2004: The Guilty

LENA PHILIPSSON WITH "IT HURTS" FOR SWEDEN

PHOTO: thebestjudge.com

This might have been the first song to make me laugh that year. See, before the contest and the official versions of the songs were released. All we had for Sweden was the performance from the Swedish national final. Here were have a tall, barbie-doll looking, woman in a tight dress groping a microphone stand singing emotionally over a dance beat. It's lyrics, "Ont, det gör ont men det går, det gör ont" just sounded funny to my American ears. I now know it means "Hurts, It hurts, but it, it hurts." The English version is almost a direct translation and the song is a prime example of the Swedish Schlager music genre. The sound is a mainstay from the national competition in Sweden that has picked the Swedish entry since 1959, called Melodifestivalen (Lit "The Song Festival"). Defining factors of all schlager music are cheesy instrumentals, key changes, silly lyrics and extremely catchy melodies. "It hurts" and it's Swedish original certainly fulfill that criteria.

Final Score: 170 pts (5th Place out of 24)

Written by Thomas 'Orup' Eriksson | Produced by Anders Hansson

Final Performance:

National Final Performance: