Lopez Blogs

I keep telling you about some exciting Melodifestivalen demos (though Melodifastivalen demo is always exciting thing, no matter if it sounds better or worse than final version) and this time I guess about one I couldn't even imagine we will ever hear because this song is due to my own opinion best Melodifestivalen song ever!
I'm talking about Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" - winning song of Melodifestivalen-2008 written by Fredrik Kempe and Bobby Ljunggren. If you remember studio-version had 2 backing vocalists - Anna Nordell (who was left behind stage on Melodifestivalen) and Agnetha Kjörsvik (who was sent to Belgrade with Charlotte to sing behind the stage as well).
But probably you didn't know that it was Agnetha Kjörsvik (ex-vocalist of Freebee) who was singing on demo of "Hero" before Charlotte started working with it and the song has got Bassflow production, now you can listen to it yourself!
My opinion about this version - I love it!!! Sure, song wouldn't pretend to win without Petter Boström arrangement that turned it to schlager-heaven and Charlotte with all her attitude, story and personality in common, but when you heard track like thousand times it's definitely cool to look at this from completely different side with rockier sound and Agnetha's emotional, powerful and really beautiful vocal.

Hej everyone! I've got some happy news for those who thought that this blog has gone after complete silence whole week but it's back! Probably not in a full mode (because I'm still on vacation) but after my trip to Stockholm (and Paris) where I completely hadn't time for posting now I'll be giving you some news that I've missed last days or something that happens right now.
Highlights of last 2 days of my melotrip were meetings with:
- Linda Pritchard who was as sweet as last year and even sweeter (my pic with her wins award as my best pic with melostar second year in a row)
- Kristian Lagerström (songwriter behind MF-winning song-2010 "This Is My Life") who turned to be incredibly interesting, kind and just wonderful person, really hope we'll get a lot of releases from him in future to talk about!
- Linda Sundblad, and if you think you know how charming and sweet Linda is you don't have idea how much she is for real!!! I was lucky enough to get a visit to heart of schlager-universe Lionheart studio, do you imagine?! But to meet Linda I'm big fan of since Lambretta was completely mind-blowing, more mind-blowing was to meet her as good old friend next day on her very nice acoustic performance in Telia boutique with Karl-Ola from The Pusher - very talented guy who produced The Playtones' "The King" by the way.
- Rebound guys who performed their latest single "Psycho" in Globen Shopping mall making crowd of their fans around really wild and revealing to me their album is seriously on the way. Guys were as cool as I always expected, that's actually quite amazing that year before I've met my biggest female fave of Idol-2009 Erika Selin in that trade center and this year it was my two biggest male faves. Can I die happily now? I wouldn't...
Also was really happy to meet my beloved bloggers - legendary Schlagerprofilerna and Poplight, amazing Popdrömmen and new but very informative Schlagerbubblan.
Unfortunately Mf-winning song hasn't become one of my faves and otherwise I've fallen for "In The Club" even more so was sad about result but after visiting rehearsal for me it was obvious Eric will win the contest so it went like it went. I've tried to dance all sadness away few hours later on amazing club-gig where Dilba, Le Kid, Jenny Silver and Anniela have performed their MF and not only songs and I've managed to do it so my trip has got a happy end and I'm back to a regular life with loads of great Swedish music to come to my life for passing right to your ears and eyes!
This story end actually needs some lyrical attachment and I'll make it with acoustic version of Eric Saade's "Popular" and Anders Fernette's "Run". Hope you'll enjoy it!

Nej. (IMHO)

After the past 5 weeks of anticipation, excitement, drama and disappointment, it was finally time for one of the TV highlights of a Europop-fan's musical year: Sweden's Melodifestivalen final, 2011.

Irrespective of how your own favourite song does in the competition, you can't deny that SVT always brings such high production values to this competition, which leaves most other Eurovision national finals standing, or inspires imitation as the sincerest form of flattery (yes I mean you, Norsk MGP!). The 2011 final was no exception, although as the years go on it gets tougher to keep it all fresh.

The show began with this year's hosts Marie Serneholt and Rickard Olsson (who I thought did a very good, if unspectacular job this year) on top of Globen, singing a version of "Up Where We Belong" with lyrics in Swedish adapted to the theme of the event.

Onwards into a packed Globen, with balloons being waved in the air, and the hosts being lowered on stage to a special MF version of Duck Sauce's "Barbra Streisand" only this time mentioning the hosts' names. I don't think this was such a memorable beginning, and it was equally silly having the dancing chavs in babygro-suits to announce the arrival of the acts.

I've seen some criticism on internet message boards of the 'bumbling interrogators' employed by Carl Bildt, he of the wonky jacket, on a mission to restore ESC success to Sweden. However I've grown to accept them and I thought that many of tonight's postcards were rather funny.

Oh look! There's Fredrik Reinfeldt (PM) in the audience. Can't ever see the day when dodgy Dave Cameron will turn up at ASFE, do you??? :O

Nu kör vi! (About time too! 15 minutes into the show)

First on stage: Danny Saucedo. And so what, if "In The Club" just consists of "In the club, the club, oh oh"? This was the song I wanted to represent Sweden in 2011. In a Eurovision Song Contest which appears to be finally drifting away from its old schlager roots into something more contemporary, I thought this would have been a good, modern entry for Sweden, with the potential for a wider international success. It was a professional performance from Danny and his backing dance crew, however I still had my reservations about the reliance on pre-recorded backing vocals throughout the song, and how it would go in a 'completely live' setting? Nevertheless it was my favourite of the evening.

A complete contrast next, with Sara Varga's "Spring För Livet". This was one of the songs which made it out of last week's Andra Chansen. By the way, I didn't have time to write my Andra Chansen review last week, but if you'd followed my foolish predictions on Twitter on the night you'll know how wrong I got it. I'll reiterate here that the AC format is very frustrating, as it often prevents the 'right' song from qualifying at the expense of the 'wrong' one. So the top half of the draw last week presented a particularly tough contest, where Sara Varga triumphed over the songs by Jenny Silver, Love Generation and Loreen, all of which would be worthy of a final place. But I'm not really complaining about Sara being there either... This song has certainly had a major impact over the last couple of weeks and it was, I thought, a very emotional performance from Ms Varga.

You know never to expect a good draw position for the Andra Chansen qualifiers, so the other song to qualify from last week was drawn next. You will also know what I think of "Oh My God" by The Moniker: that it didn't deserve a place in the final, and is probably one of the most annoying songs to be performed on a Melodifestivalen stage in recent years. The only redeeming thing about this was the curly-haired piano player, but then again you won't be surprised about that ;)

A new feature this year as friends and family of the contestants were interviewed before each performance. So before Brolle (Jr) took to the stage, Brolle (Snr) was interviewed! His son will have done him proud, with yet another powerful and passionate performance of "7Days and 7 Nights". So the song isn't his best - but did he really deserve last place? I doubt if he'll ever compete again in this contest though.

From a first-timer to a 'repeat offender': fan fave Linda Bengtzing. I previously said in a blog post that Linda is probably one of the contestants who is the most desperate to win Melodifestivalen. Although I still hated her yellow outfit, her enthusiasm was infectious and she gave a very energetic performance which she seemed happy with. However, I can't see her back at MF in the future, unless she comes to terms with the taking part rather than the winning.

I'd reckon that of all the contestants in this year's final, winning probably mattered least of all to Nicke Borg? Nevertheless all the tricks were employed to grab voters' attention in "Leaving Home", including the audience waving glowsticks, Anna Bergendahl-style.

As I said in my preview, "Me and My Drum" had grown on me over recent weeks and so I was looking forward to seeing it being performed again in the final. Before the song though, a scene-stealing performance by mini-Swingfly, little Camron, who stole the show when his mother was being interviewed!

The performance of "Me and My Drum" was a little messy, but it was three minutes of sheer fun. Whilst most of the contestants are caught up in a tense battle to win - fuelled, it has to be said, by the Swedish print media - Swingfly & co. just went out there and had a good time. Boom chicka boom chicka boom boom boom indeed. It may not have made it to Dusseldorf, but a top 20 place in the EuropeCrazy 2011-50 (only eight months away folks!) is guaranteed. And well done Christoffer - I'd love it if this inspired you to make some new music.

Another 'veteran' of Melodifestivalen and a big favourite within the schlager community, Sanna Nielsen, was back in the contest this year with "I'm In Love". Sanna fans, you're probably not going to like this, but I feel she comes over as a bit of a schlager-fembot, lacking in any warmth, whenever I see her on stage. (Which is a bit strange as I've seen her interviewed on other shows and she seems to have quite a good sense of fun). Thankfully she'd ditched the glittery bolero cardigan thingy, but I didn't like her hair at all. She sang very well and was rewarded with top marks from the Ukraine, Greece and Ireland juries putting her in 3rd place by the end of the international jury voting round.

A bit of rockabilly next from the Playtones, with yet another song by Fredrik Kempe (co-writer this time) - "The King". A bit of a "Come Together"-plagiat in the verses don't you think? A lively performance culminating in 'great balls of fire' on stage however I missed much of it due to buffering and other things going on.

And finally...to the eventual winner, Eric Saade, complete with leather glove. Warning: do not allow this man near glass, for he will probably smash it and then he won't be very 'popular' then, will he? And let's not forget the health and safety implications - Eric got glass in his eye. Although "Manboy" was a bit silly, it eventually wore me down. "Popular" is also extremely silly, and I don't like it. Stupid lyrics and a little bit too much desperation from young Mr Saade, whose urge to win the contest was clear for all to see. Maybe with all this 'Bieber fever' inexplicably sweeping the universe, it might be a good move for Sweden to send a young man who will clearly appeal to that similar target audience?

I'm trying to find something positive to say here, but it's very difficult. The problem mainly lies with the songwriter Fredrik Kempe. Although admittedly he's had some good songs in MF too - notably "Cara Mia" and "Hope And Glory". Three of the last four Swedish entries have now been written by Mr Kempe, and he also wrote last year's Norwegian entry. None of these songs went on to have much success in the Eurovision Song Contest, so who can blame me for suggesting that "Popular" would be the wrong choice for Sweden?

Following the recent tradition of re-interpretations of the previous year's winning song, it was the turn of rock band Dynazty to give their version of "This Is My Life". It was an achievement for them to rescue this song from the pit of dreariness and turn it into a more acceptable 80s anthemic rock ballad.

The other interval act was a tribute to the much-criticised "Hurricane" character played by Peter Stormare who could not be at the final due to other commitments. The "Harrycanes" Nanne, Lena Ph, Ola Salo and Christer Sjögren, all of whom had been subject to the Hurricane's musical makeovers during the competition, came together to sing what else but the Scorpions' classic "Rock You Like A Hurricane". Sjögren sings the Scorpions - well well well, in the immortal words of the Harry Hill song, "I certainly didn't expect to see that!"

The only other thing I want to mention is.....Ola Salo in a purple catsuit. <3>
Voting time! Unfortunately we didn't get to see the various international jury spokespeople give the votes and instead we got Adam Alsing (hairy Swedish TV presenter and radio DJ bloke) who for some reason was brought in as a commentator last week. Things then rolled along at a cracking pace and here's where the international 12's went:

Russia - The Moniker
Ukraine - Sanna
France - Eric
Greece - Sanna
Malta - Eric
Croatia - Linda
San Marino - Swingfly
Germany - Danny
UK - Eric
Ireland - Sanna
Norway - Swingfly

....which seemed to destroy my theory that Danny would do better in Europe, based on these jury results, however by the end of the jury voting Eric was only 2 points in front of Danny. At this point Eric was in the lead though, so I'll acknowledge he's probably a more representative winner than Anna Bergendahl was, for example. By the way, hasn't she changed?? Her look is now spiky-bob-goth =).

Next came the televoting results, which resulted in The Moniker and Sanna swapping places, ending 3rd and 4th respectively - and when Danny got the 70 points it was all over. 112 points from the televote added to the jury points meant that Eric's song title lived up to its name and his was the most "Popular" song of the night. Well, with the voters anyway.

(I missed the last five minutes of the show and Eric's winning reprise - and before you ask it wasn't because I was sulking at the result, but it was due to a little emergency happening at home, which happily sorted itself out)

Above: the winning singer and songwriter celebrate.

Final result:
1. Popular (Fredrik Kempe) - Eric Saade - 193 points
2. In The Club (Fredrik Boström, Peter Boström, Danny Saucedo) - Danny Saucedo - 149 points
3. Oh My God! (The Moniker) - The Moniker - 124 points
4. I'm In Love (Irini Michas, Peter Boström, Thomas G:son, Bobby Ljunggren) - Sanna Nielsen - 114 points
5. Me And My Drum (Teron Beal, Patrik Magnusson, Johan Ramström, Swingfly) - Swingfly - 93 points
6. The King (Fredrik Kempe, Peter Kvint) - The Playtones - 73 points
7. E det fel på mej (Pontus Assarsson, Thomas G:son, Jörgen Ringqvist, Daniel Barkman) - Linda Bengtzing - 58 points
8. Leaving Home (Jojo Borg Larsson, Nicke Borg, Fredrik Thomander, Anders Wikström) - Nicke Borg - 57 points
9. Spring för livet (Sara Varga, Fredrik Boström) - Sara Varga - 50 points
10. 7 Days And 7 Nights (Brolle) - Brolle - 29 points

Danny was gracious in defeat. He told Svenska Dagbladet: "Eric is a worthy winner. I wish him every success in Europe...I have been doing my thing and not had to make compromises. I feel satisfied, I made probably the best performance I've done in my life."
Please come back again to MF Danny...and win it next time!

(All of the above pictures are courtesy of Svenska Dagbladet/Scanpix)

EDIT 13.03.11: Eric and Danny fail the Mum Test: I played "Popular" to my mum for the first time today and her reaction was: "I don't like that song at all". So then I played her "In The Club" and she said "I don't like that much either, not my taste, too repetitive". She didn't want to hear any more of this year's Melodifestivalen songs, and even though I reminded her of just how much she liked some old (non-winning) entries, she could not be convinced otherwise :((

Tomorrow, Friday 11th March, will be the 4th birthday of this blog - wow it seems no time since I was just celebrating its 3rd anniversary! - anyway it's been a great 4 years so far. Thanks again to all of you out there who make my blogging adventures such a special and rewarding experience.

Of course things have changed over the years and I don't have the time to blog here as regularly as I once did. There was lots of amazing stuff going on at my other blog over the past 12 months, and more recently my health hadn't been too great due to chronic back pain and fatigue - I got all these ideas for blog posts in my head and then was too tired to write them :(

Anyway I'm planning some special posts for this weekend, so expect these late Saturday night and on Sunday, as I won't be around here before then.

Of course it's a weekend full of special things ahead - apart from this blog's birthday, there's the final of Melodifestivalen on Saturday night so you can expect a review of that later, and I'll probably be chatting over at Twitter at some point too!

Whilst the result of Melodifestivalen appears to be a foregone conclusion, well, depending what website you read of course (!) there is one ingredient which could throw the whole thing into complete disarray: the replacement of the Swedish city juries by an expanded group of international juries. There will still be the televote of course, which, as recent history has shown, has a habit of overthrowing a potentially decent result (IMHO). Exhibit A: 2009. Exhibit B: 2010.

But I digress. I'm not predicting anything - got it so wrong last week that I'm getting exhausted even thinking about it. You know who I want to win (although I even have reservations about him now because of the whole taped backing vocals thing, etc etc) but do you know something? The one song from the final which I've probably listened to more and more over recent weeks is not really a favourite with anyone, it doesn't have a fanbase (and since I'm usually the kiss of death to any song which I like, it'll probably finish 6th or 7th), but boom chicky boom chicky boom boom boom....I love "Me and My Drum"! It's sooooo catchy!!

So if Danny doesn't win, I'd be very happy with Swingfly and my lovely Christoffer going to Dusseldorf. Everything else is a bit 'meh' at the moment for me...you could call it 'meh'lodifestivalen (groan) anyway I'll be back here on Saturday, no doubt to rant and rave.

See y'all then!! :)

Yes I know it's late but better late than never. Unfortunately there is still very little in the way of new music to get excited about. I'll just have to get out there and start digging a bit deeper eh!

In the meantime...

Me and My Drum - Swingfly: this has probably grown on me more than any other of this year's Melodifestivalen songs. I know a lot of MF fans don't like it, but it's sooooo catchy and Christoffer Hiding's singing the chorus. What's not to love?

Like Suicide: Christian Walz: sadly, like many other MF favourites of mine this year, it didn't progress beyond its first heat.

No One Else Could - Sebastian. Uptempo Killers-style number which I like a lot. Sadly, the Swedish voters didn't. Roll on the new album!

In The Club - Danny: yes it's repetitive, but it would be Sweden's most contemporary ESC track in years if it wins next week. But it probably won't :(

Idiot - Lena Philipsson: a fine return to form with this cool dance track. She was great on Melodifestivalen a couple of weeks ago, and I'm looking forward to her new album.

Seven Seconds - Ovi: rediscovered Norsk MGP gem from a couple of years ago, from the man who was 'Playing With Fire' in Romania last year.

Traktor - Wretch 32: a rarity here - a dubstep/grime type track which I like, for some inexplicable reason. I wish there was more of the middle part of the song on it though, as that's great.

We R Who We R - Ke$ha: yeah I know, I really shouldn't but this is the latest theme song for Friday nights at EuropeCrazy HQ!

Me and My Microphone - September: Now when is this going to conquer the charts all over Europe like the international hit it deserves to be?

Split My Personality (Bassflow Remix) - Salem Al Fakir: Yes I'm still playing this....along with all his other stuff too. No change there then.

Hot Mess - Chromeo featuring La Roux: Who'd have thought the day would come that La Roux would figure in this playlist?? But when it's Chromeo on a return to form, then that's ok. Unfortunately their other recent material has been very disappointing though.

MGP 2011 Medley - Alexander Stenerud & Guri Schanke: go and check this brilliant interval act number, over on YouTube. It's wonderful. Come back to MGP next year Alexander, we've missed you.

Rock Dust Light Star/Smoke and Mirrors - Jamiroquai: Probably my two favourite tracks from what's been (by their standards) a slightly disappointing album. Or maybe it's just taking longer to grow on me than usual?

Lilla Lady/Gryningspyromanen - Daniel Adams-Ray: Still loving his album and I don't think I'll ever get sick of it!

Return of the Mack - Mark Morrison: yeah, scoff if you like, but I'm having a revival of this song. Again! Unfortunately Mr Morrison became more famous for his criminal record than his musical ones, but this is a true classic.

Once upon a time a man took over as manager of a once successful Premiership side, whose glory days were behind them as they sat mid-table. Efforts were made to change the style of play, with new players being brought in, but it still wasn't enough. The fans were left with the final say in picking the team...and made many a wrong choice, resulting in the team plummeting into the relegation zone. Things hit an all-time low last year: the wrong striker was selected and completely misfired, condemning the side to relegation.

One year on, the manager is under attack from all sides. What does he do? Does he stick with the old formation which used to win trophies many years ago, but no-one likes that style of play anymore? Does he try a more modern style which might work in qualifying for Europe at risk of alienating the home fans? Does he bring in that big-name international striker or stick with the home-grown cult figures who would sink without a trace the minute they went abroad to play?

It's tough, yes. Especially when the fans have such a big say in picking the team. Especially when everyone - whether you're a casual fan or a season ticket holder fan, a blogger or a journalist - has an opinion about it. The manager's the one who always gets the criticism. I've never been his biggest fan, but he's tried to drag that team kicking and screaming into the 21st century: he got them playing in huge stadiums in front of massive crowds, and even turned a one-night-only fixture into a six week tournament. He tried to attract big names to his team only for them to be condemned to the subs' bench forever....and most of them would never want to play for that team again.

In two months' time, the team will take to the field to play one, possibly two matches. If they win the first match, they'll win promotion again to the Premiership and will qualify for Europe...whereas if they lose, it's another season in the lower league.

Eurovision may be moving on and modernising, but Sweden is in danger of getting left behind in the same way that the United Kingdom has, due to backward thinking about 'what constitutes a Eurovision song'.

Next Saturday sees the final of Melodifestivalen. Good people of Sweden, take my advice....

Don't send Spring för livet: it's a nice enough song but its main selling point is its lyrics, which would probably be severely watered down if the song was to be translated to English;

Don't send Oh My God!: I played this to my mum and she thought it sounded like a really bad UK Song for Europe entry from any time in the last 30 years;

Don't send 7 Days and 7 Nights: I like Brolle, but this would just get lost, 'Las Vegas'-style;

Don't send E det fel på mej: a song like this would struggle beyond Swedish borders. And it would completely flop in English;

Don't send Leaving Home: rock is popular but this is maybe a little too old-fashioned, and I don't think the jacket-removal moment would go down too well;

Don't send Me and My Drum: if only for the reason it would probably flop because it's mainly rapping, (although with a killer chorus!) and rap doesn't play too well at ESC;

Don't send I'm In Love: it's too old-fashioned and I still can't warm to her, and I don't think the people of Europe would warm to her either;

Don't send The King: remind me what year this is? 1956?;

We are left with two songs: the first in the running order "In The Club" and the last in the running order, "Popular". One is a catchy (if repetitive) and contemporary song, sung by a good singer and dancer, the other is a deeply irritating, old-fashioned, Fredrik Kempe-by-numbers 'here's what a Eurovision song should sound like' song, and that's just the song....don't even start me on the stupid breaking glass gimmick. Don't get me wrong, I like young Eric - he's cute and makes a good boy-pop star, and he's a pretty good performer too. He just deserves a more modern song, rather than a more 'Modern Talking' song. Again, don't get me wrong, I have fond memories of Modern Talking, as should every devoted fan of 80s Europop, but this is 2011 and that sound just isn't working in Europe anymore.

So you know what you have to do....

SEND DANNY SAUCEDO TO DUSSELDORF!

(but that probably won't happen)

As probably every week 4th semifinal's has brought us some controversial results, positive for some and negative for some.
Linda Bengtzing completetely unexpectedly has won whole semifinal with her energizer-schlager, song has grown on us with performance that Linda just can't do wrong but we're still a bit sceptic about further Linda's chances remembering about rumours Björkman asked jury not to vote for her in 2008. Nicke Borg was second with rock-ballad and show with holograms which looked effective. Preliminary faves has fallen though. Melody Club winning 50% of public on rehearsal was just 7th leaving behind only Anders Fernette. Julia Alvgard has become the most successful of webjokers but still was left 6th (how I wish it wasn't the end of Julia's career, she was amazing). Dansband-veterans Lasse Stefanz were left 5th and other pre-favorite Love Generation has gone to Second Chance round with Linda Pritchard who was highlight of the night for us. Maybe the song is not Moving On but it was still great and Linda delievered it like world-class diva. By rumours RedOne being impressed by Linda Pritchard's performance is going to meet her in Stockholm for further collaboration. We keep our fingers crossed, Linda deserves it all!

All participants of final and Second Chance are released on iTunes (except "Popular") and Danny is already topping the chart! Nicke Borg is #3, Linda Bengtzing is #4, Loreen is #5, Love Generation is #6, Swingfly is #9 and Sara Varga - #10.

Record of vocal performance of Sara Lumholdt was unleashed by someone from SVT and you can check it here - sometimes perfect, sometimes not really but still we give to Sara's work good response.

You can watch already all performances on SVT channel and decide who will be your favorite on Second Chance round, I'll remind you who will be competing against whom next Saturday.

The final heat of this year's competition. There is always particular interest around the 4th semi-final, as many past winners have come from that week, most recently Carola (2006), Charlotte Perrelli (2008), Malena Ernman (2009) and Anna Bergendahl (2010). So all eyes were on Love Generation this week. It's been said that SVT always gives its favoured act the final spot in the final heat, and that honour went to LG, the girl band put together by RedOne, currently the hottest producer in the world right now, with a song co-written by him. So it looked as if all they had to do was turn up and they'd automatically qualify to Globen. Right? Wrong. Indeed it was a very surprising week and not for the first time, my pre-show predictions were way off target :)

I thought there had been a bit of inconsistency with the show openings this year - the first couple of weeks were interminable, last week was so much better thanks to Lena Philipsson, and I had hoped for The Ark to open the show but they didn't. Alluding to this week's host city as 'Sweden's version of Chicago' (maybe a Swedish reader would like to explain this to me - does Malmö have a tough reputation?), the hosts launched into a 'Chicago' song and dance routine with lyrics about Malmö. Anyway at least the opening didn't last too long, so on with the songs! (Interestingly enough, when the week's artists were announced, it was Linda Bengtzing who got the biggest cheer).

"This week's "Curse of Dilba" award - which I award every week to an established artist whose reputation means nothing at voting time - goes to Melody Club, a rather good and well established band. I liked "The Hunter" and it was a catchy and well-staged song, however it suffered from the lead vocalist's nervous vocal performance. I've always felt that this band were in the shadow of The Ark, so it didn't do them any favours when that band were this week's interval act. (More about that later). I really wanted it to qualify though.

One artist who didn't have any chance of qualifying this week was the previously unknown Julia Alvgard who made it to the final 32 as one of the webbjoker winners along with week 1's Jonas Matsson). On the plus side, she sang well and her song deserved to be there as it was very nice, although maybe lacking an 'edge' which would have made it even better. On a fashion note, I liked her hair but that dress with the padded shoulders was so wrong and it made her look like an old woman.

Tonight's food accompaniment was cheese and onion loaded potato skins, and I thought it would be a very good time to head off to the kitchen and pop them in the oven. Anything to avoid the offering by Lasse Stefanz. They may be one of Sweden's oldest and best loved dansbands, but aaaargh! What really shocked me was that this was written by Bard, Oson & Norell - all that songwriting talent and all they could come up with was Simply The Best? On the plus side, it had timpani and castanets. And that's about it really.

Who knew that Linda Pritchard would be so great? "Alive" was a big ballad, now you know I don't like ballads but was really impressed by her performance here. The chorus could have been stronger, but she really sold the song and it deserved to qualify. The styling was terrific - I love her hair, and that dress was amazing. Of course they wheeled out the good old SVT wind machine, and in 'Moving On' style I half expected that raised platform to make an appearance too.

I was really looking forward to seeing Anders Fernette singing "Run". I liked that moment when the backing vocalists ran out on stage, but my previous concern from my 'just a minute' post still stands: too many unnecessary distractions, all that Cirque du Soleil stuff going on overhead wasn't needed. His vocals were off in places, but at least he tried hard and I'd probably listen to this song after the contest is over.

And so to the long awaited comeback of Linda Bengtzing to Melodifestivalen. She seems to have taken over from Nanne and Carola as the fans' schlager-drottning of choice - why, she even looks like Carola now. On the plus side, I liked the song better tonight and she always looks as if she's really enjoying performing on the MF stage, and she packed this schlager-by-numbers with lots of sparkle and oomph. On the minus side, there is a fine line between competing in MF and being consumed with desperation to win it. On Saturday night I thought Linda maybe crossed that line or got very close to it. Oh and by the way I don't like yellow, and I hated those boots IMHO.

It took a while but I've finally warmed to the two hapless interrogators and I thought it was quite a funny moment when they mixed Nicke Borg up with Nick Borgen. (Funniest moment on Saturday for me was when they were talking to Love Generation who mentioned RedOne and the guy sang "Red Red One" which really made me chuckle, although no-one else here found it remotely amusing).

Anyway, Nicke Borg....bad styling, with trousers which looked far too big, and then that jacket-removal moment to reveal lots of tattoos. The song itself was an effective an anthemic hands-in-the-air swaying rock ballad, a real vote-winner. During the song I declared 'major dark horse alert'. Then they did the hologram guitarists thing and when that 'Anna Bergendahl' moment happened, with the audience waving lights around, I then declared: 'this is a finalist here'.

I thought Love Generation were pretty good, and delivered a slick and professional routine with their vocals working well for most of the time - which you can't always say for many girl bands. "Dance Alone" was like a cross between "It's Raining Men" and a 90s dance song, and I liked it a lot more than I'd expected to.

I missed the dull 'Hurricane' segment but was back in time to see The Ark take the stage after a "drill instructor" entrance with the band (surrounded by 'soldiers') dressed in military costume which was later stripped off to reveal some fab white outfits. A brilliant performance of "Breaking Up With God", and a very emotional one too as it would be their last major television appearance before splitting up.




Results: Linda Bengtzing won, with Nicke Borg getting the other Globen ticket after the second voting round.

Love Generation could only make it to Andra Chansen, which was a major surprise, although Linda Pritchard was less surprising as she really was a revelation this week. As you can see though, from the attached running order for the Andra Chansen duels, it's going to be tough next week. I don't like the duel format, it's pretty unfair and could result in the 'wrong' songs being chosen due to the luck of the draw. Do you know what? I'm not even going to try and predict next week's result!!

Don't forget that tomorrow you'll be able to watch last 4th semifinal of Melodifestivalen in 20:00 by Stockholm time here and maybe tomorrow we'll see the winner of this year. Snippets of rehearsals were presented yesterday and below you can find links and our thoughts about them.
Melody Club - The Hunter - very warm melodic pop-rock track with Spring positive feeling and cool guitar-part, much warmer and schlageristic than we could expect from Melody Club with stable professional performance.
Julia Alvgard - Better or Worse - beautiful ballad performed by sensual Julia's voice with dark blue background and Julia looking very charismatic and nice.
Lasse Stefanz - En blick och nånting händer - "Simply The Best" in dansband-arrangement, sorry, but it's SO not our style.
Linda Pritchard - Alive - song was written by Oscar Görres and Fredrik Kempe so on one hand it's what you could hear from previous presented Linda's songs and on the other hand it's a lot in a style of Linda's "Hollow". It's all about incredible Linda's voice that makes whole pack sounding amazing but remembering that even "Moving On" hasn't reached the final directly we're especially scared for Linda.
Anders Fernette - Run - Anders' dynamic guitar pop that we use to love and this song doesn't seem to be exception, but it's hard to judge by snippet of rehearsal where Anders obviously doesn't feel comfortable vocally, we'll love it in studio-version however.
Linda Bengtzing - E de fel på mig - probably biggest disappointment, it's s classic Linda's track sounding a lot like Värsta schlagern but weaker and without whole-packed performance of Hur svårt kan det vå, still Linda gives it all on the stage but I guess she won't qualify to the final directly.
Nicke Borg - Leaving Home - classic big rock-ballad with loud guitars and everything you can expect, I'm not sure that it's song for Nicke though, I'd imagine it better with some more screaming loud vocal, otherwise it doesn't go whole road for me.
Love Generation - Dance Alone - very effective performance with 90s eurodance song that screams to get into Globen and girls are gonna be on fire this year in Sweden but is the song will be as big favorite as press now claims? I'm not sure, it's still not what Gaga could release but wishing luck to girls, they do great job on the stage and I'm not gonna be against if they'll win whole contest.

After rehearsal due to public voting Melody Club has colected 47% (!!!) of votes today (that is not much less than after Eric's performance), so do we have new favorite that will be able to slip into first place of the final while Danny will be sharing votes with Eric and Sanna with one of schlager-ladies Jenny/Shirley/Linda having big chance to get there? We'll see tomorrow but due to svenskaspel Melody Club currently goes 2nd for the win.

Four new singles covers have come from Danny, Eric Saade, Melody Club and Sara Varga, you can check them above. Melody Club's EP will also contain b-side "Anyone Else" and Joniverse Remix for "The Hunter". Probably now you say - oh my! Is it gonna be the first or the only melomix this year? And I say - no. In a few days mix for Dilba's "Try Again" from Jacob Czitrom is gonna be released and we really like that Romanian-dance sound in verses with dark baseline decorating chorus so fine! And hope it's not the last mix for "Try Again", this song deserves maxi-single after charting so successfully on iTunes. By the way talking about not qualifying songs success in common chart - it's obviously not so well comparing with last year. Week ago Dilba debuted at #20 and Le Kid - at #31, this week chart has only Christian Walz at #30. Hope it'll go better when the rest of the songs will be released after 4th semifinal.

So I guess it's a final 'smyglyssna' then...after that we'll have heard all this year's MF songs. So here's my first-listen thoughts for this week.

"The Hunter" - Melody Club. Not quite as flamboyant as The Ark - but then who is?? Anyway it's not too bad, quite a catchy song with the band surrounded by giant chess pieces and the guitarist playing his solo on top of an illuminated piano. I think I'll like this one on Saturday, but it could be this week's recipient of the "Curse of Dilba".

"Better or Worse" - Julia Alvgard. Another one of those webbjokers, which I can see being scrapped if this song doesn't progress beyond its heat. Powered by a cool electro-Robyn-style beat, I rather liked this but in a week of 'names' she could suffer from being an unknown. Maybe it would do better if it had been sung by a more famous name.

"En Blick och Någonting Händer" - Lasse Stefanz. This is basically Tina Turner's "Simply The Best", rehashed dansband-style, and on this performance I felt they couldn't care less. Which is sad really, particularly given the song's stellar songwriting pedigree. I expected better - at least The Playtones have a bit of life about them. But LS are pop-u-lar, so anything could happen.

"Alive" - Linda Pritchard. Her song last year didn't really show off her vocal abilities but she is a really powerful singer and vocally reminded me a little of Jennifer Rush (oops, really showing my age now!). This is a big ballad and there's always room for them at MF/ESC so this is going to sneak a qualifying place, but I'm not sure whether it's to the final or to Andra Chansen.


"Run" - Anders Fernette. One of the acts I was looking forward to seeing the most this week. It's an 80s-style pop song crossed with something from the Enrique "Escape" era. Fine so far but I thought everything going on around it was far too distracting: I could have done without all that acrobatic swinging on silks and backing singers throwing giant strips of toilet roll around :) Prediction: top 5 but missing out on that all important place at AC.

"E Det Fel på Mej" - Linda Bengtzing. Dare I say that she's just won back her title of 'ultimate schlager gueen' from Jenny Silver?. Firstly it's very good to have her back, and I say that as someone who wasn't a fan till "Hur Svart..." converted me. There's a mid-chorus key change and an energetic performance, but I'm sorry to say that I expected much better. The problem with this is that it sounds like about 300 former MF entries thrown into a blender to produce schlager-by-numbers. But it's a qualifier!

"Leaving Home" - Nicke Borg. Wow that man's got a lot of tattoo art going on! A great big old anthemic rock ballad here - it really feels like 80s night. But there's nothing wrong with that. Rock may be a dirty word over here but it's still very popular in many European countries including Sweden, therefore don't be surprised if this is a surprise qualifier.

"Dance Alone" - Love Generation. Do you think they'll sing "Red One" at the start of it? Still on this little 80s theme here, all together now..."I dance alone, hallelujah it's raining men..." This could do pretty well I think, and is an absolute qualifier to Globen. (Should it go that step further, a lot will depend on their live vocal ability as the history of the Eurovision Song Contest is littered with girl-group disasters...anyway that's just speculation for now). Lots of strutting and pointing and posing too, so that should keep the schlager contingent happy for a while.

Predictions:
To the final: Love Generation and Linda Pritchard
To Andra Chansen: Nicke Borg and Linda Bengtzing.

Press has just finished listening to fourth Melodifestivalen's semifinal songs and fourth time we're giving summarizing of what Schlagerprofilerna, Melodifestivalklubben and Tobbe Ek have written.

Melody Club - The Hunter - song sounds more like new Destiny Calling (between The Ark and Toto) with Mika-falcetto but not as strong, it's happy guitar-pop with choruses hard to remember like in Linda Sundblad's song, however fans of Melody Club are gonna like it but chances are absolutely unclear.

Julia Alvgard - Better or Worse - song has got much more proper electrosound-update (than in Jonas' case), chorus is stronger than in many songs this year and could break through in a weaker semifinal but still remembering what a big names compete in this semifinal it may have no chance.

Lasse Stefanz - En blick och nånting händer - as classic dansband-schlager as it can be imagined that sounds a bit in a style of The Boppers and Jerry Williams music in the end of 80s and as it's what Lasse Stefanz are about it can be met very well by their fans but it's not The Playtones and dansband didn't do well last years so it doesn't seem to be top on Saturday.

Linda Pritchard - Alive - classic musical ballad between Moving On and Hollow, it's a lot in Kempe's style with big potential to get a great remix for schlager-dancefloor, builds from the beginning till the end with growing tempo and goes a bit too screaming in the end, it lacks hit-potential of Molitva or Is it true, has not so strong choruses and that's what makes it not obvious contender for Globen.

Anders Fernette - Run - sounds a lot in Anders ealier guitar-pop style with long start in first verse and catchy chorus with "Run" repeated many times, it's like Magnus Bäcklund-2011 and gonna be played on commercial radio-stations very well but it's hard to be seen as the song with strong chances.

Linda Bengtzing - E de fel på mig - 100% schlager that sounds like all previous Linda's hits in one, weaker version of Värsta Schlagern or continuation of Hur svårt kan det va? with heavier production. Song about Linda's man who empties her dishwasher and will fix her car but in chorus she dreams about another guy. Probably the biggest schlager-moment of the year but not clear will public get it as good as previous Linda's attempts as it's too classic Linda even for Linda. Loads of pyro can be expected during performance.

Nicke Borg - Leaving Home - classic rock-ballad in style of Takida with gutars and drums passing Nicke's voice very well, reminding a bit Bon Jovi's "Bed of Roses" and it sounds like everything Road Salt wanted to be but hasn't managed and it smells like schlagerscandal-warning this week, very possible finalist.

Love Generation - Dance Alone - song in eurodance-sound of 90s with modern production (with Bubbles and Da Buzz vibes), hardly to be imagined performed by Gaga but Nicole and Alexandra Burke could easily sing it, song is very good but it's a big question if it's winner of the year and if girls will sing it better than Sara Lumholdt and Marie Serneholt not to fall with it.

Today we'll get new press-reviews of Malmö semifinal but it's already too much of news to hold them so I'll give it article. First of all we've got new covers of Brolle, Anders Fernette, The Moniker and Julia Alvgard, we love Anders' one especially and hope that this bad rock-guy style means we'll get some strong pop-rock entry from him.

The Playtones will release new album "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" on March 9th, it's produced by Jimmy Jansson and Karl-Ola Kjellholm (The Pusher) as their MF-song "The King" and you can already check its snippets below. Unfortunately we didn't find something better than "The King" but the key is that it's not our style, still maybe you'll find something for you.

Rehearsals of the fourth semifinal have already started on places and you can check some pics with Julia, Linda Pritchard, Anders and Love Generation.

Linda Bengtzing has new song "Män i Uniform" on her site and song sounds even better than we've found it before.

And finally exciting news that you could already read on Schlagerprofilerna, Poster Girl and Schlagerfiasko blogs but I should mention once again. Today in new QX-issue it was revealed by Christer Björkman and Edward af Sillén that next rare songs will be out on rarities CD in golden pack of MF:
Sarah Dawn Finer - Not a Sinner nor a Saint
Sonja Aldén - Night of Passion
Sonja Aldén - Invincible
Linda Bengtzing - Headlines
Agnetha Kjörsvik - Hero (Freebee, backing singer of Charlotte in Belgrade)
Brandsta City Släckers - En gång för alla
Timoteij - Run (initialy recorded in English)
Jessica Andersson - Jag ljuger så bra
Fredrik Kempe & Shirley Clamp - Du och jag mot världen

Sarah's "Not a Sinner nor a Saint" was presented few days ago on Poster Girl's blog, so here we show you another track that will appear on that compilation and we like it in this version not less than in final version!

Last Melodifestivalen semifinal week is starting and what interesting do we have except the fact that this semifinal is gonna be the toughest one by names (but not the fact that it'll be strongest by songs). Well, oddsmakers think that Melody Club and Love Generation have the biggest chance to get tickets to final, when Linda Pritchard, Linda Bengtzing and Nicke Borg have equal chances to be on top but not as big. Lasse Steffanz with Alexander Bard's song are not considered as huge rivals and Anders Fernette with web-joker Julia Alvgard due to bookies are not those you should put your money on.


Biggest favorite of semifinal Melody Club and Linda Pritchard have visited radioshows last days to perform some of their songs in acoustic. You can watch Melody Club singing new song "Dreamers Wasteland" here and Linda with last year's MF-reject "Glorious" here. By the way you can already check new singles covers from both Lindas below and above (thanx for the tip to Poster Girl).


Tomorrow we'll know if 4th semifinal will give us strong rival for Danny, Sanna and Eric by press reviews and today I'm leaving you with new MF-trailer with Brolle.

Keeping this year Melodifestivalen tendence to give win in semifinal to preliminary favorites strongly beloved by many Eurovision fans Eric Saade today has got victory in Linköping with his big show and Fredrik Kempe's song "Popular". Unfortunately I haven't fallen for this song and think that Fredrik with Eric are able for much stronger stuff but there were too much of strengths, preparations and sources in this performance so expectedly it was rewarded by public votes. The Playtones have got another ticket with song "The King" also by Fredrik Kempe and I consider it as breakthrough, I'm not a fan of rockabilly but there was pretty a lot of natural drive in this song and performance was colourul, not trivial and confident. Sara Varga (unfortunately I also couldn't fall for her song) along with Shirley's Angels has got ticket to Second Chance. Angels have given as much as it was expected from the biggest professional veterans of MF working in schlager-bubble many years, and it looked much more effective than during rehearsal with girls making some unbelievable active choreography never losing breath or hitting the wrong note. I consider this project as something made just for MF as I don't actually see people buying classic schlagers of Shirley under new name but for MF it was brilliant comeback. On the other hand Sebastian looked more like artist showing new concept what he was currently about outside MF with stylish but static performance and more radio than competition song, he was left 5th. Linda Sundblad with her lovely performance and my personal favorite song of this semifinal was 6th, stunning looking Sara Lumholdt with again really good modern song but maybe again too radio-friendly than for MF was 7th and Simon Forsberg with beautiful ballad sounding like male "För att du finns" - only 8th. However I've got a strong feeling that Simon's song is gonna get heavy rotation on Swedish radio this year, song is really beautiful but this year people don't vote for traditional ballads so we'll see.
Diamond of this evening was schlager-icon Lena Philipsson singing her new single "Idiot" and English rock-version of "Dansa i Neon" - "Dancing in the Neon Light" with Dead By April, really wow-moment of two big professional acts joining forces to outshine whole semifinal, this song is released as single on iTunes (with instrumental as b-side) as all not qualified songs (only Sebastian's single has b-sides - instrumental and singback version), you can watch covers of Linda Sundblad, Lena and Sara Lumholdt which I didn't show you before above.

Week 3 of my favourite annual musical event, but it was spoiled a little by the 'foregone conclusion' aspect.

A little bit of background first. This year's Melodifestivalen hasn't exactly been welcomed warmly by the Swedish tabloids, particularly the "Hurricane" interval act, and various accusations of plagiarism etc. But life goes on, and we arrive at the third instalment of 2011's continuing saga. Another week, another town...this time it was Linköping's turn to host the festivities. However, due to a little internet blip I missed Lena Philipsson's opening number "Idiot" but I was impressed enough with the chord progressions and then found out that Oskar Linnros was involved in it, which equals significant levels of wonderfulness.

Which, sadly, couldn't be repeated tonight. There was that interminable car-chase intro. There was Marie's slicked-back hairdo - she's such a pretty girl, so why are they trying to hide it? I liked her purple and silver dress though, so that was ok.

When all this week's finalists were announced, Eric Saade got the biggest cheer of all. Hmm.

On with the songs!

1. "Lucky You" - Linda Sundblad. A woman of many talents, and it was very nice to finally see her at MF, but there was never any chance of this being a qualifier. However, it did sound like a radio hit and it'll be interesting to see how this one goes after the contest.

2. "Tid Att Andas" - Simon Forsberg. A newcomer to MF, which inevitably means that he has to establish himself. The song was written by Fredrik Kempe: does he ever have any other facial expressions apart from smug??? That apart, young Simon was a good enough vocalist, although lacking in charisma. The song was a little too old-fashioned, but it did have a big triumphant silver ticker-tape finish.

3. "Enemy" - Sara Lumholdt. Marie Serneholt's former A*Teens bandmate finally made her MF debut as a Cheryl Cole lookalike singing a "Battlefield" soundalike. Pole-dancing made its MF debut in the 'postcard' - well I guess it had to happen :) Anyway the song was modern but annoying, with Sara styled like Cheryl Cole, surrounded by cinema door attendants and a wind machine.

4. "The King" - The Playtones. The one thing you can always rely on at MF is diversity, so here we had the kind of act not seen since the days of the Stray Cats, but they do have that Dansbandskampen win in the bag, which counted for a lot. Great balls of fire....will someone please fetch a fire extinguisher!

5. "I Thought It Was Forever" - Shirley's Angels. With a very simple light-box background, which can be a good thing at ESC ("Shady Lady") or indeed a hideous thing ("That Sounds Good To Me") but anyway it was all drama, and strutting, and hair, and arms, and a wind machine thrown in for good measure. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, but I liked this. By the way, don't Shirley's fellow angels Jessica and Vera look like twins?

6. "No One Else Could" - Sebastian. A welcome return for Mr Karlsson. And a gang of Hanna Lundblads. Very Killers. Me like. And he blew a kiss at the end which completely sent me off my trolley.

7. "Spring för Livet" - Sara Varga. A brittle, sensitive performance of a song which is apparently about domestic violence, and which the organisers described as the most 'political' song in the contest since Christer Sjogren's "I Love Europe" (????) Anyway some call it boring, but I thought it was quite mesmerising.

8. "Popular" - Eric Saade. 'Plagiat!' yelled the tabloids. Not that we'd suggest any influence by Boney M's 'Rasputin' or Lili & Sussie's "Oh Mama" of course. This is clearly screaming '2011 Swedish Eurovision Entry' but dare I say that it would not be such a good idea if that was to be the case? If it's between Eric and Danny then at this point I'd have to go with Danny, all the way with a contemporary clubby-dance number.

This week it was Lena Philipsson's turn to be transformed by "The Hurricane" into a heavy rock star, which resulted in = "Dance In The Neonlight" - Lena Philipsson with Dead By April: it's certainly not a patch on the original, but she showed up most of the evening's participants with her incredible professionalism.

Results time!

Eric to Globen (no surprise)
Playtones to Globen (eh???)

Sara Varga and Shirley's Angels to Andra Chansen
Sebastian 5th (boo hoo, really wanted him to qualify to something)
6th - Linda
7th - Sara
8th - Simon

(photos courtesy of SVT)

Next week: two Lindas, one Anders and a Love Generation...

Previews of third Melodifestivalen semifinal are out and what do we think about them? Actually I think it feels like the weakest semifinal this year, no big breakthroughs or candidates for the win in my opinion.

Linda Sundblad - "Lucky You" - guitar-pop sounding a bit like sweetness of "Oh Father" (that actually was the biggest Linda's hit in Sweden) with more expression of Pink's "Raise Your Glass", song needs more wild energy otherwise Linda makes it very kind that can be not advantage on Saturday but chorus-tune is very catchy and hope Linda will qualify.

Simon Forsberg - "Tid att andas" - schlager-ballad sounding like male version of "För Att Du Finns", it's big epic and Simon sings it good but without that goosebumps factor of Sonja that puts Simon's chances under the question.

Sara Lumholdt - "Enemy" - when songwriters of this song (who also wrote Eric's "Still Loving It") were published I wished Sara's song would sound in the same style and it does! It's not as dramatical, but modern and with nice show I really wish luck to Sara but it feels like a case when modern commercial songs are left 5th (though chorus in "Battlefield" style is quite catchy).

The Playtones - "The King" - song for rockabilly and dansband fans with hardly memorable verses but strong chorus that sounds like Manboy with high temo and rockabilly arrangement, I'm sure it will qualify to the final or AC, it's stable, atmospheric and catchy.

Shirley's Angels - "I Thought It Was Forever" - classic Shirley-shlager, absolutely what you expect when you hear words "Shirley" and "schlager", chorus really contains power of Shirley schlagers and I love it, but performance lacks something extra to convince me that public will vote for new "Min Kärlek" again. They voted for Sanna but she had more effective performance and more modern arrangement. Don't know what to say about chances.

Sebastian - "No One Else Could" - it's more complicated and more stylish song comparing with last brit-pop try, Sebastian performance with rolling camera around him remains his last perfomance a lot. I found song not so catchy from the first listen though and if it doesn't grow quite good all 3 minutes it can fall.

Sara Varga - "Spring för livet" - very jazzy and atmospheric song, as I'm not so good in Swedish to catch lyrics directly I think strength of the song is there. But Sara looks quite nervous on the stage and I feel like it's not gonna be so easily bought by audience like in Pernilla's case.

Eric Saade - "Popular" - starts with Boney M's "Rasputin" claps and verse breathing "It's Gonna Rain" ended up with chorus that you can sing along with lyrics of Lili & Susie's "Oh Mama" (I wonder if it will cause the same reaction of audience that story of Danny's song sounding like that Nicaraguan band's song). For me it's clearly far from "Manboy" and not entry to win in the final. As I think on Saturday "Popular" will be taken out online you'll still be able to enjoy his song in Lili and Susie's performance here :)

"Lucky You" - Linda Sundblad. She looked a little like Veronica Maggio in the clip, don't you think? It's a tough week and I don't think this has any chance of qualifying, but I rather liked it. The song could be a real grower and I'd play it after the competition was over.

"Tid Att Andas" - Simon Forsberg. This week's big-Swedish-ballad. For me it was reminiscent of "Se på Mej" meets "Hollow". But yet again I don't think it'll make it out to either Globen or AC, unless he delivers a spectacular showstopping performance.

"Enemy" - Sara Lumholdt. One from the Avril Lavigne-by-numbers rock ballad conveyor belt, with a lot of elaborate dancing going on around it. She's got a good enough voice but this doesn't do it for me, sorry.

"The King" - The Playtones. There's still a lot of love for these Dansbandskampen winners in Sweden, so this will probably sneak a top 5 place but no more.

"I Thought It Was Forever" - Shirley's Angels. Wind machines, lots of big hair whooshing and big choreography. And Shirley Clamp at the helm. Yes it's a dramatic big gay old stomper, a kind of "Min Kärlek" slowed down for a new decade, and a definite top 5 I think.

"No One Else Could" - Sebastian. Don't expect me to be remotely rational or fair when it comes to the idea of Mr Karlsson returning to ESC. I love, love, love him! The song is a modern electro-pop-rock number and I hope it does well. After all, he was in "Idol" and that seems to mean more and more at MF - so let's hope it's the same this week. And he's even borrowed one of Salem Al Fakir's woolly hats (!) Aww!!

"Spring för Livet" - Sara Varga. Is this the same Sara Varga who was spinning discs behind REbound on Sommarkrysset last year? Because this is a million miles away from that. It's very unusual and different from anything else so far - so I'll stick my neck out and say it could go all Caroline af Ugglas. Or it could completely bomb.

"Popular" - Eric Saade. And now for the main course. He doesn't even need to turn up because he's so "popular" now that Globen is guaranteed. There's some slick dance routines and I see what they mean when they compare this riff to Lili & Sussie's "Oh Mama". Have we seen the winner? I don't know, will have to hear it in full. But on first hearing, well, I don't like it as much as I wanted to - "It's Gonna Rain" is so much better and they should have tried that at MF instead. But it will grow on me, no doubt. Once upon a time I hated "Manboy" but that eventually wore me down!

Prediction time, based on the clips:

To the final: Eric Saade and Sebastian
To Andra Chansen: Sara Varga and Shirley's Angels.

Answers on Saturday night!!

(picture above is courtesy of www.svt.se)