Die Autobahn To Düsseldorf: Linda Bengtzing, Alexsey Vorobyov.

The Swedish Melodifestivalen Final on March 12 is the last national selection of 2011. Eurocovers is of course very pleased to see Linda Bengtzing still in the running with her song E De Fel På Mig.

In 2008 Linda B. made it to the Melodifestivalen final with her 3rd attempt Hur svårt kan det va?.

Will she be able to take it that one step further this time.

In this Road To Belgrade style Eurocovers post you can find out about her MF songs and especially her Eurovision coverversions she recorded when she was only 12.

Update: All four Linda Bengtzing MF hits are now available on her new compilation CD Min Karusell - En Samling. It features 10 Bengtzing hits and four karaoke tracks (3 MF songs in Karaoke)

Other Swedish MF finalists are the Playtones who feature in this Autobahn to Düsseldorf post.

Russia have selected Alexey Vorobyov to represent the country at the 2011 contest.

Eurocovers reported on Vorobyev in 2009 when he participated in the Russian national final.

In the Eurocovers Road To Moscow post you can find his coverversion of the Spanish 1966 entry Yo Soy Aquel, originally by Raphael.

Read all about Get You, the Russian 2011 entry composed by RedOne here at the Düsseldorf Collection.

For the latest news on the 2011 Eurovision releases check out the Düsseldorf Collection.

MF 2008: Linda Bengtzing to Belgrade - How Hard Can It Be?

The 4th round of the Swedish Melodifestivalen this Saturday sees the 3rd entry for Linda Bengtzing. She entered in 2005 with Alla Flickor (All the girls) and made it to the final (where she ended last). When the power-schlager scored a top 10 hit Linda was hailed as one of the new Schlager Queens (along with Shirley Clamp) and her 2nd Melodifestivalen effort Jag ljuger så bra (I lie so well) ended 7th in the final of 2006 and scored a # 2 hit. Her 'debut' album Ingenting att Förlora (Nothing to lose, see comments) also reached the top 10.

Now Linda is back with Hur svårt kan det va? (How Hard Can It Be?) and she's out to win.
When you browse Linda's website you may get the impression her career started with her 2004 Fame Factory appearance but of course Eurocovers digs deeper and found some of linda's youth sins.

En Del Utav Mitt Liv
In 1986, at the age of 12, she released the album En Del Utav Mitt Liv (A part of my life, as Linda without the Bengtzing). This album includes 10 tracks and as far as I know it was only released as a cassette (Pop Production MK 1706).
One of the tracks is Så Många Människor, a Swedish version of the German entry of 1985 Für Alle by the group Wind (2nd place behind Norways Bobbysocks!). Wind also recorded the Swedish version themselves.
Another track of interest is Piccadilly Circus from the 1985 Melodifestivalen. The song only ended fourth but became one of the great Melodifestivalen classics for original singer Pernilla Wahlgren.
Another early record is a single with a Swedish version of the 1986 Eurovision winner by Sandra Kim: J'aime La Vie (Älskar mitt liv) (Mariann Records 2458).
None of the old tracks have ever been released on CD but if Hur svårt kan det va? is successful it's high time to polish up the old tapes and release a midprice CD Linda Bengtzing, the early years.
There's a (Swedish) article here, with some nice early pictures and some more info on the young Linda Bengtzing.

Linda Bengtzing scored the best selling single of the 2007 in Sweden with Värsta Schlagern (The worst Schlager) a MF/Eurovision parody she recorded with Markoolio. Watch the tongue in cheek video here at youtube.
The new MF song will be out on cd-single march 10, followed by a new album Vild & Galen March 19.

Special thanks to Rick and Klaus!

Also Check the Eurocovers Melodifestivalen 2008 post about Carola.
A great new CD with Swedish Eurocovers is out now, more details are here.