Sunday, December 07, 2014

Lisa Ajax is Sweden's new Idol

(picture courtesy of www.sydsvenskan.se)

The 10th series of Swedish Idol ended on Friday night with Lisa Ajax beating Mollie Lindén in the final.  I tried and failed to watch the live stream, with added (and irritating/unnecessary) English language live commentary which if I remember correctly, was introduced last year.  Lisa is the youngest ever Idol winner in Sweden and succeeds last year's winner, Swedish Premiership footballer Kevin Walker.

For various reasons, give or take the odd clip I've completely missed this series of Idol, so I'm not qualified to comment on whether the 16 year old deserved to win or not: at the beginning of the contest I thought Matilda Gratte was a cert to win so didn't have a clue how it would all end following her shock departure.

(picture courtesy of Chic.se)

One very obvious thing about Idol in 2014 was that it was all about the girls: with few strong male contestants it was no surprise that it would be an all-female final between Lisa and Mollie, pictured above.

Something has changed from previous years: the winner no longer gets a recording contract with the rush-released covers album: instead there will be a tour and the release of an EP including the winner's song "Unbelievable" which was co-written by former Fame Factory and Melodifestivalen contestant Jimmy Jansson.  For me, there's nothing particularly spectacular (or indeed unbelievable-lievable-lievable!) about the mid-tempo ballad, however Lisa's voice certainly has a maturity beyond her years.  I can't see a long career for her though: I'm guessing that she'll be pitched as a similar type of artist to the hugely popular Zara Larsson, but I can't really see Lisa emulating her success.  Good luck to her though.

There will be an 11th series next year: no doubt, as usual we can expect a lot of speculation from the Swedish tabloids about whether the judging line-up of Anders Bagge, Laila Bagge and Alexander Bard will return.

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