She Won’t Shake! Meet Sweden’s New Pop Icon Melodifestivalen Star Gunilla Persson

Melodifestivalen is currently underway with the Swedish national selection for Eurovision providing a number of delightful moments of pop. We’ve had magnetic schlager from Elisa Lindström, a surprise crashing out of the contest from scandipop hunks Samir & Viktor and truly impeccable pop from Cazzi Opeia, Jacqueline and Maria Sur. Not to mention that we still have delights to come from Dotter, Danny Saucedo and Marcus & Martinus. But through the contest, a surprising pop chanteuse has been birthed – Gunilla Persson who quite frankly, changed our lives with her gung-ho country-schlager-pop triumph I Won’t Shake (La La Gunilla).

The star maintains a high profile in Sweden, despite living in Los Angeles, as the star of Svenska Hollywoodfruar (Swedish Hollywood-wives) which concluded in 2019 after thirteen successful series. Prior to this Gunilla performed in Japan as part of girl group Happy Ladies where they took on numbers such as The Green Green Grass of Home and Singing in the Rain. The star enjoyed a career in modelling after her Japanese musical success and has since kept busy with projects across the creative industries.

The star took to the stage in Melodifestivalen’s third heat with I Won’t Shake (La La Gunilla) which is a curiously addictive pop gem. Some Eurovision fans have been quick to draw comparisons to German Eurovision 1979 entry Dschinghis Khan which blended historical storytelling, camp disco beats, and curious staging. The composition from Fredrik Andersson boasts a chorus of “La-la-la, la-la, Gunilla /
I won’t bend, no, I won’t break / La-la-la, la-la, Gunilla / Make a storm, but I won’t shake / They make a storm, but I won’t shake…” with sixty-five year old star purring atop high energy country production.

The number seems to have struck a chord across Sweden with the song clocking it in at #10 in the Swedish charts, whilst sitting in the top of Spotify charts for the week. Gunilla has garnered an army of devout followers across the globe, citing her as Sweden’s next pop sensation and dreaming of her track being the successor to Loreen’s Eurovision winning anthem Tattoo. All will be revealed when Gunilla faces Melodifestivalen’s Heat 5 second-chance round on the 2nd of March.

We are here for Gunilla’s success as Scandinavia’s new pop queen. Give us an album Mother Gu!