France isn’t the only country to celebrate July 14. Sweden has its own, very special reason to celebrate this day too; It’s Crown Princess Victorias birthday! The day is named after her; Victoriadagen, and is also the national day of Öland. Victoriadagen is celebrated in Borgholm, which is “the capital” of Öland. Among other things, there is a huge concert, and this year six of the seven artists performing were Eurovision or Melodifestivalen participants!
Lineup for the Victoriadagen concert
The headliners were Alexander Rybak, Jessica Andersson and Peter Jöback. I guess most of these artists don’t really need further introduction, but just in case!
Alexander Rybak
Alexander Rybak represented Norway at the 2009 and 2018 Eurovision Song Contests. In Moscow in 2009 he won the contest with his hit “Fairytale”. In 2018 in Lisbon it didn’t go quite as well, when he finished 15th with “That’s How You Write a Song”: Despite being Norwegian he’s also very popular in Sweden. He released an album of Swedish contemporary folk music back in 2011. That same year he also won the Swedish version of “Dancing With The Stars”, “Let’s Dance!“.
Jessica Andersson
Jessica Andersson represented Sweden at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest in Riga, perfroming the song “Give Me Your Love” as part of Fame. They finished in fifth place. She has taken part in Melodifestivalen no less than five times as a solo artist, including this year’s “Party Voice”.
Peter Jöback
Peter is one of Sweden’s best musical theater artists. He is best known for playing the part of the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera, both in the London and Broadway productions. He finished 3rd in Melodifestivalen 2010 with “Hollow“.
John Lundvik
John wrote the song “When You Tell the World You’re Mine” back in 2010 as a gift from Daniel to Victoria. It was performed for the first time during their wedding, by Björk Skifs and Agnes. During the Victoriadagen concert in 2015 John got to perform it for the royal couple himself. Up until then, he had mainly been known as an excellent songwriter to other people, but after this, he started writing for himself. And in Melodifestivalen 2018 he finished third with the song “My Turn“. During this weekend’s celebrations he performed “Man in the Mirror“.
Emmi Christensson
Just like John, Emmi participated in Melodifestivalen 2018, but unlike him, she failed to make it to the final. Her “Icarus” finished sixth in its semi. This weekend she performed “Come What May” from Moulin Rouge with Peter Jöback.
Kalle Moraeus
Kalle and his orchestra took part in Melodifestivalen 2010 and 2018. This weekend, like last year, he was the presenter of the Crown Princess’ concert. In addition to presenting, he also played this song, about a poor farmer’s hand, with Alexander Rybak.
All of us here at escXtra hope the Crown Princess had a wonderful birthday! We also wonder why we don’t get a concert like this for our birthday…
