Update, 16:00 CET: SVT has just announced that Kamferdrops will not be disqualified from tonight’s semi final. As there was no intention from the songwriters to share “Solen lever kvar hos dig” to the public in the past, the song is allowed to continue to compete.
You can find our original article on this below:
Usually, the drama of Melodifestivalen comes during the show itself. But just hours before the first semi-final in Karlstad, Norwegian singer Kamferdrops finds herself at risk of being disqualified.
Kamferdrops is set to perform her song, “Solen lever kvar hos dig” as the sixth act on stage. But this morning, Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reports that the song has, in fact, been available since 2009 — and performed by a different artist.
Little known Swedish singer, Jonny Fagerman, recorded the song under the title “Solen lever kvar” back in 2009. In an interview, Fagerman has explained that the version of the track he heard was a demo version.
Since then, Fagerman shared the song publically on his Facebook, as well as performing it live on several occasions. As of this morning, the song is gone from all social media. Aftonbladet’s report does contain a recording of the track, which is almost identical to Kamferdrops’ version.
Fagerman says that songwriters Herbert Trus and Dan Attlerud told him that he could no longer use the song last year. When Aftonbladet spoke with Trus, he said that Fagerman was never allowed to share the song, either online on in public.
So far, SVT haven’t confirmed what will happen as a result of this revalation. Christer Bjorkman says to Aftonbladet that there are “grey zones” in the rules.
Obviously, this situations seems very similar to the drama in 2016, where Anna Book was disqualified. There are, however, some important differences between that situation and Kamferdrops’.
Book’s song had quite obviously been intended as an entry to an earlier Eurovision national final. In this case, the demo appears — according to the songwriters — to have been illegally published online.
Whilst the Eurovision rules seem to suggest no song can have been performed before September 1, 2017, that’s also not been too strictly applied in recent years. Songs such as Anouk’s “Birds” and Trijntje’s “Walk Along” were both recorded as demos years before they were entered in to the contest.
Similarly, both Jamala’s “1944” and Alma’s “Requiem” were performed in public ahead of the cut-off date. The EBU deemed these performances too small an audience to matter, however. If Fagerman’s performances were similarly small, the EBU — and similarly SVT — may be willing to give Kamferdrops a pass.
What do you think of this drama? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments section!
My prediction:
Final: “Dance You Off”, “All the Feels”
AC: “Livet på en pinne”, “Livet lever kvar hos dig”
Out: “Patrick Swayze”, “My Turn”, “Osby Tennessee”
I’ll never learn. 😀
Benjamin impressed me the most. Great dance and production. John was good too. Those two DTF. The rest… I don’t care for. x
Everyone was in the degrees of solid, but I think that John Lundvik and Kamferdrops should go straight to the finals.
My Top7:
01 – “All the Feels”
02 – “Dance You Off”
03 – “Osby Tennessee”
04 – “My Turn”
05 – “Livet på en pinne”
06 – “Solen lever kvar hos dig”
07 – “Patrick Swayze”
07 – “Dance You Off”
It doesn’t really look like he’s singing live during the chorus – I can almost only hear the backing vocalists. It’s visually impressing (yet quite simple). Overall, it’s a nice (yet slightly repetitive) disco tune.
06 – “Solen lever kvar hos dig”
I don’t see anything particular interesting in this entry. She looks like Lady GaGa from eight years ago and sounds like any random singer performing a rejected Thomas G:Son demo from twelve years ago.
Back at the Eurodrama
05 – “Osby Tennessee”
The song isn’t that amazing (even though I like the title), but Kikki’s performance is somehow touching. She struggles when sitting down on her stool which ruins the moment a little.
Is there a live stream?
https://www.svtplay.se/video/16832738/melodifestivalen-2018/melodifestivalen-2018-deltavling-1-deltavling-1
Thank you!
04 – “Livet på en pinne”
He looks like my math teacher from 12th grade. There’s something charming about this entry (probably mainly because it’s 100% built upon the idea of being charming), but it get’s a tiny bit annoying after 2 minutes. There’s no way that Sweden is going to pick a comedy show tune so I guess we can look at this as a non-competitive interlude.
03 – “All the Feels”
It might be a little old-fashioned in some parts, but I really like this song. The performance is spot on and has just the right amount of action on stage. I like the way the hook line, which sounds like it’s been taken from a Swedish Schlager song, blends into the song. Very well done!
02 – “My Turn”
Sweden often struggles with ballads because they’re usually a little over-produce (something which only worked for Sanna Nielsen). This one is a nice little tune during the first half. The second half is far less emotional and uses too many clichés in the arrangement and the staging. Does he really need that fire rain? Overall still okay.
01 – “Patrick Swayze”
Building a whole song around a roughly 30-year-old pop culture reference seems a little lame. Besides, Sigrid looks quite stiff on stage (is she really a professional dancer?). Overall, it’s a rather weak opener with a repetitive melody and little creative input.
It feels a little weird when Melodifestivalen looks like Selectia Nationala or O melodie Pentru Europe
Are you sure you haven’t accidentally tuned into the Lithuanian semi final? I’m watching the two shows on a split screen and it’s a “before and after” commercial.
I think it was quite hard to convince Lady GaGa to compete in MF in the first place so I don’t think they’ll disqualify her.
Ahahaha! Fantastic.
P.S. Gaga get well soon. x
People need to chill – judging by the audience poll, Kamferdrops will struggle to qualify, let alone win. The song almost certainly won’t make it as far as Eurovision, so there’s no need to start yelling about hypocrisy.
And judging by betting odds she has a chance of reaching second chance. Some even say she will make the final. So who is more “professional”?
Telling Wiwibloggs comment section is like trying to put out a forest fire with a drop of water
So the sun is indeed rising up then?
That depends which part of the world you live in, and at what time.
Completely fair. It’s not that Kamferdrops had released the song early by her own; instead, the composer released it illegally without Kamferdrops knowing. She wouldn’t have deserved to get disqualified when she did nothing.
However, the composer will most likely face criminal charges, and he does deserve it.
The only thing that worries me is how could this controversy affect Kamferdrops with the voting, I hope it does not affect her at all.
Well, Anna Book also did nothing and knew nothing (it was her composers who submitted that song to Moldovan NF) but still get disqualified xD
Yes but in this case there was no intent of releasing it commercially. That’s the difference. That’s what it was judged on. Anna Book’s entry had every intention of being commercially released and it was. In Moldova.
> As there was no intention from the songwriters to share “Solen lever kvar hos dig” to the public in the past
There was also no intention from the songwriters to share “Taking Care of a Broken Heart”/“Himmel för två” to the public before Melfest 2016, but it _was_ disqualified. But I guess Herbert Trus & al. had few SEK to gift Mr. Børkbørkman…
Let her compete, its just a minor mishap, and no rules were broken. She’s not going to go to the final anyway.
Actually, if the song was uploaded illegally, Kamferdrops should be totally allowed to compete. It’s not that she plagiarized the song, just that the composers gave her a song that they had already given to another artist who wasn’t allowed to post it.
Such a mess, but it’s not clear anyone has acted in bad faith.
Poor Kamferdrops. They should be pretty pissed at Trus and Attlerud right now.
I think they’ll just decide that what the singer did was illegal and let her compete cause it’s too late to change the programm.
Bring Ace Wilder in instead!
AFAIK, no Melfest contestant is allowed to compete third time in a row… oh wait, nevermind, they have already thrown their rules out of the window.
There is no such rule. Anywhere. SVT just prefers not to have three years in a row.
Hey you do know Ace didn’t compete 3 times in a row, she competed in 2014, skipped 2015, and went again in 2016 & 2017
> Whilst the Eurovision rules seem to suggest
And the Melfest rules seem to suggest that the song cannot be released before date of the official premiere *at all*. So if the song is allowed to stay it would be kinda injustice to Anna Book. Tho Nordics are kings of hypocrisy, as last year’s affair with Jowst showed, so nothing will surprise me at all.
I know, it is a catch 22, so to say. People tend to forget that each NF has their own rules, regardless of Eurovision. Examples: – ESC forbids swearing, but Melodifestivalen doesn’t. That’s way Robin Bengtsson and Lisa Ajax could compete with lyrics containing F-bombs, but he changed it later for Eurovision. – Sanremo allows songs over 3 minutes. Many winners, Il Volo and Francesco Gabbani included, had to shorten it to fit the ESC format. – Several NFs limit the languages of the songs (Sanremo, FiK and Songvakeppnin, for example), so songs are limited to being performed in one… Read more »
The comment about the Nordics being kings of hypocrisy (JOWST example)…LOL, sooooooooooo f***in’ true!
And while we are at – the Reference Group now being overwhelmed with Nordic antics + their friends *cough*France*Italy*cough*.
Hypocrites? The rules say songs must not be publicly released before the date. There is nothing that suggests this song was commercialy released. Anna Books song however was commercialy released because it was found in Moldova. Released. There is a difference between released and publicly released.
I suggest you all take a class in reading comprehension before bitching and acting like cry- babies!
Maybe you should take a class in reading comprehension of your own comments, because your first sentence is contradicted by the rest of the comment, lol. And the rules (specifically, rule B1) say that *all* public releases, not only commercial ones are disallowed.
Quoting English translation of the “COMPETITION RULES FOR THE
2018 MELODIFESTIVAL”:
“Only works that have not previously been made publicly available – be it through public transmission, performance, publication, distribution or otherwise – may compete.”
> Since then, Fagerman shared the song publically on his Facebook
“The requirement against public transmission precludes its broadcast or public dissemination via […] internet”
> as well as performing it live on several occasions
“The requirement against previous public performance precludes its performance at concerts or similar.”
The rules state songs must not have been released in public before the date. Nothing suggests this song was released in public. In that rule commercial release is included and every other way it reaches the public. That is different from Anna Book who clearly was released in public. No rule has been broken here.
I think she will comepte.
i too think she will comepte