Tagged: melodifestivalen

Round two is upon us, and it promises to be more exciting than last week! Who will make it through? Three minutes until the fun begins... **It's funny watching this BSB/Nsync opening medley and realizing that all of these songs were written and/or produced in Sweden. **Judging from applause before the show, Ulrik and Timoteij have this in the bag, with Thomas biting at their heels. Here we go! ULRIK: As expected, this is better in full. I don't see any way this guy is not going to the final. He's like [...]

It's time for a sneak peek at Heat Two of this year's Melodifestivalen. Will it be better than last week's (mostly) dire offering? I hope so! As always, my opinions will likely change when I hear the songs in full. ( Listen to clips here ) Ulrik Munther - Soldiers Well, it's good enough. Honestly, I was hoping for more, though I have a suspicion that this will improve upon full listen. But from the sound of this one minute clip, he's got better songs on his album. 3.5/5 Top Cats [...]

The live blog is open! Will we get a nice stream and good results this week? We'll see... **Aw, clips of Swingfly and Sanna from last year! Probably my two favs, all said and done. **And a reminder that Sweden nearly won Eurovision last year. If only.

It's that time of year again, folks. Melodifestivalen is back and I'm raring to go. As always, I'm going to give my preliminary thoughts on Fridays, based only on the one minute previews that SVT has given us. but remember, my thoughts can (and sometimes do) change once I've heard the entire thing and seen the performance. ( Listen to clips here ) Sean Banan - Sean den förste Banan (trans: "Sean the First Banan") What an odd choice to kick everything off. The verses sound oddly amatuer, but that chorus is certainly catchy. Of course, [...]

Proseguiamo il nostro viaggio fra le finali di selezione nazionale per l'Eurovision Song Contest in giro per l'Europa alla ricerca dei brani che non hanno vinto e che meritano una segnalazione. Questa settimana ci fermiamo in Svezia, al Melodifestivalen, sicuramente uno dei festival più belli d'Europa. La ragazza che vedete qui sopra si chiama Sara Varga ed è una illustre portacolori del genere vispop ovvero quel genere musicale che mescola il pop al folk tradizionale ed è preferibilmente cantato nelle lingue nazionali (è un genere nato in Svezia, ma per esempio, anche l'inglese James Blunt ne [...]

It's all built up to this, folks. Though I could venture a guess (and I did, yesterday), the truth is I've got no idea how this is going to go down. And since I'm not overly obsessed with any of the songs this year, that at least will make this an interesting final. EDIT: Geez, this stream is really crappy today. EDIT: And by "really crappy," I mean "unwatchable" thus far. Come on, svt, get this fixed! EDIT: For those having the same trouble as me, setting the quality to "low" seems to help [...]

There are a bunch of things in the music world that need to be discussed--the new Britney album, some new Eurovision songs, finally having the studio version of Danny's "Catch Me If You Can"--but with the Melodifestival final starting in less than two hours, Sweden's national selection for Eurovision has to take priority. Half the time I don't know what I truly feel about any given entry until I have a gut reaction to how it ends up ranked. As of right now, though, I'd be happiest with a Danny win. I have a rising concern [...]

I hit on a notion this year to try to watch Eurovision selections from around Europe in bars in London, in much the same way that I watch football . But whereas football is popular with pub-goers, Eurovision, it seems, is not. There was nothing on show at Norwegian , Danish and Finnish venues. Similarly, an Armenian cultural centre was all closed up, and the Greeks and Portuguese preferred football. A Bulgarian bar was playing [...]

It's been an odd year for Melodifestivalen. While I don't hate any of the tracks in tomorrow's finale, I'm not in love with many of them, either. Even stranger, I feel like there are about five songs that have the potential to win this year's competition. It's going to be a nail-biter. (but honestly, the thing I'm looking forward to the most is a second appearance by the Ark!) Below, what I'd like to happen vs. what I think will happen: IF I WAS VOTING : 1. Sanna [...]

In anticipation of the final next weekend, today we see who gets to take those last two covered places to compete for Eurovision. I can't say I've been able to summon all that much interest in this second chance round this year, but my predictions is that Sara Varga and Linda Pritchard will come out of this today very happy. We'll see. EDIT: Literally, the four best songs today are all in the first half. Whoever programmed this did a horrible job. EDIT: Those "duel" skits were hilariously awkward. But Loreen looks like some weird anime [...]

A quick note: all my support in today's Melodifestival second chance round goes to Loreen...which means she will lose her first duel and I'll be left bereft for the rest of the show. If Loreen should fail to advance, I'd like it to go to Love Generation, but really, they're a distant second. I do genuinely enjoy all four of the songs in the top bracket, though--just don't try to remind me of that fact immediately after Loreen gets knocked out. I'm much less picky about the second bracket. I'd be happy with anyone [...]

Melodifestivalen may have finished introducing new songs for the year, but there's still one thing we fans have to look forward to (besides Andra Chansen and the final): Melodifestival-related albums. I'm not just talking about this year's Melodifestival album (and its exciting demos). We also have a number of artists who competed in this year's contest who are releasing albums. All except the last of the albums listed below is out already or will be released in the next few weeks. International customers should be able to buy any of the CDs listed below [...]

Tonight's Melodifestival results were surprising, to say the least. E det fel på mej by poppostergirl My jaw dropped (for the second time, but we'll get to that in a minute) at the news that Linda Bengtzing had won her semifinal and would be advancing straight to the final. It's welcome news for someone who loves Linda as much as I do and for anyone won over by her energetic, explosive schlager, but considering "E det fel på mig" is, [...]

• poppostergirl - E det fel på mej
• poppostergirl - The Hunter

Here we go! My most anticipated Heat of the year, and it's starting in just 30 seconds :) EDIT: This "Chicago" opening is very strange. Who comes up with this stuff? (I think Marie just wanted an excuse to sing) EDIT: Can I just add that last year's hosts were much more entertaining?

Twitter, the place I would usually go to with my quick, fairly uninformed opinions, seems to be down. I need somewhere to vent my first, unconsidered thoughts about the full versions of the fourth Melodifestival semifinal tracks. I'm hugely pleased with Melody Club 's song; they may have just swept straight into my personal first place of this final. That surprises me a little--I haven't truly loved their recent singles, so I expected a "like but not adore" case with "The Hunter"--but I'm thrilled about that surprise. Finally, we've got a pop-rock [...]

Aargh! It's the last round of original songs tomorrow for Melodifestivalen. In anticipation, here are my quick reviews based only on the short clips svt has provided. As always, they're likely to change when I hear the songs in full. ( Listen to clips here ) Melody Club - The Hunter Easily my most anticipated entry of the contest from one of my favorite bands. I am loving the sound of this (and why wouldn't I? It's pure Melody Club). It sounds a bit further on the schlager scale than I thought it would (a good [...]

Via Schlagerprofilerna , the BEST news you will read all day is on page 19 of this PDF . Some of the demos to be included on this year's Melodifestival ten-year celebration CD set are: Jessica Andersson's "Jag ljuger så bra" Timoteij's English version of "Kom," "Run" Linda Bengtzing's "Headlines" Backup singer Agnetha Körsvik's "Hero" Fredrik Kempe and Shirley Clamp's "Du och jag mot världen" Sonja Aldén's "Night Of Passion" and "Invincible" Brandsta City Släckers' "En gång för alla" [...]

It's almost a week away, but this fourth semifinal of Melodifestivalen already has me worried...about results. I'm much more optimistic about song quality. As always, I have absolutely no inside sources, so I am indebted to the below mentioned sites for their information. Sources: SVT , Poplight , Expressen ( 1 , 2 ,), QX ( 1 , 2 ), Aftonbladet ( 1 , 2 ,), GD Melody Club, "The Hunter" (Kristofer Östergren/Erik Stenemo/Jon Axelsson/Nicklas Stenemo) [...]

Today's Melodifestival results were predictable: Eric Saade, he of the strongest fandom in the contest, and the Playtones, they of the top-selling albums of last year in Sweden, were voted to the final. One might have expected Sebastian, who advanced straight to the final last time, to have a shot at the second chance round, but even his fifth place isn't especially shocking. The results aren't especially disappointing either. Do I still feel like there's something missing in Eric the popstar, even if I strongly approve of his use of aggressive choreographed group dancing? [...]

Here we go! I wasn't so impressed by the clips yesterday, but I'm hoping this heat will end up as entertaining as the first two. I'm expecting the overriding theme/feeling is going to be the coronation of Eric Saade, but who will get that second spot in the final? EDIT: And more importantly, why won't my stream start? EDIT: Hmmm... this could be a pretty boring blog post if SVT don't get the stream working. EDIT: Eleven minutes and it's still not started. NOT a happy camper. 1. LINDA: The song grew [...]