HAMMERFALL Discussed During Women's Curling Competition At Winter Olympics
February 22, 2010Mark Morton of Examiner.com reports that during Sunday night's (February 21) women's curling match between USA and Sweden, Swedish melodic metallers HAMMERFALL became the unlikely topic of discussion on CNBC television.
At 11:22 p.m. ET, in the beginning of the sixth end, Colleen Jones was commenting on how much she enjoyed the curling montage of various teams screaming when Andrew Catalon piped in, and the following conversation ensued.
Andrew: "If you really want to see something fascinating, I suggest you go to YouTube, and type in 'Hearts on Fire' and 'curling,' because just prior to the 2006 Winter Olympics, Anette's [Norberg] team was featured in a rock video for this Swedish heavy metal band HAMMERFALL. The song is 'Hearts on Fire'. The team takes on the band in a curling game, and then the curlers — this team — starts singing while they're sweeping! So that is a must-see video! I've watched it!"
Colleen: "Is there a future for them as rock stars? They're already rock stars, but could they be other rock stars?"
Andrew: "Well, it turned out to be a good luck charm; they went on to win a gold medal!"
Colleen: "Yeah, I was asking Anette the other day, 'Hey, any more rock videos for you?' Nope, they haven't had any more offers since then."
Andrew: "Going out on top, obviously."
Read more from Examiner.com.
Eva Lund of the Swedish curling team told Reuters in a February 2006 interview, "We loved [taking part in the video] and it gave us energy. The HAMMERFALL band was fantastic and they are cheering for us and writing e-mails to us when we are here," she said after Sweden beat Norway 5-4.
In the video, which can be viewed below, the team arrives for a match in a dingy rink to be confronted by their opponents: a wild-haired, leather-clad heavy metal band with dubious curling skills.
The women sweep to victory — aided by an on-ice drum kit — but not before they have morphed into leather and chain-clad singers themselves.
"Hearts On Fire" comes off HAMMERFALL's 2002 album, "Crimson Thunder". The track was reissued as a single in Sweden in January 2006 to give a "boost" to the team as they prepared for the Winter Olympics in Turin.
"The video was a blast to record, an attitude shared by everyone involved. The result is an amusing and, for us, a little unusual video," stated HAMMERFALL guitarist Oscar Dronjak at the time.
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