Dotter: I’m a bit of a sad witch that creates dramatic melodies in an organic/modern pop sound

Photo: Kristoffer Jansson

The 2nd semifinal of Melodifestivalen 2020 is on Saturday and I got an interview with one of the participants. I'm very happy about it cause I couldn't get an interview with her back in 2018 (the year were the Swedish voters broke my heart a bit) and I just knew she would give me great answers, so here they are:
Name: Johanna Maria Jansson 
Birthday: 10th of June 1987
Height: 167 cm
Favorite color: I change favorite color a lot but when I grew up my favorite color was blue, now I believe it’s red, purple or black☺️
Favorite food: Fruits!
What’s your strangest talent? - I’m quite hypermobile so I can do flexible tricks😁
What is the strangest thing you have in your room? - A homemade bed which is more like sleeping on a podium or Japanese bed, very hard but good for our backs!
What are you really good at? I’m a handy woman and I’ve got so many ideas in my head circulating all the time, especially when I’m suppose to sleep😅so I create lots of stuff like building stuff for the apartment, I did my own diner table, I make my own acrylic nails, I design my own stage clothes and I do also paint, my whole family on my mothers side are artists.
What are you really bad at? Oh haha, also many things🙈I’m not so good at IT stuff, bad with computers. I’m bad at all the stuff I think is boring and uninteresting😅
Childhood idol: My biggest idols were Hanson, Spice Girls, Robyn, Aqua and No doubt
Childhood memory: I’ve got thousands memories from childhood but one that really were the start point for me as a songwriter and artist was when I sat down with the piano when I was 10 and wrote my first song called “Nobody knows me”. My mum couldn’t almost believe it was my own song cause she thought it sounded like a real pop song that any of the boy bands could have done. So I created a girl band with three of my best friends and we called ourselves “Dizzy woop”. Then we started performing the song in front of the class with me accompanying the piano and the teacher filmed us and send the video to our pen friends in Japan.
Celebrity crush: Leonardo Dicaprio😍 he’s been my crush since I was little watching Titanic 
Tell me something no one knows about you: Haha, ok, I love to dance! I’ve been taking dance lessons since I was 9 til 23. I started with jazz ballet and there after all different dance styles.
Who would you cast to play you in a movie about your life? Hmm tricky question, Lady Gaga maybe 😸
What would the title of that movie be? haha omg, ”A little town called Arvika” or ”Nearby the Norwegian border” or “Dizzy Woop” it could be called 😅
Favorite movie: Grease!
Favorite TV series: Party of five
Dish/Snack/Beverage/Candy we should try if we ever visit Sweden: We got a few really tasty vegan restaurants in Stockholm so you should do like a vegan tour around the city, using the “Happy cow” website. 
If you were a boy for a day, what would you do? Haha too tricky 
Can you recommend us a song (old or new) from an Swedish artist? Mabel with “Don’t call me up”
Can you teach me some interesting words in Swedish? What would you like to say?

Hello Dotter! Welcome back to Mello!
Thank you!

How would you describe yourself as an artist?
It’s a tricky question but I think I can categorize myself as an alternative pop artist who grew up near the Norwegian border and started to make music when I was ten and have done since then. I’m a little bit shy, I was extremely shy when I grew up but on the stage I can express myself in a complete different way through my music and that makes me feel fulfilled. I’m a bit of a sad witch that creates dramatic melodies in an organic/modern pop sound.

Can we talk a bit about your past Mello experiences (as a songwriter and as a performer) what did you learn from them? (Would like to add that Cry was one of my fav songs from 2017!)
Oh thank you so much🙏🏼🙏🏼. To be a songwriter and to be an artist are two complete different things I believe. I need to go into two different characters almost. I love to create music in different genres, some days I just want to be that songwriter and help another artist to find themselves through music but someday I’m that needy artist that really need to express myself

You are one of the participants of Mello 2020. How did it all begin?
It began in late May 2019, me and my fiancé and our close friend had a session in our studio, we were drinking wine and were not so serious. But after my fiancé started playing a verse that he had come up with before I really felt for it immediately and started recording a pre chorus. We felt that this could be a really great song and I thought to myself “I wanna perform with this song in Melodifestivalen next year” then we finished the song and that was the only song I sent in for me as an artist.

“Bulletproof” is the title of your song, and it is written by you, Dino Medanhodzic and Erik Dahlqvist, how was it to work with them? What’s the story behind the song?
We’ve been working before cause we’re friends and we’re really close so it’s quite fun cause we can be so honest to each other. At one point when we were playing cards we tried to write the lyrics at the same time we all ended up in a fight so then the next day I locked myself into the bedroom and wrote the lyrics based on that fight actually😸

What's the process of creating a performance for Mello like and who are you working with in that area?
This performance was created out of an idea that my art director friend Julius a hayes had in mind. He told me about his idea and then I played bulletproof for him and we both felt that these two ideas were really connected. Then we created the whole number out of this with Sasha and Lotta at SVT

What can we expect to see on stage for the performance?
Can’t really tell yet😘

I'm a big fan of swedish language music and I want to ask you which swedish artist would you like to see doing Mello?
Oh I think all Swedish artists should join mello cause it’s such a great platform, you can’t get that kind of publicity anywhere else

What do you like about Eurovision?
It’s fun to watch

What do you dislike about Eurovision?
Nothing specific

Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word:
Industry: furnishing
Delicate: A good vegan cake
Knowledge: very important
Bizzare: pass
Wave: the ocean

What are your plans for 2020?
To release new music and hopefully be out touring again! I’m planning to go back to London and finish my album with great producers and songwriters I’ve been working with over there.

Is there anything you want to say to close the interview?
Thank you for having me!

Photo: Kris Jansson

Thanks to Dotter for the interview!


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