Saturday Flashback: Fame – Give Me Your Love

Flipping brilliant.

Tim: I bring this 2003 Swedish Eurovision entry up for two reasons: firstly because I started playing it accidentally as I was scrolling on my phone just now, and secondly because it’s flipping brilliant.

Tom: It opens with some “ooh-ooh, aah-aah” harmonising. Man, this is classic Melodifestivalen right here.

Tim: Oh, it certainly is. I love so many things about this – firstly there’s just the fact that it’s a well-done girl/boy duet, which so often goes wrong but can be wonderful when it works. From the song itself, there’s the ‘hmm-mm-mm, ah-ahh-ahhh’ intro, the lovely key change, the brilliant rolling strings on the bridge into the chorus and the general joyous message of the whole thing.

Tom: It ticks all the boxes perfectly, doesn’t it? Crikey, they’re even in matching all-white outfits, like rejects from a Christian revival meeting.

Tim: Way up at the top of the list for me, though, is the rampantly aggressive “give me ALL. OF. YOUR. LOVE.” towards the end, which almost seems to give the impression that the two of them want to just get their kit off and do it right there on the stage. Probably for the best that they didn’t, though.

Tom: Speak for yourself.

Tim: Dirty boy.

This eventually came 5th – for a bit of context, the winner was Turkey’s Every Way That I Can (where the backing singers were actually more like erotic dancers, so maybe getting their kit off would have helped), and as for our entry, well, we needn’t mention that.

Saturday Flashback: Fame – Give Me Your Love

It is a little predictable, I’ll admit.

Tim: No, not that Fame. Instead, a Swedish musical pair who stormed their way through Melodifestivalen 2003 with one of the highest scores ever. And boy, was it deserved.

Tim: It is a little predictable, I’ll admit, but when what you’re predicting is great then that’s no bad thing, and it still contains a few surprises here and there, like the final chorus.

Tom: I think “stunningly formulaic” best sums this up. I started singing along with the backing singers half way through – on the first listen. Even the key change at 2:28 is utterly expected. It’s… nice, but I’m not sure it deserved to win, even if it does finally come alive in the final chorus.

Tim: It also says something about the song that they didn’t need much of a dance routine to complement it, although the camerawork did make me feel a bit dizzy at times. But yes – fantastic tune, happy lyrics, great key change – everything.