So, last night’s result at Eurovision Semi Final 2 was very pleasing in some ways (Denmark, Ireland, Azerbaijan, and Israel progressing to the final), but it was utterly disappointing in one major way – the failure of Sweden to qualify to the final.
Long time fans of both Eurovision and Melodifestivalen, will say that the song ‘This Is My Life’ should never have won Melodifestivalen, and thus gone to Eurovision to represent Sweden. It’s not the schlager music that Sweden is known for in these competitions. It’s not the uptempo, bpm heavy song performed with an eye catching routine, in a fabulously glamorous fashion. But at the end of the day, nobody can deny the fact that Anna Bergendahl’s ‘This Is My Life’ is good song. And in the context of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, it’s actually an amazing song!
Last night’s performance of it was beautiful. Perfectly staged, flawlessly delivered, and the inclusion of the red glow sticks transferred amazingly on screen. It was a great moment on tv. It was also one of the few times in recent history that the Swedish entry actually looked better at Eurovision than it did when it was performed at Melodifestivalen. Think of Malena Ernman’s ‘La Voix’, Carola’s ‘Invincible’, and especially Charlotte Perrelli’s ‘Hero’. All amazing performances when they won Melodifestivalen, but all that lost a little something when they were transferred onto the Eurovision stage. ‘This Is My Life’ looked even better on stage in Oslo last night than it did in Stockholm in March.
Basically, we just wanted to say that Sweden really deserved to be in tomorrow’s Eurovision Song Contest final. Especially over six of the songs that actually did qualify from last night’s semi final. The song, the performance, the singer, didn’t deserve to be sent home from the competition. But then, that’s always the way with Eurovision of course. And so trying hard to blame a certain factor, is usually mostly pointless.
Because of this, we don’t agree with some sectors of the Swedish press today dropping the axe on Christer Bjorkman, calling for him to be sacked as head of the Swedish delegation. And we don’t think too fondly of the reports blaming Anna and her performance. But most surprisingly of all possibly, is that we disagree with the online blogs that are taking great delight in berating Sweden for temporarily turning their back on schlager music and championing a song that they think is unforgivably boring in comparison. No other country sticks to a certain type of song at Eurovision every year, so why should Sweden? This year’s Melodifestivalen ended up doing what it does every year – choosing a great song as it’s winner. And as always, we got a dozen or so other great songs to cherish too!
Next year’s Melodifestivalen was rumoured to be Christer Bjorkman’s last anyway. And those in the know have been predicting that it’s going to be a spectacular contest, as he’ll want to go out with a bang. So it’s fair to say that all types of Melodifestivalen fan will be catered to, and it’ll continue to be the amazing show that it always is – with the actual prize of going to Eurovision, really just being an add-on to it, as opposed to the ‘be all and end all’ of it. It stopped being that earlier in the last decade!
Oooh, we do love a good ol’ rant don’t you?!
And here’s that performance again in case you missed it.
What a fail. Anna was one of the best last night, although she looked a bit nervous and her voice was a bit vibrating. She was great, beautiful and it was a perfect performance. Can’t believe why she didn’t make it to the final. In my opinion it was one of the best songs this year, very professional and typical Scandinavian.
Feel sorry for Anna and sad for Sweden! Next year a trendy up-tempo song!
“But at the end of the day, nobody can deny the fact that Anna Bergendahl’s ‘This Is My Life’ is good song”
I can, I don’t think that “This is my life” is a good song. Anna is an amazing singer, but I think the song has a very plain melody and there were much better songs yesterday, I think that’s why she’s out.
This year’s MF was, at least for me, really bad with a lot of crappy pop and boring ballads.
I really like swedish music, but this years the best swedish entries come from Azerbaijan, Denmark and Georgia, all written by swedish people that, I think, were left out of MF.
No wonder why media is blaming Bjorkman.
I agree with you! Sweden made a poor Melodifestivalen and send a simple and bad ballad! Next year will be better!!But i’m sad cause i love Sweden!
Go HERA, Go CHANNE AND N’EVERGREEN!
I like Anna =/ But they should send the Remix versioN!! rs
I agree “This is my life” performance yesterday was great
Anna really gave it a fragile touch that should have made people vote for her : emotion was there
She’s really been robbed by utter sh*t singers like Armenia’s beauty that sang out of tune all along her nice song, or Safura who did nothign to me AT ALL !
Sweden & Bulgaria should have gone to the final instead of these twos for me…
I think Anna seems like a charming and sweet girl, and she definitely has a unique and soulful voice. But even with a sea of red glowsticks, her song was simple and plain, and faded into the background among the competition. If she had been fortunate enough to find herself in the first semifinal, she would probably have cleared the competition quite easily. But even so, a simple ballad with no stagecraft and no particular vocal pyrotechnics would probably have landed her no higher than 15th in any ESC final. I think besides youth, Sweden needs to look for the kind of sex appeal that catches viewers attention if they want to succeed with the European voters, in their singer and the entry.
I think, since the new voting-system in Melodifestival Sweden lost a lot of good Eurovision-Songs… of course including BWO and ALCAZAR… I dream further about ALCAZAR’s “STAY THE NIGHT” at Eurovision!!!
Going back to the old system in Melodifestivalen and let Sweden people choice, who going to Eurovision. Maybe a new show for Eurovision…
I really don’t understand anyone (press or public) blaming Christer Björkman for the choice of song this year. He provided us with a very broad mix of ten songs in the final including four (Eric Saade, Timoteij, Ola & Pernilla Wahlgren) which were absolutely fantastic, good old fashioned Swedish schlager anthems complete with more gimmicks, wind machines and key changes than we could hope for. That the voters chose to largely ignore them is not Björkman’s fault in any way.
Looking at the results again it is interesting to note that the International Juries placed Anna 7th, with Salem Al Fakir first and Eric Saade second – perhaps an indication of the broader international opinion.
In fact it was only the telephone vote that put Anna into first place, so if the Swedes are unhappy with the choice of song and their current situation they really only have themselves to blame!
There’s now only one course of action for them in 2011 – it’s time to break out the big guns once again – it’s time for the return of Carola!!!
Speaking of Sweden… You should check out this video which is rolling on Swedish tv at the moment. It’s about spreading awareness of HIV. It’s quite frisky and features a few Swedish popstars like Lykke Li, Kleerup and Sahara Hotnights. It’s part of a campaign which translates as “The Fuck Tree”.
View it here: http://vimeo.com/11961761
I think it was so sad to see Anna knocked out. At only 18 that must of been a blow. So if anything, I felt for her mostly…but in all honesty, This is my life was just a little too bland eurovision wise. I liked it alot, and was very surprised for it to not clear the Semi’s; but maybe this will question the song choice for MF next year. Lets face it, it wasn’t as good as 09′s show, and of course a good bit of Malena/Carola/Charlotte, I think that is what many expect with Sweden and Eurovision and this year it wasn’t there. Nevertheless, I was saddened to have no Sweden at Eurovision last night. Anna was far better than some of the crap there, and it would of been lovely to see a full arena of glowsticks lol
In her way she did what she had to do perfectly with the song: add a simple touch with emotion. More than some others did.
I love your blog but your comments about Anna are totally out of kilter with the reality of the situation. It was an average song with an average singer singing it. Just because she’s 18 and pretty doesn’t cover up the fact that the whole thing was nothing special.
It should not have won Melodifestivalen and it is good news that it got knocked out of the final – maybe Sweden will wake up and get their act together for next year.
I’m a huge Swedophile but I have no sympathy for Anna Boringdahl or Sweden in this “fiasco” – they screwed up majorly and the result they got was what thwey truly deserved.
Couldn’t agree more with Guru_G!
I’ve been playing most of this year’s Eurovision entries in my car for the last couple of weeks, always focusing on Sweden’s track amongst a couple of others. BUT, when watching Sweden singing in the semi-final the other night my wife pipes up out of the blue “I really like that! I’d actually go out and buy that!”. A bit of a surprise (to me) and you can’t get a better compliment as that’s what this business is all about.
And how was Sweden’s song? It wasn’t the one I would have chosen, but having won Melodifestivalen I felt fully behind it, and it’s a damned fine song, and Anna gave a damned fine performance on the night. It’s not always how you do, but how you get voted for…..