Today it is 25 years ago that Carola had her great break-through in Melodifestivalen with the song ”Främling”. She was 16 years old at the time and the show was seen by millions of Swedish viewers.

It all took place at Palladium theatre in Malmö, and that is where Carola makes a special performance tonight before a specially chosen audience. No tickets have been for sale, instead the audience is made out of lucky winners from different competitions and specially invited people that have been important to Carola in her life and career.

Watch the legendary performance from 1983:

Photo: Evelina

Today, in the radioshow "P4 Premiär" you could hear when the queen of Sweden’s “melodifestival” trough all times was presented.

Results of top-5:

1. Carola Häggkvist (42,9%)
2. Lillbabs (4,4%)
3. Alice Babs (3,7%)
4. ABBA (2,9%)
5. Lena Philipsson (2,3%)

This was an investigation by SIFO where 1000 randomly chosen Swedes got the question "Who is your "Schlagerdrottning" trough all times?"

Carola and Andreas are not directly qualified to the finale, but they get a second chance in Kiruna 8 March.

and

Tonight is the night! Will Carola and Andreas make it to the finale? Soon we'll know the answer!

Reviews from rehearsals have been more than good, these are some of the comments from reporters:

"The song is like a well-made cocktail of U2 and classic Eurovision. The chorus will hardly have space enough in Globe Arena. It is good. Very good."
(Markus Larsson, Aftonbladet)

"Carola can't help herself. Tonight she does it again in this contest. And she does it with remarkable finesse. 'One Love' is brilliant.
The only complaint I have is that there's no excitement anymore, because the result is already finished:
Johnson & Häggkvist are the obvious winners tonight."
(Anders Nunstedt, Expressen)


Come on, Carola and Andreas!
Photo: johnsonhaggkvist.com

Watch the show at 20.00, Swedish time, on SVT's website.

Soon we don’t have to wait any longer. On Saturday it’s time for the second semi final in Melodifestivalen 2008 and one of the songs is performed by Andreas Johnson and Carola or as they call themselves as a duo: Johnson & Häggkvist.

The song Andreas and Carola will sing together is called “One love”.
- I fell in love immediately. I thought to myself, this is a song that Europe should hear, Carola says in an interview with Aftonbladet.

Eight songs compete in every semi-final, the two songs with the most votes are then directly qualified to the final in Stockholm 15 March. Those on 3rd and 4th place go to "Second chance" in Kiruna 8 March.

It would be a big sensation if Johnson & Häggkvist don’t qualify for the final. Carola has competed four times in Melodifestivalen, Andreas two times and none of them have missed top-3 ever.

You can listen to the songs starting Friday afternoon at SVT:s website. The show is broadcasted in Swedish channel 1 at 20:00, Saturday. You can also watch the show live at SVT:s website.

22nd on "Singellistan"
The second Week up, Lucky Star falls nine placings and ends up on a 22nd place on the Swedish hit list “Singellistan“.


New website
Together Carola and Andreas have introduced a brand new and really nice website where you for example can listen to their first hit “Lucky Star” and take a look at some pictures.


Främling 2008
Carola’s first album “Främling” from 1983 is soon going to be released in a new edition. Even the cover has been edited and has better colours than the original. The 2-cd album also contains “Happy Days” from 1985 (for the first time released on cd). The album that celebrates Carola's 25 years as a singer is released February 20.

Carola is a wild card in Melodifestivalen! Together with Andreas Johnson she's going to sing the song "One Love" in the second semi-finale which take place in Västerås 16 February.

The song is written by Carola, Andreas Johnson and Peter Kvint. In the competition the duo call themselves "Johnson & Häggkvist"

Yesterday, at Idrottsgalan in Globe Arena, they sang a new song together called "Lucky Star". This song is available for download in Sweden starting from today.