Lopez Blogs

I know a few people out there didn't really enjoy tonight's Melodifestivalen, but I did, although I still feel I haven't yet heard the winner.

Anyway I (foolishly) made predictions in my previous post but was quite amazed that I got all four qualifiers right, even if they were in a slightly different order.

A surprising sighting of Måns Zelmerlöw to open the show (in a very dodgy cardigan!), but the real opening was Ola with the night's first song "Love In Stereo". Although he looked very good (getting shallow here!) his vocals did not quite match his good look and this seemed to set the trend for the early part of tonight's show.

Visually, Lasse Lindh reminded me of Fame Academy's Alistair Griffin, but unfortunately his song was a non-starter due to his nervous vocals.

Little Nicole Fuentes - a.k.a. The Nicole - delivered some entertaining choreography on "Razborka" which I actually found quite memorable in spite of it being vocally hellish. Borka-borka-borka and get your booty on the floor. As you do.

By the time we reached Alexander Schöld, I decided that I was in love with him. His upbeat guitar-schlager-pop was always going to be popular with me, although he too fell foul of the vocal curse which blighted tonight's contestants.

Prior to the contest I had decided that "Just A Minute" by Rongedal was my favourite of tonight's songs. Two identical brothers dressed in matching red suits, but what they lost in visual appeal they made up for in professionalism and confidence, what had been lacking tonight up to this point.

I have never liked Sanna Nielsen, but credit where it's due - she delivered a simple ballad with the right amount of subtlety and avoided her usual overpowering vocals.

What do I say about Andra Generationen? Bonkers, Balkan, brassy. Tonight's comedy turn, another in a (disturbingly) long line of joke entries at ESC this year. This again made me smile, but thankfully it didn't go any further.

Finally, the top of the bill this evening: (Andreas) Johnson and (Carola) Häggkvist. Thought at one point that she was going to strangle him. She still dominated this duet and I thought she could have taken lessons from Sanna Nielsen tonight in how to keep it simple. Amazingly though, for a Carola-hater like me, that I actually found this more bearable than I thought it would be.

Anyway I got my pre-contest prediction right, even if it was in the slightly wrong order.


Sanna and Rongedal to Globen.

Ola and Andreas/Carola to Andra Chansen.

Major shock that Queen Carola didn't automatically qualify to Globen - has the bubble burst at last? (Nooo....too much to hope for) anyway I enjoyed this week's show a lot more than last week, although it's a long way from being classic Melodifestivalen and is certainly falling short of the expected standard. But nevertheless, credit to SVT for putting on another well-staged spectacular, although I've decided that the poor set this year is also letting the artists and songs down.

Next week: BWO!!! Yay! Hope they deliver a great performance. Fingers crossed :).