The traditional start of the Eurovision season for fans in recent years is the opening of Switzerland’s Eurovision Platform. A scrap-heap of random artists across the world, Swiss B-listers and plucky amateurs, all submitting their potential Euphorias in public it takes a lot of effort to sieve through and spot a gem of a song among the hopes and dreams of the continent.
Last week eight songs popped up from the same address in Bromma, a suburb of Stockholm in Sweden. After shame Sherlockian efforts, Insight tracked down Staffan Mossige-Norheim. He was delighted to meet up for Swedish fika to discuss his part of the Swiss process. Ben Robertson reports.
It is far too easy to judge Staffan, after all it might seem just a little silly for somebody with eight songs ready to go to miss the deadline for Melodifestivalen, but a lot has happened to our gentleman in his mid-50s. A high school Swedish teacher by trade, he has been out of work on long-term sick leave for a lot of this year.
I read on the Eurovision Song Contest website that Switzerland opens to contributions. I just realised that I had missed the deadline for the Swedish contest, it was closed.
Fika with Staffan on top of Kulturhuset in Central Stockholm
A lot of things have happened and I have been busy. I just woke up and saw the link and I saw that Switzerland was open. I started transforming my songs from cassette tape to the computer this summer and now I have them in my Soundcloud account. I just saw Switzerland’s rules and I found which of my songs in the right format [those that reach Switzerland’s time requirement of being 2:50 to 3:00 in length] and which of them would be at least a little catchy.
These were songs that I have send before to Swedish dansbands or to Melodifestivalen in previous years, but I never got any response. I just saw the opportunity to get an audience, and I want to get an audience for my songs. Writing songs is what I want to do.
Submitting his eight songs to Switzerland’s online portal didn’t take much thought for Staffan. Missing Melodifestivalen with a bunch of songs just ‘lying at the back of the drawer’ Staffan felt that there was nothing to stop him entering to Switzerland and to publish what he has. However he has not been working on his music alone in a back room. Years ago he recorded one song with his 90’s dansband Okejdå and another schlager ballad with Ulrika Bengtsson, who is more famous running a cookery show on TV4 in Sweden.
Staffan has contacted TV4 News and Ulrika herself to let them know he has entered, but has not heard back from either at time of writing. His heart is clearly set on attracting media interest to his work. Whether he is listened to is a different story.
Even though the media interest is the opposite of huge, and the odds of qualifying to the next round in Switzerland are slim (last year you had a 2.78% chance of appearing in the televised Swiss Final – Ewan), Staffan already feels in some part like a winner.
“My Soundcloud account has increased dramatically from the exposure. And those songs, maybe the oldest is 15 years old in a portastudio with old sequencer technology. I know the performance isn’t good enough, but at least I expose the songs and people listen.”
Sweden: ‘Where One Person Picks His Favourites’
There is a little more to the story now than just a middle-aged man sending in some songs to Switzerland so a few more people notice him. In loose terms he has a Melodifestivalen family, . It is a big show to them and many other Swedish families, although Staffan insisted he ‘was not a freak’ and that he ‘did not watch all the shows.’
Staffan plays down the fact that he has not entered Melodifestivalen this year, but he has been publicly open about his frustration with the contest in recent years. He wrote this debate article where he proposes at the end to organise his own contest, with just his own songs, which would be a better quality competition than what SVT organises now. Staffan vented his frustration to me.
“I still think that I am glad the opportunity through Switzerland and I don’t like the Swedish system where one person picks his favourites and his friends and only one new songwriter gets through to the competition. My article showed my students the power words can do. Swedish radio played at least one minute of one of my songs when they discussed my article.”
I ask if he believes this is a reason in why the numbers entering Melodifestivalen each year is going down, this year at the lowest number since 2002.
“Composers they don’t have much hope [in Melodifestivalen] for songs to come into the contest. It closed the system so you have practically no chance of going through and I think it discourages people.”
Malmo Arena during Melodifestivalen
Why Risk It All In A Foreign Land?
People like Staffan know that realistically the chances in Switzerland are slim at best. They realise that the numbers are against them and a Swiss jury, never mind a Swiss televote, is unlikely to want them to go through to represent the country. However these people want feedback. These people want to be a part of the competition. They want to have the opportunity to see what other people think of their music, to take criticism on the chin and maybe just find one or two who appreciate what they do.
Staffan summed this up well when I asked him why he bothers at all.
“I think that I have something to contribute with. I think I have good songs. My singing skills are not good enough but at least they expose the songs.”
Like many others on the platform, Staffan is proud of his work and his songwriting. He wants to show it to the fans. At the end of the day I believe he would be happy if he converted just one person into a fan of his music, or he gets one nice comment about his songs.
I feel Staffan has been naïve though too in not spending just a bit of time to make it more concentrated and more focused. Dumping loads of songs may have gained exposure but may not have made fans treat him with any credit. This feeling was echoed to me after the interview where he revealed his songs were taken down by over-zealous officials at SRF who complained that his black screen for each song did not constitute a video. However, he is determined to fix this before the deadline he assures me and one song, Jennifer, has already got itself back on to SRF’s website.
I urge people to go on the portal, and give every song at least a fighting chance in their ears. Have a look at some of those tiny stars (the current no. 1 in the ‘favourites list’ at time of writing is Kitty Bruckell from UK X Factor) and have-a-go amateurs and you may find a gem and you may brighten a fellow Eurovision fan’s day by lifting their song up a place in the rankings. You might not like what Staffan has, but the beauty of the 21st century is that you can have a look at all the entries, and you can decide what you like and don’t like. Let’s help people like Staffan get exposure to their songs, and share the love we all have for listening to new music.
Isn’t that what the Eurovision Song Contest is all about?
Do you plan on writing about your own entry Ben?
I wasn’t going to. It’s obviously hard to be subjective about something you write individually and is so personal to you.
For me to write a song and send it to Switzerland shouldn’t be news-worthy, but this little story captured my attention about how determined some people are to get themselves heard, and how frustrating it can be when you don’t get any feedback for what you do.
Is there anything you want to know about my entry?
Oh Ben! I’d give my view but there’s not enough aloe vera in the world, so I’ll just keep quite. Good luck 🙂
Hello Ben,
it’s only today that I came across this rather interesting article and interview, which I wanna thank you for.
When browsing the Swiss Internet selection yesterday, I came across ‘Fax fran Sachalin’, which I found lovely in its glamourous, if rather hopeless early 90s schlager style, and picked it for my blog. What puzzled me a bit was the fact that its video was made up from seemingly random stock photos that seemed to bare no connection to the song whatsoever.
Which is a pity, because in my eyes, if a songwriter or artists obviously puts no effort in the presentation of the song, then it must mean he or she doesn’t believe into the song and its chances, so why should I?
I did not went unnoticed by me that Staffan put in a rather large number of songs – which, frankly, was the reason for me to not listening to one them (apart from ‘Fax fran Sachalin’, obviously, which I did because the song title made me curious), because in my opinion, flooding such a forum with numerous entries seems kind of desperate and usually means none of them are any good.
I think your own entry is a rather good example of how it’s done: even if – as you already know – it’s not to my personal taste musically, at least it had a very good, effective video, which obviously is no fancy, high-end production, but nevertheless is very helpful in telling the story and perfectly fits the song.
So, I’d like to hint to Staffan and others (he’s not the only one with various entries) he might think about entering just one of his songs next time and putting a little more effort in its presentation instead, because things like that count if you want to raise attention. I hope this doesn’t sound patronising, which isn’t my Intention. I just wanted to give a little feedback.
I believe that anything in Eurovision needs a commitment that you have produced a song that you think is perfect in its own way. You produce something, either for yourself or for another artist, which you believe highlights their potential best.
I agree it is a shame that not everybody sees it as a contest in this light, and instead just uses it to get exposure. Eurovision has a subtle but important difference in that boundaries are pushed to their limits and very often exceeded in the aim to be the best possible.
Top-end production should not be a need at this level where so many songs will be left on the scrapheap, but an emphasis that captures the imagination of the piece and how it connects to viewers is vital. I want to see artistry being played out, and those that do well in Switzerland at this stage are usually those with videos that show this. Eurovision is and should be more than just a music competition.