Shirley Natasja Clamp (born 17 February 1973) is a British-Swedish

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ( ...

singer.Shirley Clamp
posh24.se, accessed on May 7, 2010 She has achieved four Top 10 singles in Sweden including a Number 1 with " Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus" in 2009, and three Top 10 albums. She has competed seven times in

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 C ...

between 2003 and 2022, reaching the final twice where she finished second in 2004 and fourth in 2005.

Nationality

Clamp was born in

Borås Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 66,273 inhabitants in 2010. Geography Borås is located at the point of two crossing railways, among them th ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. Since her mother is Swedish and her father is British, she has dual nationality.

Career

Shirley Clamp's career began as a backing singer for various singers and groups, including

Antique An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...

during their

Eurovision Song Contest 2001 The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 was the 46th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the country's victory at the with the song "Fly on the Wings of Love" by Olsen Brothers. Organised by the E ...

performance to name one. She started her solo career in 2003, when she took part in

Melodifestivalen 2003 Melodifestivalen 2003 was the selection for the 43rd song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 42nd time that this system of picking a song had been used. Five heats had taken place to select the ten songs for the final ...

with the song "Mr. Memory". Finishing in 6th place in her semifinal, she lost the chance to qualify for the final. Her big breakthrough came in

Melodifestivalen 2004 Melodifestivalen 2004 was the selection for the 44th song to represent Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of Swede ...

with the song " Min kärlek" (My love) composed by

Ingela "Pling" Forsman Ingela Birgitta "Pling" Forsman (born 26 August 1950 in , Sweden) is a Swedish lyricist in popular music. As a student Forsman attended the Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm. 1981–2009, 33 of her songs have competed in the Swedish ...

. She came fourth in the last semifinal and went on to take second place at Andra Chansen, the "second chance" semifinal, thus qualifying for the final. There she was the first artist on stage, and ended 2nd, behind Lena Philipsson's immensely popular winner, "

Det gör ont "It Hurts" is a song recorded by Swedish singer Lena Philipsson. It was written by Thomas "Orup" Eriksson and produced by Anders Hansson for Philipsson's studio album '' Det gör ont en stund på natten men inget på dan'' (2004). It is the best ...

". "Min kärlek" won the National Finals Song Contest. A little later, in May 2004, Shirley released her first studio album, ''Den långsamma blomman'' (The Slow Flower). In 2005, she tried once again to win Melodifestivalen, with the song " Att älska dig" ("To love you"). Shirley won the first semifinal, but in the final in Stockholm, she ended 4th. Her second studio album, ''Lever mina drömmar'' (Living my dreams) was released in April 2005. A year later, she released ''Favoriter på svenska'', a special covers album, containing songs with lyrics in Swedish, such as Roxette's " It Must Have Been Love" ("När kärleken föds"). Clamp appeared at Melodifestivalen again in 2009 with the song " Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus". She placed last in the first semi-final, but eventually received a Swedish #1 single with the song. She was also a commentator for SVT during the

Eurovision Song Contest 2009 The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Moscow, Russia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Believe" by Dima Bilan. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (E ...

. Shirley returned to Melodifestivalen in 2011 with "Shirley's Angels", alongside Vera Prada and Jessica Marberger, with the song "I Thought It Was Forever." The trio competed in the third heat and advanced to Andra Chansen, where they were knocked out in the fourth duel against

Pernilla Andersson Pernilla Maria Theresa Andersson Dregen ( Andersson; 10 December 1974) is a Swedish singer-songwriter. She is the singing coach for the TV program '' True Talent''. Career Andersson was born in Stockholm but grew up in Hässleholm and Krist ...

. Three years laters she tried her luck participating at

Melodifestivalen 2014 Melodifestivalen 2014 was the Swedish music competition which selected Sweden's 54th entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. Sanna Nielsen won the competition with the song "Undo". This was one of the closest results in Melodifestivalen histo ...

with the song "Burning Alive" which was composed by

Bobby Ljunggren Bobby Ljunggren (born 1961) is a Swedish songwriter. He has entered the Eurovision Song Contest as a composer six times, five times for his native Sweden (1995, 1998, 2006, 2008 and 2010), and once for Lithuania, in 2005. He is a veteran of the ...

, Marcos Ubeda, Sharon Vaughn and Henrik Wikstrom. Shirley competed in the third Semi-final and finished 6th for a second time, failing to qualify for the next round. This was the 4th time she didn't make it to the final, the first being on the 2003 contest. She presented the Second chance round of

Melodifestivalen 2021 Melodifestivalen 2021 was the 61st edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen. The competition was organised by Sveriges Television (SVT) and took place over a six-week period between 6 February and 13 March 2021. Due to the impac ...

. In 2022, she entered Melodifestivalen 2022 with the song "Let There Be Angels". She performed in Heat 1 on 5 February 2022, finishing in sixth place and failing to qualify to the final.

Melodifestivalen entries

As a performer *

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

- "Mr Memory" (6th in semifinal) *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...

- " Min kärlek" (2nd) *

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

- " Att älska dig" (4th) *

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; Protests ...

- "Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus" (8th in semifinal) *

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

- "I Thought it was Forever" ( Shirley's Angels) (Knocked out in Andra Chansen round) *

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

- "Burning Alive" (6th in semifinal) *

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

- "Let There Be Angels" (6th in semifinal) As a composer *

- "You" performed by

Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek language, Greek: , derived from , ''pān'', i.e. "all" and , ''dōron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions ...

(Did not qualify for the final)*

Discography

Albums

Joint albums

Other singles

*2002 - My Life (C'est ma vie) (with

Christer Björkman Christer Samuel Björkman (; born 25 August 1957) is a Swedish singer and television producer. He represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1992 with the song " I morgon är en annan dag". From 2002 to 2021, he served as a producer of M ...

) (

Pride Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) w ...

-anthem 2002) *2003 - Mr. Memory *2004 - Do They Know It's Christmas? #28

References

External links

*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clamp, Shirley Swedish people of British descent 1973 births Living people People from Borås Melodifestivalen contestants Schlager musicians 21st-century Swedish singers 21st-century Swedish women singers