SO MUCH BETTER: CAROLA IN SÅ MYCKET BÄTTRE

The 5th season of Så mycket bättre* started in Sweden last week. Among the artists this season we have finally Carola along with The Ark's Ola Salo, Orup, Amanda Jensen, Kajsa Grytt, Familjen and Love Antell. Blame it on Carola but the show broke its viewing record when 2.245.000 Swedes turned in to watch it. After all she's responsable for many Swedish records of that kind.... Update: the Carola episode was the most watched of them all. Of course.

All good things come to an end and this was the last week, dedicated to Love Antell. If you missed the post about last week's Carola Day, it's here. Next week it's still time for one special edition, with duets. But back to Love Antell. Carola took on his Gatorna tillhör oss. She lets herself wild, brings in the trademark wind machine and jumps on the table and gets everybody up and dancing. And yes, makes the song a Carola anthem. Next single?

Carola - Gatorna tillhör oss Vs. Love Antell - Gatorna tillhör oss

Fifth week already. Dedicated to Familjen. Her hair gets bigger and shorts shorter and she strips down the original song turning it into a growing anthem. Nice job.
Next week it's finally Carola's day and all the others will perform her songs. Can't wait!

Carola - Nyår Vs. Familjen - Nyår

Fourth week it's time for Kajsa Grytt and Carola takes Bakom allt and turns it into a lot poppier version. Nice job but like the other artists she didn't quite success to give a new life to her song.....

Carola - Bakom allt Vs Kajsa Grytt - Bakom allt

The third episode was for Amanda Jensen and Carola chose For the sun. She covers it in a quite different way but it's great. Simple and elegant and it brought a tear out of Amanda.....

Carola - For the sun Vs. Amanda Jensen - For the sun

The second episode was dedicated to Orup and Carola had chosen a song that could have been hers to start with, dealing with God and angels. Orup may have been ironic in her version but Carola went all for it without a trace of irony, just belief. This said this woman can sing, hallelujah!

Carola - Sjung halleluja (och prisa Gud) Vs. Orup - Sjung halleluja (och prisa Gud)

The first episode was dedicated to Ola Salo and Carola had chosen The Ark's Tell me this night is over. And she did such a great job she landed #1 in the iTunes immediately and may have a similar hit in her hands like Lena Philipsson in season 2 with Laleh's Live tomorrow. Ola seemed to approve and the other were jamming along. Great job. Indeed Ola chose Carola's the best version and dueted with her in the end of the show. (And no, no one covered The worrying kind....)

Carola - Tell me this night is over Vs. The Ark - Tell me this night is over

I will follow Carola's path in this TV-series every week so stay tuned for more covers by Carola and of course the new versions of Carola's songs by the other artists! Now that will be interesting!

You can follow the current Swedish series here and the Finnish here.

*Så mycket bättre is a reality show were seven artists are put together for a week 24/7. Each day is dedicated to one of them when the others do covers of her/his songs over lunch and dinner while the rest of the day is dedicated to activities chosen by the artist in question to let us know her/his world better, as are the stories before the songs to tell about their lives, the song in question and their career. This show has been also a megasellers with albums and singles and especially download charts relaunching a few careers and lifting some career to all new highs.

The show is enjoying hge success in Sweden (Så mycket bättre), Finland (Vain elämää), Norway (Hver gang vi møtes), Netherlands (De beste zangers van Nederland) and Denmark (Toppen af poppen). The format has been sold also to France, China, Estonia, Germany, Brazil, United Kingdom, Australia, USA, Italy, Spain and Russia so far.

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