Ring, ring, why don’ t you give me a call?
Well, that is what we are asking you to do.
Pick a Swedish Eurovision artist or group and tell us why you want them to call you.
I will start off and pick CHRISTER BJORKMAN (Sweden 1992) and say please invite me to MELODIFESTIVAL 2016, all expenses paid and allow me into the country VISA FREE. I have never attended Melodifestival.
This was Abba’s very first choice for Eurovision at Melodifestivalen back in 1973.
I have often wondered how things would have been if Abba actually made it into Eurovision Song Contest in 1973? I think ‘Ring Ring’ the song was somehow alot more Eurovision friendly than ‘Waterloo’ turned out to be? but was it a winner I am thinking not.
Also Ring Ring lyrics were wrote by Neil Sedaka, one of the very rare times that bjorn and benny felt the need to seek help from a songwriter outside of the four piece band,
What also makes this song stand out is..
I recall ‘Ring Ring’ got so much radio airplay in Australia, yet it was after 1974’s Eurovision win. In the early years it sold heaps…
The Ark 2007
I want them to call me to invite me to their reunion concert/party in Anywhere. The “Worrying kind” is still in my TOP5 of all the ESC songs, not only the Swedishes. The song is my ars poetica and has a great melody.
Maybe it’s a surprise for some of the peeps who know me, but honestly, it’s the truth.
I also would be happy if 2016’s Swedish entry would call me for giving them my details to be able to send me the VIP tickets for the contest. And a call from Sarah Dawn Finer for a little chat would be also ammaaayyzing! Or a reunion of ABBA…
Oh Tamas, you are a man after my own heart. When I lived in Sweden in 2005/2006 I went to an Ark concert and was totally blown away, and have been a massive fan ever since. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t listen to one of their songs. My ring tone is ‘Let me down gently’ and everyone in my work team does a happy dance when my phone rings!
For my Melodifestivalen artist I pick ‘Lena Philipson’
as I just simply adored her 2004 Eurovision song ‘It Hurts’
I would ring ring her and ask her is there any chance she would come back to the Melodifestivalen next year or in the future?
I would like to call Malena Ernman because I really enjoy her style of performance, cheeky, fun but always vocally excellent.
Following her on Twitter she seems to have a great personality and I think she would be interesting to talk to about her career and maybe a long distance singalong of la voix!
Dale as you maybe have been on the picture, RING RING is created to BJORN, BENNY, ANNA and FRIDA. It was a number 1 hit here in 1973. ABBA actually had 4 hits prior to winning with WATERLOO in SOUTH AFRICA.
What makes ABBA releases from SOUTH AFRICA also quite collectors items – they were all released on a LOCAL SOUTH AFRICAN label SUNSHINE. One of them ROCK ‘N ROLL BAND is one of the most sought after items as it was released with a mistake and then called back by the record company yet they were unable to trace plus minus 50 copies and I have ONE of those.
I would love to get a call from Loreen, her song Euphoria has a special place in my heart, I was so glad when she won Eurovision and I would enjoy having a chance to talk about it with her.
It HAS to be Carola. I need her to give me a buzz as she’s yet to return my wind machine. Very disappointing really. How am I to host my Eurovision retro key-change-costume-reveal parties without one?
Additionally, I also need Magnus Carlsson to give me a bell to thank him for ‘Live Forever’ – the best song to never make it to Eurovision for Sweden. I still dance around my living room to this song of a Saturday night…if only Carola would return that wind machine!
Chris I also love LIVE FOREVER by MAGNUS, one of the composers of the song is my good friend DANNE ATTELRUD
I would love a call from Conchita. To me she embodies all the positives in the world. I would love to know how and why she picked certain songs on her album. I love those songs and some have been quite comforting recently- one thing I had never expected.
And you will chat in GERMAN
“Ring Ring” will always remind me of sitting in a club in Amsterdam watching THE ABBA MOVIE, and laughing so hard during the scene when ABBA first arrives in Australia and a troop for school children are waiting on the tarmac to greet them and break into a precocious chorus of “Ring Ring”. I have found that wherever you travel in the world, loving the music of Abba is a common thread that can break the ice in almost any foreign culture.
If I could call and speak to any Melodifestivalen artist, I would call Johan Kinde, the lead singer of veteran New Romantic band Lustans Lakejer (“Allt Vi En Gang Trodde På”, 2007). I read an article in the Swedish press about Kinde’s struggle with chronic depression and the fact that he was at the point of preparing to commit suicide when he changed his mind and decided to seek help.
I would like to speak to him and let him know that his music of the last 40 years has touched the hearts of me and so many others far beyond Sweden. His deep, romantic growl and passionate lyrics convey so much intense emotion even to listeners who might have no concept of the Swedish lyrics. When an artist like Johan Kinde reaches a point of deep depression, they need to hear that their life and art form a connection to fans and listeners across the world, and that nothing about their life has been lived in vain.
It would have to be Eric Saade….if he gave me a call I would feel so popular : )
Is there any competition – I would like Måns Zelmerlöw to call me and invite me to an afterparty for Eurovision 2016! And maybe he could show me around Stockholm as well.
I would be very happy if the Herreys called and asked me over for tea. I don’t just want to be ‘dreamin’ of me in golden shoes’, I want to be seen wearing and dancing with the Herreys in my very own Eurovisionesque ‘gyllene skor’.
An interesting point about Ring Ring Abba’s early hit and Melodifestivalen enrtry as Agnetha Frida Bjorn & Benny. Is how many different versions of this songs they recorded not just the original Swedish version for Melodifestivalen. Also after the English version release there was a rockier slightly slower version of Ring Ring released as a follow up to Eurovision I recall in the UK.
It wasn’t a Top 20 hit for the band in England, and only made no 32! In July 1974 you can find this version listed as a U.S. Mix on iTunes, I have grown to like this version although I didn’t like it at first.
For my phone call I’d pick Benny Andersson and I would just love to have an interesting chat about firstly his racecourses and then move on to all his Melodifestivalen and Eurovision 1974 memories – and I’d finish up with asking him for Agnetha s number or could he get her to phone me as well.
Check out the U.S. different Mix of RingRing here on UK TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq4V6o7q6ko
This song reminds me of a dance I did at school at a school assembly. A group of us girls did actions and a dance and performed it to the entire school
I would love to get a call from Eric Saade! He is one of my all time favourites and I need to ask him to come back and do the green room interviews again in 2016. He will always be Popular in my heart!
I would pick Lena Philipsson — besides the fact that she’s amazing, I would be imagining her dancing with her (micro)phone the whole time she was talking to me!
Before answering the question, I would like to share a memory I have of this song. When I finished 6th grade at an age of 12 years old, it was the last year at that school and by tradition the leaving class would perform a show for their families, teachers and other students. I chose to write new lyrics for “Ring Ring” and performed it together with a friend of mine. The lyrics (translated into English) went something like “Ring, ring, the bells of Kyrkskolan* are ringing out. Ring, ring, now it has finally come to an end” though in Swedish it all rhymes of course. Very cheeky but I am happy we did it. *name of the school
Now to the question – I would have to say I would love to receive a call from ABBA (or even “only” Björn and Benny would do) to invite me for a jam session and to write a song together.
Johnny, I know when I was in my last year at SCHOOL, grade 12, and the planned farewell dance was on everybody’s lips, a lot of girls were walking around singing RING RING, hoping someone they like would ring them and invite them as their partner – I actually felt sorry for some girls, we were 71 males in the final grade and 91 females, and you had to take a partner from the school due to cost, so 20 females knew they would end up without partners.
I’d give Mans a call. He could show me some of the Swedish places I’ve never visited.
I’d like to get a call from Sanna Nielsen, who sang Undo at the 2014 ESC. Not only was it a wonderful song, but in the interviews with Sanna, she seemed like a lovely person. I especially liked the way she became friends with Conchita Wurst, and in one clip, she was singing Conchita’s song, Rise Like a Phoenix.