Tusse may have won Melodifestivalen 2021, but he was hardly the stand-out artist from that year’s Swedish selection process. Indeed after his performance in Rotterdam the priority wasn’t jumping straight back into the music scene but to return to college to finish his studies.
The breakout artist of the year from her three minutes on stage was Clara Klingenström. Completely unfancied to go the distance before the competition started ‘Behöver inte dig idag’ stumbled through a competitive heat in fourth place out of seven, won its Andra Chansen duel by a whisker, before the rollercoaster of support got this song to fifth place in the show’s Grand Final. Post-contest ‘Behöver inte dig idag’ was the radio hit of the year, with ten weeks at Number 1 on the Svensktoppen chart.
What makes it so remarkable was how un-Melfest the whole package was. Clara Klingenström was far from a household name and the song featured little of the show’s usual razzamatazz. Instead Clara stood alone on the stage under spotlights with an electric guitar in her hands, and told her story. It’s a powerful piece to listen to, with the song defiantly about the singer’s realisation that she does not need to stay with her abusive partner any longer.
But this piece is not about why Clara Klingenström should be the Swedish Eurovision entrant. Instead, Clara proved that it is time for Sweden to send Melissa Horn.
I’ve been a fan of Melissa Horn’s music since her song ‘Jag saknar dig mindre och mindre’ was one of the song’s considered to represent Sweden in the 2012 OGAE Song Contest. While the members of Melodifestivalklubben didn’t send Melissa Horn (instead it was my submission, ‘Het’ by Timoteij, that won our preselection), I don’t recall ever hearing a song and being swept up in its story as much as I was with ‘Jag saknar dig…’. My Swedish was far from fluent at that point (I had been living in Sweden about twelve months at the time) yet I was captivated by the metaphors, the storytelling, and the rawness of emotions on display.
On paper, Melissa Horn is a different version of Clara Klingenström, just with an acoustic guitar replacing Clara’s electric, and indeed when I first heard ‘Behöver inte dig idag’ I commented how it sounded like a Melissa Horn track. But, despite the power of the message in Clara’s song, lyrically they are worlds apart. Clara’s use of Swedish is brutal and direct in comparison to the elegance, suggestiveness and microscopic analysis of romantic relationships that makes Melissa Horn’s music poetically magical, and so masterful it is analysed by students in the school I teach in.
As a storyteller in the Swedish language there is nobody better in our industry. Clara Klingenström has proven that Melfest can celebrate music that isn’t just fireworks, but feelings, and serious feelings at that. Sweden still has this horrible statistic that we are the only nation since the language rule was changed in 1999 to never sing in one of its native languages at the Song Contest.
We should do so by sending the artist who masters Swedish better than any songwriter we have. Send Melissa Horn To Eurovision.
(Find out more from Melissa Horn on her website, Facebook, and YouTube).