"The Worrying Kind" is a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

song performed by the Ark, written and composed by

Ola Salo Ola Salo (born Rolf Ola Anders Svensson; 19 February 1977) is a Swedish rock musician, and the lead vocalist of Swedish glam rock band The Ark. Early life He lived in Rottne, Växjö Municipality, in Sweden when he was a child, where, in 1991, ...

. It was released as the second single from their fourth album, '' Prayer for the Weekend''. On 10 March 2007 the song won

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 ...

, becoming 's

Eurovision Song Contest 2007 The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 52nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Helsinki, Finland, following the country's victory at the with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Lordi. Organised by the European Broadcasti ...

entry. The song won both the jury and public vote. The song includes the verse "just a mortal with potential of a superman", taken from the 1971

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

song "

Quicksand Quicksand is a colloid A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a ...

". Similarities have also been drawn with the 1970

Edison Lighthouse Edison Lighthouse are an English pop band, formed in London in 1969. The band was best known for their 1970 hit single "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" recorded in late 1969. Career Before the name Edison Lighthouse, they were known as ...

one-hit-wonder "

Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" is the debut single by Edison Lighthouse. The song reached the number one spot on the UK Singles Chart on the week ending 31 January 1970, where it remained for a total of five weeks. It also became the first ...

". The song was directly qualified for the Final of Eurovision Song Contest, held in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

on 12 May, due to

Carola Häggkvist Carola Maria Häggkvist (; born 8 September 1966), commonly known simply as Carola, is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She has been among Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s and has released albums ranging from pop and disco ...

's fifth-place finish in the 2006 contest with "

Invincible Invincible may refer to: Film and television * ''Invincible'' (2001 drama film), a drama by Werner Herzog about Jewish cabaret during the rise of Nazism * ''Invincible'' (2001 TV film), a fantasy / martial arts TV movie starring Billy Zane ...

". In the finals, the song received 51 points and finished 18th of 24 finalists. It received votes from six countries: 12 points from and , 10 from , 8 from , 7 from the , and 2 from .

Melodifestivalen and the Eurovision Song Contest

ESC 2007 Sweden - The Ark - The Worrying Kind

"The Worrying Kind" participated in the second heat of the 2007 Melodifestivalen which was held on 10 February 2007 at the

Scandinavium Scandinavium () is an indoor arena located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Construction on Scandinavium began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, and was inaugurated on 18 May 1971. Scandinavium has been selected as a championship arena at least fifty t ...

indoor arena in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

. The song was the last of the eight competing entries to perform and directly qualified to the contest final as one of the two songs song which received the most telephone votes. On 10 March, during the final held at the

Globe Arena Avicii Arena, originally known as Stockholm Globe Arena and previously as Ericsson Globe, but commonly referred to in Swedish simply as Globen (; "the Globe"), is an indoor arena located in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov district of Stockho ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, the Ark were the last of the ten competing acts to perform, and "The Worrying Kind" won the contest with 248 points, receiving the highest number of votes from the regional juries and the viewing public via

telephone voting Televoting, telephone voting or phone voting is a method of decision making and opinion polling conducted by telephone. Televoting can also extend to voting by SMS text message via a mobile cell phone. Broadcast contest televoting Televoting i ...

. Sweden automatically qualified to the final of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in

, Finland courtesy of its 5th place finish at the previous year's contest. "The Worrying Kind" was performed in the final on 21 May 2007, with Sweden drawn to perform in twelfth position of the 24 competing entries. The Ark subsequently finished in eighteenth place, receiving 51 points in total, including the maximum 12 points from Denmark and Norway.

Chart performance

The song held the top spot on the Swedish singles chart for a total of three weeks. It also entered

Svensktoppen ''Svensktoppen'' () is a weekly record chart airing at Sveriges Radio. Until January 2003, the songs had to be in the Swedish language. Svensktoppen has aired since 1962, except for the years 1982-1985. The last years before the January 2003 cha ...

on 15 April 2007 at #3 and reached the #1 spot on 29 April 2007. A

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

Maia Hirasawa Maia Hirasawa (born May 5, 1980) is a Swedish singer-songwriter of Swedish and Japanese parentage. She was born and raised in Sollentuna, Stockholm, Sweden but has lived for many years in Gothenburg. Maia became known through Annika Norlin's ...

was also at Svensktoppen between 11 May-7 September 2008, peaking at #2.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worrying Kind, the 2007 singles 2007 songs Eurovision songs of Sweden Melodifestivalen songs of 2007 Eurovision songs of 2007 Number-one singles in Sweden The Ark (Swedish band) songs Songs written by Ola Salo