It’s a far too early spring day when I meet Loreen in Rosendal’s garden at Djurgården. She wants to sit outside but the clouds pile up, the cold pushes on and we are soon in a car on the way to Swedish Television. Just before the car starts, someone comes up and shouts “How good you are!”
Loreen’s mantra is to do what she wants. This may be the reason why she has not yet released an album despite having been in the music industry for many years, ranging from various bands via Idol, Melodifestivalen and now a collaboration with the pop musician Kleerup for the debut album coming in September.
– It is a conscious choice that I haven’t released a record. I’m not a product of anyone else. I follow my own flow and have turned down a lot. It’s about daring to be who you are in your own energy. You should not have to compromise. It has taken me seven years to come to those insights.
Who knows, it might be opera on the new record because Loreen also masters that art.
– It is the best and correct singing technique if you want to nurture your voice. I started singing opera three years ago and would like to be in an opera sometime.
Kleerup has been involved in writing a couple of the songs and I hear Loreen call and warn him that SVD might hear from her and ask how she is.
– Say something nice, not that she’s the hardest bride you’ve ever worked with, Loreen exclaims with a laugh.
Loreen doesn’t seem to have really realized that she is one of the favorites in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Baku with the song Euphoria. First, she has to make it to the semifinals on Thursday.
– I have changed a few things in the song, mixed out some parts but the feeling and look remains. It’s not like I’m going to stand there in leather clothes.
“I started singing opera three years ago and would like to be in an opera sometime.“
What do you do before you go on stage?
– When there are 20 minutes left, everyone must leave my lodge. I want to be completely myself. If I am very nervous, I pump music, dance and enter a meditative state.
When I listen to Euphoria, it only takes 20 seconds for the song to be home. The verse is almost better than the chorus which is strong itself. To succeed in Baku, Loreen must go through the television screen throughout Europe, which is something completely different than taking home the Swedish Melodifestivalen. In addition, the song is actually completely wrong because it varies so much in tempo, stops and starts again. Still, it works.
– Every sound in the verse fulfills a function. I wanted a siren in the beginning to maximize the sound so that it almost becomes a little too much. The effect after that is that when something comes that is stripped down, you experience the silence much stronger. I never thought about winning but about making this something cool.
The funny thing is that her current co-worker Kleerup wrote the song Longing For Lullabies, which is terribly similar to Euphoria. Kleerup even tweeted after the Melodifestivalen: “I thought I had been involved in writing the Loreen song when I heard it for the first time tonight. Feels a little strange. Or honorable”. Loreen immediately looks up the song on Spotify and listens.
– Damn, now it’s over, Loreen laughs.
I show her articles from the evening papers about “how an entire country carried Loreen to the historic victory in the Melodifestivalen” with 670,000 who voted and the headline: “LOREEN – YOU ARE THE GREATEST”.
– I have not seen that but I am happy in my heart.
What happens when you are on stage?
– When I really deliver, I’m not so aware. I disappear into myself. If you asked me to sing Euphoria now, it would not sound like on stage. I create on the spot.
Are you critical of yourself?
– Always. It gives me some kind of power to be able to change. I go back to myself, sometimes a little too hard. If you place the responsibility on someone else, you have lost the right to yourself.
What happens when you do not deliver?
– Then I feel a certain meaninglessness. Then I haven’t done my job. I’m here to make my mark.
In 2004, little sister made sure Loreen ended up in Idol. The sister signed her up, then kicked open the door to the bedroom and said “You should join!”.
– I sang Fallen by Alicia Keys and the jury said that “You’re in”. Little sister was hysterical when I came out!
Loreen was voted out but instead David Hellenius and Peter Magnusson came to her home and she got another chance as a “wild card”. It ended with a fourth place and in addition she was together with the winner Daniel Lindström.
– We were very dear. It lasted for almost three years. All the relationships I have had – and you can count them on your fingers – have only been long relationships that are for real. And it happened there for me and Daniel.
Did you learn anything from Idol?
– Yes, how important it is to be yourself and have your own expression, says Loreen, who gestures profusely as soon as she starts talking. And talking is something she likes. Sometimes she comes up with a real number of words per minute.
After Idol, her music career stopped and Loreen worked as a feature producer for reality documentaries such as Frufritt, Pojkvänsakademien and Elin Kling’s fashion program.
– I wanted to work behind the camera to understand how it works. This is something I use now when I stand in front of the camera again. It has also helped me understand television dramaturgy.
But at the same time she continued to make music and could hire a symphony orchestra of 30 people to put strings on a ballad. Although no record was ever released.
– It was completely crazy. I made good money on TV and a lot of the money went to finance the studio where I wrote songs, produced and wanted to experience the feeling of composing strings, giving the arrangement to the symphony orchestra and hearing the end result. It created a self-confidence as a creator that allows me to now enter a studio and produce myself.
Loreen grew up in Åkersberga but the family moved to Västerås when she was six years old.
– My mother is an incredibly strong woman, very conscious and liberal. She doesn’t have many limitations and that’s where I got my way of looking at life. You can do exactly what you want as long as you make sure you work for it. My mother still came from a society where the word artist never came up.
Loreen has a Moroccan-Berber origin. Her parents divorced when she was six years old and her father moved to Spain. She had plans to visit him as a 13-year-old but just then he died.
– It was a bit sad but things happen for a certain reason. I had a hard time accepting that he was gone and it was only a few years later that the token fell down and I understood that I had no father. They say I have his eyes.
Loreen’s stepfather is from Sweden and Loreen tenderly calls him “a really little ‘raggar-Nisse'”.
– He is über-Swedish and mother über-Moroccan. They have been married for 18 years and are just as dear as now. “I don’t want to see you kissed,” I say. I have a large family in Morocco and the part of the family that is more European thinks it is great fun with my successes. The more Berber branch, which lives up in the mountains and manages itself and grows, thinks it is silly. The focus for them is food on the table and working for their family.
What language did you speak at home?
– Swedish except when we drew some secrets that we didn’t want my stepfather to take. Then we spoke Arabic. But it was crazy mixed.
Which culture is most important to you?
– I appreciate both cultures. The funny thing about second-generation immigrants is that you belong to nothing. When I’m in Morocco, I feel so incredibly Swedish. But when I’m in Sweden, there are times when I feel foreign with my temperament and I may not know all the social codes. But I don’t see it as something negative because I don’t like boundaries, when you segregate and belong to a group that compares with everyone else. It’s just good to mix different cultures.
At school, Loreen had a hard time taking in information, much because she was so energetic and sat and drew instead.
– I wanted to do things my way and preferably no homework. Rebellious and proud you can say. If you messed with me, it literally exploded. Like when someone said “Your mom is ugly”. At home I sang an incredible amount but at school I was a bit incognito. One of the teachers asked me to sing once in fifth grade and then my heart was jumping out of my body. I sang a gospel song and shit what poppis I became afterwards.
Loreen used to lock herself in the bathroom and sing. Mom and siblings went crazy, as did the neighbors. Sometimes she skipped school and ran to church and sang. The acoustics were fantastic and she had to be at peace with those who teased her because she was different then.
– The priest understood that I was dropping them but understood that he couldn’t get me out. He left me alone. To me, it was a haven.
“I don’t like boundaries, when you segregate and belong to a group that compares to everyone else.”
That’s maybe something Loreen would need now when she’s landed in Baku and the schedule is packed. In addition, Amnesty International has called for protests against violations of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan, the detention of peaceful protesters and critical journalists. However, don’t boycott. Recently, the human rights organization wrote: “Azerbaijan has one of the worst conditions for media and freedom of expression in Europe”.
Former Eurovision song contestant Sandie Shaw has condemned the government in Azerbaijan. “What’s going on in Azerbaijan is nauseating,” said Sandie Shaw, who won the Puppet on a string in 1967.
– I agree with Amnesty. You should not boycott but confess the problem. There will be an incredible amount of pressure there which is perfect. The world is watching, which increases the pressure on the regime to step up.
Loreen has met the Swedish human rights organization Kvinna till kvinn and the former ambassador in Azerbaijan.
– I am committed when it comes to human rights and for me it doesn’t just work to go there and pretend that nothing happens. I always say what I think.
LORINE (“LOREEN”) ZINEB NORA TALHAOUI
Age: 28 years.
Family: Mother, stepfather, seven younger siblings. Single.
Lives: Södermalm, Stockholm.
Currently: Sings Euphoria by Thomas G:son as the eleventh participant in the semifinals on Thursday, SVT1 at 21. On Saturday, the final takes place, SVT1 at 21. Releases debut album in September, tours this summer.
Sang last year: My Heart Is Refusing Me in Melodifestivalen which became a big hit.
Gets angry: When it doesn’t turn out the way I want.
Looking in the mirror: Sometimes a fiery soul, sometimes a boredom.
Vanity: Yes, but don’t need two kilos of putty to go out.
Listens to: Satie, Puccini and suggestive house.
Admires: Björk, Lisa Gerrard, Ane Brun, Røyksopp.
Self-confidence on a scale of 1-10: I am between 4 and 6.
Afraid of: High altitudes. Have still parachuted. Is it possible to win a quarrel against you: Yes, it’s just to say that you love me, haha.
If you met yourself at a party: My God, how hard she seems! God what a long fringe she has!
As a teenager: I felt ugly but I used to stand in front of the mirror and say “You are nice”.
Participated in: Rap band in high school with the artist name Baby Lo.
Acclaimed by: American celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.
Suffered from: Stage fright.
Trait you are tired of in yourself: That I analyze myself and others.
Don’t want: Own children. “It simply came to our notice then. I am more for adoption”.
VOTE FOR LOREEN
Moley Talhaoui, little brother: – We are very close and talk about everyday problems, ambitions, visions. Loreen is puzzled, humble and caring. Make sure people around her are well. I have never been unsure of her talent but didn’t know if she would hit in a small town, in Sweden or the whole world. She’s perfect.
Lena Svanborg, best friend: – I ran a café in the south in 2006 and she worked in a studio next door. She often came in and it was love at first sight. I was hooked on her charisma, sparkling eyes and dimples. She is hopeless at times and can say that she is around the corner even though she shows up 40 minutes later.
Måns Zelmerlöw, artist, friend: – Loreen was often in my studio and I saw something big in her with a voice that was completely her own. So we started the record company Mohito around her. She is wonderful and we have a lot of fun together. She has called me her mentor but I have mostly supported her along the way. I think she’s winning in Baku.
• Source: https://www.svd.se/var-rost-i-baku
• Scans: http://gallery.lovely-loreen.com/thumbnails.php?album=722
• Translation: via Google Translate, the translation may not be completely accurate