1. På väg - Abalone Dots
A beautiful country ballad with tight harmonies, this was always going to be my favourite. And it even has a really well-executed key change too!
2. Why am I crying - Molly Sandén
Big emotional break-up ballad, with lovely thoughtful lyrics - just my thing!
3. The Girl - Charlotte Perrelli
See, I do like schlager sometimes!
4. Amazing - Danny Saucedo
I wasn't particularly expecting to like this, but I really do! I find it really uplifting and positive to listen to.
5. Euphoria - Loreen
Not as dark as 'My Heart Is Refusing Me', and therefore not as interesting, but a goodie nonetheless.
6. Soldiers - Ulrik Munther
7. I mina drömmar - Maria BenHajji
8. Sanningen - Carolina Wallin Pérez
9. Why start a fire? - Lisa Miskovsky
10. Förlåt mig - Mattias Andréasson
11. The boy can dance - Afro-dite
12. Det går för långsamt - Mimi Oh
13. Jag reser mig igen - Thorsten Flinck & Revolutionsorkestern
14. Mirakel - Björn Ranelid feat Sara Li
15. Baby Doll - Top Cats
16. I din himmel - Sonja Aldén
17. Kyss mig - Axel Algmark
18. Goosebumps - Hanna Lindblad
19. Just a little bit - Love Generation
20. Aldrig Aldrig - Andreas Lundstedt
21. Sean den förste banan - Sean Banan
22. Shout it out - David Lindgren
23. Stormande hav - Timoteij
24. Youngblood - Youngblood
25. Salt and pepper - Marie Serneholt
26. Ge aldrig upp - Thomas di Leva
27. Lovelight - Andreas Johnson
28. Mystery - Dead by April
29. Land of Broken dreams - Dynazty
30. Don't let me down - Christer & Lotta
Well, you did let me down. I was hoping that this might be a charming little old-people number, along the lines of 'C'est la vie' from 2004. It's not, it's just horrible.
31. Allting blir bra igen - OPA!
Pointless. Why bother, really. I'm all for diversity in Melodifestivalen, but not when it comes up with songs as poor as this.
32. I want to be Chris Isaak (This is just the beginning) - The Moniker
HAAAA-HAAAA!
And to get the taste of The Moniker out of my mouth, here's my favourite, 'På väg' by Abalone Dots.
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
How would online voting affect the Eurovision Song Contest?
This week, the Azerbaijani delegation has reportedly put forward a new proposal for changes to the Eurovision Song Contest voting system. Their concept would see viewers being able to vote for their favourite entry online, in addition to the current methods of telephone and SMS. While this is just a suggestion at the moment, and a rumoured one at that, I thought I'd take a look at the possible motivations behind it, as well as the consequences for the contest as a whole.
Why would they even want to do this?
The Eurovision Song Contest has notably been skewing younger in recent years, as can be clearly seen from the following gained by acts like Eric Saade and Jedward, the latter of whom were met by crowds of screaming girls on a visit to Estonia. The contest is no longer seen as a fuddy-duddy 'light entertainment show', but rather as a popular family entertainment show, enjoyed by all ages. Comments on the official site by teens and tweens are growing, as are the number of profiles set up on the site's social networking function (at least, I hope they're by young people – if not, I despair for the continent's grammar).
Encouraging votes online would be a further way of engaging with this valuable demographic who, it seems, live their entire lives online. It would also provide a means of voting for those who do not have access to a landline to televote; this could include these young people, but also those who have simply made the choice not to have a fixed line telephone for whatever reason, a growing group. While many countries allow SMS voting at Eurovision, some, such as the UK, don't, due to perceived difficulties in counting votes – a telephone vote from a mobile will commonly cost well over €1, so online voting would reach out to this previously disenfranchised group.
Isn't that open to abuse?
The most common complaint among fans on the ESC Nation Message Board when this development was rumoured was that it would be open to abuse, with all those bloody East Europeans using it to vote for each other. These conclusions assume of course that internet voting would be free, as it currently commonly is during early stages of various national finals, but there's nothing to say that this would automatically be the case.
One thing that's evident is that the EBU would not be keen on losing potential televoting revenue – to the contrary, any change to Eurovision procedures would necessarily have to be to the financial benefit of the participating TV stations, and that means that there would almost certainly be some payment mechanism involved, if online voting did go ahead. There are working examples of this, as the production company Endemol has struck up a relationship with Facebook that will see voting in the company's Big Brother series all over Europe take place on Facebook; indeed, this is already the case in the UK, Turkey and Germany, the latter of which reportedly had 10% of its total eviction votes come from Facebook. Votes are paid for using Facebook credits at a rate set by the broadcaster, and 70% of monies paid revert back to the broadcaster – a comparable amount to premium rate televoting.
Of course, even if voters are paying, there's nothing stopping them voting multiple times, or even embassies and TV stations mass-buying Facebook credits as has allegedly been the case in the past with phone cards. So there would clearly still be security issues, which the Azerbaijanis are reportedly still working on.
Cost recovery and policing the voting wouldn't be the only concern for the EBU. The next issue to address would be how to ensure that every vote was properly counted in the country of the voter. IP addresses can be easily faked, proxies can be used, and smaller states and border towns would have further problems with this. It could be incredibly difficult to allocate every single vote, with certainty, to the correct country of origin, and could definitely be open to abuse - or just plain error.
But how would it work?
Once all of those issues are taken care of, the Reference Group would then have to decide how to implement the changes. Would the internet voting be added on each country's televotes, prior to combining with the jury votes? Or perhaps they'd instead form a third 'category' in the calculation of each country's vote, with an equal weighting to televotes and jury. Or it could even be the case that online voting would form one large, completely separate vote at the end of the contest.
Whatever's decided, if the EBU do decide to take this any further (and it very much is only a rumour at this stage), there's obviously a lot of work to be done, and a lot of factors to be taken into account. The EBU have a history of piloting potential changes to the voting system at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, so keep an eye out for next year's contest in the Netherlands as the first potential opportunity to try all this out.
And what would be the consequences?
Other than thousands of Armenians around the continent repeatedly clicking vote next to that red, blue and 'apricot' coloured flag, what would this change accomplish? It could well engage more younger voters and viewers in the contest, boosting both voting and advertising revenue. And who would it benefit among the acts? I'd suggest it would be those who appeal more to younger people, like the aforementioned Jedward and Saade, but also any act with a big hype on the internet before the contest would likely see this converted into online votes.
I'm not sure personally that I want to see it happening. I think it's far too open to abuse, and I don't have enough confidence in the EBU to ensure that it's a fair system. I don't think they care enough to make sure that it won't just be fans hammering the voting button for their own country for hours and, if that's going to be the case, I'd rather the voting be left as it is.
A slightly different version of this post originally appeared on ESC Nation. I do a lot of writing there (most of which I don't cross-post), so check out the site to read more from me.
Why would they even want to do this?
The Eurovision Song Contest has notably been skewing younger in recent years, as can be clearly seen from the following gained by acts like Eric Saade and Jedward, the latter of whom were met by crowds of screaming girls on a visit to Estonia. The contest is no longer seen as a fuddy-duddy 'light entertainment show', but rather as a popular family entertainment show, enjoyed by all ages. Comments on the official site by teens and tweens are growing, as are the number of profiles set up on the site's social networking function (at least, I hope they're by young people – if not, I despair for the continent's grammar).
Encouraging votes online would be a further way of engaging with this valuable demographic who, it seems, live their entire lives online. It would also provide a means of voting for those who do not have access to a landline to televote; this could include these young people, but also those who have simply made the choice not to have a fixed line telephone for whatever reason, a growing group. While many countries allow SMS voting at Eurovision, some, such as the UK, don't, due to perceived difficulties in counting votes – a telephone vote from a mobile will commonly cost well over €1, so online voting would reach out to this previously disenfranchised group.
Isn't that open to abuse?
The most common complaint among fans on the ESC Nation Message Board when this development was rumoured was that it would be open to abuse, with all those bloody East Europeans using it to vote for each other. These conclusions assume of course that internet voting would be free, as it currently commonly is during early stages of various national finals, but there's nothing to say that this would automatically be the case.
One thing that's evident is that the EBU would not be keen on losing potential televoting revenue – to the contrary, any change to Eurovision procedures would necessarily have to be to the financial benefit of the participating TV stations, and that means that there would almost certainly be some payment mechanism involved, if online voting did go ahead. There are working examples of this, as the production company Endemol has struck up a relationship with Facebook that will see voting in the company's Big Brother series all over Europe take place on Facebook; indeed, this is already the case in the UK, Turkey and Germany, the latter of which reportedly had 10% of its total eviction votes come from Facebook. Votes are paid for using Facebook credits at a rate set by the broadcaster, and 70% of monies paid revert back to the broadcaster – a comparable amount to premium rate televoting.
Of course, even if voters are paying, there's nothing stopping them voting multiple times, or even embassies and TV stations mass-buying Facebook credits as has allegedly been the case in the past with phone cards. So there would clearly still be security issues, which the Azerbaijanis are reportedly still working on.
Cost recovery and policing the voting wouldn't be the only concern for the EBU. The next issue to address would be how to ensure that every vote was properly counted in the country of the voter. IP addresses can be easily faked, proxies can be used, and smaller states and border towns would have further problems with this. It could be incredibly difficult to allocate every single vote, with certainty, to the correct country of origin, and could definitely be open to abuse - or just plain error.
But how would it work?
Once all of those issues are taken care of, the Reference Group would then have to decide how to implement the changes. Would the internet voting be added on each country's televotes, prior to combining with the jury votes? Or perhaps they'd instead form a third 'category' in the calculation of each country's vote, with an equal weighting to televotes and jury. Or it could even be the case that online voting would form one large, completely separate vote at the end of the contest.
Whatever's decided, if the EBU do decide to take this any further (and it very much is only a rumour at this stage), there's obviously a lot of work to be done, and a lot of factors to be taken into account. The EBU have a history of piloting potential changes to the voting system at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, so keep an eye out for next year's contest in the Netherlands as the first potential opportunity to try all this out.
And what would be the consequences?
Other than thousands of Armenians around the continent repeatedly clicking vote next to that red, blue and 'apricot' coloured flag, what would this change accomplish? It could well engage more younger voters and viewers in the contest, boosting both voting and advertising revenue. And who would it benefit among the acts? I'd suggest it would be those who appeal more to younger people, like the aforementioned Jedward and Saade, but also any act with a big hype on the internet before the contest would likely see this converted into online votes.
I'm not sure personally that I want to see it happening. I think it's far too open to abuse, and I don't have enough confidence in the EBU to ensure that it's a fair system. I don't think they care enough to make sure that it won't just be fans hammering the voting button for their own country for hours and, if that's going to be the case, I'd rather the voting be left as it is.
A slightly different version of this post originally appeared on ESC Nation. I do a lot of writing there (most of which I don't cross-post), so check out the site to read more from me.
Monday, 29 August 2011
Eurovision goes country
Those of you who know me will probably know that my two great musical passions are country music and the Eurovision Song Contest. Not two genres that naturally fit well together, I admit, but in this blog entry I'll take a look at nine of the songs that were entered for this year's contest (though didn't get there), which wouldn't necessarily sound out of place on US country radio.
Babel Fish – Depend On Me
Who'd sing it? Rascal Flatts
The first time I heard this song, I was immediately reminded of the group Rascal Flatts. The slightly straining falsetto in the chorus and the sentimental lyrics are very reminiscent of their work, and this song would fit right in on one of their recent albums. I'm not sure they've ever had a stage show that involved looking through the window of a cardboard house though.
Dalma – Song for Him
Who'd sing it? Gretchen Wilson
Dalma puts on the growls a little too much for them to sound authentic, but there's a decent country song at the heart of this – or possibly two or three different country songs. There's a bit of a kiss-off and there's a couple of broken hearts; I'm not so sure about the silliness at the end though – it works well enough as a song without having to be a pastiche.
Evija Sloka – Don't Stop the Dance
Who'd sing it? Pam Tillis
The lyrics are a little questionable, and the accent is all over the place, but there's no mistaking the country influences on this song that never really stood much chance of making it through a Latvian selection. Sloka lists Brad Paisley and Alan Jackson as her dream duet partners.
Hanne Sorvaag – You're Like A Melody
Who'd sing it? Jewel
In 2010, Eurovision fans were comparing Swedish singer Anna Bergendahl and her song 'This Is My Life' to Jewel's earlier work, but nowadays she'd be more likely to record songs like this Norwegian finalist. It's very much at the pop end of pop country, right where Jewel's recent albums have positioned her, and the feelgood similes hold together very well and would fit right in on contemporary country radio.
CH – Gid nif uf
Who'd sing it? Keith Urban (he basically already did!)
Other than being sung in Swiss German, this song sits right in the Keith Urban-school of country music, with pumping beats and a prominent electric guitar line, but it's grounded by the fiddle that runs right through the arrangement. The song's so committed to sounding like Keith Urban that it even steals the entire chorus melody of the Australian's 'I Told You So'.
Yohanna – Nótt
Who'd sing it? Carrie Underwood
It's not really country, but this track would fit right in on a Carrie Underwood album, particularly in its English version, with its considered lyrics and a silky melody that takes off into a crescendo for the last chorus.
Carmel Eckman - Nosa'at el ga'agu'ay
Who'd sing it? Sarah Jarosz
To be honest with you, Israel is more or less the last place where I'd expect to find a song like this. It's a gentle, acoustic ballad, with a lovely strummy guitar and a fiddle break in the middle. Unsurprisingly, it came almost last.
The Lucky Bullets – Fire Below
Who'd sing it? Justin Townes Earle
I was absolutely astounded when I first heard this in the Norwegian preselection, as it sounds so authentically rockabilly – not a hint of the slight 'foreignness' that often blights Eurovision songs that are trying to be very American. I was even more impressed when the Norwegians voted it into third place in the final, and I even got to cheer for it in person!
Pernilla Andersson – Desperados
Who'd sing it? Kathleen Edwards
Perhaps less country and more Americana than some of the songs on this list, 'Desperados' was one step away from making it into the Melodifestivalen final. The gentle chugging beat, the savoured chords and Andersson's velvety voice combine to make this my favourite song of the Eurovision season.
I'm sure many of you will disagree with the singers I've chosen to record these songs, so I invite you to post your suggestions below. And clearly, some of them would need quite a bit of changing and improvement before the singers mentioned would even consider going near them, and they might not take too kindly to being connected to them (sorry Pam Tillis!). But this is Eurovision, I have to take what I can get!
Babel Fish – Depend On Me
Who'd sing it? Rascal Flatts
The first time I heard this song, I was immediately reminded of the group Rascal Flatts. The slightly straining falsetto in the chorus and the sentimental lyrics are very reminiscent of their work, and this song would fit right in on one of their recent albums. I'm not sure they've ever had a stage show that involved looking through the window of a cardboard house though.
Dalma – Song for Him
Who'd sing it? Gretchen Wilson
Dalma puts on the growls a little too much for them to sound authentic, but there's a decent country song at the heart of this – or possibly two or three different country songs. There's a bit of a kiss-off and there's a couple of broken hearts; I'm not so sure about the silliness at the end though – it works well enough as a song without having to be a pastiche.
Evija Sloka – Don't Stop the Dance
Who'd sing it? Pam Tillis
The lyrics are a little questionable, and the accent is all over the place, but there's no mistaking the country influences on this song that never really stood much chance of making it through a Latvian selection. Sloka lists Brad Paisley and Alan Jackson as her dream duet partners.
Hanne Sorvaag – You're Like A Melody
Who'd sing it? Jewel
In 2010, Eurovision fans were comparing Swedish singer Anna Bergendahl and her song 'This Is My Life' to Jewel's earlier work, but nowadays she'd be more likely to record songs like this Norwegian finalist. It's very much at the pop end of pop country, right where Jewel's recent albums have positioned her, and the feelgood similes hold together very well and would fit right in on contemporary country radio.
CH – Gid nif uf
Who'd sing it? Keith Urban (he basically already did!)
Other than being sung in Swiss German, this song sits right in the Keith Urban-school of country music, with pumping beats and a prominent electric guitar line, but it's grounded by the fiddle that runs right through the arrangement. The song's so committed to sounding like Keith Urban that it even steals the entire chorus melody of the Australian's 'I Told You So'.
Yohanna – Nótt
Who'd sing it? Carrie Underwood
It's not really country, but this track would fit right in on a Carrie Underwood album, particularly in its English version, with its considered lyrics and a silky melody that takes off into a crescendo for the last chorus.
Carmel Eckman - Nosa'at el ga'agu'ay
Who'd sing it? Sarah Jarosz
To be honest with you, Israel is more or less the last place where I'd expect to find a song like this. It's a gentle, acoustic ballad, with a lovely strummy guitar and a fiddle break in the middle. Unsurprisingly, it came almost last.
The Lucky Bullets – Fire Below
Who'd sing it? Justin Townes Earle
I was absolutely astounded when I first heard this in the Norwegian preselection, as it sounds so authentically rockabilly – not a hint of the slight 'foreignness' that often blights Eurovision songs that are trying to be very American. I was even more impressed when the Norwegians voted it into third place in the final, and I even got to cheer for it in person!
Pernilla Andersson – Desperados
Who'd sing it? Kathleen Edwards
Perhaps less country and more Americana than some of the songs on this list, 'Desperados' was one step away from making it into the Melodifestivalen final. The gentle chugging beat, the savoured chords and Andersson's velvety voice combine to make this my favourite song of the Eurovision season.
I'm sure many of you will disagree with the singers I've chosen to record these songs, so I invite you to post your suggestions below. And clearly, some of them would need quite a bit of changing and improvement before the singers mentioned would even consider going near them, and they might not take too kindly to being connected to them (sorry Pam Tillis!). But this is Eurovision, I have to take what I can get!
Thursday, 27 May 2010
No Eurovision in the UK charts?
One measure of the success of Eurovision entries, and the contest as a whole, is how many entries end up in countries’ own official charts, tracking how many people actually bought the entries after the contest. Yesterday it was mentioned that several entries had already gone on to the iTunes charts of some countries, like Sweden and Ireland. I decided to have a look and see if any of Tuesday’s competitors had hit the UK iTunes chart.
The answer was, effectively, no. The only one that did was Iceland, right near the bottom. Wondering why, I went to the album page, and got my answer. About ten of the songs are listed as ‘album only’. This means that you cannot purchase them separately, you only get them when buying the whole album. The same is true on Amazon.
Unfortunately (though presumably by design), this affects several of the favourites, and some of those more likely to chart in the UK – Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Azerbaijan, even the UK. Some of these may well be available elsewhere on download sites, but some aren’t, and even if they are, people are unlikely to go delving further. This happened last year too, but with fewer of the favourites involved.
The entire point of digital music purchasing is that it allows consumers to cherry pick what they want to buy, and with ease. If it’s complicated, they just won’t bother. And people are unlikely to want to buy the whole album too. It’s really frustrating to see how Eurovision is, yet again, falling behind the trends of the modern world, and showing itself as a dinosaur, out of touch with modern music, in more ways than one.
I’m not holding my breath at all of there being several hits in the UK charts from this year’s contest. And that’s a shame, because it can happen, as seen by Rybak and Yohanna making it last year, and because entries charting can add a bit of credibility to a contest sometimes sorely lacking it. But if the organisers and the distributors cannot get simple things like this right, it’s not surprising.
The answer was, effectively, no. The only one that did was Iceland, right near the bottom. Wondering why, I went to the album page, and got my answer. About ten of the songs are listed as ‘album only’. This means that you cannot purchase them separately, you only get them when buying the whole album. The same is true on Amazon.
Unfortunately (though presumably by design), this affects several of the favourites, and some of those more likely to chart in the UK – Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Azerbaijan, even the UK. Some of these may well be available elsewhere on download sites, but some aren’t, and even if they are, people are unlikely to go delving further. This happened last year too, but with fewer of the favourites involved.
The entire point of digital music purchasing is that it allows consumers to cherry pick what they want to buy, and with ease. If it’s complicated, they just won’t bother. And people are unlikely to want to buy the whole album too. It’s really frustrating to see how Eurovision is, yet again, falling behind the trends of the modern world, and showing itself as a dinosaur, out of touch with modern music, in more ways than one.
I’m not holding my breath at all of there being several hits in the UK charts from this year’s contest. And that’s a shame, because it can happen, as seen by Rybak and Yohanna making it last year, and because entries charting can add a bit of credibility to a contest sometimes sorely lacking it. But if the organisers and the distributors cannot get simple things like this right, it’s not surprising.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Some thoughts on Melodifestivalen 2010
I’ve been thinking a lot about MF this year, more than other years, so I figured I may as well write those thoughts down in a blog. For those who don’t know, Melodifestivalen is the Swedish festival, held over a period of six weeks, which eventually selects their Eurovision representative.
There’ve been a couple of big changes this year. The first is a shift (probably conscious) away from the schlager entries to a greater variety of genres and styles, debatably more relevant to the general music scene. Whether the entries themselves are better or not is a matter of personal taste.
What has resulted is quite a variety of qualifiers to the final. Of the eight entries there already, only one could really be described as the kind of schlager that normally dominates this contest (Eric Saade's Manboy), with one other skirting the boundaries, being closer to the more old-fashioned dansband-schlager type of music (Timoteij's Kom), which would nevertheless be a different kind of winner for Sweden. The question is: does this mean more of a chance for Sweden to finally choose something different as its winner? Statistically, it does, but some have argued in previous years that if there were just one schlager to choose from, the voters that would normally be split between those entries will all gravitate towards one.
Then there is the change in the announcements of the qualifiers from the semi-finals. In a break from tradition, this year we know which of the two qualifiers won the first round of voting each time. Some might consider that the winner would definitely come from these four (which are Salem Al Fakir's Keep On Walking, Anna Bergendahl's This Is My Life and the aforementioned Kom and Manboy). Will fans of these songs realise they have a big chance of winning, and vote for them more vehemently? Or will they relax, feeling that they’re already popular and their vote isn’t needed? And will fans of the songs and artists who qualified in second place not bother voting, because they feel their favourite cannot win, or will they vote more, knowing their favourite is in greater need of their votes? It’s a difficult question to call, and it will be interesting to see if any conclusions can be drawn from the televoting results next Saturday.
The final change that’s been made is on the juries. Instead of eleven juries based in cities around Sweden, there will be just five of these, with the remaining six calling in their votes from around Europe. It’s hard to predict what difference this will make (if any), but it will be interesting to see if they differ from their Swedish counterparts – and especially the reaction if they happen to swing the result away from the Swedish choice!
It remains to be seen, then, whether these changes will result in Sweden choosing something different and fresh as its Melodifestivalen winner (and Eurovision entrant). One thing that is clear is that the contest definitely feels different this year, and is fresher and more varied. Personally I like this change (though not necessarily all of the songs), though I know many, suffering from schlager withdrawal, would disagree with this. My personal prediction is that Eric Saade will win the final, which would really disappoint me after all the potential of several of the other finalists (though the blow would be softened somewhat by the winnings from the bet I’ve put on him). Regardless, I’m really looking forward to the final!
There’ve been a couple of big changes this year. The first is a shift (probably conscious) away from the schlager entries to a greater variety of genres and styles, debatably more relevant to the general music scene. Whether the entries themselves are better or not is a matter of personal taste.
What has resulted is quite a variety of qualifiers to the final. Of the eight entries there already, only one could really be described as the kind of schlager that normally dominates this contest (Eric Saade's Manboy), with one other skirting the boundaries, being closer to the more old-fashioned dansband-schlager type of music (Timoteij's Kom), which would nevertheless be a different kind of winner for Sweden. The question is: does this mean more of a chance for Sweden to finally choose something different as its winner? Statistically, it does, but some have argued in previous years that if there were just one schlager to choose from, the voters that would normally be split between those entries will all gravitate towards one.
Then there is the change in the announcements of the qualifiers from the semi-finals. In a break from tradition, this year we know which of the two qualifiers won the first round of voting each time. Some might consider that the winner would definitely come from these four (which are Salem Al Fakir's Keep On Walking, Anna Bergendahl's This Is My Life and the aforementioned Kom and Manboy). Will fans of these songs realise they have a big chance of winning, and vote for them more vehemently? Or will they relax, feeling that they’re already popular and their vote isn’t needed? And will fans of the songs and artists who qualified in second place not bother voting, because they feel their favourite cannot win, or will they vote more, knowing their favourite is in greater need of their votes? It’s a difficult question to call, and it will be interesting to see if any conclusions can be drawn from the televoting results next Saturday.
The final change that’s been made is on the juries. Instead of eleven juries based in cities around Sweden, there will be just five of these, with the remaining six calling in their votes from around Europe. It’s hard to predict what difference this will make (if any), but it will be interesting to see if they differ from their Swedish counterparts – and especially the reaction if they happen to swing the result away from the Swedish choice!
It remains to be seen, then, whether these changes will result in Sweden choosing something different and fresh as its Melodifestivalen winner (and Eurovision entrant). One thing that is clear is that the contest definitely feels different this year, and is fresher and more varied. Personally I like this change (though not necessarily all of the songs), though I know many, suffering from schlager withdrawal, would disagree with this. My personal prediction is that Eric Saade will win the final, which would really disappoint me after all the potential of several of the other finalists (though the blow would be softened somewhat by the winnings from the bet I’ve put on him). Regardless, I’m really looking forward to the final!
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