Dinah Nah on Melodifestivalen Return and Pop Career Aspirations

Photo: Lizel Strömberg (ZEL Photography)

Dinah Nah first made significant waves to a contemporary, Swed-pop loving audience with her Melodifestivalen debut in 2015. Her entry, "Make Me (La La La)" was the year's only true pop banger and served an in-your-face dance break complete with a wild, shaky-cam effect and an entirely male set of back-up dancers lovingly named "The Wall Of Sex," all of whom donned shredded clothing. She made her way to the finals through the Andra Chansen (second chance) round where she finished an undeserved last place. Nonetheless, her song was certified Platinum and she followed it up with another equally infectious dance-pop tune called "Taste Your Love."

We first had the pleasure of speaking with Dinah Nah the year of all of these releases back when she was still on the Capitol record label. It was then that she made it known that she had every desire to return to Melodifestivalen and was waiting to hear back on whether she'd be selected to return for the 2016 contest.

As anyone that follows the contest is aware, she was not chosen then but managed to get back in for the 2017 line-up. We respect that determination! "One More Night" is the same song she entered with in 2016 but it is a new mix for a new year. She co-wrote on the song with the likes of Dr. Alban and Thomas G-son. This time around, it's all about girl-power as the roster of back-up dancers will all be women. As for the song's narrative, it's another cheeky one offering plenty of opportunity for salacious punchlines just like "Taste Your Love" did.

"It's basically about love and passion. For instance, if you're on vacation and you meet that flirt. You live on two different sides of the world so you know that you will never really get a real relationship but you will have a nice vacation together and then you have that one last night together and it's like a bittersweet emotion. It's basically about that One More Night."

Dinah Nah also assures fans that her next single is ready for release. The only obstacle to getting more music out there is a semi-recent shakeup in her career between her last run in Melodifestivalen and now. While her last time competing was under the representation of Capitol Records, she has since parted ways with them due to creative differences. In the context of Melodifestivalen 2016, Capitol Records is best known for serving quality pop acts Robin Bengtsson and Lisa Ajax with notoriously bad staging that didn't live up to the quality of the acts themselves. We can only speculate that their lack of initiative and drive in pushing their artists out into circulation led to the split, as both Dinah Nah and her manager have demonstrated enormous drive and ambition uncharacteristic of the generally too-easy-going nature of the Swedpop industry. For her run in Melodifestivalen 2017, Dinah Nah is being represented by Warner Music Sweden. However, she has not signed a full-time deal with them and so Dinah Nah is still operating as a free agent until a label takes the initiative to sign her for a more permanent deal.

Though Dinah Nah has retained her signature pink hair, she also boasted a new set of tattoos which she shared the origins of, even having one freshly touched up before the contest so that she turned up to the interview with an arm wrapped in plastic wrap. We have little doubt that she'll ditch the wrap before the live broadcast of the semi-final when she dons an outfit that she promises will sparkle.

Watch our full interview with Dinah Nah here: