Fop.

I was faced with a choice, at a difficult age. Would I write a book, or should I take to the stage

Sunday, June 19

SWEDEN TO TASTE



Sorry about that title, but we are under the impression that it is "world's best practice" to begin blog posts about Swedish pop with a fantastic pun. And that is what we have done. Anyway, we would like presently to speak of something we have just discovered. Can we please tell you about a Swedish singer, name of Nanne Grönvall? Yes? Right.

Now, all the people with their ears to the ground of the diabolically specialised field of European pop music, like Umlauts, Jessica, the CFB ladies and popgoesCanberra, will almost certainly be all over this. Indeed, it was Patrick from popgoesCanberra who initially pointed us thoughtfully in the general electronic direction of Nanne's Melodifestivalen 2005 entry, "Håll om mig".

To be honest, we were not very impressed by "Håll om mig" at first, particularly because Patrick had also assisted us to listen to another Melodifestivalen 2005 song, "Alla Flickor" by Linda Bengtzing which we thought was far more worthy of our exclamations and delight. But we're so pleased to announce that we are now coming RIGHT THE HELL AROUND to Nanne. We note that this song is a slightly overblown, chugging anthem which will work its dramatic way into your brain. And look at her fabulous album cover!

That cover is really the reason we decided we had better try a little bit harder with Nanne. We are in no position at all to be ignoring anything that beautifully refinished and pink.

So, we have been doing some faffing around this morning on some fansites to find out more about The Nanne. So far, we have learned that:

* she was working in a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens, till her boyfriend kicked her out in one of those crushing scenes - what was she to do? where was she to go? she was out on her fanny! so over the bridge from Flushing to the Sheffield's door - she was there to sell make-up, but the father saw more; she had style, she had flair, she was there! That's how she became the Nanne

* she appears to be quite the established artist in Sweden!

* there is some Abba connection apparently!

* Nanne used to be part of "a band called MTW together with four guys: Matte, Mini, Kaj and Animal. They did not get their name from the TV-channel. The band got it's name in 1977, long before the TV-channel even existed, and Nanne can't recall what the name came from (BUT NOT FROM THAT TV CHANNEL)." (??)

* Nanne met her current husband Peter, in that band that was NOT named after a non-existent tv channel!

* "In 1986 both Peter and Nanne became singles. At that time something caught fire. '-Wow, what is happening?!!' was Nanne's reaction."

* Nanne's solo career started with "'Kul i Jul (Christmas Fun)', an irregular Christmas-song in December 1997"!

* "In the spring of '99 Nanne told the press that she has been suffering from a bad form of struma, which has forced her to slow down in life."!

* Her bad struma was apparently overcome quite quickly though, as Nanne helpfully tried to represent the UK in Eurovision in 2001 with a track called "Men". "Men was not the usual schlager track, but a rockier tune which Nanne performs with an attitude that can be compared to the average rapper."

* She just LOVES the dull American band Heart! "I could listen to Heart all day, and all night too!" she muses.

She seems like someone we would like, really, except for the Heart-loving. So if there are no more immediate Nanny Fine/Nanne Grönvall jokes to be made at this time, we might go off and see if we can develop our new interest with some google image-searching and Melodifestavlen performance downloading. (Is this all completely misguided)

4 Comments:

At 9:38 pm, Blogger PopGoesCanberra said...

You are not misguided at all! Hopefully at the end of this week, you will have more Nanne in the hands of Fop! I have more for you! The highlights for you will surely be "Men" and "Highland", an AMAZING track she did with her old band One More Time.

 
At 9:41 pm, Blogger PopGoesCanberra said...

How great are these lyrics! And set to a wonderful melody!

On the highland when I was a child
l would play with my friends, man, we were wild
And we all loved the moors. the nature and it's freedom
And we went for ghost hunt in the mist
l remember the first time I got kissed
By the shy neighbour guy. who whispered "be my girlfriend"
But I longed for some excitement
So l travelled 'round the world
After that I seattled down and
l became a city girl
Want to parties every night and lived intensively
Now l know it's not a life for me

I'll be waiting on the Highland
With it's wonderful serenity
Where the stars glow and the brooks flow
That's my way of life
When the mountains on the Highland
And the nature is surrounding me
When the wind blows, that's all I need
Bonnie Highland, Bonnie Highland, you're so sweet

Oh. my darling I would hate to leave here without you
I am sure you'll love the highland too
If you join me I can promise
You'll stay until eternity

 
At 3:51 pm, Blogger Edward O said...

Dear Fop,

Please revise your opinion on Heart. Yes, they are dull, but isn't "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You" one of the greatest songs ever written?

When is someone going to a DJ Sammy-esque cover version of it?

 
At 6:04 pm, Blogger PopGoesCanberra said...

Oh how exciting! That would be great. DJ Sammy or Novaspace or Jan Wayne or Kelly Lorenna could do it, and then popgoesCanberra could do Les Mills BodyPump to it, preferably doing chest or lunges.

 

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