It's the last day of February and you know what that means. Time to reveal the next set of songs...
February had not one but two special themes attached to it. My initial plan was to just buy all love songs to tie in with Valentine's Day. Not the most original idea out there and yeah, I kinda stupidly decided to do that instead of, oh I don't know, help celebrate Black History Month!! But plans changed when I realized that my favorite national final of the Eurovision season, Sweden's Melodifestivalen, was starting this month. I originally had Melodifestivalen as the special theme for March, chiefly so I can enjoy the alliterativeness of it all, but alas I forgot that the Swedish weekly music competition always happens in February.
Though I greatly enjoyed finally purchasing some of my favorite Melo melodies, there were two big problems that turn things a little bit sour. First, the sheer fact that I'm trying to buy Swedish songs through the American version of iTunes, meaning my choices were a bit limited thanks to those pesky issues involving global music rights. I had to forgo way too many of my truly favorite songs from Melodifestivalen and that truly sucks and goes against the whole purpose of this project.
And secondly, this year's Melodifestivalen wasn't/isn't very good or truly exciting. The first three heats were just a bunch of so-so to mildly pleasant songs and no amount of vibrant colors, dramatic staging, key changes, high notes or expensive LEDs could hide that fact. Then the fourth heat happened where the obvious favorite of the contest (more on them later) blew everybody else away in just three minutes (more like 4:30 minutes thanks to a stage invader which caused a reset). Gee, I wonder who will win in the final come March 11th?
But enough whining about Melo. Let's get started, shall we? And the 28 songs of February 2023 are:
Alcazar - "Blame It On The Disco"
Alcazar - "Stay The Night"
All-4-One - "I Can Love You Like That"
All-4-One - "I Swear"
All-4-One - "So Much In Love"
Anita Baker - "Giving You The Best That I Got"
Anita Baker - "Just Because"
Anita Baker - "Sweet Love"
Atlantic Starr - "Always"
Dan Hill - "Never Thought (I Could Love)"
Dan Hill feat. Vonda Shepard - "Can't We Try"
Danny Saucedo - "Amazing"
David Lindgren - "Shout It Out"
David Lindgren - "We Are Your Tomorrow"
Eric Saade - "Manboy"
JEM - "Love Trigger"
Lisa Ajax - "My Heart Wants Me Dead"
Lisa Miskovsky - "Why Start A Fire"
Loreen - "My Heart Is Refusing Me"
Magnus Carlsson - "Möt Mig I Gamla Stan"
Midnight Boy - "Don't Say No"
Molly Sandén - "Youniverse"
Oleta Adams - "Get Here"
Oscar Zia - "Human"
Oscar Zia - "Yes We Can"
Pernilla Wahlgren - "Picadilly Circus"
Samir & Viktor - "Bada Nakna"
SWV - "Weak"
All-4-One. How appropriate of a name for the 90's boy band. For you see, if you ever want to remember how many hits the group had, just look at their name. Yep, all they ever had were four hit songs, with only one of them going all the way to #1.
Unfortunately, those hits are what stopped the group from ever advancing further in their musical career. Their three biggest hits, which are the ones I bought this month, are actually all covers, namely from The Tymes and John Michael Montgomery. Their only original hit was "Someday", which was the ending theme song to Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Though it went to #30, it broke the streak of successful Disney movie songs in the 90s and proved to be the group's last ever time in the spotlight.
Fun trivia and music retrospective aside, let's get to chatting. I frankly adore "I Swear" and "I Can Love You Like That". Loved them as a kid and still love them today. The two songs often get played on my iPod and are near the top of my shortlist of karaoke songs (#1 on that list being "Baby Got Back"). I decided to also get "So Much In Love" because it did play a bunch in my childhood, though I never could remember that All-4-One sang it because there were a lot of a cappella R&B tunes in the 90s. Also not helping matters is the sheer fact that the original Tymes version of the song is far, far better.
There is one last thing to talk about when it comes to All-4-One. I vividly remember the huge debate that raged for a week in my school when it came to their two biggest hits. Some of my friends liked "I Swear" more than "I Can Love You Like That", invoking the eternal criticism that the latter song is nothing more than a copy of the former. My other friends had reversed feelings, calling out "I Swear" as a lame song for babies and suckers. I also remember how nobody seemed to actually call "I Can Love You Like That" by its real name, instead referring to it as "The Cinderella Song" because of its opening lyrics.
Because Melodifestivalen started on the first Saturday of February, I broke up the love song train to help celebrate the contest for the weekend, only to buy three songs instead of two (look, I really wanted to get "My Heart Wants Me Dead" and "Youniverse" sooner rather than later). But the first Melo song that I bought: Pernilla Wahlgren's "Picadilly Circus". If you ever want a 80s Swedish earworm to infect you, check out this tune and especially watch the original Melo performance (dig that amazing choreography!). Funnily enough, despite the song being the heavy favorite and later becoming a huge hit in Sweden, it lost to the good but not as memorable (save its title) schlager song "Bra Vibrationer".
I first came across "Picadilly Circus" thanks to its inclusion in David Lindgren's famed song montage at the 2017 edition of Melodfestivalen. I became even more enamored with the song around the hype and release of 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The reason? One of the opening chapters in the campaign is set at the famed London attraction. So whenever I was watching quick looks or streams of the specific mission, I would humorously sing the chorus all the while terrorists are being gunned down.
Now back to the love stream: God damn do I love "Always". Such a great song for lovers and weddings. I wanted to also get Atlantic Starr's "Masterpiece", a particular favorite of mine as a kid, but unfortunately it is not currently available. That is unless you want to buy a truly awful "re-recorded" version that just saps everything great about that song.
Oleta Adams will always be remembered by me for her part in the Tears For Fears' song "Woman In Chains" but everyone will mostly recall her for her one hit, "Get Here". I probably heard it as a kid during the First Gulf War but it never stuck with me until it was much later featured in a VH1 television special about bad love songs. It's a really good song but yeah that "Arab man" line is a big oof.
Yeah, I like Dan Hill but mainly only his hits. I can only stand so much sap at a given time. I could have gone with "Sometimes When We Touch" but I actually wanted songs that I truly liked and don't cause me to instantly roll my eyes while listening to them. "Never Thought (I Could Love)" isn't that far off from "Sometimes..." but it has stayed with me thanks to listening to a lot of adult contemporary radio when I was a wee lad.
Man, more people need to talk about Anita Baker. She was so great and so huge in the late 80s/early 90s. I had to get a trifecta with her, nabbing her two biggest hits and also "Just Because", the latter of which has funnily enough been my most listened to lately.
For Valentine's Day, I had to get a song that is currently in the running as my dream first wedding dance song: SWV's "Weak". So smooth, so heartwarming, so great. But don't tell that to my dad; I told him about it once and played a bit of it for him, only for him to truly poo-poo it. Also hurting its wedding chances is it clashing with my other dream wedding scenario, that of a Eurovision theme where all of the tables are the competing countries and the DJ will only play songs from the contest's history.
Once it hit midnight on February 15th, it was time to get back to the Melo music. The songs I picked out were ones I wanted, or had to settle with thanks again to those pesky music rights, but I didn't realize until it was too late that I went too hard on the pop side of Melo. I forgot to diversify it a little with some rock tunes, most notably Eclipse's "Runaways". Hopefully, there will be time to get them later.
As stated earlier during the "Picadilly Circus" discussion, I first came across David Lindgren when he was the host of Melodifestivalen, namely the 2017 and 2018 editions, with the latter being the first I watched live as it was happening. He did a great job and could sing well, which is no surprise considering he has competed at the contest three times. I tried to get all three but alas "Skyline" wasn't available. Eh, it's honestly the weakest of his hits but I'm glad I got the other two.
If you ever wanted a Swedish version of the Black Eyed Peas for some reason, I give you JEM and their song "Love Trigger". Catchy tune but holy shit what a rip-off.
If you love ABBA and their amazing schlager expertise, but with a more modern pop interpretation, you will enjoy Alcazar. The group has competed many times at Melo but have never won. Their last real chance came in 2014 with "Blame It On The Disco" but they were crushed by Sanna Nielsen's "Undo", which went on to place third at Eurovision.
Look, Loreen is going to win Melofest this year with "Tattoo". You can bet on it. To help celebrate her dominant victory in Heat 4, I chose to get "My Heart Is Refusing Me", her first stab at Melo in 2011 which quite shockingly, looking through retrospective eyes, didn't make it to the final. It instead came third/fourth in Heat 2 and proceeded to lose in the first round of Andra Chansen (Second Chance). The song has now become a fan favorite and is often listed as one of the biggest snubs in the competition's history, right next to another Loreen entry "Statements". I love Loreen, as we might see come May, but I think "Statements" is very overrated. And yes, I would rather listen to the Shawn Mendes rip-off that knocked it out, that is if I can have the chance to properly purchase it!
Danny Saucedo. Poor, poor Danny. He could have been the superhero Sweden needed after the country famously didn't qualify for the Eurovision grand final in 2010. He had it made to win the 2011 Melodifestivalen with "In The Club", only to fall to Eric Saade's "Popular". Saade goes to Eurovision, places third and becomes a huge star. So Danny goes big, really big for the 2012 Melo. He gives us "Amazing", a high energetic pop song complete with an outstanding performance complete with light-up suits and choreography from dancer/budding singer Anton Ewald. The show's producers even think he has it in the bag, giving him a prime spot in the last Heat. But the 2012 competition also had Loreen with THAT SONG. She wins, goes to Eurovision, wins the whole damn thing and proceeds to help change everything for the song contest moving forward. Meanwhile, Danny proceeds to co-host the 2013 edition of Melo instead of trying for a third time and never becomes the European superstar he wanted to be. Thus is The Ballad of Danny Saucedo. (Yes, I'm skipping over his latest attempt in 2021 but that doesn't make for an interesting ballad).
And to close out the month, I had to go with the biggest dude-bros of Sweden, Samir & Viktor. Sadly no "Shuffla", which I absolutely adored when I watched the 2018 edition of Melo, so I went with "Bada Nakna", aka the song about getting naked at the lake.
