"Alla" (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: ''Άλλα''; en, Other) is a song by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

singer

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

and was her entrant in Sweden's

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

selection process

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song ...

. The song is sung entirely in Greek and won the international jury vote at the contest, gaining it a spot in the final, where it ended up placing tenth of eleven. The song was released in Sweden and will also be released in Greece, with the possibility of both English and Swedish versions being produced.

Background and Melodifestivalen

After having taken part in the Swedish

Melodifestivalen 2007 Melodifestivalen 2007 was the selection for the 47th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 46th time that this system of picking a song has been used. Five heats took place to select the ten songs for the final, in J ...

with "Hypnotized" and releasing the CD single "Pote" (Never) in Greece and Sweden, Sofia once again took part in the contest to select Sweden's

entrant in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. For her second appearance, she chose to sing the song "Alla", sung in Greek. In an interview, Sofia said that she wanted to perform the song in Greek because she likes the language and because it was originally written in Greek and therefore should be performed that way. Writer

Dimitri Stassos Dimitri Stassos (Greek: Δημήτρη Στασσος; born 1969 in Stockholm, Sweden), is a Greek-Swedish songwriter known for his entries in the Eurovision Song Contest as well as writing hits for Ola Svensson and others. Career He has been wo ...

spoke about the song in an interview with Eurovision news website ''ESCToday'' saying:

This time, with Alla, we wanted to go all the way with Sofia, in Greek, and since the rules allow us, I΄m Greek, Sofia loves Greece and everything that comes along with it, it was never a difficult decision. Knowing that we had no chance to win, but at least we could be proud of our choice. It was also a great opportunity to promote Sofia and Alla to a big audience.

Sofia performed the song seventh on the night in the third semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2009, held on February 21, 2009. She received 14,782

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s, placing her seventh of the eight entries. She was not one of the four songs selected for the final or second chance rounds, but it was revealed that she was chosen by the international jury to go against the other jury choices from the other semi-finals, with a chance of being the eleventh song in the contest's final. On March 7, Sofia once again appeared at Melodifestivalen, though she did not perform. Following the end of the "Second Chance Round", the jury chose her over semi-final two pick

Amy Diamond Amy Linnéa Deasismont (born 15 April 1992), previously known under the stage name Amy Diamond, is a Swedish singer. She is known for her single "What's in It for Me". The song was a 2005 hit in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland. It was the m ...

to go to the final. In an interview after the round, Sofia said that she was glad that she will have the chance to sing the song even better than before and that she was probably chosen because she is an international artist with an international song. At the Melodifestivalen final, held on March 14, 2009, Sofia presented "Alla" ninth out of the eleven participants. When the results were announced, she received twelve points in total, eight from the international jury and four from the regional juries, placing her tenth.

Release

"Alla" was first heard in the form of a one-minute clip on February 20, 2009, the day before Sofia appeared in the third semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2009. "Alla"was released to radios following the fourth semi-final on February 28, 2009, in line with the contest's rules. "Alla" then became available as a two track

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and digital download on March 1, 2009 along with many of the other songs in the contest; it features the radio mix and a remix of the song by Oscar Holter. "Alla" will be released in Greece as well suggested Sofia in an interview with news website "ESCToday". "Alla" will also be translated into both Swedish and English as well.

Style and lyrical content

"Alla" is written by the same team that wrote her previous Melodifestivalen entry "Hypnotized" as well as the single "Pote". Writers

, Nina Karolidou, Irini Michas, and Henrik Wikström described it as "''a rock inspired ethno pop number, or pop/rock

ong Ong or ONG may refer to: Arts and media * Ong's Hat, a collaborative work of fiction * “Ong Ong”, a song by Blur from the album The Magic Whip Places * Ong, Nebraska, US, city * Ong's Hat, New Jersey, US, ghost town * Ong River, Odisha, ...

with a cool riff''". Sofia sings about how other things will come along and how she lost herself and possessions, explaining that they "became smoke".

Track listing

#"Alla" (Radio Mix) – 3:00 #"Alla" (Oscar Holter Remix) – 4:30

Chart performance

The song debuted on the Swedish Singles Chart on the week of March 13, 2009 at number 26, and moved up to number 24 the following week, before falling to number 37, and recovering one spot to 36 in its fourth week.

References

{{authority control 2009 singles Melodifestivalen songs of 2009 Songs written by Dimitri Stassos Songs written by Henrik Wikström Universal Music Group singles Greek-language songs 2009 songs