Shirley Clamp - Min Kärlek

Shirley Natasja Clamp comes from the poptastic land of Sweden, or Sverige as it's known to Swedes (Jag lärar mig Svenska!) She was born in 1973 in Stockholm. She started out singing backing vocals for Swedish acts such as Ace Of Base and A-Teens, and she sang backing vocals for in Eurovision 2001 for Greece with Antique and "Die For You" which came third.

Shirley branched out on her own and competed in one of the semi-finals in the Swedish heat of the Eurovision Song Contest national finals, known as Melodifestivalen in 2003, with "Mr Memory". She only came 7th and so didn't qualify for the final, but this didn't stop her trying again in 2004.

Singing in Swedish this time with "Min Kärlek" (pronounced Shar-lek) which means "My Love", she finished 4th in her heat which meant yet again, she hadn't qualified for the final. However she did make the "Second Chance" round which was for the songs which had finished 3rd and 4th in their heats, in which she came second, which meant she had made the Melodifestivalen final! On the night, Shirley came from nowhere and came second, behind Lena Philippson with "Det Gör Ont".

With the release of her album "Den Långsamma Blomman" not long after the contest, which included the 2 Melodifestivalen tracks (albeit "Mr Memory" in it's Swedish version "Äntligen") plus the singles "Jag Fick Låna en Ängel", "Eviga Längtan" and "För Den Som Älskar", she spent the majority of the year in the Swedish charts, ending with a dance cover of "Do They Know It's Christmas" which was miles better than the Band Aid 20 effort! Fred Bronson of Billboard, even called Shirley's album the best of 2004!

Shirley competed in Melodifestivalen again in February this year with the track "Att Älska Dig" ("To Love You"), which came 4th, and her second album "Lever Mina Drömmar" was released in April.

"Min Kärlek" means "My Love" and was one of the biggest hits of the Summer in Sweden last year, spending months in the chart, and was nominated at for an award at the Swedish Grammis. In case you are not fluent in Swedish, you can follow the lyrics of "Min Kärlek" at this website, which also has loads of info on every Melodifestivalen ever, if you like that sort of thing...