly very beautiful language. ('Mostly' because although I love Swedish and think it's wonderful to listen to, I make an exception for Scanian, for obvious reasons.) Sweden is a major influence on Norway, even though we may not like to admit it ... we watch their movies, we listen to their music, we watch their TV channels and we follow the trends they were into x seasons ago. No problems there. And we feel we have a good understanding of their language. This is where the problems arise.

See, these two languages, Norwegian and Swedish, are so similar that you only need to speak one to be able to understand both. (At least if you're Norwegian. ;-) This has the unfortunate side effect of making a lot of Norwegians think that Swedish can just be translated straight off, and it'll all mean the same. Which may sound right, but actually is wrong.

And here's my pet peeve. The Swedes have an expression that's popping up more and more in Norway as well, and it's so annoying, because in this country it just doesn't mean what those who use it think it means. Att ta fram. Which in Swedish means to develop, as in research & development. So, Vi har tagit fram dessa fantastiska nya produkter! in Swedish means that We have developed these fantastic new products. Ie, come check it out and applaud all our hard work. But in Norwegian you just can't say it like that ... and yet, people do. Vi har tatt fram noen fantastiske nye produkter - no!! No no no! In Norwegian, that just means that we've basically brought these things out of a drawer or a box or something. It just so doesn't mean what people think it means ... !! Argh.

Can you tell that I went to a product presentation with one of our biggest clothes suppliers last night ... ? ;-)