Molly Sandén & Icona Pop on Queens of Pop – Review – Aftonbladet

KONSERT Popdrottningarna greatly impress on the new queens of pop. However, we hope that the festival is not necessary for many years.

Molly Sandén

Icona Pop
Location: Sofiero Castle, Helsingborg. Audience: 5,600. Duration: One hour each. Best: "Without You" with Molly Sandén. Worse: Icona Pop is having trouble lifting his interpretations "So much better".

HELSINGBORG. In 2012, the Equal Festival launched the statistical distribution of genre distribution at Sweden's biggest music festivals. That year, 17% of all reserved acts were women. An extremely embarrassing figure. And there was no further development in the following years in the grain.

2013: 19%.

2014: 24%.

2015: 29%.

It went too slowly. When the 2017 summer festival was finished and we did not even exceed 30%, some realized that we needed to do more.

This year the numbers are different. Emma Knyckares Statement Festival is held last weekend in August to create a free zone for women, transgender and non-binary. All reserved artists are non-men

Putte in Parken has made a revolution and this year only consists of female acts, hoping to contribute to a more equal festival scene.

And so we have Queens of Pop, the new one-day festival that takes place two weekends in a row at Helsingborg and Uppsala in a bid to highlight the popdrottings. The poster is named Zara Larsson Pop Icona and Sarah Klang .

This is necessary. The Swedish music scene is mourning female artists who may not have played on a festival otherwise. Or at least not on the biggest stage of the festival or the best time of play.

No party without garret

The two scenes take place in the idyllic green space of the Sofiero Palace. Festival visitors move relaxed, back and forth on the bridge that connects them.

Queens of Pop is not a festival made by the man. But the atmosphere is extremely safe. In the air there is a silent chord that we are all here to celebrate a talented musician. Nothing else

In the heat of 30 degrees, everyone is stuck. But not Anna Ternheim .

– It will be seen how long I can stay here in the west of my father, she says of a scene in pants and shirt

Ternheim's melancholy integrates well into greenery . She is more concerned about the beautiful "What I did" with Martin Hederos .

On the other side of Sofiero Molly Sandén is preparing to go on stage. It will immediately prove to be one of the main features of the festival.

She runs to fans in the ocean and asks how they call. She wants to get to know her audience as well as we know her. The last album "Larger" is personal and revealing. Tonight, she sings about festivals that went wrong, unhappy relationships and having to meet up.

With a brilliant voice and a vertiginous experience. In the last tunes of "Without You" she seems overwhelmed, the audience as well as cheering the great interaction between her and the choir singer Melinda De Lange .

And when Molly Sandén sits at the piano to play "Sand" and the voice almost breaks, it's as beautiful as heartbreaking.

– I feel so inspired to play here today, Janice said a moment later.

As a spectator, it's hard not to feel the same. In the song "Answer" she wrote to her passing father, the deep soul star dug all the possible emotions. "Calling your name, answer, Andrew, answer ," she sings. Then the artist and the public are close to tears.

Folk Festival with Icona Pop

This is a great contrast to Icona Pop which creates an idyllic holiday feeling right after. In the crowd there is a national festival with both parents, children and young festive dances.

Duon creates all songs for songs like "We Got The World" and "Girlfriend". The girlfriend turns his arms around one another.

Under "I love him", euphoria knows no boundaries. When the base hits the body, it seems that the heart will fall.

But other times it is as cool. Icona Pop is struggling to raise his interpretations of "So much better", not the least Sabina Ddumbas "Not too young"

Today, the Equal festival has been abandoned . Due to this year 's addition to the Swedish festival scene, the people behind the initiative felt that they were doing their own.

But it is important to remember that this may not be the end. A festival like Queens of Pop is a temporary but not permanent solution. Talented artists who have managed to book the festival deserve the same conditions as their male colleagues.

As Sarah Klang said before her appearance at the festival; "If all went well, we would not have had a festival with only women."

July 27, 2018 23:52