Svensktoppen
The Svensktoppen is a hit parade in Sweden . The well-known program for this has been broadcast on Sundays by the radio station Sveriges Radio since 1962 . Music from genres such as Swedish Schlager and Dansband music will be played and presented .
history
Svensktoppen are a hit parade that has undergone several changes in its decades of history. This affects the way in which these top ten are determined, as well as the songs and performers allowed. Since it was supposed to be a hit parade for Swedish music, the choice of performers is limited to local songwriters. The exact rules have been changed several times over the years.
1961-1970
The forerunner to the Svensktoppen was the De Tio program , which was first broadcast by the pirate radio station Radio Nord on November 12, 1961. After the station was set, the idea was taken up by Sveriges Radio and integrated as Svensktoppen in the Svensklördag program. The first broadcast ran on October 13, 1962 from the Folkets Hus in Svärtinge , where the audience present could decide the vote of the Svensktoppen by voting button. The number one at that time was Midnattstango by Lasse Lönndahl. After the program was presented, Svensktoppen became an independent program on November 10, 1962 at Sveriges Radio.
1970-1982
In the 1970s, the concept of the show came under widespread criticism, as the Svensktoppen primarily promoted the songs and performers of the large record companies and did not support lesser-known groups. The music played at Svensktoppen also corresponded little to what the name of the show suggested, namely the presentation of local music written by Swedish musicians and bands. The selection of songs also included English titles and songs by foreign performers. The ongoing discussions about these grievances resulted in determinations that applied to the Svensktoppen's selection of songs and that should do justice to the criticism.
In 1974 it was initially stipulated that a song in the Svensktoppen could only be played on the charts for a maximum of ten weeks, which should enable the songs and performers represented there to be changed more quickly. The selection of songs allowed at all was severely restricted. The lyrics of the songs could only have been written by Swedish citizens, the same applied to the composing of the music. Songs that came from abroad and had Swedish texts were no longer played by the Svensktoppen. The set of rules immediately led to the fact that more or less exclusively dan band music was shown on the show. In 1978, the rules were relaxed by allowing Swedish translations of foreign songs to be allowed again, as far as more than half of the music composers of a song were Swedish citizens.
At the beginning of the 1980s the program was to be renewed to make the Svensktoppen more attractive for the audience. For the first time, listeners to the show should be able to decide which songs should make up the week's Svensktoppen. For this purpose, the program designers introduced a postcard vote to determine the top ten in Swedish music. For the first time, everyone was able to determine this hit parade. After a few attempts, the audience vote was discontinued because the Svensktoppen suddenly saw themselves dominated by pop . A jury quickly returned to the original determination of the hit parade .
The lack of popularity led to the program being discontinued in 1982. It wasn't until 1985 that the concept was taken up again. As an alternative, a program called Skivstafetten was presented. The presenters visited a different family each week, who had the choice of choosing a top 5 and five other challengers for the next show. This show also had little popularity and was discontinued in the spring of 1984.
1985 until today
From 1985 the program Svensktoppen was taken back into the program of Sveriges Radio. In doing so, the rules that already applied in 1974 were largely invoked: the songs had to have been composed by Swedish citizens and the lyrics were only allowed to be written in Swedish. There was also an expansion of the permitted content by also playing instrumental music and songs with religious content, which led to the rediscovery of artists such as Lars Roos, Åsa Jinder and Roland Cedermark in the Svensktoppen.
The voting procedure was changed in 1993 by replacing the previously selected jury, which was responsible for determining the Svensktoppen, with voting with a postcard and later with voting by telephone . The other rules, such as those of the permitted music groups, did not change, however, and thus the music style dansband continued to rule. The disadvantage of the electoral process used was that there was hardly any movement in the Svensktoppen, as newcomers hardly found an opportunity to enter the Svensktoppen, unless they had previously become popular through programs such as the Melodifestivalen .
The rules were changed again in 2003 to expand the program and the music played and presented there. It was now allowed to choose songs with foreign language texts in the Svensktoppen, provided that both the music and the text of the song come from a Swede. Televoting has been abolished, and instead the selection of songs is again determined by a jury. Everyone can have a say if they are included in the circle of the determining jury. The members of the jury are selected by the broadcaster on a representative basis, are between the ages of 16 and 79 and belong to the community entitled to vote for a total of four weeks.
useful information
- The Svensktoppen come from the concept adopted by Sveriges Radio, which was originally created by the pirate station Radio Nord in 1961.
- The song Du är min man by Benny Anderssons Orkester & Helen Sjöholm lasted the longest in the Svensktoppen, namely 278 weeks since 2004, of which 38 weeks in first place.
- With 61 songs in the Svensktoppen, the bands "Sten & Stenley" and "Sten Nilsson" hold the record of songs contributed.
- The youngest artist represented there is Anita Hegerland , who made it into the Svensktoppen at the age of nine with her song Mitt sommarlov in 1970. The oldest artist in the Svensktoppen was the Swedish singer and actress Julia Cæsar, born in 1967 at the age of 82 with her song "Annie från Amörrka".
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. As of June 12, 2008
