RSI, the Swiss Italian language broadcaster held its own pre-preselection again, though this year on radio rather than with Barbara Berta offering her comments while propping up the bar. The first qualifier was Ally, whose American-sounding, jazzy number 'Catch Me' is unrelentingly repetitive. Her voice isn't much less annoying, and I don't see this troubling the top end of the results sheet.
Chiara Dubey (above) came 3rd last year, with the lovely 'Anima nuova'. Her entry this year, 'Bella sera', is even more quiet and understated, and has the potential to come across beautifully on stage. Fingers firmly crossed for second time lucky.
Carrousel bring a very French sounding entry to the Kreuzlingen stage, which reminds me a little of Les Fatals Picards in 2007. The fact there's a woman involved generally brings the likelihood of it being as punchable as that excruciating three minutes down a little, but I always approach this kind of song with a degree of caution.
Do the Monkey... do I have to? This kind of song is all about the performance and the video (which is of course how acts should be thinking about their Eurovision entry), but listening to just the audio files, it's close to unbearable. Anthony Bighead's live performance will almost certainly redeem the lack of melody if they can make it fun and engaging though - and they'll have the benefit of only having to keep that atmosphere going for two minutes tonight.
The German Finals in the era from 1997-2005 almost always had something like this - melodic rock with a God-bothering edge - and it always did better than you'd expect it to. The edge is more of an entire side this time around, and with a strong chorus, Heilsarmee must have a really decent chance.
After what are, for better or worse, two of the more interesting entries in tonight's contest, comes the most unremarkable. Nill's rock-lite sounding 'On My Way' is perfectly serviceable but has absolutely nothing to recommend it for a second listen. Doomed.
Melissa has been a favourite of the fans since even before the finalists were announced. This may be because she was once in a national final before or may even be because she's nice to them on Twitter. She does however have the most obviously fan-friendly song, but, unfortunately, 'The Point of No Return's chorus is a let-down after a promising verse. You'll be hearing this in Malmö, but it's more likely to be in Euroclub than on the international stage.
'Lève-toi' is far more my kind of thing than most of the songs in this line-up, but it's another victim of the 'strong verse, weak chorus' syndrome that affects so many unsuccessful national final songs and is especially prevalent tonight. A shame, because a bigger chorus would lift this, and could help Nicolas Fraissinet (above) go very far indeed.
Jesse Ritch's 'Forever and a Day' is radio-friendly pop. It's pretty contemporary, and could even have some success at Eurovision if it's well-performed, but I'm concerned that, like so many of tonight's songs, it's just a little too mediocre and, well, Swiss. It's another one that will all depend on the performance.
So, who's going to win? I genuinely have no idea. Swiss finals in the past couple of years have been notoriously hard to predict, with the winner (and often the second and third placed songs too) often coming out of nowhere. I suspect it's probably between the Monkey and the Godbotherers, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Chiara Dubey or Jesse Ritch off to Malmö either.
And I still miss Lys.
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