Schlager Soldier

As stated before, “Hope & Glory" is one of my favorite songs from Melodifestivalen this year, because it is like “Hero” all over again, but with male vocals and the intro from “Cara Mia”. Just as the lyrics to “Hero” were full of clichés about love being somehow comparable to a hero in its ability to survive, the lyrics are full of clichés about fighting for love. It’s a noble sentiment, fighting for one’s love, but one lyric from the first verse troubles me:

“I tell you I’ve been a soldier since childhood days/I fought a battle for my life in many ways”

Hold on. These lyrics don’t have anything to do with love. Taken at face value, the lyrics state that the singer was a soldier since childhood and has had a hard life. A child soldier. If I’m reading this correctly this is the most upbeat and fabulous song about child soldiers ever. The background seems to be only an afterthought to the singer’s current concern with his fight for love against nondescript obstacles. This certainly doesn’t explain the live performance’s boxing motif - the chorus clearly refers to battles, boxers don’t participate in battles. It’s probably just a metaphor and I’m probably overthinking this but maybe I’ve stumbled upon a great schlager conspiracy…

Also, I know the Academy Awards/Oscars were a few weeks ago but starting at 7:02 I was almost expecting Hugh Jackman to start singing a certain song…