Andra Chansen: Football For Eurofans

Those of you who are not huge fans of Melodifestivalen will be glad to know that in eight days or so this wave of excitement will end. However also, very sadly as Melodifestivalen comes to an end so does the National Final season and with that comes a strange silence over the world of Eurovision fandom.

But enough pessimism on with Andra Chansen. If you have never been through Andra Chansen before Scandipop have an explaination of it here.

The first duel is between Dynasty and Top Cats. Dynasty have a fairly average sounding rock song helped by a lack of rock in Melodifestivalen this year. Top Cats have something that sounds like The Playtones last year but it is not anything monumental. My guess is that Dynasty should win this duel. However rock is often screened out of Andra Chansen.

The second duel is probably the most high profile for Eurovision/Melodifestivalen fans. Timoteij with their rather good song and Andreas Johnsson. Those who remember his MF 2006/2007 entries will see some parallels between Lovelight and those. However I think his song is just a little below those greats. I would love to say that Timoteij will get through but this is just to close to call.

The third duel contains Lotta Engberg and Christer Sjogren up against Thorsten Flinck once again this could go their way. I reckon that Lotta and Christer will do it their chessy but sweet song could appeal to a more wider vote. Nevertheless there is a certain "Caroline Af Ugglas" feel to this song. That has proven in the past as being a vote getter.

Finally duel four will consist of Sean Banan and Youngblood. Here you have a rather poorish song and another rather poorish song. However Youngblood probably will get through from here as there is little to take the young teen girl vote.

I'm not going to go into depth about the second round but it certainly looks like we will have an exciting and heartbreaking contest.

Sweden Finally Gets It Right: Semi-Final Reaction

Because of the rather huge number of shows tonight my reactions are divided into two pieces one for the semi-finals [this one] and one for the ones selecting their ESC song [later].

Sweden: This evenings semi-final in Leksand finally brought me some happiness with the result. Over the last two weeks I had become concerned about the general way the final of  Melodifestivalen was shaping up. This week looked set to be another disappointing one until BANG out came Molly Sandén, looking very sexy and with a vocal performance to match. Her vocals were far more emotional and on key then the earlier clips and rehearsals would suggest. I was also extremely impressed to see them send Bjorn Ranelid and Sara Li to the final. It is an excellent song even if 99% of Eurovision fans dislike it. They also smartly sent Youngblood and Andreas Johnsson to Andra Chansen. Andra Chansen is shaping up to be a very tough contest.

Estonia: It would seem that Estonia have sent August Hunt, Loss Paranoias, Ott Lepland, Liis Lemsalu, POP Maniacs to the final. This does not appear to have gone down well with Eurovision fans, but because I did not watch the show I have no opinion but given my reviews I actually think this was a broadly good result.


Lithuania: Something happened in Lithuania you can read about it here: http://escxtra.com/2012/02/impressions-from-the-3rd-semifinal/

So that was the semi-finals.

A Slightly Poorer Semi-Final

Sweden presented their songs as is now a regular Thursday job. So here come the somewhat later than usual.

Youngblood- Generic boyband. What is more interesting is the beat of the song, which strangely is the exact same as Eric Saade's Manboy - I've checked. The song does not have quite as strong a melody but still I'd say this should go directly to the final because it is well positioned in front of some rather dull songs and there is very little in this semi to soak up the teen girl [except Molly Sandén]. Also having people often go for the beat over anything else so that figures. I was not the biggest fan of Manboy and the same is here. Grade: C+

Maria BenHajji - I like a tryer and this is a very sweet but unremarkable song. This will most likely stay at the early stage of the competition. Might struggle to be in 7th place. Grade: C-

Carolina Wallin Pérez - Very strange song, not helped by Carolina. Like the last one I cannot see how this could go anywhere in the semi-final. Grade: E-

Mattias Andrésson - A song that is best described as "fine". There is nothing extremely worng with the song but it could do with a lift. Grade: D+

Love Generation - Finally, something good. This is a tiny bit more rockish then I had expected, however the is a few problems with how the chorus works. It reminds me a lot of a pink song. But face it is Love Generation - that alone makes them great.  Personally love this but reckon this could struggle to make Andra Chansen tomorrow night. Grade: B+

Andreas Johnsson - Yeah, here we go again. For someone who said that he was finished with Melodifestivalen in 2010 he sure is back fast. This is more like what I would expect from Andreas Johnsson. It is largely more close to his 2006/7 entries but I still think that this just is not as good as they were. I think it sounds like Andra Chansen. Grade: B-

Molly Sandén - Molly Sandén: Sweden's answer to Miley Cyrus. Without a doubt Molly's popularity should carry her through to the final but this song is a little behind my expectations for this song. It is not as good as her 2009 entry Sa Vill Stjorna. The problem with the Sandén sisters is it all a bit soft and cuddly. I'd personally try something a little more rockish with this song but we have what we have let's see where this goes. Grade: B

Bjorn Ranelid & Sara Lis - There goes a time anytime you review things where you have to just put your credibility on the line and see what happens so here we go: I think this song is excellent. Yes, I have listened to it at least 40 times today but I still think that there is something very strnage about it that I just love. Everything about it works. As they say in the North: it's the way you tell'm. I don't fully understand why I love this all I know is I do. Grade: A

So as you can see I would love to see Bjorn and Sara go through to the final with Love Generation but I suspect it will be Molly and Youngblood. I would like to see Molly and Andreas in AC but suspect it will be Bjorn/ Sara with Andreas. I will post a Latvian final review if I find the time.