Schulman Show with Loreen - Part 1/3

So are we...
Alex, if you could just give us a sound test?
Are we going?
Yes. Just give us a sound test. Just say something.
Hi, my name is Markus Larsson and I'm completely stupid.
Just a little bit more. Talk a little more.
My name is Markus Larsson and I'm a tramp.
One last thing and then we're done.
Okay, my name is Markus Larsson, give me a gun and I'll shoot myself in the head.
Here we go.
Okay, come on!
What do you think about that?
That was about as good as when I met Keith Richards.
I actually thought about that. I will never again criticize you, Markus.
You get a little put in place, don't you? With these patriarchal alpha males.
I mean, I get why you started to introvert.
It was like being a child again. When I was a child I stammered badly and it was like going back to being five and yeah...
I think he should apologize to you.
Maybe we could request him to do so. Claes, contact me and apologize. It's a different show now and…
He should apologize for not having any sense of humor.
Good summary. We have a guest that it's going to be much better because she is delightful, isn't she?
She really is.
And you've written good things about her so for once you don't have to be scared where you're sitting right now, I know you like her.
I won't be stammering this time.
No, very good. Um, turn the music on. “You're an artist and song writer. In real life, you're probably a normal person just like all of us,
I guess, but on stage something happens. You change; you turn into a being. You become a fifth element.
In a "Melodifestivalen" filled with silly people in twinkling pyjamas with repeated dance moves, bombs and lightning explosions,
the person who won was the one who chose to stand alone on stage. That says something about you and the way you shine all by yourself.
Welcome to Schulman show, Loreen!
Aww, I have to get a hug.
Wow, a great hug. Welcome, nice having you here.
I don't know what to say.
Hannah. You have to accept my African vein and give me a hug.
Absolutely. You have to plug yourself in so that we can hear you.
Yeah, so that we can hear you clearly. So, was that right?
The presentation of yourself, that you get another kind of energy in what you do on stage? Do you feel it yourself?
I'm not… At least not when I performed in 'Globen' I wasn't very present, not so aware of things that were outside of me.
Where were you then?
I was, you know... Have you ever meditated?
Yeah.
No.
No? You're mad focused. You know when you're so focused that things around you no longer...
Nothing else exists.
Yeah. Because I do so much; you know I have to dance while I have to sing right, I can't forget to breathe so I have to be focused and just block everything out.
I see.
And it's like a trance.
But isn't it all of a sudden a strange awakening when you're sitting in the green room and you have to be all woah! Is it two totally different things?
Yeah, then all of a sudden I'm outside of me and totally aware of the people who are sitting next to me
and I'm so glad about these bangs because they 'cover things up'. My shyness. Really. But otherwise it would've...
So you have the bangs to hide yourself? No. that's not it. Last time we met, you were about to go and be silent for a week or so. That wasn't a joke?
No, that was actually true but I can't afford ten days. I can only afford five days.
But you were there?
I haven't been there yet.
So you're going there?
That's right.
So you're the kind of person that goes off to these retreats where you're silent for days?
Yeah, it's not a game. I've done it once...
Have you ever done the kind of meditation that goes on for 30 hours?
30 hours is nothing compared to this. This is ten days on end where you don't look at anyone else, you can't talk, you can't write, you can't exercise.
You can only sit and meditate and a lot happens then.
I've been very curious about that, and about you. One feel outside you and your world a bit.
I'm not saying you're excluding but you seem to have reached something that the other three of us certainly haven't. I was wondering...
I have no idea what you're talking about.
I mean Loreen is self-realized and she's got all the things that we're missing. A calm...
No, stop it!
It has to be like that. I wouldn't be able to go off and be silent for ten days. I'd rather shoot myself in the head.
And I'm gonna be totally honest with you: after the first three days you actually want to.
With a little alcohol, I'd be able to.
But you're not allowed to drink, right?
Hide it in a locker or something and just sneak off.
We have to talk a little about, or a whole lot about this song, which Markus Larsson thinks is great and he's not easily flirted with.
I know you avoid reading articles about 'Melodifestivalen' so you don't even know who Markus Larsson is, which I think is... inconceivable, really!
But yeah I do...
I have to say that it's a little honoring actually. I don't think we should know each other very well since I'm a critic and you're an artist.
You don't think so?
But what is interesting is that... Markus Larsson has praised it. I've loved this song and you do too, Hannah!
God, yeah!
We're obsessed with it and when I heard it the first time, I said: we have to have Loreen as a guest on the show
because I knew that if we'd called you after the finale in Globen, you'd say "I can't" so we got you two months ago.
You would've gotten me here after the finale too!
I would? That's good! But I'm still proud of the fact that I could see that this was something special,
I could just feel that it was something extraordinary. This song is in fact that and...
You weren't the only one to think so.
I know, unfortunately I wasn't. But you have a lot of fans out there and I think it's touching how people are sitting by their computers
and make their own versions of your song. We're gonna watch a little clipping of what it looks like out there.
Here you go, this is "Euphoria" by the Swedish people.
That guy...
That's so nice!
Don't you get touched by this?
Incredibly...
And such talents too, some of them were so good that you wonder why they don't appear on "Idol".
No, I'm kidding... They were really good though.
They're going for the "X Factor" instead.
But still, these people really like the song; they pick up a guitar or play the piano and sing. Isn't that a wonderful feeling?
Enormously wonderful. I've seen... I've only seen one of these clips. I didn't know there were so many... to me.
What I heard is that when you got the song it was just a hit song that wasn't very appealing and then you've been part of it and changed it to what it is today.
That's what I've heard, is it the truth?
I came into the studio to Peter Boström, who's produced it and I said: Terminator. That was the first thing I said.
And we listened to the Terminator soundtrack so the production is very "Terminator inspired".
I had no idea.
How exciting!
Is that why it sounds so ominous and threatful at times?
Sorry, what?
Is that why it sounds so ominous and threatful in the beginning?
Yeah and I love those contrasts because the melody is very happy, "Euphoria, everything is so happy" while the production...
I like those contrasts, it's dark. And it starts off with a siren so...
There's something gloomy about it, yeah ominous. You like it?
I heard you had to work for five months before you made up your mind.
With the production? Nooo, no, no. It was more me trying to decide and I'm the type of person that takes my time.
I watched the Eurovision, or Melodifestivalen and I wasn't the only one but what I feel is that I got you here now
so now I can tell you what I thought about during the show. I wanna play a clip first of all that is about your eyes.
You have very beautiful eyes, you can see a lot of whites of your eyes in them but on stage they're completely black.
They become carbon black in almost a scary way. Have you thought about that?
No...
Check this out. Can anyone out there or in the studio find Loreen's whites of her eyes? Where are they? Here you go.
I LOVE YOU
Yeah... just black. What, you haven't thought about it?
Like a beautiful shark on stage.
No, but did you say to someone that "I don't want anyone to see the whites of my eyes, I think it's unpleasant"?
No, no...
Did you think about this?
I didn't think about it at all.
I thought immediately about...
Alex is like that, he thinks about those kind of things.
...True Blood, in season 2 there's a spell that turns everyone black-eyed. Let's check it out real quick.
That's scary.
It's True Blood written all over it.
Yeah but I think I'm gonna... It's the front lights. There's no front lights on me, instead the light comes from above
and that's when you get these shadows and plus the bangs. Maybe I should have someone to point some front lights in my face.
But it was creepy because you looked spooky but it's the first time... You know, you say the eyes are the mirror of your soul
or whatever it is you say and so it's incredible that you won without us even seeing your eyes. It was a special thing.
But you were very present before getting on stage and when you sat in the green room.
And you know, I really liked the fact that you weren't afraid of showing that you were nervous and sat there alone,
one felt for you as an artist because everyone else had their crew. You were really open about it. But can we talk a little bit about the Loreen dance?
Yeah.
I love contemporary dancing and I was so glad... Me and my daughter are trying to do this dance pretty often at home.
That's awesome!
Show us!
I'm not gonna show you.
At least show us the hands.
But both of you are really good! You too, Loreen, really good!
Yeah!
But it was so nice that you bought in dancing as an artform. Right? Would you call it contemporary dancing?
Well, I'm not a dancer from the beginning and I've never sung and danced at the same time before. I wanted to challenge myself so...
So this was completely new to you?
Completely new to me! I just thought I had to implement some personal development into this and not just go safe and that's why I did it.
So some of those moves I do at home in front of the mirror so I...
For yourself? Just for nothing?
Just for myself. I actually dance in front of the mirror, it's really good therapy.
I wonder when the clips of everyone doing your dance will come!
I think Markus is gonna write something about me, like "she's a freak!"
If I was to dance in front of the mirror, I'd laugh myself to death.
Visualize Markus naked and white and you know... standing in front of the mirror. In his terrible body.
Kanal 5 just lost 45,000 viewers. Ten minutes left and I can get out of here. But, were you nervous when you fell off the stage during one of the rehearsals?
No, not...
Do you remember it?
No, not when it happened. When it happened it was more...
But were you afraid that it was going to happen again?
Yeah, you know, I noticed I was checking the sides, you know checked my right side so that I wouldn't...
That's what I mean: when I enter that emotion that I want to deliver, I forget about where I am. I'm allowed to take four steps back,
not five. Five and I'm this close to the edge and that's what happened. So yeah, I was nervous!
Moving forward since I still have you here. Just another thing I thought about: when you won, Danny's look was very... He was very sad.
But I get it. Based on myself...
But he was also mean to you, he said things like "my song is better" but you can't...
He said that?
Yes, he did. You can't be excessively sad because you beat him, right?
Anyway, what I was wondering was when you won and you walked up to him and gave him a hug, was it to mess with him...
You know: "I'm gonna give him a pat on the head before going up there...".
Let's have a look at it, this is when you come up to him and... Well, let's just watch it.