In Sweden, we’re now 2 heats and 16 songs into the 4 heats and 32 songs that find us a winner of Melodifestivalen 2012. Heat 2 was last night (and SVT are streaming it on their website for another day or so) and these are the results;
Direct to the final
Ulrik Munther: ‘Soldiers’
David Lindgren: ‘Shout It Out’
Qualifying for the second chance round
Timoteij: ‘Stormande Hav’
Top Cats: ‘Baby Doll’
NOT our favoured result, to put it simply!
Ulrik was always expected to progress to the final, on name alone. But since he didn’t bring to the contest with him an amazing song, it makes it a lot more difficult to accept that result. ‘Soldiers’ is good but that’s about it. It’s not the standout song that a heat as strong as this should be sending to the final.
David Lindgren’s ‘Shout It Out’ is much better. But we actually feel the same way about it as we do with Ulrik. To our ears there were four songs that were better than it in this heat. That they all finished below him in the result, is a little incomprehendible to us. On Friday, we likened the song and performance to a High School Musical version of Danny’s ‘In The Club’. But in other words, that’s just a poor man’s version of Danny’s ‘In The Club’. It’s a shame we feel this away about his great result, because we do actually like the song. And the performance. And him. But it’s just not in any way exceptional. And it pales in comparison in every way, when putting it next to the aforementioned Danny package last year. One year later, an inferior rehash should not be getting a direct ticket to the final.
Timoteij on the other hand, should be getting such a ticket. But instead they’re gonna have to fight it out in the second chance round with that awful Thorsten Flinck character, that grating Sean Banan chap, and those rockabilly boys Top Cats that shared Timoteij’s andra chansen result last night. What a frightening prospect for the girls, and a depressing reality for us fans!
Results aside, last night’s show was fab. Once again, it’s so apparent how entertaining it is to have Edward and Daniel back as the show’s scriptwriters. And Sarah Dawn Finer and Gina Diwari are continuing to do a great job as hosts. This was mostly evident in the Cheiron boyband opening number. It’s amazing that Melodifestivalen keeps pulling things like that out of the bag.
The interval act was an interesting one. An electro mash-up/medley of songs called ‘Electric’. And with a hugely welcome appearance from Jessica Folcker throughout. We enjoyed it. And we’ll be watching it again here.
Back to the songs though – as you might have guessed by our whining about the results above, most of our favourites from last night finished at the bottom of the table and are thus out of the competition. Sonja Aldén, Andreas Lundstedt, and Mimi Oh came 6th, 7th, and 8th respectively. Three genuinely great songs that we’ve written a lot more about here, and that we felt deserved a much better result than what they got. Further salt was rubbed into the wounds by this clown finishing above them in 5th. Ouch!
Oh well. That’s the nature of Melodifestivalen. We’re just a bit surprised that it’s the nature of the Swedish televoter. However, at least those three songs are released now and up on YouTube for all to admire (the songs progressing further in the contest will be online after the 4th heat has finished).
So for now, let’s all cop a load of them again!
Andreas was the best… the Agnes-inspired song, the choreography, the costumes, the whole presentation left me speechless. He should have gone straight to Globen. I am sooooooo disappointed he didn’t. So unfair !
Sonja and Jessica (http://www.facebook.com/jessicafolcker) were the best things about last night.
Jessica need to come back to the contest. Preferably not pregnant and not sick.
I felt sad that Andreas lost again. I also felt sorry for Mimi, but it was nothing to last week when Afro-dite lost to Thorsten. The boy can dance was super. Such a shame that it lost. What about Salt and Pepper? Don’t get me started! For me heat 1 was much more stressful. Loreen managed to make many people forget about the rest.
Is it me or do the people who sing in english seem to do better than the people who sing in sweden ?
meant swedish
I love that Ulrik got to the final but I’ll admit it’s because I love Ulrik alone, not necessarily the song (although the song’s great).
Timoteij was the most amazing, I have to say.
And I agree about David Lindgren…definitely a “poor man’s version” of Danny. Mimi Oh and Sonja Alden got robbed, I think
Quite simply Timoteij were robbed! Stormande Hav was the best song by a mile in this heat. David gave a strong performance of a poor song and Ulrik..well the girls were voting for him i guess. In terms of Eurovision Timoteij would do so well..I cant understand Swedish televoters sometimes!
Cant say i agree at all with this article… the two best songs progressed to the final. Timotej lacked harmony vocally and they rarely hit any of their notes. It was pretty aweful to listen to at times. Mimi Oh was even worse vocally. Andreas L seemed out of place and is obvisiouly aging fast now… well well. DiLeva was just embarrasing, so i agree with you on that one. Top Cats where the best vocally, but the performance was so boring (compared tot he Norwegian Lucky Bullets from last years Norwegian final) – so i would have liked to switched them out with Sonja Alden and her extremely dated, but still lovely performed ballad!
It’s always interesting to read other people’s thoughts – especially regarding Melodifestivalen! I take a completely different view on heat 2 results. Timoteij are almost Stock Aitken Waterman like in that all their songs are enjoyable but a but samey. As a result their entry doesn’t impress. I was glad David Lindgren moved to final. I was less excited even if it was given that Ulrik would advance with his mediocre song. Sonja confirms to me that great ballads rarely get the love from voters and you wonder artists even bother to try. Mimi Oh’s song was nice but the performance really left me quite cold. A bit off topic but everytime I see Love Generation they have lost another member! Will they be a duo next year?
Graham, when singing in Swedish you got to have at least good lyrics.
Sonja: lyrics where you use “tro” (belief) just to be able to rime with “bro” (bridge) – is not believable…
Andeas: lyrics and performance does not match – at all. (happy face/dance after bad breakup?)
Mimmi Oh: best lyrics of the three. Uses the word ‘vi’ (we) alot – why not performed as a duet?
Lyrics of all songs can be found at
http://svt.se/melodifestivalen/20120211132850/har_ar_kvallens_alla_lattexter
Honestly, I’m deeply dissapointed by this weeks result, Timoteij and Sonja should have gone directly to the final, and at least, even though I love his song, Aldrig, Aldrig should have got to the Second Chance. I’m not a huge fan of Mimi, although I’ll agree that her performance was very fun. Shout it out seemed like a blatant rip off of last year’s “In the Club” and I’m not a huge fan of Urlik, or his songs. Hopefully Timoteij – at least – will get though to the final, they definetly diserve it with such a spectacular song and equally amazing performance. Although, granted, the ego-flaunting catwalk scene was a bit dissapointing, but what could you expect, out of these humble nordic beauties?