Shame On You!
Thomas Di Leva, Swedens Astral Greengrocer and mighty tunesmith was in the 2nd heat of the Swedish Melodifestivalen with Ge Aldrig Upp (Never give up). But he ended only fifth grrrr....
Even though he started his recording career in 1980, this is the first time Di Leva joins the Melodifestivalen fold. I don't know if he tried before though. (they have like 2000 applicants each year)
The first song I noticed was the brilliant Naked Number One which was on a late night not-too-high MTV rotation in 1993. They didn't have the record at the Dutch local record stores of course (it was the pre-internet days kids) so I sort of forgot about it.
Then I re-discovered Di Leva in 2002 when I more or less accidentally celebrated the 750th anniversary of Stockholm in 2002.
I attended a free Di Leva concert at the week long festivities and I was won over by this excentric loveable creature in a kaftan on stage. He was throwing fruit in the audience, drank water from his trademark garden watering can and was deliberating about love, vegetables, the universe and more love. But it was the perfect Pop tunes that blew me away and made me rush to the record store to buy the back catalogue.
He never recorded a Eurocover, but in his 17 album career he recorded one album with coverversions. Lovestar from 2010 (pictured above) features coverversions ranging from Neil Youngs Rockin' In The Free World and Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus to Limahls Neverending Story and ABBA's The Winner Takes It All. Although the choice of songs is eclectic the album is held together by a strong electronic pop sound.Other recomended Di Leva songs: Miraklet (my fave), Naked Number One, Everyone Is Jesus, Ingen Kan Köpa Livet, Adam and Eve, Svarta Pärlan I London (or the English version Black Pearl In London), Vem ska jag tro på, Frukt Grönt Och Vatten and the list goes on. A recommended compilation is 1999's För Sverige I Rymden. Di Leva recorded both in Swedish and in English.
