Lizel Strömberg

Melodifestivalen Press: Press conferences
 
As I wrote before, this was our first time doing this kind of press. We had no knowledge about how things would be set up, and how the other press usually work.

I’m aware that Swedes in general might not have the same courtesy as many other countries. I may be half Swedish, but I’m also half Filipino which also mean I may have not been raised with the same manners as Swedes around me. With this said, I was very surprised over how unprofessional several reporters were acting towards the artists and each other.

Talking shit about the acts, interrupting people when they are doing interviews and pushing others to get their footage, are just a couple of things they were doing. Mind that, there were plenty of people that were very nice and behaved polite and professional as well.

During the week, there were several opportunities to talk with the acts at different press conferences before/after the dress rehearsals. Since Jenevia and I were the only ones from our outlet, we had to do all the work by ourselves. Jenevia was the one preparing for our interviews, made the research and came up with questions. Plus she was also the one editing our video footage. While I was the one recording the interviews, photographing during all the events that was happening during the weekend and I was also the one editing the pictures I took.

So, during the press conferences we made sure to be ready and set as soon it was our time to interview. Since it was just the two of us, we prioritised the five bigger acts that people were more excited over to see. Such as Samir & Viktor, Ace Wilder, Robin Bengtsson, Albin & Mattias and Mimi Werner. It was very nice talking to them, and they were so genuine and professional. 

One thing I have to write about is Samir & Viktor. Maybe not about them, but how people were treating them, and with people I mean some of the press. When we were interviewing Samir & Viktor, they were very anxious about their English abilities. We were prepared and knew they weren’t as fluent in English as many people in Sweden might be. We made sure to tell them, it was fine and I would help them out to translate if they needed it.

(The lady in the picture has nothing to do with the unprofessionlism that was happening) 

Samir & Viktor did very well. We really appreciate that they made such an effort to answer our questions and take part in the interview despite struggling with their English. I just got annoyed because during the interview, a lot of the reporters came around to see our interview and some even recorded it. The press were rude and unprofessional and they were laughing in a mean spirit way. I’ve seen some of the interviews with Samir & Viktor both in Swedish and English and it’s no wonder they are so insecure because of they way people treat them. Genuinely, Samir & Viktor are two of the nicest people I’ve met, they are such hard working guys and they are funny & have great personalities. They have grown a lot since last year, and I wish people could treat them better. 
I didn’t want to be rude and take too many pictures of the acts when they were getting interviewed since I knew it could be distracting when the flash goes off. But I thought it would be nice to have some pictures anyway. Also I thought it would be okay since everyone was just taking shots all the time, so a couple pictures wouldn’t hurt as much.
As I was taking pictures while we were waiting to get some interviews, I was standing a couple meters from Samir & Viktor. I saw an opportunity to get a picture of Samir, as he saw me, he posed for me to take one. But the funny thing was, he basically walked away from the interview he was in, to get to me, just to see the picture I took. It was so funny and random!
One thing that was funny throughout the weekend was how confused everyone got over the fact that I knew Swedish since Jenevia and I were from an international outlet. Jenevia and I were of course talking in English all the time, but after the first day most of the acts and their team recognized us and knew who we were so there were not as much confusedness after that. Which was very nice and made things much easier. Also I think the way we worked and the fact that we treated everyone with respect made people more genuine towards us.

To wrap things up from the interviews, I decided to get some pictures of the acts posing for the camera. It was a bit harder than I though since the other press was everywhere swarming around the acts but as soon as the artists saw me, and after have asked them polite if I could take pictures, everything went fine.

 
As you can see in the pictures, they have different clothes in some photos and that's because it was at different press conferences. More videos of the interviews we did is uploaded on MuseLed's Youtube channel which you can find here:

 

More videos and pictures will be published during this upcoming week, so stay tuned for more updates!

#1 - IDA-FOTO

Kul! Snygga bilder :)

Svar: Åh tack så mycket! ^_^
Lizel Strömberg