Listen to my music tonight on Analogue Island - the weekly independent music show on Penwith Radio  8pm to 9pm British Summer time (kl 21-22 Swedish time)! Penwith radio is located in Cornwall in England.

HealeyIsland, the host of the show, writes:
So sit back and relax to some of the finest music on offer from the world of independent artists and labels.

Listen to the music and please leave a blog comment!

If you are not able to listen to the show tonight you can hear it when it is repeated on Thursday 2nd of July at 7pm BST and on Friday 3rd of July 7pm BST.

Look at these wonderful pictures of Swedish nature in winter and summer, enjoy and please write a comment!

Yesterday I took a long walk in the forrest in rain, it was amazing. It was a cold day but teh wind was not so cold in the shelter of trees and the rain didn’t bother so much there either. It was magic. It was lighter than it seemed to be when I looked out through the window.

There is a small lake for birds in the forrest and for the first time  this year I saw a mother Goldeneye with 4 sweet young birds, diving all the time, disappearing, then appearing again and swimming around, almost never after their mother but not far away from her.

I also use to follow Tawny Owls, year after year. This Summer I have so far seen only one of them. I find him/her by following the Blackbirds yelling when they try to scare away the Owl from the area. And there the Owl sits, always on a pine tree, trying to look invisible for Blackbirds that are very hostile, wanting to protect there young birds from the Owl.

From now on we all who visit the lake, are counting the young birds every day, telling each other how many we have seen. The Owl is a threat for those small ones, but there are other big birds too and maybe other animals that are  a danger for them.

Now I have not time to write any more, I am going to rehearse.

Have a great day.

Have a beautiful day!

Nordisk Film Post Production has converted my video from PAL system that is used in Europe to NTSC that is used in USA. I Am Leaving NTSC is sent to TV6 in USA and will air in June.

I  AM  LEAVING

   Music: Maini Sorri

   Lyrics: Barbara Helsingius

   Orig. lyrics: Marjo-Riitta Oksanen

   Arranged by Jaakko Viitala

   DVD Produced by Kerstin Svanberg 

1. Snow on the ground, snow all around

where we buried the past and the feelings we found.

Storms in the night, prayers for light,

wishes for wonders to make wrong turn right… 

CHORUS: I may long for your touch once tender

but don’t think I’ll ever surrender.

I must try the taste of living

among those warm and forgiving,

I must change the ice for fire,

see the sun and feel desire —

Now I’m leaving….Yes,I’m leaving…Oh I’m leaving…

I am leaving. 

2. Doubt in the air, mem’ries we share…

Truth or illusion? I really don’t care!

This is my way, right or astray

I’ll manage, I’ll make it or else I must pay…

CHORUS: I may long for your touch once tender

but don’t think I’ll ever surrender.

I must try the taste of living

among those warm and forgiving,

I must change the ice for fire,

see the sun and feel desire —

Now I’m leaving… Yes, I’m leaving…Oh, I’m leaving…

I am leaving… I am leaving…

The Swedish song La voix with Malena Ernman became 21st. Malena is a great artist and had the best voice of all artists in the finale of Eurovision Song Contest but what was the story in the song?  I heard the verses but not the lyrics of the chorus because of the high notes that made it impossible even for a opera singer, used to sing that high, to sing the lyrics so it was possible hear the words.

The sound mix of La voix in the Semi Finale made it hard to hear Malenas song. It was not easy to get the impression of a voice that in fact was bigger that all other competitor’s voices.

When I saw the video of La voix , sent to all 42 countries,  it was not the original video from her victory of the Swedish National Selection. Someone had softened the contours. There was too much light in it. In the performance  of La voix during the Semi Finale there was even more light on the stage. The whole stage became white. Malena disappeared several times because of this strong light.

Maybe the meaning of the light was to show that Malena sings like an angel and that the stage because of it became a heavenly place.? When I saw it I got serious doubts about the chances of the song in the Finale.  Maybe the lights didn’t destroy for us who know how charming  and communicative Malena is, but for others in Europe for whom the contact must happen during those 3 minutes, I am sure that the strong white light did weaken Malena’s chances.

What was the idea of making the artist dissappear? Was it to  make a better contact between the artist and the audience? I don’t think so. On the contrary, it really made the artist something distant and unreachable. 

The only way for an artist to touch hearts is to communicate with the audience as much as possible. Why was Malena not allowed to do this? Of course she can do it as an opera singer. To blaim the light technician for all this disturbing white light  is not right, he just fullfulled the intention chosen in the softened La voix video.

Here is  some issues to think about for the jury that picks the songs for next year’s competition. Is there a story to tell? Do listeners hear the words loud and clear enough? How can you help the artist to communicate in the best way with people in 42 countries and avoid making obstacles for the communication, how cool it even might look for the audience in the big ESC Contest hall. Most people watch the competition on TV anyway and  they want to see and hear the artist, to be able to connect and become willing to vote for that particular song.

Alexander Rybak chose another way. It was a pleasure to see his performance and his video without any disturbing lights, to see right into his eyes, to see him smile and hear him sing his heart out loud and clear. Also Yohanna from Iceland did communicate with listeners in a magic way.  She had also a story to tell. Her video was very communicative, too. Nothing did disturb the communication between her and her audience.

I suggest that every song that is going to picked to compete in next Swedish National selection is a song that touches hearts. Check up the lyrics carefully and see if there is a story to tell.

I also appeal to Christer Björkman and the others in the Swedish crew to make the video and plans for the performance in a way that makes the artist go right through the TV screen by communicating with the audience without disturbing lights and other obstacles. Let the artist make eye contact as much us possible.

One of my favourites was the Finnish song Lose control by Waldo’s people. It became last in the Finale. I saw the Finnish Finale and there was really lots of energy and heat on the stage then they performed.

I must say I was very suprised in a negative way when I saw the Loose control video! It is a good thing to stand up for homeless people but why make such an depressive video, with the artist freezing to death outside in the night, with eyes that ni the end of the video couldn’t see anything anymore. It is difficult to change the caracter of a song in a Semi Finale in 3 minutes when it has been sent to all 42 countries with such a depressive video.  

So, I give the same advice to Finland. Let the artists communicate with listeners in a positive way both on the video and on stage during the live performance.

My congratulations to Norway and Iceland that became number 1 and number 2 in the Finales of ESC 2009! We have a lot to learn from you.

Read these news from Eurovision.tv

But that was not enough. A song from the compilation album Shine on 2 with 20 Swedish bands featuring me, that I have promoted quite a lot, was also played on TV6 last Sunday. The song that was aired was  Send them away with a cabincruiser with Touchline. The video was Rail Runner from New Mexico.

Isn’t that great? It really made my day.

I wrote a message to Richard Jones and got an answer. It was of course a good thing. It is important that the staff of Last.fm listen to their 30 million monthly listeners and 280 000 artists and labels but the answer was only an explanation about why they decided to start charging listeners.  There is now  a strike among listeners on Last.fm.

On March 30th a new annauncement  by Richard Jones was published.  He annaunced that Last.fm is delaying their move of beginning to charge listeners. It is good although we must keep in mind that this delaying is just temporary. We listeners and artists on Last-fm must keep fighting against this negative change, hoping that it will never happen.

Last.fm listeners are really the best listeners ever, many of them are listening to Last.fm all their awaken hours. I have never met listeners so devoted to music than on Last.fm. Last.fm has listeners from every country in the world and is not only a huge global radio but also a gigantic meeting place for music lovers from different parts of the world, recommending music to each other.

Keep Last.fm free! FREE IS FREE

Check up this article.

It is is very sad. There are many listeners who are going to leave their beloved Last.fm because of this. In a couple of hours Last.fm got over 1600 blog comments about the announcement so Last.fm disabled further comments. $3.00 is much money in some parts in the world. A girl from Colombia wrote that she has to pay a sum that would be as big as 12 euro i Europe every month.

Until now I have loved Last.fm. I have listeners from different parts of the world that send me wonderful feedback that really makes my day. I am of course a listener, too. I listen to music in a way I never did before, I get recommendations from other listeners that  introduce me new music. There are really people who love music, they live and breath music and are the best listeners ever. Many of them listen to music the whole time they are awake. 

We have to try to stop this madness. Keep Last.fm free!

Listen to my music on Last.fm here

Last.fm radio announcement

Lastfm is unfair  Bring back the free Last.fm

Last.fm payment subscription protest  FREE IS FREE

Richards Jones shoutbox

I think that the most important thing is  that SVT tells everybody what the real rules are, as I wrote in my previous blog post. It is not a human right that anybody can send their song to the competition.  SVT can choose to do the selection in whatever way they want to. But it is much better to tell us how things are and not pretend that the songs are picked according to the rules. It is obvious that some of the composers and artists are picked before they even sent in their demos. In Finland it is the same but there the record companies choose artists and suitable songs for them.

We that are not satisfied with how things work should disagree loud and clear. Maybe there will be an opinion that forces SVT to begin to follow the rules. It is also important to limit how many times the same composers and artists are allowed to compeat, as a wise blog comment to my previous blog post suggested.

Soon is time to pick songs for ESC 2010 and it is really time for a change. Why is it so difficult to let in new composers and artists? SVT and Christer Björkman, let the new ones suprise you! There could be a new Carola knocking on the door. Open the door for new talents, both artists and songwriters, and you will see that the competition will get a fresh start and the winner of Melodifestivalen will be able to suprise Europe again!