1.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
2.
Pop music
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Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid 1950s. The terms popular music and pop music are used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular. Pop and rock were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they were used in opposition from each other. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music. Pop music is eclectic, and often borrows elements from other such as urban, dance, rock, Latin. Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a format, as well as the common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes. David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, according to Pete Seeger, pop music is professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music, the music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs. Pop music, as a genre, is seen as existing and developing separately, pop music continuously evolves along with the terms definition. The term pop song was first recorded as being used in 1926, Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues and hillbilly music. The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pops earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience. Since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the meaning of non-classical mus, usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles. Grove Music Online also states that, in the early 1960s pop music competed terminologically with beat music, while in the USA its coverage overlapped with that of rock and roll. From about 1967, the term was used in opposition to the term rock music. Whereas rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral. It is not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward, and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative. It is, provided from on high rather than being made from below, pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment, the lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions
3.
Popular music
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Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training and it stands in contrast to both art music and traditional or folk music. Art music was historically disseminated through the performances of music, although since the beginning of the recording industry. Traditional music forms such as blues songs or hymns were passed along orally, or to smaller. The original application of the term is to music of the 1880s Tin Pan Alley period in the United States, although popular music sometimes is known as pop music, the two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music songs and pieces typically have easily singable melodies, in the 2000s, with songs and pieces available as digital sound files, it has become easier for music to spread from one country or region to another. Some popular music forms have become global, while others have an appeal within the culture of their origin. Through the mixture of genres, new popular music forms are created to reflect the ideals of a global culture. The examples of Africa, Indonesia and the Middle East show how Western pop music styles can blend with local traditions to create new hybrid styles. Sales of recordings or sheet music are one measure, middleton and Manuel note that this definition has problems because multiple listens or plays of the same song or piece are not counted. Manuel states that one criticism of music is that it is produced by large media conglomerates and passively consumed by the public. He claims that the listeners in the scenario would not have been able to make the choice of their favorite music, moreover, understandings of popular music have changed with time. A societys popular music reflects the ideals that are prevalent at the time it is performed or published, david Riesman states that the youth audiences of popular music fit into either a majority group or a subculture. The majority group listens to the commercially produced styles while the subcultures find a minority style to transmit their own values and this allows youth to choose what music they identify with, which gives them power as consumers to control the market of popular music. Form in popular music is most often sectional, the most common sections being verse, chorus or refrain, other common forms include thirty-two-bar form, chorus form *, and twelve-bar blues. Popular music songs are rarely composed using different music for each stanza of the lyrics, the verse and chorus are considered the primary elements. Each verse usually has the melody, but the lyrics change for most verses. The chorus usually has a phrase and a key lyrical line which is repeated
4.
Mormons
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After Smiths death in 1844, the Mormons followed Brigham Young to what would become the Utah Territory. Today, most Mormons are understood to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some Mormons are also either independent or non-practicing. The center of Mormon cultural influence is in Utah, and North America has more Mormons than any other continent, Mormons have developed a strong sense of communality that stems from their doctrine and history. Mormons dedicate large amounts of time and resources to serving in their church, Mormons have a health code which eschews alcoholic beverages, tobacco, coffee, tea, and other addictive substances. They tend to be very family-oriented, and have connections across generations and with extended family. Mormons also have a law of chastity, requiring abstention from sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage. Mormons self-identify as Christian, although some non-Mormons consider Mormons non-Christian, Mormons believe in the Bible, as well as other books of scripture, such as the Book of Mormon. They have a view of cosmology, and believe that all people are spirit-children of God. Mormons believe that returning to God requires following the example of Jesus Christ and they believe that Christs church was restored through Joseph Smith and is guided by living prophets and apostles. Central to Mormon faith is the belief that God speaks to his children, due to their high birth and conversion rates, the Mormon population has grown significantly in recent decades rising from around three million in 1970 to over 15 million in 2015. The term Mormons has been embraced by most adherents of Mormonism, most notably Mormon fundamentalists, while other Latter Day Saint denominations, both LDS Church members and members of fundamentalist groups commonly use the word Mormon in reference to themselves. The LDS Church, however, disagrees with this self-characterization, Church leaders also encourage members to use the churchs full name to emphasize its focus on Jesus Christ. Today, polygamy is practiced within Mormonism only by people that have broken with the LDS Church, the history of the Mormons has shaped them into a people with a strong sense of unity and communality. From the start, Mormons have tried to establish what they call Zion, in the first period, Smith had tried literally to build a city called Zion, in which converts could gather. During the pioneer era, Zion became a landscape of villages in Utah, in modern times, Zion is still an ideal, though Mormons gather together in their individual congregations rather than a central geographic location. Mormons trace their origins to the visions that Joseph Smith reported having in the early 1820s while living in upstate New York, in 1823, Smith said an angel directed him to a buried book written on golden plates containing the religious history of an ancient people. Smith published what he said was a translation of these plates in March 1830 as the Book of Mormon, named after Mormon, on April 6,1830, Smith founded the Church of Christ. The early church grew westward as Smith sent missionaries to proselytize, in 1833, Missouri settlers, alarmed by the rapid influx of Mormons, expelled them from Jackson County into the nearby Clay County, where local residents were more welcoming
5.
Eurovision Song Contest 1984
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1984, the 29th event of its kind, was held on 5 May 1984 in Luxembourg. The presenter, Désirée Nosbusch, only 19 years old at the time, hosted the show in a lax manner, which was quite unusual for the show at the time. She manifested her fluency in four languages by switching between a strong transatlantic English, French, German and Luxembourgish in the course of talking, swedens the Herreys were the winners of this contest with the song, Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley. This was the Nordic countrys second win, and the first song performed in Swedish, the previous Swedish winner, ABBA, ten years ago had performed their song Waterloo in English. Israel withdrew from the contest due to Yom Hazikaron being commemorated on the same date, iceland was going to participate but withdrew due to lack of financial support. 1984 is also a notable for the audible booing that could be heard from the audience and it was said that the booing was due to English football hooligans having rioted in Luxembourg in November 1983 after being knocked out of the UEFA European Football Championship. However, the song managed a pretty good showing, reaching seventh place. The city of Luxembourg, also known as Luxembourg City, is a commune with city status, and it is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, inaugurated in 1964 as the Théâtre Municipal de la Ville de Luxembourg, became the venue for the 1984 contest. It is the major venue for drama, opera and ballet. It also hosted the 1973 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, host conductor in bold Notes 1. ^ Contains some words in English. 2. ^ Contains some words in Italian,3. ^ Contains some words in German. Before the contest, Sweden was not expected to win or even achieve a high placing, in the run-up to the Contest, bookmakers Ladbrokes had the lowest odds on songs from Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Sweden was considered a dark horse entry with high odds, each country had a jury that awarded one to eight,10 and 12 points for their top ten songs. At the close of the jurys votes, there was only a difference of six points between Sweden and Ireland, at 141 and 135 respectively. However, Yugoslavia was the country who had not given any points to Ireland, and Portugal. Portugals voting also cost Denmark, who had been holding at a third position, even leading the scoreboard for a short time, in that place. Portugal at the time had only given Denmark one point making Denmarks total 101 points
6.
Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley
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Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 1984 performed in Swedish by a trio of brothers named Herreys. Lyrics were written by Britt Lindeborg, and the tune by Torgny Söderberg and it was produced by Anders Engberg and Torgny Söderberg. The song has achieved fame among Eurovision Song Contest fans, with a well-known archive of Contest lyrics using the domain name diggiloo. net. No song sung first or second has won since, the song itself deals with the lead singer discovering a pair of golden shoes in the street one day. He puts them on and immediately feels like dancing in the street, thus, he wishes for everyone to have a pair. The English translation, released some time after the Contest, took much the same theme, richard Herrey, lead singer of the band, performed at the Congratulations special in late 2005. The song was succeeded as winner in 1985 by Bobbysocks representing Norway with La det swinge, the highest chart position the song reached was No. 2, in the Swedish singles chart, Diggi Loo - Diggi Ley -3,05 Every Song You Sing -3,34 The Swedish heavy metal band Black Ingvars covered Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley on their 1998 album Schlager Metal. Meiju Suvas has recorded a version in Finnish, the Danish bubblegum dance duo Small Talk released an English cover version on their 2001 album Eurovision. Diggi-loo diggi-ley at the Austrian singles chart Diggi-loo diggi-ley at the Norwegian singles chart Diggi-loo diggi-ley at the Swedish singles chart Diggi-loo diggi-ley at the Swiss singles chart
7.
Sopot International Song Festival
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The Sopot International Song Festival is an annual international song contest held in Sopot, Poland. It was the biggest Polish music festival altogether with the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole, the contest was organised and transmitted live by the Polish state television broadcaster, Telewizja Polska between 1994 and 2004. The following year, the concert was broadcast by the private media station TVN for the first time, from 2012 to 2014, the concert was broadcast and organised by Polsat. It was later cancelled by the broadcaster, the first Sopot festival was initiated and organised in 1961 by Władysław Szpilman, assisted by Szymon Zakrzewski from Polish Artists Management. The first three editions were held in the Gdansk Shipyard hall, after which the moved to the Forest Opera. The main prize has been Amber Nightingale through most of its history, between 1977 and 1980 it was replaced by the Intervision Song Contest, which was still held in Sopot. Unlike the Eurovision Song Contest, the Sopot International Music Festival often changed its formulas to pick a winner, for example, at the 4th Intervision Song Festival two competitions were effective, one for artists representing television companies, the other for those representing record companies. In the first the jury considered the merits of the songs entered, while in the second. Since 1999, there was no contest, TVP chose to invite well-known artists instead, featuring the likes of Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, The Corrs, Lionel Richie, UB40, Ricky Martin and Simply Red to perform. In 2005, TVN brought the competition back, taking over from TVP. The Sopot International Song Festival is usually considered bigger than the Benidorm International Song Festival because of its ability to attract star performers, in 2010 and 2011, the festival did not take place due to renovation of the Forest Opera. Since 2012, it is called Sopot Top Of The Top Festival and is broadcast annually by Polsat, in 2014, the name was changed to Polsat Sopot Festival. The festival also provided opportunity to listen to international stars and this list includes only winners of the most prestigious contests within the Sopot Music Festival. Sometimes one contest has overshadowed another with time, grand Prix de disque was the most prestigious award between 1974 and 1976 and the Intervision Song Contest during 1977–80. The festival has given prizes for Best Interpretation in the 1960s. *More than one winner at that year, Sopot Festival website The complete list of all participants and places till 2009
8.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
9.
Iron Curtain
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The Iron Curtain was the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. A term symbolizing the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West, on the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union. The most notable border was marked by the Berlin Wall and its Checkpoint Charlie, the events that demolished the Iron Curtain started in discontent in Poland, and continued in Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Romania became the only communist state in Europe to overthrow its government with violence. The use of the iron curtain as a metaphor for strict separation goes back at least as far as the early 19th century. It originally referred to fireproof curtains in theaters, various usages of the term iron curtain pre-date Churchills use of the phrase. The term iron curtain has since been used metaphorically in two different senses - firstly to denote the end of an era and secondly to denote a closed geopolitical border. The source of these metaphors can refer to either the safety curtain deployed in theatres or to roller shutters used to secure commercial premises. The first metaphorical usage of iron curtain, in the sense of an end of an era, perhaps should be attributed to British author Arthur Machen, who used the term in his 1895 novel The Three Impostors. The door clanged behind me with the noise of thunder, and I felt that an iron curtain had fallen on the passage of my life. Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians used the term Iron Curtain in the context of World War I to describe the situation between Belgium and Germany in 1914. The passage runs, With clanging, creaking, and squeaking, time to put on your fur coats and go home. We looked around, but the fur coats and homes were missing, chesterton used the phrase in a 1924 essay in The Illustrated London News. Chesterton, while defending Distributism, refers to that iron curtain of industrialism that has cut us off not only from our neighbours condition, how, a moment before the iron curtain was wrung down on it, did the German political stage appear. All German theatres had to install an iron curtain as a precaution to prevent the possibility of fire spreading from the stage to the rest of the theatre. Such fires were common because the decor often was very flammable. In case of fire, a wall would separate the stage from the theatre. Douglas Reed used this metaphor in his book Disgrace Abounding, The bitter strife had only hidden by the iron safety-curtain of the Kings dictatorship
10.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
11.
Alla Pugacheva
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Alla Borisovna Pugacheva, is а Soviet and Russian musical performer. Her career started in 1965 and continues to this day and she became a Meritorious Artist of the Russian SFSR in 1980, Peoples Artist of the Russian SFSR in 1985 and Peoples Artist of the USSR in 1991. She represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997, Pugacheva was born to Boris Mikhailovich Pugachëv and Zinaida Arkhipovna Pugachëv in Moscow, on 15 April 1949. In 1956, she enrolled in music school №31, and attended the Ippolitov-Ivanov music college and she went on to study at school №496, finishing her studies there in 1964. She then studied in the department of the college. Pugacheva recorded her first track Robot in 1965, for a programme on Radio Yunost. Pugacheva finished college in 1966 and subsequently toured with the group Yunost in Western Siberia, the following year she began working as a piano accompanist at the State Circus Musical college. She recorded songs throughout that period for numerous movies, in 1974, she came in 3rd place in the All-Union competition of musicians. In 1975, she received the Grand Prix of the international contest Golden Orpheus performing the song Harlequin by Emil Dimitrov, the Amiga label released her winning song as a single in East Germany. Subsequently in Bulgaria, the Balkanton label released the recording of Harlequin from the festival as a single. One year later, Pugacheva returned to the Golden Orpheus to perform a concert outside the competition, the Balkanton released the live tracks as Pugachevas first album Zolotoy Orfey 76. In that same year, Pugacheva recorded a number of songs for the musical drama-comedy The Irony of Fate as the voice of Nadja. Pugacheva went on to work on the musical film Zhenshchina, kotoraya poyot in cooperation with the band Ritm in 1977 and she played the leading lady, a famous pop singer who sacrifices her personal life for her career. The soundtrack, which was co-written by Pugacheva and composed of pop songs, culminated with the title ballad Zhenshchina. The Soviet audience, regarding the film as autobiographical, brought the soundtrack to reach audience of the year in 1979. The soundtrack was first released in 1977 as part of the double album Zerkalo dushi, the Victor label released a collection album Alla Pugacheva in the same year in Japan. In 1980, the Kansan label of Finland released her above listed works as the compilation album Huipulla, tonbandausnahmenkompanie Bayer GmbH did the same in West Germany, releasing Alla Pugachova. During the 1980s, Pugacheva was a frequent visitor to Stockholm and she started out with multiple guest appearances on the popular Swedish radio show Galaxen conducted by Jacob Dahlin, and later frequently appeared on his TV-show Jacobs Stege
12.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Christian restorationist church that is considered by its members to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations, according to the church, it has over 70,000 missionaries and a membership of over 15 million. It is ranked by the National Council of Churches as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States and it is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening. Adherents, often referred to as Latter-day Saints, or, less formally, Mormons, view faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement as fundamental principles of their religion. The church has a canon which includes four scriptural texts, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants. The current president is Thomas S. Monson, individual members of the church believe that they can also receive personal revelation from God in conducting their lives. The president heads a hierarchical structure with various levels reaching down to local congregations, Bishops, drawn from the laity, lead local congregations. Male members, after reaching age 12, may be ordained to the priesthood, Women do not hold positions within the priesthood, but do occupy leadership roles in some church auxiliary organizations. Both men and women may serve as missionaries, and the church maintains a large missionary program which proselytizes, faithful members adhere to church laws of sexual purity, health, fasting, and Sabbath observance, and contribute ten percent of their income to the church in tithing. The LDS Church was formally organized by Joseph Smith on April 6,1830, Smith intended to establish the New Jerusalem in North America, called Zion. In 1831, the moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and began establishing an outpost in Jackson County, Missouri. However, in 1833, Missouri settlers brutally expelled the Latter Day Saints from Jackson County, the Kirtland era ended in 1838, after a financial scandal rocked the church and caused widespread defections. Smith regrouped with the church in Far West, Missouri. Believing the Saints to be in insurrection, the Missouri governor ordered that the Saints be exterminated or driven from the State, in 1839, the Saints converted a swampland on the banks of the Mississippi River into Nauvoo, Illinois, which became the churchs new headquarters. Nauvoo grew rapidly as missionaries sent to Europe and elsewhere gained new converts who then flooded into Nauvoo, meanwhile, Smith introduced polygamy to his closest associates. He also established ceremonies, which he stated the Lord had revealed to him, to allow people to become gods in the afterlife. He also introduced the church to an accounting of his First Vision. This vision would come to be regarded by the LDS Church as the most important event in history since the resurrection of Jesus
13.
Melodifestivalen
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Melodifestivalen is an annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio. It determines the countrys representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959, since 2000, the competition has been the most popular television programme in Sweden, it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. In 2012, the semifinals averaged 3.3 million viewers, the festival has produced six Eurovision winners and eighteen top-five placings for Sweden at the contest. The winner of the Melodifestival has been chosen by panels of jurors since its inception, since 1999, the juries have been joined by a public telephone vote which has an equal influence over the final outcome. The competition makes an impact on music charts in Sweden. The introduction of semifinals in 2002 raised the number of contestants from around twelve to thirty-two. A childrens version of the competition, Lilla Melodifestivalen, also began that year, light orchestrated pop songs, known locally as schlager music, are so prevalent that the festival is sometimes referred to as Schlagerfestivalen by the Swedish media. However, other styles of such as rap, reggae. The introduction of a final in Stockholm has attracted substantial tourism to the city. The most recent Melodifestivalen winner is Robin Bengtsson who won on 11 March 2017 with the song I Cant Go On and he is set to represent Sweden at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, Ukraine. With seven nations competing, the first Eurovision Song Contest took place in Lugano, Swedens first contest was the third, in 1958. Without broadcasting a selection, Sveriges Radio chose to send Alice Babs to the contest in Hilversum, the song selected was Samma stjärna lyser för oss två, later renamed Lilla stjärna. It finished fourth at Eurovision on 12 March 1958, the first Melodifestival, incorporated into the Säg det med musik radio series, took place on 29 January 1959 at Cirkus in Stockholm, eight songs participated. Four expert juries in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, and Luleå decided the winner, the competition was won by Siw Malmkvist performing Augustin, but SR decided that the winning song—regardless of its original performer—would be performed by Brita Borg at Eurovision. This policy, of selecting the artist for Eurovision internally and having other artists perform potential Swedish entries at Melodifestivalen, was stopped in 1961, the competition became a stand-alone television programme in 1960, known as the Eurovisionschlagern, svensk final. In the events early years, it was broadcast to Norway, the competition adopted its current name, Melodifestivalen, in 1967. The Melodifestival has failed to be staged on three occasions, in 1964, the competition was cancelled due to an artists strike, Sweden did not send a song to Eurovision that year. Sweden was absent at Eurovision for a time in 1970 because of a Nordic boycott of the voting system
14.
Copenhagen
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Copenhagen, Danish, København, Latin, Hafnia) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark. Copenhagen has an population of 1,280,371. The Copenhagen metropolitan area has just over 2 million inhabitants, the city is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand, another small portion of the city is located on Amager, and is separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the strait of Øresund. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road, originally a Viking fishing village founded in the 10th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century. Beginning in the 17th century it consolidated its position as a centre of power with its institutions, defences. After suffering from the effects of plague and fire in the 18th century and this included construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and founding of such cultural institutions as the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Later, following the Second World War, the Finger Plan fostered the development of housing, since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure. The city is the cultural, economic and governmental centre of Denmark, Copenhagens economy has seen rapid developments in the service sector, especially through initiatives in information technology, pharmaceuticals and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has become integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö. With a number of connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterized by parks, promenades. Copenhagen is home to the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is the oldest university in Denmark. Copenhagen is home to the FC København and Brøndby football clubs, the annual Copenhagen Marathon was established in 1980. Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, the Copenhagen Metro serves central Copenhagen while the Copenhagen S-train network connects central Copenhagen to its outlying boroughs. Serving roughly 2 million passengers a month, Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, is the largest airport in the Nordic countries, the name of the city reflects its origin as a harbour and a place of commerce. The original designation, from which the contemporary Danish name derives, was Køpmannæhafn, meaning merchants harbour, the literal English translation would be Chapmans haven. The English name for the city was adapted from its Low German name, the abbreviations Kbh. or Kbhvn are often used in Danish for København, and kbh. for københavnsk. The chemical element hafnium is named for Copenhagen, where it was discovered, the bacterium Hafnia is also named after Copenhagen, Vagn Møller of the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen named it in 1954. Excavations in Pilestræde have also led to the discovery of a well from the late 12th century, the remains of an ancient church, with graves dating to the 11th century, have been unearthed near where Strøget meets Rådhuspladsen
15.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
16.
Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits
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The concert took place on 31 March 2015 at the Eventim Apollo, in Hammersmith, London. Guy Freeman was the producer and Geoff Posner the director. Simon Proctor was the producer and David Arch was the musical director for the concert. Tickets for the event went on sale at 10am on 6 February 2015, Graham Norton and Petra Mede hosted the event, which saw fifteen acts from thirteen countries performing their Eurovision entries from yesteryear. During the televised show, video montages for some of the Eurovision Song Contest archives were shown in-between each live performance, the United Kingdom entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was performed at the concert, but never broadcast on the televised show. Riverdance performed a reprise of their 1994 Eurovision Song Contest interval act as part of the anniversary celebrations, the host broadcaster, BBC, and Raidió Teilifís Éireann, simulcast the show on Good Friday,3 April 2015. The Dutch broadcaster, AVROTROS, were the first to announce their decision to not broadcast the event, other countries also announced their decision to decline broadcasting the event, including Luxembourg, who had an act taking part in the event. Confirmation was revealed on 3 February 2015 that the event were to take place in the Eventim Apollo, in Hammersmith. The last time the United Kingdom capital held any Eurovision events was the Eurovision Dance Contest 2007, the details regarding the title of the show were unknown at the time the announcement was made. A decision is expected shortly, so stay tuned, edgar Böhm, executive producer of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest said in an interview that the BBC had been chosen to host a special anniversary show. Tickets for the concert went on sale from 10, 15am on Friday 6 February 2015 via the BBCs Eurovision website. On 3 February 2015 it was announced that Graham Norton and Petra Mede would co-host the concert show, Norton, who co-hosted the Eurovision Dance Contest with Claudia Winkleman in 2007 and 2008, and is also the current Eurovision commentator for the United Kingdom. Mede was the host for Melodifestivalen 2009, host for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013, fifteen artists, representing thirteen countries, consisting of some of Eurovisions greatest hits, took part in the sixtieth anniversary gala event. The first-ever winner of the contest, Lys Assia, appeared in the audience as a guest of honour, recap montages of Eurovision entries over the last sixty years, were also broadcast in-between performances. These were as follows, Electro Velvet performed their United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 entry and this performance did not appear on the televised show, but was exclusively done for the audience members of the concert hall itself. It was confirmed on 22 March 2015 that the act for Eurovision Song Contests Greatest Hits would be Riverdance. Fifteen Eurovision acts from thirteen countries participated in the anniversary concert, although there were originally fourteen acts confirmed by the BBC, it was later announced on 5 March 2015 that Norways Bobbysocks would join the line-up increasing the total to fifteen. Video montages were shown prior to entry, showing footage for that particular years contest
17.
Discogs
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Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and crowdsourced database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs. com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc. and are located in Portland, Oregon, US. While the site lists releases in all genres and on all formats, it is known as the largest online database of electronic music releases. Discogs currently contains over 8 million releases, by nearly 4 and he was inspired by the success of community-built sites such as Slashdot, eBay, and Open Directory Project, and decided to use this model for a music discography database. The sites original goal was to build the most comprehensive database of music, organized around the artists, labels. In 2003 the Discogs system was rewritten, and in January 2004 it began to support other genres. Since then, it has expanded to include rock and jazz in January 2005 and funk/soul, Latin, in January 2006 blues and non-music were added. On 30 June 2004, Discogs published a report, which included information about the number of its contributors and this report claimed that Discogs had 15,788 contributors and 260,789 releases. On 20 July 2007 a new system for sellers was introduced on the site called Market Price History. However, at the beginning of 2008, the Market Price History was also free of charge for all users. In late 2014, the company released two new beta websites, gearogs lets users add and track music equipment like synths, drum machines, and other electronic music making equipment. At the start of 2015, the company began another beta project — Bibliogs, users can submit information about their books, physical or electronic, different versions and editions, and also connect different credits to these books. 21,000 books were submitted by the end of 2016, the project remains in its beta phase. The license has since changed to a public domain one. Prior to the advent of this license and API, Discogs data was only accessible via the Discogs web sites HTML interface and was intended to be viewed only using web browsers, the HTML interface remains the only authorized way to modify Discogs data. On 7 June 2011 version 2 of the API was released, notable in this release was that a license key was no longer required, the default response was changed from XML to JSON, and the 5000 queries per day limit was removed. On 1 November 2011 a major update to version 2 of the API was released and this new release dropped support for XML, data is always returned in JSON format, however the monthly data dumps of new data are only provided in XML format. Additionally the Premium API service was dropped, on 24 June 2014 Discogs deprecated their XML API in lieu of a JSON-formatted API
18.
Luxembourg
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Luxembourg /ˈlʌksəmbɜːrɡ/, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east and its culture, people and languages are highly intertwined with its neighbours, making it essentially a mixture of French and Germanic cultures. It comprises two regions, the Oesling in the north as part of the Ardennes massif. With an area of 2,586 square kilometres, it is one of the smallest sovereign states in Europe, Luxembourg had a population of 524,853 in October 2012, ranking it the 8th least-populous country in Europe. As a representative democracy with a monarch, it is headed by a Grand Duke, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a country, with an advanced economy and the worlds highest GDP per capita. Luxembourg is a member of the European Union, OECD, United Nations, NATO, and Benelux, reflecting its political consensus in favour of economic, political. The city of Luxembourg, which is the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions. Luxembourg served on the United Nations Security Council for the years 2013 and 2014, around this fort, a town gradually developed, which became the centre of a state of great strategic value. In the 14th and early 15th centuries, three members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors, in the following centuries, Luxembourgs fortress was steadily enlarged and strengthened by its successive occupants, the Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the French. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Luxembourg was disputed between Prussia and the Netherlands and this arrangement was revised by the 1839 First Treaty of London, from which date Luxembourgs full independence is reckoned. In 1842 Luxembourg joined the German Customs Union, the King of the Netherlands remained Head of State as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, maintaining a personal union between the two countries until 1890. At the death of William III, the throne of the Netherlands passed to his daughter Wilhelmina and this allowed Germany the military advantage of controlling and expanding the railways there. In August 1914, Imperial Germany violated Luxembourgs neutrality in the war by invading it in the war against France and this allowed Germany to use the railway lines, while at the same time denying them to France. Nevertheless, despite the German occupation, Luxembourg was allowed to maintain much of its independence, in 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, Luxembourgs neutrality was again violated when the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany entered the country, entirely without justification. A government in exile based in London supported the Allies, sending a group of volunteers who participated in the Normandy invasion. Luxembourg was liberated in September 1944, and became a member of the United Nations in 1945. Luxembourgs neutral status under the constitution formally ended in 1948, in 2005, a referendum on the EU treaty establishing a constitution for Europe was held
19.
Si la vie est cadeau
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Si la vie est cadeau by Jean-Pierre Millers and Alain Garcia, was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1983, performed in French by French singer Corinne Hermès for Luxembourg. The song is a dramatic ballad dealing with the wonder of life, the lyrics tell of the singers suffering in love with a man, who promised her the whole world and did not follow through, what about the child I wanted to give to you in the spring. Hermès also recorded the song in English and German, as Words of Love, the song was performed 20th on the night, following Belgiums Pas de Deux with Rendez-vous. At the close of voting, it had received 142 points, the win brought Luxembourg equal with France on five Contest wins apiece, however both countries would later be eclipsed by the Republic of Ireland, which would win seven. The song was succeeded in 1984 as winner of the Contest by Herreys representing Sweden with Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley and it was succeeded as Luxembourgish representative at the 1984 Contest by Sophie Carle with 100% damour. The Finnish rendering Lahjan Sain was recorded by Lea Laven being the title cut of her 1983 album release, official Eurovision Song Contest site, history by year,1983 Detailed info & lyrics, The Diggiloo Thrush, Si la vie est cadeau Eurovision 1983 performance video on YouTube
20.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
21.
Bobbysocks!
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Bobbysocks. is a Norwegian pop duo consisting of Norwegian Hanne Krogh and Swedish-Norwegian Elisabeth Andreassen. They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 with the song La det swinge, the duo was formed in 1983. Both Krogh and Andreassen were frequent Eurovision contestants, Krogh has appeared three times, all for Norway - in 1971 as a soloist, with Bobbysocks. in 1985 and as part of Just 4 Fun in 1991. Andreassen sang for Sweden as one half of Chips in 1982 and after winning with Bobbysocks, teamed up with Jan Werner Danielsen in 1994, the duos debut single was I Dont Wanna Break My Heart, released in a pink colored vinyl. The concept behind Bobbysocks. was to bring up to date songs from the 1950s with a swing mood and that idea was fully applied on their first LP Bobbysocks. Which was a mixture of covers and brand new songs, the scheduled next single was going to be Radio, but the plans were changed when the duo won the Eurovision Song Contest. Let It Swing topped the Norwegian singles chart, as well as it did in Belgium and it was a Top 10 in Sweden and Ireland, and a Top 20 in The Netherlands and Austria. It entered the UK singles charts on 25 May 1985, and rose to a high of Nº44 and it was also pressed in countries such as Germany, Japan and Australia. There were plans to release the single in USA, but it didnt happen at the end, in 1985, due to their ESC victory, Bobbysocks. Were awarded the Peer Gynt Prize, which is awarded by the Stortinget, another ESC consequence was the re-release of the Bobbysocks. LP with Let It Swing on it, reaching the Gold status, Walkin on Air, was recorded in L. A. in 1987 and produced by Bill Maxwell. It went Gold in only 4 days, becoming their 3rd, in 1988, Bobbysocks disbanded, after 4 successful years. However, Krogh and Andreassen still appeared time to time together on stage in Norway and they appeared at Congratulations, the 50th anniversary Eurovision concert in Copenhagen, Denmark, in October 2005. During May 2010, Bobbysocks did a comeback to celebrate their 25th anniversary since their ESC victory in 1985. Which included 2 newly recorded songs and peaking at Nº13 on the Norwegian album charts, helping to gain new fans not only in Norway. 1986, Waiting for the Morning 1987, Walkin on Air 2010, Let it Swing - The Best of Bobbysocks
22.
La det swinge
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La det swinge is a song in Norwegian, sung by the pop duo Bobbysocks. It was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 – Norways first victory in the contest, the song is a tribute to dancing to old rock n roll heard on the radio. Befitting the subject matter, the song itself is written in an old-fashioned style, the melody arrangement is in retro style, containing elements of contemporary 1980s music and throwbacks to the 1950s. The song entered, and won Melodi Grand Prix 1985, and was selected to represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1985. At the close of voting, it received 123 points, placing 1st in a field of 19 and this was Elisabeth Andreasson and Hanne Kroghs second appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest, in 1982 Elisabeth represented Sweden in the duo Chips with Kikki Danielsson singing Dag efter dag. Danielsson incidentally finished third after Bobbysocks and West Germanys Wind, with Bra vibrationer in the 1985 contest, again representing Sweden. Krogh finished 17th in the contest in 1971, with the song Lykken er, la Det Swinge was succeeded as Norwegian representative at the 1986 Contest by Ketil Stokkan with Romeo. Swedish heavy metal group Black Ingvars covered song on their 1998 album Schlager Metal
23.
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 56 times since making its debut in 1958, missing only three contests since then. Sweden is one of the most successful competing nations at the Eurovision, with a total of six victories in the contest, Sweden is also the contests most successful country of the 21st century, with two wins from nine top five results. In total, Sweden has achieved 23 top five results in the contest, since 1959, the Swedish entry has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. At the 1997 contest, Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt televoting, Swedens first entrant in the contest was Alice Babs in 1958, who was placed fourth. This remained the countrys best result until 1966, when Lill Lindfors, Swedens first Eurovision victory was in 1974 with the song Waterloo, performed by ABBA. Thanks to their victory in Brighton, ABBA went on to worldwide success. In the 1980s, Sweden achieved three top three results. After Carola finished third in 1983, the Herreys gave Sweden its second victory in 1984 with Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley, kikki Danielsson then finished third in 1985. Carola returned to the contest in 1991, to give the Swedes their third win with Fångad av en stormvind, charlotte Nilsson gave the country a second win of the decade in 1999, with Take Me to Your Heaven. The 1990s also saw two third-place results, for Jan Johansen in 1995 and One More Time in 1996, in 2010, Anna Bergendahl became the first Swedish entrant to fail to make it to the final, finishing 11th in the semifinal, only five points from qualification. They also finished third in 2011 with Eric Saade and Popular, third in 2014 with Sanna Nielsen and Undo, and fifth with Frans and the song If I Were Sorry in 2016. Sweden has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest six times and is the country to have hosted the event in five different decades. Together with Croatia and Malta it was the country to never be relegated, under the previous rules of the contest. Melodifestivalen is a music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television. It has chosen the representative for the Eurovision Song Contest since 1959. It is Swedens most popular shows, and it has been estimated that more than 4 million Swedes watch the show annually. Almost every Swedish entry for Eurovision has been selected through Melodifestivalen, only Swedens first entry in 1958, was not selected through Melodifestivalen, having been selected internally by the Swedish broadcaster at the time, Swedish Radio Service. ^ In 2008, Sweden qualified through the back-up jury selection, If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year
24.
Kikki Danielsson
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Ann-Kristin Kikki Danielsson is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She is also famous for yodeling in some songs, Kikki Danielsson gained her largest popularity in the Nordic region from the late 1970s until the late 1990s. She also gained popularity at the US country stage during the 1980s, in 1986, she had the Kikki i Nashville TV show. Danielsson was born in Osby, Sweden, and resides in Gävleborg, in total, she has participated nine times at the Swedish Melodifestivalen and one time at the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix. She has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twice, in 1982 and in the 1985 with the song Bra vibrationer, Kikki Danielsson was born in Osby, but was adopted and lived on a farm in Älmhult, Småland from the age of five. There, she became the child in the family while her younger sister was adopted to another place. As a child, she sang in the church choir. As a 17-year-old girl, Kikki Danielsson begun as a singer in dansband Nickies and in 1973 she switched to another dansband, Wizex, with which she participated at the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1978. She left Wizex in 1982, but as a member of the pop and country group Chips and she has also been a popular Svensktoppen artist, with hits as the Melodifestivalen songs, but also other songs, like Papaya Coconut in 1987. She willingly sings country and has contributed in radio and TV shows in the U. S. in the 1980s, during the second half of 1984, she married Swedish musician Kjell Roos, who led the dansband Roosarna, with which she sang between 1990 and 1999. In 1985 she gave birth to their first child, in late 1987 she released the Christmas album Min barndoms jular. Together with Roosarna, she had many Svensktoppen hits during the 1990s, in 1994, the dansband of the year prize at the Grammis was awarded to Kikki Danielsson & Roosarna. In 1999 she separated from Kjell Roos, however, the musical co-operation restarted in 2003. Kikki Danielsson has also sung at the 2001 Stockholm Pride and they also started a successful collaboration with the Swedish brand twilfit designing stretchy yet fashionable T-shirts. Totally, she has participated nine times at the Swedish Melodifestivalen, from 28 November to 17 December 2006 she toured Sweden with a band on the Julstämning med Kikki Christmas concert tour. Her periods of problems with alcohol have been a topic of the Scandinavian press, as has her weight problem. Because of her problem, she appeared in Du är vad du äter
25.
Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957
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The Netherlands were represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 by Corry Brokken with the song Net als toen written by Guus Jansen and Willy van Hemert. The Dutch entry was chosen during a final called Nationaal Songfestival. Like in the year, a national final titled National Songfestival was held with eight songs competing. Four singers took part in the selection, each of them presenting two songs, Corry Brokken was the only singer from the 1956 national final who tried again. The winner was chosen by postcard voting, however, this time. Again, the show was hosted by Karin Kraaykamp, Corry Brokken, who was already one of the two Dutch representatives in the 1956 Eurovision Song Contest, was the clear winner of the national final, as her entries finished first and second. Marcel Thielemans finished third and fourth, but far behind her, the winning song was Net als toen and would be the third Dutch entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. “Net als toen” was released on an EP by Corry Brokken with the title “Grand Prix 1957 Eurovision”, the entry itself did not reach the Dutch single charts and was also not an international hit although it would win the Eurovision Song Contest. Brokken has also recorded a German version and a French version of the song, none of the other songs in the national final made any commercial impact. At the Eurovision Song Contest in Frankfurt, the Dutch entry was performed sixth on the night following Austria with “Wohin, kleines Pony. ” and preceding Germany with “Telefon, Corry Brokken was backed by violinist Sem Nijveen, who had a remarkable long solo part. The Netherlands won the Eurovision Song Contest, at the close of voting, the Dutch entry had received 31 points and at least one point from every other country. It would be the clearest victory ever in voting system as they got 31% of all votes and 34. 4% of the votes possible to be received. The Netherlands would be the country to win the contest on its second attempt until Ukraine did so in 2004. Every country had a jury of ten people, every jury member could give one point to his or her favourite song. Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 1957 Eurovision Song Contest delootsbod. dk Information about the national final
Corinne Hermès
Bobbysocks
