HELSINKI - The song “Everything But Still Nothing,” co-written by Mats “MP” Persson and performed by Christian Forss, didn’t quite make it to the international semifinals in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. The song got to the second round of the Finnish finals as the sixth and the last song. The second round went better and the song was able to climb, but it ended up at fifth position.

  The winner was Geir Rönning with the song “Why.” Geir is originally from Norway where he has also taken part in the local leg of the Eurovision Song Contest. This is his first time in the international contest. His song is written by Mika Toivanen who also wrote the song that represented Finland in the last year’s contest with less than satisfactory results.

• Geir Rönning: Why

GOTHENBURG - According to Expressen, Per paid 9,563,784 SEK (1,049,800 Euros) of taxes in 2003. With this figure he was the second biggest tax payer in Halmstad. Expressen’s Western Sweden edition listed 2003 tax figures in today’s paper.

• Expressen article (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Last night Per Gessle and his band Mazarinerna played at fashion house Vero Moda’s secret company gig in Nacka Strand, Stockholm. The band consisted of MP Persson, Anders Herrlin, Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundqvist, Helena Josefsson and Jens Jansson according to TDR’s sources. The setlist was “Mazarin” and Gyllene Tider material mixed.

  About 1,200 people attended the “swell gig.” The band’s sound was super, according to Per. “Fun to play, my throat is hoarse today!” Per tells TDR.

  Also performing at this gig was Swedish group The Ark.
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“Jag borde förstås vetat bättre”, the third single off Gyllene Tider’s “Finn 5 Fel!” album enters the Swedish singles chart at #24. The triple platinum album rises from #53 to #48 on its 24th week on the albums chart.

  Both “GT25 Live!” and Marie Fredriksson’s “The Change” fall out of the Top 60.

• Hitlistan

STOCKHOLM - Gyllene Tider, nominated for four Grammis awards, received two awards tonight at The Grand Hotel in Stockholm. Gyllene Tider was selected as “Pop group of the Year” and their DVD “GT 25 live! En scen vid en plats i en stad” was “Music DVD of the Year.”

  The biggest award, “Artist of the Year” went to The Hives.

NEW YORK - The band D.H.T. has covered Roxette’s #1 single “Listen to Your Heart” and it has been released to North American radio stations via Robbins Entertainment Records.

  D.H.T., from Belgium, has been a live act since 1995. Their Roxette cover was previously released in Europe, and appeared on various compilation albums as well. Robbins, a dance label, is joint-venture with BMG North America.

• D.H.T. official web site
• Buy it at Amazon.com
• View the video (unplugged version, in WMV format)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - The Grammis gala is to be held on February 7 at the China Theater in Stockholm, but the theater has been booked a long time ago for the Ted Gärdestad musical “Sol, vind & vatten”. The cast of “Sol, vind & vatten” refuses to let the Grammis crew have the theater early enough for building the set and rehearsing unless they get to participate in the gala with a number from the musical.

  “This is out of the question,” says Helene Rönnmark from Ifpi in an interview with Aftonbladet, and continues: “We are to give out 27 Grammis awards and don’t even have time to show it all on TV.” If bad comes to worse, Ifpi has plans to move the whole thing. “We have alternatives but I don’t want to discuss them as I haven’t spoken to our guests yet,” Rönnmark says.

  Gyllene Tider has been nominated in four categories, and Per Gessle in one. We earlier reported of three Gyllene Tider nominations, but it was later revealed that Gyllene Tider’s live DVD was nominated as the “Music DVD of the Year”, a brand new category.

  Update: Ifpi informed on February 3 that he gala will be held at the Winter Garden in Grand Hotel Stockholm on February 7. The program chief Anders Knave from TV4 is not unhappy of the decision. “Ifpi has guaranteed us that this doesn’t jeopardize the quality of the gala. The only thing changing is the venue,” he says in Aftonbladet.

• Aftonbladet article
• Aftonbladet article 2 (in Swedish)
• GylleneTider.se (in Swedish)
• Ifpi