Tim: This was Shirley Clamp’s (who headlined at previously mentioned Europop night) most recent entry into Melodifestivalen, in 2011. (She’s the one in the middle.)
Tom: I’m sorry I missed her performance: in my defence, I had to be in Slough at 7am the next morning.
Tim: Now, Shirley’s an interesting lady. Since you left early, here are a few highlights:
– she believes I Will Always Love You is a very uplifting song, and so clearly doesn’t believe in thinking about the lyrics of songs she plans to sing.
– she seems somewhat breast-infatuated; for example, the person who sang along loudest a medley, she said, “is allowed to feel my right booby”, and he duly was.
– following that, she worried that “my left tittie is feeling a bit unloved now”
– finally, she shared with us the fact that just a few hours before this performance she gave birth, and that as she entered the last chorus here, with her baby backstage, she started lactating and pretty much ruined her dress.
Tom: You’ll be happy to know that at least one of those moments of breast infatuation made it to YouTube.
Tim: Ah, good – now the world can see. Anyway, lactation and somewhat mediocre staging aside, this is a pretty good tune. Bit repetitive towards the ends, possibly, but it does have a nice key change to lift it up a bit, and that’s all we really need from a good entry.
Tom: Can’t argue with that: it’s catchy enough, although I can see why it didn’t make it through.
Tim: Oh, and finally from that night, I am appalled that you genuinely didn’t know that the Saturday Night dance routine has five sections to it.
Tom: I never learned Saturday Night. Or the Macarena, come to that. I was a stubborn youth.
Tim: Appalled.