DIREKT TILL BELGRADE!

Or, 'See? I Was Wrong'



Congrats Charlotte, Congrats Fredrik & Bobby, and Congrats Sweden!

I'll be back later with a full report.

ROAD TO THE FINALS

Or, 'Once Again I'll Be Proven Wrong At Every Turn'

I predicted Velvet and Michael Michailoff would go through to Andra Chansen and Suzzie Tapper and Christer Sjögren would be out in Heat 1. I was wrong.

I predicted Carola & Andreas would walk to the Final with Sanna, Alexander Schöld would be in AC, and the horrid pizza song would come in last place in Heat 2. Wrong.

I predicted Patrik Isaksson would at least move on to AC and we'd never hear of Frida again in Heat 3. Wrong again.

I predicted that Calaisa would be out after the first round of votes and Daniel Mitsogiannis would move on in Heat 4. And... wrong.

I predicted, retroactively, after having been wrong already, that Carola & Andreas would backdoor it into the finals from AC and that Ola would take the other spot. Yeeaaah...

So.

Now that we've established that I have NO talent for handicapping this stuff, here's what I'm gonna do. I am NOT going to say that Charlotte Perrelli will win Melodifestivalen 2008. Because if I do, then there is obviously no way it will happen, and everyone reading this will hate me and stop coming to visit and I'll be left spilling my thoughts to an empty web page, and that's never any fun, is it?

Instead, I will say that it looks like it's going to be a close race *cough*forsecondplace*cough* between Linda Bengtzing and Sanna, with Sibel the surprising unexpected dark horse.

In all seriousness, putting aside the schlager brilliance of Hero and the general awesomeness that is Charlotte Perrelli, this is really quite an acceptable final. Overall, this year didn't have the strongest group of songs, but, with only a couple of exceptions, the ones that did make it to the Globen really are the best of the bunch -- even if I'll never stop screaming about how Velvet was robbed. I do think that the top four, in some configuration or another, will be Charlotte, Linda, Sanna and Sibel. I know the public adores BWO, and I was completely off-base with how I Love Europe was received (I still hate it, but that's neither here nor there), but I don't think they'll place in the top grouping.

Where Sanna is concerned, however, she's stuck in Split-Vote Hell with Sibel who's coming out fighting, so if she wants to place higher, she's going to have to give an absolutely flawless performance. That Is Where I'll Go took a lot of people by surprise, and in a head-to-head with Empty Room, it comes out the better song. Sanna is, well, Sanna, and she's gorgeous and magical and pretty and has a voice that can knock your teeth out, and I love her, so this really has nothing to do with her, but Empty Room is just not the best-written song, and that should be reflected in the jury side of the votes. She sells the hell out of it as a singer, and the public will obviously vote for her, but that's not enough at this point. Additionally, as I've said before (and I would be interested to know, in both Sibel's and Ola's cases, if this actually came into play at all), as an Idol contestant, Sibel has a whole fanbase who's used to the idea of 'Call and vote for Sibel' which means she too could do well in the televotes. That kind of conditioning certainly can't hurt.

And, sorry Sanna, but I'm not sure you can beat a chiffon train and a wind machine. There are rules here, y'know...

As for the bottom chunk of songs, those will most likely be Nordman, Rongedal and Frida & Headline... Probably in that order, too, now that I think about it. I'm not a Sjögren fan, but apparently Sweden is, so I'm guessing I Love You-rupp does far better than I'd personally want it to and comes out ahead of these three. I personally happen to like both I Lågornas Sken and Just a Minute quite a lot, but the competition they're up against is just too strong, and while Nordman seems to have more support than was expected, I don't think it will be enough to keep them from the bottom.

The one contestant I'm not sure about at all is Amy Diamond. I don't think she'll be in the top grouping because there are simply better songs in the final. I'm guessing she does well with the popular vote cuz she's Sweden's little darling, but I've never been overly impressed with her live singing, and she's up against the pros. Granted, she's only 15 and her voice hasn't fully developed yet, but you can't send someone to Eurovision just because they're cute... can you?

BWO comes into the competition with a lot of fan support, a solid song that would give Sweden a decent (though, probably not fantastic) placing in Belgrade, Martin riding up in the elevator during the key change, those collars... They're to Gay Drama what Char is to Tranny Drama, I guess. Regardless, this is a mid-placing song at best; no matter how many people might love Lay Your Love, they're the same people who're gonna be voting like crazy for Charlotte.

As for the frontrunners, I've discussed Sibel already, and I'll just add that she seems to be the breakout talent of this year which is gonna help her at this point. From blogs I've read, from the impressions I've gotten, from my own pre-contest standpoint, she was supposed to be one of the filler songs in the Linda/Char heat. And then she got on stage and proved exactly why she deserved to be there, and from her first performance in Karlskrona to her last one against Ola, she's only gotten better and better. I actually think that, as much as Sanna needs to be careful in the Battle of the Ballads, Amy Diamond might also need to worry about being replaced as the Voters' Darling of the competition.

Linda... Now, come on, next to Char, Linda's was the name on everyone's lips. And the added drama of putting them both in the same round as sort of a pre-Diva matchup was delicious on SVT's part. That act right there forced all their fans to rally, and they both had to deliver, which Linda did in spades. Hur Svårt is a fun song; it's quick, it's catchy, after three tries in the Contest she's finally managed to nail a key change, and her performance is infectious. It's fun, it's exciting, it's corny, it's obvious she's having a blast on that stage... That will count for a lot. Enough to beat out Char for the top spot? No, not likely. But could she beat her own record and sing her way to a completely respectable second place? Yes, she can.

And Charlotte... What needs to be said? Hero is pop brilliance; Kempedisco in the best possible way... It's slick, it's got a fantastic hook, Char gives you serious drama, and we all know how I feel about that microphone. That alone would be enough to get my vote (shut up, I'm easy sometimes!). The public is behind her, they love that Charlotte Is Back and all that hooplah... She's really the one to beat.

But she won't win. No sirree, she won't.

She won't win.

Tune in this weekend, to see once again that I'm wrong about everything.

THEY SAID IT ON THE AIR, ON THE RADIO

Just a quick update cuz I know people are all but jumping out of their skin for the studio versions of all this year's MF songs...

Rix FM seems to be working most of them into their playlist as of today (I've already heard Sibel, Char, Christer and Ola).

It's not the same as owning them and being able to obsessively play them over and over, but it's a start.

:-)

JOHNSON & HAGGKVIST IN SCHLAGER SHOCKER!!!

Or, 'Androla in Schlocker'

Or, 'Sweden Says 'Hell No, Andro!''

Anyways. So, Andra Chansen... And WHAT a show it was! Shocking eliminations, musical Luuk, food fights! I was NOT disappointed.

*gulp*

...Even in Suzzie Tapper, and anyone who's read my blog thus far should realize that that is a BIG statement for me to be making right now.

So, for me, the biggest surprise of the night was not, in fact, Carola and Andreas not moving to the Finalen. It was pretty evident after their dismally boring performance that their run would be ending for this year. Obviously someone from Team Nordman had slipped a roofie in Ms. Haggkvist's holy water or whatever she drinks to make certain that her energy was way down tonight. It's the only way to explain why their number started to look like Weekend at Bernie's: The Musical!

No, the real shocker was when the camera panned back at the beginning of the song to show that someone had decided to hurl a lemon meringue pie at Carola before she went on stage! Which she was obviously too stoned to notice! Travesty!

Poor dear. Roofies and pie... She just couldn't win tonight, could shhh-- Oops. I guess she couldn't.

I must say, though, I'm really happy to see Sibel make it through. I didn't see that one coming at all. It was no surprise that she ended up against Ola, but I honestly thought it was going to go his way. It would seem that the Swedes were paying attention and cast their votes based on talent rather than boyish good looks, and good for Sweden. And good for Sibel! She really did deliver. Now, I love the song anyway. It has this Disney Princess vibe that I don't find much wrong with, but I thought her final performance, directly against Ola, was the strongest she's given so far, and if she could repeat that in Stockholm next week, she may be in line for a decent placing.

On a side note, is it just me or does it seem like Love In Stereo goes on forever? I really think the beginning of the song is catchy (if a little derivative of all of Ola's previous singles), but both times he performed, by the time he hit the bridge I felt like I was sitting through a concert version of 99 Bottles of Beer. "Give me love in stereo whoa-whoa-woo-WHOA Give me love in stereo whoa-whoa-woo-WHOA Give me love in stereo whoa-whoa-woo-WHOA Give me love in stereo whoa-whoa-woo-WHOA"

GAH!

But, great job and lots of luck to Sibel.

In the second match-ups, where all the drama took place, I also feel mostly content. Sure, I would've enjoyed seeing Carola complete the Ultimate Schlager Diva lineup, but I was horrified by their performance, so I'm glad I don't have to sit through it again. Though, in some ways, I sort of feel bad for each of them. Carola... It was obvious that she REALLY wanted to just break out and go wild and let the song move her like she did the first time out, but she'd gotten so much heat for oversinging it (which I didn't actually mind; I thought it added to the anthemic...ness of the song) that I could visibly see her holding back, to the point where I was uncomfortable watching her. She seemed like she was half singing the song, half thinking 'step, step, not too much, sing, sing, don't jump like that!' etc, etc. As for Andreas, I've admittedly never been his hugest fan, but he is a decent singer, he seems like a genuinely nice guy, and he was really looking forward to working with Carola because he thought with her he stood some kind of chance in the competition. And... it was just not to be. His guitars hurt her and her unrelenting ego hurt him.

Well, let's hope they both return at some point down the line... solo.

Side note, to Andreas, should he ever, y'know, pop by to see what I have to say... Umm, hon? Yeah. Please stop licking Carola's neck on TV. It's... really kinda narsty. And sinful. You'll go to Hell. Ask her, she'll tell you.

Moving on.

I'm a little bummed that Therese didn't make it through. She was never a threat for the win, but I think she's a good performer and I LOVE When You Need Me, and it would have been nice to see her in the Finalen. But, guys? It's official. I know there are people who can't stand it, but I think Nordman's song is just fantastic. There it is.

I. Love. It.

I love the performance, I love the dancer chick, I love just coming out of the first chorus when she walks up to him and he starts singing and turns his back on her in character, I love her dancing in the flame, I LOVE the 'whoa-oh!'s, I love how his voice fits the song... I'm a fan. I certainly wasn't expecting to have this reaction after the first listen. I even said, like, 'witch trials? Really?' But every time I hear it, the song wins me over more and more.

Congrats to Nordman for making it through to the Finalen. They won't win, but that's fine.

So, the final lineup for next week is set, and it's a really good one. Amy, Christer, Sanna, Rongedal, BWO, Frida & Headline, Linda, Char, Sibel & Nordman... With the exception of Frida & Headline (whom my spellcheck keeps trying to rename 'Friday'), all could be strong contenders. And, while I know popular opinion is that Char is going to steal the whole thing, it'll still be a whole lot of fun watching her get there.

ON HER STAGE SHE SINGS HER STORY… LIKE A QUEEN IN ALL HER GLORY

Well! That was a VERY exciting final heat, wasn’t it? From the camptasticness of Charlotte strutting around the stage in her sparkly disco frock to Linda’s highland hip-hop, from Sibel’s ‘express train’ to Diva-ville to the surprisingly captivating Nordman song, the final Melodifestivalen semi-final treated us to some great performances and gave us the schlager performances we’d been hoping for from both our leading ladies of the night.

Charlotte, of course, absolutely blew the crowd away with her slice of Kempedisco, complete with a glittery microphone that I make NO secret of wanting (my birthday is over the summer if anyone wants to start shopping now…). From top to bottom, this was the kind of performance that wins this contest. In fact, I daresay right now that we have our winner for this year. I’ll get to a more complete handicapping of the Andra Chansen and Finals later on in the week, but for now, this rests hands down in my top contenders spot.

Linda, as well, made a fantastic showing. She looked adorable. In fact, she looked like she was having a BALL, and most importantly, she HIT THE KEY CHANGE! It looks like she’s finally spent some time working on that because it was spot on. I’ll admit, going into the bridge I was white-knuckling my chair a bit, as I know that La Bengtzing’s relationship with modulations is spotty at best, but she nailed that “Hur svart kan det… vaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” just right, and you could hear the audience go wild.

And, while I think that Charlotte will probably walk away the winner of MF’08, I think Linda will place higher than her last two entries since she’s finally managed to learn to deliver a home-run performance, and she should be extremely proud of herself. (Also, did anyone watch the post-interview with Char and Linda? Linda making Char cry was a highlight for me. I don't care if the rumours were rampant that they didn't get along, that was a nice moment for both of them.)

I’m surprised to not include Daniel Mitsogiannis in this entry, but let’s face it, as great as Pame is on record, he was sort of painful to watch live… His song was overchoreographed, and as such, he was noticeably out of breath for chunks of it, he looked like he was starting to get very sloppy towards the end, and any statements I might have made about his ‘aesthetic appeal’ are taken back. Is it just me, or does his hair and unnatural rectangle-shaped head make him look like the love child of Martin Rolinski and Lurch from the Addams Family?

As for Sibel and Nordman… These were the right two picks for Andra Chansen, I think. Sibel was clawing her way up the Diva hierarchy with a vengeance, pulling out all the schlager clichés that put Sonja in the finals last year. Heartrending ballad? Check. Wind? Check. Flow-y chiffon princess dress? Check? That said, she was entirely deserving of moving on. The song itself was lovely (and, again, makes Empty Room look like an amateur attempt at songwriting) and her delivery was excellent, though I do wish she’d stop looking at the camera all ‘meaningfully’ like I’m convinced they teach contestants to do on Idol (“Look at the camera… Now tilt your head down, but keep staring into the lens. That’s called ‘eyefucking’ and it’s how you get votes!”).

Nordman… He was the surprise for me. First off, I know that some other people didn’t think this was a good entry into the contest, and, okay. Granted. But the performance was lovely. The dancer playing the witch-girl was great, and I liked that they didn’t get all literal and have her, like, dancing around on top of the fire. The visual imagery was just enough to be captivating, without going overboard into cheesy. As well, I’ve been singing that chorus all weekend. Nordman won’t win, especially against Carola and Andreas, but this is a song that won’t go anywhere for a while.

So, now it’s down to Andra Chansen. Like I said, I’ll handicap that later in the week, but for now, let’s just rest easy knowing that we can get to the real meat of this competition now!

DELTAVLING 4: HEAT OF DEATH

My first Melodifestivalen post!! It's taken too long, but finally I'm ready to let loose on tomorrow's Final Semi-Final! Whoo!

The Entries:

FOR MÅNGA ORD OM KÄRLEK - Niklas Stromstedt
The Composers Say: An upbeat pop song with lyrics caught between love and pain, and featuring a chorus and verse sung in different keys.
I Say: The first thing that came to mind when I heard this was ‘This isn’t good… It sounds like the Monkees!’ It’s got a veeeeerrrrry 70’s flava to it that, while not altogether bad certainly doesn’t make it a good entry for this contest. Look for this Joker to be out in the first round.

IF I COULD – Calaisa
The Composers Say: A country pop ballad about losing someone close, and the will to do whatever it takes to get that person back.
I Say: Now, I like Calaisa. I do. But this is another case of a song not fitting into the competition. And not in a Marie Lindberg way where the song isn’t really ‘Melodifestivalen’, but wins over the public anyway. This just isn’t gonna go anywhere. Another bottom 3 finisher.

PAME – Daniel Mitsogiannis
The Composers Say: A Greece-inspired up-tempo song - Greek, hot and danceable.
I Say: Apparently Daniel did the Cara Mia demo… It’s obvious in hearing his voice. And this is a total Kempe/Ljunggren song. Dancey, catchy, killer hook into the chorus. As long as the performance itself isn’t over-performed (which it apparently is), this will absolutely do just fine. Andra Chansen, at least (definitely, if it's all overdone).

HU SVÅRT KAN D’VA – Linda Bengtzing
The Composers Say: Schlager* pop for 2008.
I Say: “LINDA DIREKT TILL FINALEN!!!!!” The bloggers have been hoping for this since she was announced into the competition, but this is absolutely the ditty to get her there again. Aside from a) the 'Grace Kelly'-esque schlagertasticness of the song, and b) the fact that she’s TOTALLY helped by the lack of Swedish songs in the final, this is just the kind of song that the voters will eat for dinner. It’s more guitar-ish than synth-y on the chorus, but it’s got the plinky-plunky bells and whistles behind that, it’s got a GREAT hook, and it’s my guess that Linda’s not going to have to worry about competing against Carola.

I LÅGORNAS SKEN – Nordman
The Composers Say: A pop song with nordic flavor about the witch trials of the 17th Century.
I Say: The witch trials? Well, it’s good to know that Nordman takes their family friendly audience into account. Cuz nothing says ‘schlager classic’ or ‘Eurovision winner’ to tween Swedes and international gay boys like ‘Let’s burn your daughters at the stake!’ That being said, I happen to think some of Nordman’s stuff is really catchy and cool to listen to. I don’t think this is a winner, but it should be a cool live song regardless, and one that lives on in the hearts of RIXFm for years to come.

THAT IS WHERE I’LL GO – Sibel
The Composers Say: A strong ballad, with a strong singing voice, about unconditional love.
I Say: Let’s get this right out of the way... As ballad’s go, this puts ‘Empty Room’ to shame. This is the kind of ballad that I like. Grand, dramatic, sweeping… The orchestration is lovely, and if Sibel can sing as well live as she does on the recording, this might actually be a contender, at the VERY least in Andra Chansen.

INGEN MÅR SÅ BRA SOM JAG – Fronda
The Composers Say: Upbeat party song about the everyday grind - stop stressing and enjoy the moment.
I Say: It’s got a fun little beat, and I sort of automatically give an extra listen to anything that features a good horn section, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to last past Saturday. It’s not anywhere near as strong as the good stuff from this round. Bottom 3.

HERO – Charlotte Perrelli
The Composers Say: A grandiose rock and dance song.
I Say: The bad news. I don’t think Hero is as strong an entry as Hu Svårt…, though it’s very good discopop. I know some bloggers have been all but jumping out of their skin over it, but I didn’t get as excited as others did. I didn’t even get as excited as I did about Déjà Vu. I DO like it, though. I think I was just expecting something more bombastic. Like, REALLY over the top… Ahh, well. The good news is that Charlotte is one of the best live singers in the entire competition, so look for her to put everyone else to shame when it comes to the live performance. And I remain sure that (and look forward to) my feelings on the song will change once I’ve seen Char belting out a crazy key change and serving up her general fabulousness.

The Thinkings:

So, it would seem that this round is really a two-trick pony. Char and Linda, Linda and Char. On first listen, these really are the strongest two entries into this round, and that’s only boosted by the celebrity of the two performers. Hur Svart… is schlager pop the way we want it, and Hero is a disco-stomper that’s likely to feature a great staging and a key change that will have Karlskrona on its feet. Plus, everyone’s seen Charlotte’s shoes by this point, right? Fierceness! With a capital Fierce!

Past those two, the next top two contenders would seem, at first listen, to be Daniel Mitsogiannis and Sibel. Sibel, as I’ve said before and on a couple of other blogs, still has the recent Idol voters at her disposal. I’m guessing that there’s a lot of audience crossover between the two shows (Idol and MF), which means that she still has a handy fanbase in place, which Daniel won’t have. As well, she has a very strong ballad (which, had it been given to Princess Sanna, could probably have walked away the winner of the whole shebang right there) and apparently the vocal ability to carry it off.

Daniel has two things going for him. One, he has a Kempe song, and those tend to do reasonably well in this contest. And two, he has… 'aesthetic appeal'. Now, he’s not MY type personally, but he’s got a nice smile and he’s attractive enough in that generic boypop way that that will work in his favor. And the song is fun. Plus, as yet, there isn’t a song with this sound in either the finals or Andra Chansen, so look for this to move on. My guess is Andra Chansen, but we shall see.

As for Nordman, they are possibly the fifth-wheel entry. He’ll be in the top 5 placement after the first round of votes, I just don’t know if his song can get through.

Calaisa, Niklas Stromstedt and Fronda will be out after the first round of votes, I think. Though, I thought both Christer Sjogren and Suzzie Tapper would be as well, so that just shows you what I know.