Melodifestivaklubben OGAE Sweden held its annual convention outside the town of Eskilstuna on Saturday the 13th of October. The 120+ crowd got a chance to see and meet up with the first Eurovision winner Lys Assia and the former ESC entrants Sinpus, Joan Franka, Birgitta Haukdal, Esther Hart and also a handful of former participants from Melodifestivalen.
They location of the event was Sundbyholm outside the town Eskilstuna about 100 km from Stockholm. More than 120 people atteneded to the meeting where some of the club members have travelled to Sweden from abroad. The meeting was also open for
non-members of the club (who had to pay a higher fee than the members).
Like in previous years the day started with the annual meeting where the members of the club elected a new board. After cake and coffee it was time for the four former Melodifestival artists to take the stage (which had been kept secret until they were presented at the meeting). First out on the stage was was Erik Linder who performed his MF-entry from 2010: Hur kan jag tro på kärlek. Next on stage was the three time MF-participant (MF 67, 68 and 04) Towa Carson who performed C’est La Vie which was the song that she, Siw Malmkvist and Ann-Louise Hansson took part with in MF 2004. The next performers were Laila Dahl (MF 91) and Karin Risberg (MF 86) who sang their songs Annie and Stopp, stopp, stanna. A relaxed interview with Stefan Eriksson, the organizer and host of the meeting, followed after each of the performances. After the performances there was given time for those who wanted to meet the performers and buy signed CD’S.
This ended part one of the convention and people went to check in to their rooms and prepare themself for part two which took place in a big hall in the evening where a big buffet dinner waited.
After the dinner the show with the ESC-artists started. No one but the organizers and the press knew who were to enter the stage. But first up was a former MF-entrant named Mathias Holmgren (MF 03 and 05) who sang his MF-songs. The first former ESC-artits to take the stage was no one less than the first Eurovision winner Lys Assia (ESC 56, Switzerland) who performed a couple songs from her career. Next up was Joan Franka (ESC 12, the Netherlands) who performed her ESC-song You and me. Joan was followed by Birgitta Haukdal (ESC 03, Iceland) who sang her ESC-song Open your heart and then by Esther Hart (ESC 03, the Netherlands) who performed her ESC-entry One more night. The next guests were the duo Sinplus (ESC 12, Switzerland) who sang their ESC-song Unbreakable. The final artist to be presented was Glen Vella (ESC 11, Malta) who sang his ESC-song One life. Some of the artists who had been performing returned to the stage to sing more songs and as a grand final all the performing artists went up on stage to do a final number – ABBAS Waterloo.
When the performances were over Mathias Holmgren once again returned to the stage, this time to be the DJ for the rest of the evening. Some of the ESC-artists could also be seen joining the packed dancefloor together with the members of the club to dance the night away. The whole arrangement was a massive success according to many of the people who was there.
Below you can see a video with clips of performances from Lys Assia, Joan Franka and Birgitta Haukdal.
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