Sweden SWEDEN 2023 - Loreen - Tattoo

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[MopManMoss]

Do Thörnfeldt and G:sson songs ever get rejected and are really all 2000 submissions actually considered? I cant believe Melfest only has safe generic choice.

1700 of those submissions were written by G:sson and the other 300 Laurell Barker

 

[PlasticToad]

I mean, it was always happening. I know that for some this is overhyped and the fan reaction to it certainly is a bit extreme but at the same time... Here I am agreeing. I find the statement that "if [x] sang Tattoo it wouldn't be a favourite" a bit of a weird one - like yes, Tattoo the song isn't the strongest in the world, but does that not just show the power of Loreen as a performer? There's a special charisma she has on stage, my friend and I watched all her performances in stunned silence. .

Having said all this, gosh is this one of Loreen's weaker songs. Statements is her best melfest entry, but I'm an even bigger fan of some of her album tracks like Jupiter Drive. What a shame that songs of that style are not a good fit for Melodifestivalen and Eurovision as a whole.

 

[simori95]

I love all the German fans in the audience who are unapologetically clapping to the beat of this masterpiece.

I was in the Let’s Dance audience yesterday, the broadcasters Tell People in Advance unapologetically when and how to clap.

 

[PollyWantsACracker]

I've been thinking what to say about the song while not getting into any "camp", so, the best I can do is to keep it simple.

I don't mind if the song is not original. It's 2023, all notes have been played.

On the other side, as much as I love hearing great vocals, that also doesn't make a song great. Interpretation is what matters. One such example is Björk. Medium range vocals, but absolutely interesting interpreter.

So what does make a song great nowadays, in this flood of all sorts of talents, writers, songs and media swamp?

A great song is the one that either has a melody that plays with your mind (a composer found that little trick that hooked you to trully listen to the song to the end) or words that make you think and feel and an interpreter whose vocals played along the idea he wanted to plant in your head. A fresh example? Billie Eilish obviously. From Eurovision 2023? Latvia and Finland.

I don't find any of those 2 things in Loreen's song. Melody is not interesting. Lyrics are somewhat cheesy. Her vocal interpretation is just "The Voice" type of interpreting and in the chorus (an attempt of one to be clear), it's not even pleasant to the ear.

And that's about it. I don't find this worthy of a win.

In respect of Eurosong context, for me Sweden this year is just same as Estonia.

Yeah, these are entries that the juries must love (Estonian is far better though!) and noone can hold grudge against the jurors if they rank them very high. But to my taste, both entries are simply a sound of Eurovision from 15 and 20 years ago.

That's why they shouldn't win. Not in the year when Eurovision has opened up to the world market where so many new things are happening in music industry.

In the end, I'll share one personal grudge I hold against Loreen. I don't respect former winner's or former famous competitor's decision to come back to compete again for the win. That's unloyal competition. What Mahmood did was dignifying. He returned when Italy was a host and obviously didn't want to do that 2nd year in a row.

I won't rate the entry in the poll. Fanwankers and haters will, so the bone is left for them. All I'm going to say is that I'll not be voting for Loreen. She had her moment already. Some new Måneskin or Rosa Linn deserves his or her a chance this time.

 

[cegs5]

It's so average and formulaic that can perfectly smash the jury votes and get enough sympathy from the public to win it all.

Personally, not impressed.

 

[BorisBubbles]

Going through the motions with this. It's good, but not great, so an in the poll.

I'll like Tattoo more in the long run if it doesn't win ESC. :-)

 

[midnightsun]

Tattoo the song isn't the strongest in the world, but does that not just show the power of Loreen as a performer?

Not for me. I don’t think she is a great performer. Tastes are different.

She has a good voice. Check.
She is physically very capable to perform a song (able to move and sing at the same time without sounding like crap is something only a few participants ever managed at Eurovision). Check.

But I don’t like the way she moves, or her strange English or that she‘s lying on the ground or her nails or the outfit etc. The cubes are terrible and the LED screen looks cheap.
People react to it with "oh this is art" because it’s Loreen while trashing other artists in the past for overdoing it with the staging to make up for a bad song.

I voted points in the poll and the three are ONLY for the song because it’s not the worst in this contest.

I knew she was gonna win and I‘m pretty pretty sure she will win ESC because EBU wants to make sure Ukraine will not win again (because they would lose audience and countries if people aren’t motivated any longer if it is the common belief Ukraine will get pity votes every time now). They‘ll pander Loreen to the max.

 

[Mainshow]

I can still remember very well the "Euphoria doesn´t offer anything new because it sounds like 90´s trance music and Loreen can´t sing well because it´s the backing singers who do the job" comments back in 2012.

If we just take "originality", best "composition" into account, all Eurovision winners of the last 3 decades needs to be changed, imo.

"Tattoo" might not be the most exciting and original piece of song but the overall package is (a deserving contender for victory).

Just head "Saudade, Saudade" in Festival da Cancao a few seconds ago - if you ask me, I think it should have been Top 5 in the end (even though it missed my personal Top 10) based on the song´s melody/arrangement/composition alone.

Dunno, if I consider myself to be a "fanwanker" because I didn´t bother to buy Loreen´s sophomore album, her EP (was it "Nude" or "Body"?) but I have always admired her "artistry" and now and then she comes up with an incredible vision ("My Heart Is Refusing Me", "Statements" but also songs like "I´m In It With You" and "Walk With Me" and "Heal" are part of it).

 

[midnightsun]

But in the end her performances are not hers. She might have a "vision" and participated in executing it but all the creativity was someone else’s. She sang a song she didn’t write and danced a choreography she didn’t come up with and the staging wasn’t hers alone as well. Not only this time but all times. I don’t see what’s so special about it.

Anyway, may it be what it is.
I just read here occasionally and now Melfest is over I will say: (I‘m) over and out!

 

[PollyWantsACracker]

Not for me. I don’t think she is a great performer. Tastes are different.

She has a good voice. Check.
She is physically very capable to perform a song (able to move and sing at the same time without sounding like crap is something only a few participants ever managed at Eurovision). Check.

But I don’t like the way she moves, or her strange English or that she‘s lying on the ground or her nails or the outfit etc. The cubes are terrible and the LED screen looks cheap.
People react to it with "oh this is art" because it’s Loreen while trashing other artists in the past for overdoing it with the staging to make up for a bad song.

I voted points in the poll and the three are ONLY for the song because it’s not the worst in this contest.

I knew she was gonna win and I‘m pretty pretty sure she will win ESC because EBU wants to make sure Ukraine will not win again (because they would lose audience and countries if people aren’t motivated any longer if it is the common belief Ukraine will get pity votes every time now). They‘ll pander Loreen to the max.

Oh the CUBES and trashing other artists.... Let's remember what people here commented about Gjon's Tears CUBES that were conceptually same thing that Loreen has now. They claimed staging ruined him. But now it's art.

 

[Leydan]

Loreen 100% carries this, she's a phenomenal singer and performer who just pours charisma. Euphoria was heaps better than this song, and without her or this staging i don't think it would be anywhere near as impressive. Also to add what an absolute dumpster fire of mediocrity this years MF has been, it was a clear stand out and winner. I do wonder if it will be quite as impressive along side some of the other strong entries at going to Eurovision. Never the less, it seems to be clear winner front runner. Juries will cream over this I bet. Anyway, the song is good, but her performance is absolute world class. The staging and herself is great. I'll give it

Cornelia aside, Sweden has been huge disappointment after another for me, with horrendously formulated and jury bait songs. This is easily my fave entry from Sweden since the last time she went to Eurovision.

 

[Mainshow]

But in the end her performances are not hers. She might have a "vision" and participated in executing it but all the creativity was someone else’s. She sang a song she didn’t write and danced a choreography she didn’t come up with and the staging wasn’t hers alone as well. Not only this time but all times. I don’t see what’s so special about it.

Anyway, may it be what it is.
I just read here occasionally and now Melfest is over I will say: (I‘m) over and out!

That´s not true.
Loreen co-wrote "Tattoo", "Statements", "My Heart Is Refusing Me".

"Euphoria" is her only Melodifestivalen entry she hasn´t had any input in terms of lyrics.

Regarding "Tattoo", Loreen herself said that the performance is her art and her vision:

"“The most important thing is not to compromise on my performance and my creativity because I have a vision. It is going to be powerful, and it’s going to be spiritual and it’s going to be diverse, crazy."

“The thing that happens when I hear music is I see things in pictures. The moment I heard ‘Tattoo‘ I saw the scene, the scenery, the vibe, the colour, the narrative, and from there I started to build. If I don’t see a picture with a song, the song is not for me. I give the visual part a lot of energy.”

source

Let us not fool ourselves... ALL Eurovision participants will hire professionals to work on their performances.
No one can hold it against Loreen and none of us can say to which degree, artists really have an input.. but since Loreen is an experiences performer and kinda well-established artist, I don´t assume she´s telling lies to sell this package (it´s not necessary since it was #1 in Sweden, anyway).

Moreover, Loreen on her Eurovision performance:

“A lot of things I did before Eurovision were a compromise, basically,” she explains. “People having ideas and thoughts about how I should be, and me trying to satisfy that. ‘We see you like this’, ‘we see you like that’, and I was just like, ‘OK, OK, OK’. And it was painful to do that.”
That’s why, she says, when Eurovision came along, it was imperative that she took on creative control and create the performance herself – without having to present to anyone before it was fully realised.

As she puts it: “Nobody knew anything. They didn’t know what I’d created. And they were scared as fuck.
“Basically, this was my first performance that was actually a reflection of something that was really me. I wanted to prove that if you create something authentic, no matter what it is, if it comes from a real place, people will feel it. That was my main goal.”

“It was scary as fuck,” the singer recalls. “You feel so alone in that moment when you believe in something that nobody else believes in.”
Loreen remembers “a lot of pushback” from “all the people that had some financial interest in me”, who came with their own suggestions of how to improve a performance she had put her heart and soul into – which would ultimately have taken away so many of the aspects of what made Euphoria so iconic.

Loreen on how she threatened to not continue participating with "Euphoria" after the producers wanted her to wear more make-up, drop the "sirens" sound at the beginning of the performance, her changing the sound of the song (to make it more happy/appealing):

“It was never aggressive, but it was still there,” she says. “Their ideas were like, ‘could you just please wear shoes? Do you really have to be barefoot? Maybe a pair of high heels? Something like that?’.
“Or, ‘could you just try to turn up the lights so we can see your face? Or change the look?’ – because my fringe was down over my eyes, I don’t understand how I could find my way around the stage. ‘Could we make the song a little bit less spiritual and more happy? Can we just give you more makeup, maybe some red lipstick?’.”
Things apparently came to a head the day before Loreen’s first performance of Euphoria, when she was told outright that one of its most distinctive details was going to have to go.
“The producer said to me, ‘we can’t have the siren at the beginning’,” she says. “And I told him, ‘we need the siren at the beginning to neutralise the space’. He said, ‘if you have the siren, you’re going to kill the song’. Basically I was told, ‘you’re jeopardising the whole thing’.
“This was very late, I was exhausted, it was just before midnight, and he said, ‘it’s never going to work, Loreen’. And so I said, ‘it’s either the siren or I’m out’.”

‘Nobody Believed In It’: Loreen Reflects On The Performance That Changed Eurovision 10 Years On

Loreen’s Euphoria performance was a celebration of being true to herself. But it almost didn’t turn out that way at all.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

I´m not a fool - Most artists heavily rely on stage directors (also Loreen and Lord Of The Lost) but there are still artists (also within the Eurovision bubble) who have a very clear vision of what they want to do on stage and they are brave/lucky/vocal enough to demand it/make it happen and Loreen is one of them (unless you suggest she´s been telling lies for 11 years).

 

[Ezio]

But in the end her performances are not hers. She might have a "vision" and participated in executing it but all the creativity was someone else’s. She sang a song she didn’t write and danced a choreography she didn’t come up with and the staging wasn’t hers alone as well. Not only this time but all times. I don’t see what’s so special about it.

Anyway, may it be what it is.
I just read here occasionally and now Melfest is over I will say: (I‘m) over and out!

Your point of view is so Edgar

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

Sorry this entry is just not doing it for me. I gave it a . It's neither terrible nor amazing. Loreen is a great performer and the staging is nice but I find the song fairly dull. I wasn't a big fan of Hold Me Closer last year either, and I actually far prefer HMC to Tattoo thinking about it now.

I think this will probably be a top 5 in GF televote but I would not be surprised if it shockingly came 6th or 7th in televote which would harm its chances of winning. It will either be 1st or 2nd in jury vote.

 

[jatojo]

Looking at the studio versions, Loreen wouldn’t get into my top 4 of UMK.

 

[Loindici]

Ι really dont understand this. So you say they rejected better songs in the 2000+ just to send Loreen to Eurovision? This final was about of the same quality every Melfest final is.
Or is this about her getting a great slot ( #10 )? It was logical, since she was the biggest favourite, what did you expect them to do, put her at #1?
Its also logical for the broadcaster to want the act that took Ukraine down in the odds and brought them the most watched melfest video in years to win...

I still remember Loreen competing with Statements in 2017, and it was one of the favorites of the year. Having Loreen to compete again would be a dream for a lot of Eurofans, especially since she's a previous winnerof a very strong season. Loreen ended up being eliminated in AC surprised (and moslt likely disappointed) fans that year.

In 2023, we saw Loreen competing again. It's more likely that SVT asked her, "would you be interested in competing again?" before arranging the show plans, and she said yes. This is where the show's plan were likely built to make a storyline for her victory possible.

The plans seemed too obvious, though. Being last in heat 4 after what I've seen commented here as "lackluster songs", with the most complicated staging of the season, it's actually no different than usual Melfest favorites. Yet, the state of being with no other actual contender with a deemedly weaker song compared to "Euphoria" or "Statements", it's becoming obvious that SVT wanted to, and will, send Loreen.

I hope you got where I'm coming from here, since you took my comment in what seems to be a bad intention.

 

[jatojo]

Well-crafted popsong -> “This is so generic”.

That’s probably why weird songs often do so well at Eurovision.

 

[GermanBango]

Would have gladly taken any of the Top 3 of MF instead of the trash we`re sending.

 

[theditz83]

I see the "official video" uploaded to the ESC YouTube channel is the Semi-final performance. Smoke machine wrecking that chance to have the clean final video for the channel

I'm even more hacked off now that I didn't get final tickets, as this is so obviously qualifying and lighting up the arena in May. The performance is just everything. M&M were not happy at the end of the voting, and I do feel for them since they'd have clearly walked it had Loreen not entered MF this year. Wonder if they'll come back next year only to find Måns is returning - twin Danny Saucedo's incoming...

 

[FoxOfShadows]

Tattoo is good but it's not winning Eurovision good if it weren't for Loreen. That said, I think the contest has moved on and what worked in 2012 won't do as well this time round. The televote in particular has moved away from well-staged pop songs and, in my mind, into more personal entries that interact more with the audience.

Tattoo is staged like a music video, there's not one shot of the audience in it and Loreen does not interact with the camera at all. Compare that to Maneskin, Kalush Orchestra, Salvador etc. All of them made use of the live show rather than hiding it as much as possible. I don't think the televote will vote for this in droves (still top 5 but not top 1) so the winner this year will come down to how the juries rank the televote magnet songs, with Finland in prime position