Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig

"Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig"
Eurovision Song Contest 1968 entry
Country	Sweden
Artist(s)	Claes-Göran Hederström
Language	Swedish
Composer(s)	Peter Himmelstrand
Lyricist(s)	Peter Himmelstrand
Conductor	Mats Olsson
Finals performance
Final result	5th
Final points	15
Appearance chronology
◄ "Som en dröm" (1967)
"Judy, min vän" (1969) ►

"Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig" ("It's Beginning to Look Like Love, Damn It") was the Swedish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968, performed in Swedish by Claes-Göran Hederström, the winner of Melodifestivalen 1968.^[1] Composer Peter Himmelstrand, who incidentally also wrote the two songs that finished in shared third place in the 1968 pre-selections, "Gå och göm dig, Åke Tråk" and "Du vet var jag finns", would go on to write fifteen Melodifestivalen entries as well as a large number of other popular Svensktoppen hits all through the 1960s and 1970s.

"Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig" was performed eight on the night, following the Monaco's Line & Willy with "À chacun sa chanson" and preceding Finland's Kristina Hautala with "Kun kello käy". At the close of voting, it had received 15 points, placing 5th in a field of 17.

The song is widely considered a schlager classic in Sweden, mainly because of its - for the genre - highly unconventional title, its use of onomatopoetic expressions and slang and Peter Himmelstrand's humorous lyrics, including phrases like:

The day before yesterday I suddenly turned down the guys, when they invited me to a party and instead I spent a whole evening conversing with your mother, being polite.

Last night I went with you and watched a tearjerker, although I wanted to watch "bang bang". And then I sat listening to a string quartet - me, I only used to like "twang twang".

It's beginning to look like love, damn it. The kind of thing you read about in books, imagine that. I just don't get it, I guess I'm a little stupid. But by all means, I could be wrong...

The song was succeeded as Swedish representative in the 1969 contest by Tommy Körberg, singing "Judy, min vän".

An English-language version "My Time Has Come", was released in 1980.

References