Heat 4! Traditionally the heat of absolute death, and the gateway for the contest’s eventual winner. A lot of shizz went down last night. Here’s what happened;
Qualifying directly to the final
Danny Saucedo: ‘Amazing’
Lisa Miskovsky: ‘Why Start A Fire’
Danny Saucedo: No big surprise there. Although when Lisa was announced as the first finalist, we did have a moment of panic at the not unlikely possibility of Dynazty being the other finalist. Plus, the look of nerves on Danny’s face displayed that he hadn’t assumed qualifying directing to Globen to be the foregone conclusion that the rest of us watching had. He needn’t have worried though. His performance was the talking point of the evening (despite the sound problems) and he’s got his place in the final. He goes there as one half of what’s considered to be a two horse race between him and Loreen. And at the time of writing, it’s Loreen who is edging ahead on Swedish iTunes. Oh, and by the way – as for those aforementioned sound problems which resulted in a lot of notes being missed by him – give the guy a break. We all know very well how talented a singer and how competent a performer he is. Those technical issues will be sorted out before the final.
Lisa Miskovsky: Well now this WAS a surprise. We might have predicted it back on Monday when evaluating this week’s contest based on names alone, but we certainly took that prediction back once hearing the song. It’s been getting a lot of great feedback and Sweden obviously love it, but we just didn’t get it at all. Boring. Yes yes yes, we know we’re wrong, just leave us be!
Qualifying to the second chance round
Lotta Engberg & Christer Sjögren: ‘Don’t Let Me Down’
Dynazty: ‘Land Of Broken Dreams’
Either of these two would have been an unsurprising finalist. But in a heat as strong as this, an Andra Chansen placing for both isn’t a shock. And they enter Andra Chansen as surely the two of the songs with the highest likelihood of winning that round and thus making the final after all. Watch: Lotta & Christer. Dynazty.
Now then – the four who didn’t make it. Everyone always knew that Opa would be 8th and that Hanna Lindblad and Axel Algmark would be fighting it out for 6th and 7th placings (and in the end it was Axel who won that small battle). So the big news down in that half of the results table was the artist and song that finished in 5th. In fairness we all knew that whatever finished in 5th would be an unfortunate consequence of numbers. There were five songs last night that exuded Globen material – either on paper, on stage, or in stereo. And with only four available slots to progress, ONE of them had to be unlucky. But oh for the love of God, did it really HAVE to be Charlotte Perrelli with ‘The Girl’?!
We won’t dwell on the single fact that an amazing song finished in 5th place. That’s the nature of this contest after all, and we’ve all seen it happen before. But in Melodifestivalen 2012, that particular result has something of a worrying significance to it. The contest is now in a situation in which an artist like David Lindgren with a song that’s nothing more than a watered down pastiche of a David Guetta hit, is in the final. And a two times Melodifestivalen winner like Charlotte Perrelli leaves the competition after finishing a humiliating 5th in her heat with a song as good as ‘The Girl’. Some might say that ‘The Girl’ is itself only a watered down version of other schlager hits that have gone before. We disagree. But even if it is (and it most definitely isn’t), we’re slightly concerned that Sweden is voting for low end variations of international radio hits, rather than high end schlager with a home grown sound that’s so quintessentially Swedish. This is Melodifestivalen. And nowadays it’s for all intents and purposes, the only outlet we have for unearthing these special kind of schlager and pop gems that Swedes produce so very well. Where else are we gonna find them?
Would David Lingren’s ‘Shout It Out’ do better at Eurovision than Charlotte Perrelli’s ‘The Girl’? Probably. But really – screw Eurovision. Melodifestivalen is bigger than Eurovision in Sweden. It’s special. It’s very unique. Melodifestivalen is the magnificent contest it is, simply because of all the classic songs it has churned out over the years. Meticulously crafted pop songs composed by Swedes who know more than any other nation in the world how to create this kind of pop music. Sweden should be looking at Melodifestivalen as the outlet that it is for this unique kind of a song – and not as a contest to find something that the rest of Europe might like. If they continue to look at it from a Eurovision point of view, then in a few years time it runs the risk of becoming a contest full of faceless David Lindgrens and bottom-of-the-barrel rip-offs of international radio hits, and there may be no space for schlager. Can you imagine?! A Melodifestivalen without the likes of ‘Something In Your Eyes’? And a scenario where we only get a sniff of schlager if it’s interspersed with a novely Björn Ranelid-esque element?
In reality we don’t think things will ever get that bad. But Charlotte Perrelli coming 5th in her heat with ‘The Girl’ at this point in time seems like a very bad omen. Sweden – open your eyes and realise how great you have it, before it’s taken away from you. However, if you really do insist on shaking up the contest and changing it from how we know and love it, please do so via Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’ rather than David Lindgren’s ‘Shout It Out’. Keep Melodifestivalen Swedish!
(and apologies to David for using him as an unfortunate scapegoat for how we view the contest in 2012)!
To end things on a lighter note – have a gander at the brilliant opening number last night, a brilliant parody of last week’s ‘Mirakel’ performed by the three hosts. And to finalise things on an even calmer note, check out the amazing Sarah Dawn Finer’s incredible interpretation of Melody Club’s ‘The Hunter’, that served as the interval act last night. See – this contest really is the greatest show on earth!
Gutted that Charlotte didn’t make it as I’m heading to the final and wanted to see her perform.
I loved the schlager-tasticness of her song. It was such a feel good song. Although, is it just me or did Charlotte miss her line in the second chorus? She sang something different to the rehearsal and studio version.
Loreen for the win. She’ll be the won to beat in Baku in my opinion.
I thought Lisa’s song was a bit boring too, but I was mainly wondering why on earth she had a guitar with her.
This article made me laugh. How can you criticise one song for being a “pastiche” and then say “The Girl” was high end schalger? It was absolute s**t and deserved to go out.
it’s going to be danny’s and loreen’s fight then. They are my favourites but I really hope that danny wins. He deserve it and his song is better than euphoria.
I was absolutely horrified when it came down to Charlotte and Danny for the Globen spot and fifth place. Both seemed capable of winning the heat. Would have preferred Charlotte to Lisa in Globen, easily. And is it just me or this going to be one hell of an Andra Chansen–half the acts there seemed like surefire qualifiers in their heat. Someone very talented is going to get screwed over:( I’m leaning towards Andreas and Timotej making it through, but I did like Youngblood’s and Dynazty’s numbers.
Between Loreen and Danny, I really can’t call it. They both seem infallible. I prefer Danny but Loreen does have a lot going for her: i.e., superior vocals and a more sui generis song. But on the other hand, Danny placed second last year with a much weaker song than Amazing (In the Club was good but rather shouty; Amazing feels more anthemic(, singing first in the final, and competing against the very similar Eric Saade, who was singing last. No doubt they split a lot of the vote…and yet they still managed first and second. Danny is the natural successor to Eric and I’m sure he’ll pick up a lot of votes from Eric’s old supporters.
Ack. This will be a stressful two weeks.
Can’t believe Charlotte wasn’t in the top 3. should have been Dynazty, Charlotte and Danny. Not necessarily in that order. and in my opinion Euphoria should win because its a better song than Danny’s. Danny has choreography but Loreen has enough to cancel that advantage out.
The most typically schlager song (by its actual definition) in years did make it to Andra Chansen last night though. So its not dead by any means although it has had its day.
I think the last two weeks have shown how sick us swedes are of Fredrik Kempe songs.
Not a great lover of Danny or Loreen songs..rather they picked somethingelse.
I really hope Danny will win
his song is more international sound and he has a performance that can actually win ESC
I’m not living in sweden so i don’t know swedes love Danny or Loreen better, but IMO Danny has a better song and overall performance, despite that vocal problem he has especially til the end of the song. But Eric suffer from the same problem last year as well, so I hope Danny will win in Sweden
As for Charlotte, I feel sorry for her, still trying to figure out why she ended up 5th only, that song and that performance at least deserve to go to second-chance
The problem this year is the returning artists with (apart from Loreen) much weaker songs than their previous effort. Stormande Hav is nowhere near as good as Kom, The Girl isn’t a patch on Hero and Just A Little Bit is far inferior to Dance Alone. They are going to be compared. I’m almost glad they didn’t go through with those songs… hopefully next time they’ll up their game and come back with something BETTER.
So this means AC will be pretty boring, as the final! I’m still upset and I’ll probably need a few days to cool off. She did an amazing job, bul sweden could only think about revenge? I thought she was the best in this heat (i’m not objective, but I don’t think anyone can when it comes to stuff like this). She deserved AC at least, but 5th??? Less interest for the next 2 weeks and focusing on her new album. <3 CP
I wonder if the inclusion of artists such as Lisa Miskovsky and Ulrick Munther (is that how you spell it?) dilutes the schlager vote further (i.e. including non-schlager acts with a big fanbase) ? There may be other factors too: no Sanna Nielsen or Linda Bengtzing, Thomas G:son is writing for other genres, Fredrik Kempe seems to be a little off-form this year. To my ears ‘Amazing’ sounds like every other song that’s been on the radio during the last twelve months. Will Europe be sick of this David-Guetts wannabee music by the end of May?
@ Dan
Think before you write something stupid like that! It makes me so mad when someone says such dumb things without a reason.You obviously have no sense about good music. “The girl” is a very good and strong song. It was perfectly executed and Charlotte sang great and looked amazing. She deserved to win. She was clearly the best last night!
Charlotte was always going to be in trouble. Back when the names were announced for this heat I figured she would come 5th… if only because she failed at Eurovision with Hero and it hasn’t been all that long.
But then I heard the song and saw the performance. It was better than almost every song in AC for sure.
A great view on the state of M’Fest.
Hopefully everyone ups their game next year and we’re going to have some really amazing songs to look forward to.
Now we sit back and watch Danny and Loreen duke it out for Eurovision!
The good news? No matter what happens a great song is going to win that we can all get behind!
This song is a mess and says nothing and has no HIT potential
I see where you are going with this and I understand how you feel, but I honestly hate Euphoria and think it’s really bland and generic. Is we award a song as Swedish and we make it a GOOD Swedish song? Euphoria is just a generic piece of junk.
The Girl is amazing and the best song this year after Euphoria, I really wanted charlotte in the finals, but not winning to leave it for Loreen she deserves it more, but The Girl out and Lisa on the final is OUTRAGEOUS!! bad Sweden BAD!!
You at scandipoo are obvisiouly more about the composers and the artists than the songs themselves… this article reeks of stupidity! Saying Lisas song was boring and “The Girl” a good song proves that u really do not have the clue! Thank goodness the swedes at least do! And btw – Davids song is what it all should be about! Catchy song and contemporary rythms rather than unoriginal schlagers build on samples from tracks ages ago! Charlotte did a poor performance with a poor song! She really cant walk in high heels!
@Keith – i totally agree with you!! This years combackers have all worse songs than previous years! I even prefer last years Loreens as well.. not ONE of them has a better song this year… so bravo to the newcomers – the best songs this year have been the songs by Lisa, Axel, David, Dead By April and even Sean Banan.
Just putting this out there: Charlotte may have lost votes due to her lyrical slip up in the second verse; repeating the first verse. Luckily for her she had live backing vocals which adapted to her mistake. << That's why I think she came 5th.
On the other hand, Loreen to win. Andra chansen is going to be dull (hoping for Sean and Andreas).
I’m quite scared right now about the final. I really hope that danny wins but I’m scared because his voice problems. Usually his voice is very good in live performances too. And it looks like all like more loreen than danny. And I’m from finland so I can’t vote danny.
Charlotte was ok but no way was she the best performer. The best vocals were by Lisa. Melodifesivalen was great this year. I don’t think there were too many ‘international sounding dance songs’ at all. Sweden is lucky and it is great they take Eurovision seriously so that SHOULD affect the MF voting. It could be worse – here in the UK we don’t even get a choice who goes or what the song is and every song in Melodifestivalen will be 100% better than the song we (the UK) does pick because we don’t take it seriously.
Thrilled that the dreadful Charlotte song didnt go through. And as much as I like the typical Swedish pop songs, I’m glad that some of the more modern tracks are doing well.
The songs in general this year are so dreadful that I have stopped watching (and I ADORE Melodifestivalen). Dont even know if I will watch the final. Despite the excellent winning song last year, the overall competition felt a bit of a letdown compared to the previous years – and this year it is just awful. Hopefully things will pick up again next year…
I am just as proud of the Swedish voters this week as a was ashamed last week. To vote for a song like “Why Start a Fire” after hearing it just once is impressive. This is going to be a hit on radio for a very long time.
Someone said that Kempe has specialized in writing songs that are *almost* good. That is true and yes, we are tired of him. I think that Charlotte deserved to be #3 though.