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© Juha Repo
Author of La Voix
Sweden: Fredrik Kempe talks to Esctoday.com
Fredrik Kempe was born on 29 April, 1972 in Vårgårda. He now lives in Stockholm. He is himself also an opera singer, performed in musicals and taken part in the Swedish national final as a singer, but has concentrated more on songwriting in the past few years.
Esctoday: Congratulations for winning tonight! It was very close voting!
FK: Thank you! It was a bit of a shocker, the whole voting process was crazy tonight. I had to ask "Did we really win?" I am especially proud, that it was the votes from the general public that secured Malena’s victory.
How will you think this song will do in the Eurovision Song Contest?
I really don’t know. Well I hope! I am hoping it will cross over to enough voters. Malena’s voice alone is very mature and will be liked by many.
When will Malena’s album be out?
We are working on it now, so maybe it will be soon.
You have now two Sångfågel (Song bird) trophies from Melodifestivalen. Who would you like to work with to make it a third one next year?
He he, I guess I am the only one who has got two trophies in a row since the Sångfågel was initiated! But it is too early to talk about next year, I would have to analyse this year’s result first! I'll get back to you! But now I have to get back to my family.
Thank you and congratulations again!
On another occasion before the final Fredrik Kempe also spoke to Esctoday.com.
Esctoday: You had four songs in this year’s competition, and only one did not make it to the final, BWO’s You are not alone.
FK: Well with BWO was probably about the staging, it is hard to predict what the audience are going to like.
You also co-wrote last year’s entry Hero. How did you take the disappointing end result in Belgrade and have you learned anything from the experience?
We were not enormously disappointed, as we knew how difficult it was for any Western country to get a good result in the Eurovision Song Contest with the rules we had. Afterwards I have tried to study the way they write songs in the Eastern part of the Eurovision family and hopefully have been able to better balance out the different tastes across Europe.
Are we ever going to get a follow-up for Fredrik Kempe’s latest album as an artist, Bohème (2004)?
I am at the moment working with other artists like Malena Ernman, whose new album will be soon finished. That album will be a little in the style of Bohème, with some opera and Puccini. I have also written many songs for Måns Zelmerlöw's new album, I think it is a step further from the first one and he has matured as an artist.
So is there any chance of getting you back on the Melodifestivalen stage as an artist? You did also sing twice yourself in Melodifestivalen in 2004 and 2005.
Don't think anytime soon, I have to admit that it is nowhere near as nerve-wrecking to have three of my compositions in the final, than it was actually to go and sing myself!
You took part for the first time in Melodifestivalen in 2004 with Finally. Is there a story attached to the song?
Yes, as it was 30 years since ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time for Sweden in Brighton, I wanted to make a tribute to the songwriters Bjorn and Benny, Not only is the song recognisable paying homage to ABBA songs, it was also recorded in the same studio where ABBA recorded most of their work. And the actual piano on Finally is the same that was used on The winner takes it all!
What would you like to still achieve in your career?
As you can probably tell from my music I would love to write musicals.
Talking about musicals, have you met Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, that has written the entry for the United Kingdom this year?
No, not yet, but I am a big fan of his work. I really like the UK entry and Jade is a great singer.
La Voix is using recorded backing tracks, as is allowed now in the Swedish final. How are you going to solve this for Moscow, where all vocals have to live?
I have a demo with just Malena singing on it and that as well sounds fabulous, so I am personally not worried that she could not carry the whole song on her own. But of course we will look at the whole thing again.
La Voix is the 11th song Fredrik Kempe has been involved in writing that has competed in Melodifestivalen. La Voix is according to Swedish newspaper comments paying homage to Puccini’s Nessun dorma from the opera Turandot, a theme already visited by Kempe on his solo projects. Sweden will take part in the first semi-final in Moscow in May. The country has been drawn the fifth position from which it hopes to win enough votes to be amongst the ten qualifiers. The song La Voix is sung by the internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman in English and French. As the Melodifestivalen rules now differ from the Eurovision Song Contest rules, the performance has to be changed before Moscow. The recorded backing vocals will have to be sung live in Moscow, and only five other people will be allowed on stage with Malena. According to newspaper reports Sweden is not planning a major promo tour this year.
- Buy tickets for the UKeurovision Schlager Party here
- Buy La Voix by Malene Ernman here on CDON.COM
- Buy Fredrik Kempe - Boheme (Album) here on CDON.COM
- Buy Fredrik Kempe - Songs For Your Broken Heart (New Version) (Album) here on CDON.COM
- Buy Fredrik Kempe - Finally here on CDON.COM
- Pre-order Måns Zelmerlöw - MZW (Album) here on CDON.COM
- Find the Melodifestivalen 2009 artists and singles here on CDON.COM
Melodifestivalen CDs and DVDs available:
- Click here to purchase the Melodifestivalen 2009 CD from CDON.COM
- Click here to pre-order the Melodifestivalen 2009 Double DVD from CDON.COM
- Click here to purchase the Melodifestivalen 2008 CD from CDON.COM
- Click here to purchase the Melodifestivalen 2008 DVD from CDON.COM
- Click here to purchase the Melodifestivalen 50 years double DVD from CDON.COM
Related polls
- Sweden decided: How much do you like This is my life?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best SONG not to qualify in SWEDEN?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best PERFORMANCE not to qualify in SWEDEN?
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My Final top 5:
1.Sweden
2.Iceland
3.Finland
4.Turkey
5.Spain (6.Norway) Scandinavian's rulessssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sweden is one of my favorites this year !!!
Good job and good luck !!!
From Today "LA VOIX" is in my TOP 5 on the 5-th place! Good luck Sweden!
Wow. He had 4 entries this year at MF? Impressive.
Malena and "La Voix" is NOT a copy of the creepy singer and song that Slovenia sent in 2007. You can't claim anyone for stealing a genre.
Sweden rules !
Go Kempe, my favorit music composer 
Sweden you rock!!!!!
12 points to our Sea neighbours from Lithuania!!!!!!
Malena is amazing.She has the voice and a very strong one.
Sweden will be in top5
Sweden 12 points!!!
My top 10
1.Sweden
2.Albania
3.Israel
4.Iceland
5.Finland
6.Norway
7.Greece
8.Denmark
9.Malta
10.Estonia
GREETINGS FROM LITHUANIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!! Our sea neighbours!:-)
such a dissapointment from sweden, they dod badly and then the send a schlager copy of slovenias alenka gotar from 2007, alenka did it better and still didnt win, therefore sweden have no chance
I have loved La Voix since the first time i heard it. The only thing I didn`t like, was when I discovered how similar it is to Nessun Dorma. Fredrik Kempe is a great composer, and I didn`t thoght that he needed help from Puccini..
Anyway - Marlena is gorgeous whith a great operavoice and charm, and I think she will fight among the top 5.
But Sweedish people - have you thoght about what the jury might did? They gave Malena a bad score - and I think that therefor the people wotet extra for her. And there was only about 3000 votes between Carolina and Malena. I think that Carolina would have been the winner if it wasn`t for the jurys influence. She was adoreable, but I think Malena will do better in esc Good luck Sweeden!
Benjamin
The international jury in MF :
http://svt.se/svt/js(...);lpos=rubrik_1481193
@ mina
in sweden didnt know who should represent them lol
it seems it was very close in urs national final this year good luck to malena and lets wait may and her performance!
well if it means nothing why is it part of the election? and as much as I respect the people's choice it's no longer televoting only so how can you ignore the swedish jury/int jury input?
It means nothing when it comes to the actual Eurovision. A jury may love a song and another jury may hate the same song, that's what I meant.
Even the Swedish juries disagreed with each other!
Look:
Luleå jury: Snälla, snälla 12 points
Umeå jury: Hope & glory - 12 points
Sundsvall jury: Stay the night - 12 points
Falun jury: You're my world - 12 points
Karlstad jury:1000 miles - 12 points
And so on. Btw the Norrköping jury gave the 12 points to Malena.
As for the International jury? Moving on - 12 points
Who is the public supposed to agree with?LOL
Apparently they agreed with Norrkoping 
We still talking about Melodifestivalen!
This is pathetic!
but I have a feeling that swedish jury has less than 50 % in voteing. Cause some people said ther is no chance malena to win cause jury didnt give her so many points.
well if it means nothing why is it part of the election? and as much as I respect the people's choice it's no longer televoting only so how can you ignore the swedish jury/int jury input? whatever you are just into wishful thinking and every time Sweden are sure they have it in their hands...oh and i really hate it when people act like the swedish audience didn't like Charlotte's Hero. They gave it 10 pts and would probably give it the full 12 - they just knew she wasn't desperate for their votes since the jurys gave her tons of votes and she had the gap going strong for her...so they voted for Sanna who was only 4th according to jurys. If the audience chose BWO/Rongedal (3/2 places by jury) it would have been different. but guess what? they loved Charlotte as well.
I'm sure this year will be full of suprises cause there is a jury and some things will change. Just look at national finals this year and u will see that so many countries sent some songs that jury didn't like at all but audience win. Of course, there was some situations where jury decide what should represent their country and audience is still unhappy. It would be great if all of us could be happy with choice. All I want that good song win and that I finally can hear that song more on radio stations and see it often on tv. Good luck to all participants - it would be nice when some eurovision song would be hit in usa too!
Anyway Charlotte, the juries will be different, and the competition will be different. So, what the Swedish juries or that international jury liked or didn't like means nothing.
Last year Sweden sent the one juries wanted. This year they're sending the one the people wanted. We'll have to wait and see.
so nothing, I'm just saying your own country's jurys didn't even like it. not some jurys from greece or portugal or whatever. The International jurys also didn't like it. So yes, those people didn't like her - you wanna say it doesn't mean a thing when these are international proffessionals and local jurys? fine, tell yourself that lol. We will just have to wait and see
who was in internatinal jury this year at melodifestivalen - and can someone explain what kind of jury it was?
i have read somewhere, on some serbian web site, there was marija serifovic, she was a presidnet of jury, but was she president of sweden or national jury cause I saw u had some regional juries too.
*and ofcourse it was 1987, not 1989.
Well the jurys liked it much more than they liked Malena so far.
The Swedish juries and the international jury that voted in the swedish nf did.
We can't say 'the juries' and speak for all the European juries...just for those specific people...and yes, those people didn't like Malena.
And the Greek jury in 1989 had given Johnny Logan's Hold me now 0 points..so what?
can't belive she is number 4. so many people voted for her in final.
can u tell me other positions cause I have heard there are so many melodifestivalens song at top 10. or just give me charts link. tnx
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