Malena Ernman - La Voix

"Can you keep a secret? I'm in love with you"

As I mentioned yesterday, Sweden's entry for 2009 is another favorite of mine. In fact, both La Voix and Fairytale are so close that it's practically a tie for my overall pick. Sure, this kind of pop/opera has been done before, but never has there been a stronger example than La Voix (The Voice, in French). The chorus alone is hooky enough to stay in your head for weeks. I love how the more traditional dance verses collide with the classical influences, and the performance at Melodifestivalen was stunning, to say the least. I hear Malena's changing it up quite a bit for Moscow, even tinkering with the track a bit. Even more exciting than her performance this weekend, though, is the prospect of an album coming out this summer. It's going to be a double disc, one of classical/opera stuff and one of songs in the La Voix tradition. If they can just manage to craft a dozen songs that sound like this one, we'll have one stunner of an album. With Fredrik Kempe and Anders Hansson in charge, my hopes are very, very high.