Anthem - Intellect

Anthem
depiction of expanded and intensified European integration. Other topical Europe
songs have also competed in the ESC’s national qualification competitions as well as
in the ESC semifinals. Let me just mention two interesting examples.
In the 2008 Swedish finals the ESC included a hit by the popular dance music
veteran Christer Sjögren, ‘I Love Europe’, composed by Torgny Söderberg and Magnus
Johansson, with lyrics in English by the veteran Swedish hit author Ingela ‘Pling’
Forsman. The song title is a melodic hook that is insistently repeated, often by the
female chorus in a call-and-response fashion. The song is like a glimmering pastiche
or parody of traditional German-Austrian Schlager, and the visual performance is
full of kitschy elements, starting with the flirting interplay between Sjögren (dressed
in black suit with dark blue shirt), the camera and the can-can choir-dance girls with
small hats who generously lift their blue skirts and happily dance around the singer
(Figure 7.6). Sjögren has a deep and warm masculine voice that contrasts with the
almost metallic voice of female background singers who remind somewhat of the
ABBA sound. Metallic carillon shimmers reminding of Christmas seem to place the
tune in the north, but the rhythms of an acoustic guitar and a shining trumpet instead
add a sunny Spanish spice to the mix, illustrating the love of Europe ‘from the sun in
the south to the ice in the north’. The trumpeter is a bald musician in white suit that
contrasts Sjögren’s dark colours, and he also adds several funny gestures to illustrate
turning points in the music. At a key moment when there is an upward chord lift
(in fact the second one in this), the women fold their skirts and magically transform
them into a mix of European flags, completing the symbolism in a combined verbal,
musical and visual climactic moment of ecstacy. The words speak of dancing and
romancing in an enchanted Europe where ‘a party’s going on, and we are invited’.
Being together is what creates the excitement, and it is fun to hear the EU described
in so enthusiastic terms:
This is magic! C’est magnifique!
And all our people are together
Ciao! Buenos dias! Que tal? Wie geht es dir?
In Paris or in Rome, the same good vibration
It’s just like coming home, in all of our nations
I feel it all around, this groovy sensation
I love Europe, we’re a part of one big family
Yes, this is the place for you and me, we’re a part of one big family
Again, only ‘old’ West Europe is mentioned, in a touristic approach that had obviously
already become a strong but also somewhat outmoded tradition, as it did not manage
to even get a chance to represent Sweden internationally that year. This comically naive
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