No.7: "25 Hours A Day" - Le Freak
Denmark always kept their songs hidden so we didn't actually hear "25 Hours A Day" before we got to Copenhagen. The songs were leaked the day before the contest and we'd barely got past the key change before running out to find emergency banner-making pens and cardboard. A schlager campaign was born and we had about 24 hours to convince Denmark to send Le Freak to Düsseldorf for Eurovision.
The night of the rehearsal we watched the final from a not very glamorous back room next to the stage and who should walk past us but Dame Kirsten of Siggaard, eating a banana muffin. We jumped on her for a "OMG You're Kirsten Siggaard!" conversation and his encounter was just about the highlight of our schlager year.
That night we attended a pre-show party where all the artists showed up and we unveiled our "heads-on-a-stick" for the first time, asking the assembled celebs to choose a Blue for a photo. Our favourite was Jenny Ace Of Base who drawled, "I'll take them all!" and our least favourites were the eventual winners A Friend In London who for some reason weren't that interested in holding up a Duncan Blue head-on-a-stick.
Le Freak were fabulous in the MGP and managed to get to the super final. Suddenly we had a schlager victory in sight and for about 11 minutes the schlager stars were aligned. Then A Friend In London won instead. Yawn.
"25 Hours A Day" remains a perfect example of how to do proper schlager. It's a Lord Thomas of G:son classic with an amazing key change popping up exactly where you want it. This song is bursting with joy despite the subject matter focusing on being dumped; it's got that bitter-sweet ABBA thing going on. Schlagertastic!
Le Freak woman returned a year later with a disco stomper "Overflow" which was the best thing in MGP that year by a mile, but everyone voted for boring guitary mush instead. Denmark continue to provide one of the more schlager-friendly National Finals each year but will persist in sending the wrong songs to Eurovision.
The Schlagerboys adored Le Freak and at the end of the night our schlager hero came to the front of the stage to meet the girls and gays and take photos. She posed with our Le Freak banner and that was the last time we met her. She needs to come back pronto! Schlager needs Le Freak! Hurrah!
In 2011 Denmark MGP was staged just outside of Copegnhagen instead of the middle of nowhere so the Schlagerboys decided we had to go. 2011 was the only time we got to attend a Danish MGP and our efforts were rewarded with a totally schlagertastic anthem to get excited about; "25 Hours A Day"! OMG!
Denmark always kept their songs hidden so we didn't actually hear "25 Hours A Day" before we got to Copenhagen. The songs were leaked the day before the contest and we'd barely got past the key change before running out to find emergency banner-making pens and cardboard. A schlager campaign was born and we had about 24 hours to convince Denmark to send Le Freak to Düsseldorf for Eurovision.
The night of the rehearsal we watched the final from a not very glamorous back room next to the stage and who should walk past us but Dame Kirsten of Siggaard, eating a banana muffin. We jumped on her for a "OMG You're Kirsten Siggaard!" conversation and his encounter was just about the highlight of our schlager year.
That night we attended a pre-show party where all the artists showed up and we unveiled our "heads-on-a-stick" for the first time, asking the assembled celebs to choose a Blue for a photo. Our favourite was Jenny Ace Of Base who drawled, "I'll take them all!" and our least favourites were the eventual winners A Friend In London who for some reason weren't that interested in holding up a Duncan Blue head-on-a-stick.
Le Freak were fabulous in the MGP and managed to get to the super final. Suddenly we had a schlager victory in sight and for about 11 minutes the schlager stars were aligned. Then A Friend In London won instead. Yawn.
"25 Hours A Day" remains a perfect example of how to do proper schlager. It's a Lord Thomas of G:son classic with an amazing key change popping up exactly where you want it. This song is bursting with joy despite the subject matter focusing on being dumped; it's got that bitter-sweet ABBA thing going on. Schlagertastic!
Le Freak woman returned a year later with a disco stomper "Overflow" which was the best thing in MGP that year by a mile, but everyone voted for boring guitary mush instead. Denmark continue to provide one of the more schlager-friendly National Finals each year but will persist in sending the wrong songs to Eurovision.
The Schlagerboys adored Le Freak and at the end of the night our schlager hero came to the front of the stage to meet the girls and gays and take photos. She posed with our Le Freak banner and that was the last time we met her. She needs to come back pronto! Schlager needs Le Freak! Hurrah!
