memories of diggiloo

The great Lasse Holm

Back in July I was lucky enough to catch Diggiloo 2012 in Jämtland. It was the revue's 10th anniversary, and Lasse Holm's farewell season with the troupe.

The front cover of the program. Back row L-R: Jessica Andersson (singer), Charlotte Perrelli (singer), Fridha (singer). Centre row L-R: Thomas Petersson (comic), The Moniker (singer), Magnus Carlsson (singer), Lasse Holm (singer, compere, bandmaster), Markoolio (singer, rapper). Bottom row: Lotta Bromé (singer, comedienne, compere), Mojje (singer), Magnus Johansson (trumpeter). The revue also has a full band and dancers: I could hardly take my eyes off Kristjan Lootus, truly a Master of Dance.

Here's some YouTubes to help me remember.

This take on the Black Eyed Peas' instant classic "I've got a Feeling" was their opener, but you can't get much of an idea of the show's dynamism from this video. You can get a better idea of it from this TV medley from Skansen: 

The Moniker

Some of the clever stuff, with Diggiloo debutante Lotta Bromé - a well-known presenter on Swedish radio - to the fore. The girls are celebrating Sweden's appearance in the finals of Euro 2012. In the event it was a down-and-up campaign. Sweden began badly, losing 1-0  to Ukraine, then (unforgivably) 3-2 to England, against whom they are normally invulnerable.* At least the team had finally started to perform.  In their farewell match they took out their frustrations on France, beating them 2-0. It made no difference, England and France went through and were duly dispatched by the eventual finalists Italy and Spain.

* A few days after writing this, Sweden restored normal service, christening the new Friends Arena national stadium with a 4-2 victory over England; Ibra scored all their goals, beginning with the merely top-drawer, ending with the surreal.

This is also from TV: Magnus Carlsson and Jessica Andersson doing a fine rendition of "The Time of My Life"

The much-idolized Mojje doing "Eye of the Tiger", with Kristjan Lootus as his opponent.

An extended Eurovision medley; the sound's pretty poor, I'm afraid. The culturally untranslatable genre "schlager" is the underlying context for Diggiloo, and the Eurovision song contest, fondly derided in the UK, has much greater significance to schlager fans. In fact the name "Diggiloo" refers to Sweden's winning 1984 Eurovision entry, a catchy number called "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" by Herrey's. The company always break into a chorus of  "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" to signal the end of the show.

Lasse, Magnus, Kristjan