With any luck, Sweden will be picking this tonight to represent them in Düsseldorf. Eric Saade's 'Popular' has been in my head every day for the last two weeks. You can't beat a Boney M. intro and the routine will keep German glaziers in business for a fortnight. Do it, Sverige!



Failing that, Linda Bengtzing, please! It's her turn.



Or The Moniker. Because this song's also pretty damn good.

Labels: Eric Saade, Eurovision 2011, Linda Bengtzing, Melodifestivalen, Sweden, The Moniker

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Måns Zelmerlöw - Hope & Glory



Or this, my second favourite, co-written with Frederik Kempe, as was Hope & Glory above (and Sarah Dawn Finer's song - he has three of the eleven!)

Malena Ernman - La Voix



I have narrowed down the field of eleven contenders in tonight's Melodifestivalen final to eight possible winners. It really is that wide open. I don't think Agnes, H.E.A.T. or Sofia can win, but anyone else could do it. And the juries will probably deny the public their choice once again. I won't be surprised. We'll be partying at Glitterball Mansions and I'll be cheering on Måns Zelmerlöw for a bit of Hope & Glory for himself, after he was so cruelly denied with Cara Mia - the most played song on my PC, according to my stats on last.fm.

I have a feeling that Måns may lose out narrowly again though. This could be the year that Sweden shakes off the schlager shroud and goes for the quirky song in Swedish, sung by a woman who seems slightly disturbed. It could well be Caroline af Ugglas's night. Or Sarah Dawn Finer's. Or EMD's. Or Molly's. Or anyone's really...

The finalists:

1 Måns Zelmerlöw - Hope & Glory
Schlagertastic, with hunky Måns and another tightly choreographed dance routine. One of the best breakdowns in modern pop, which makes me feel the need to get very drunk and shout it very loudly on a dancefloor. Pop perfection.

2 Caroline af Ugglas - Snälla, snälla
Slow and hypnotic, but a grower, not a shower. Strongly fancied.

3 Agnes - Love, Love, Love
Discotastic, but not strong enough to win.

4 H.E.A.T. - 1,000 Miles
Rocktastic, in that schlager-rock way that only Sweden can do.

5 Emilia - You're My World
Calm down Cilla, calm down! This is not your song of the same name. This is, however, the same Emilia who had a #5 UK hit a decade ago with Big, Big World. She likes 'world' songs, it seems. It's catchy and deserves to be in the final, Unfortunately, it's being supported by Carola and as she's the daughter of Satan, I can't go near it.

6 Alcazar - Stay The Night
A return to form for the newly-constituted Alcazar, voted straight into the final this time, but probably not strong enough, much as they deserve their turn at Eurovision. The biggest danger with this song is that if Amii Stewart is in the vicinity of Stockholm, she may rush onto the stage in some sort of Pavlovian response to the rhythm track, which steals the drum beats from Knock On Wood to magnificent effect.

7 Sarah Dawn Finer - Moving On
Classy and captivating. A worthy winner if it succeeds.

8 E.M.D. - Baby Goodbye
More Pop Idol refugees who are not exactly ugly. A great pop/cabaret performance and a catchy song.

9 Sofia - Alla
The international jury's choice, sung in Greek. Will flop, as it did in the heat before the jury rescued it. It just sounds a bit messy.

10 Molly Sandén - Så vill stjärnorna
Pure class, sung by a teenager with a voice beyond her years. One of those songs where it doesn't matter if you don't understand Swedish; it still sounds great.

11 Malena Ernman - La Voix
Popera! An amazing opera voice and an instantly hummable song. Her only weakness is the singing at the beginning, before she switches to opera, which is clearly her forte. By the end though, people will be so impressed that they'll have forgotten any initial shakiness.

Labels: Eurovision 2009, Melodifestivalen

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In readiness for last night's Melodifestivalen final in Sweden, I invited various international friends, via text message and Facebook, to text their top three to me. Some people were in Globen. Others were watching at home. Eighteen sets of results were received, from eight different nationalities. I gave their top threes 12, 10 and 8 points, and we then converted the totals into the equivalent points of eighteen people, which were then added by our chief scrutineer (hi Kevin!) to our votes in the room. (Also eighteen people, coincidentally.)

At our party, Charlotte Perrelli's 'Hero' only came sixth. Yes, sixth! I put it down to her singing, which was far from impressive. And we were the people watching it on TV. It was the votes from our friends in Globen and elsewhere who put her first, making her second to BWO in our overall scores. I doubt if the people in Globen could hear the singing properly, so make what you will of the results. (Sanna was only fifth at our party anyway.)

(When I was at Eurovision-Your Decision, I thought LoveShy were singing perfectly. Then I watched it at home a few days later. Blimey! You just can't tell in a TV studio or large hall how something sounds on TV.)

Thank you to all who took part, some in twos and threes. Specifically, thanks to Finns Tero, Juha and Tiina, Swedes Jojo and Håkan, German Thorsten, Irishmen Adrian, Dermot and Keith, Scottish Andrew, Welsh Russell and various other Brits with a multitude of racial backgrounds including Nico's Cypriot flavour; Glen, Joseph, Phil, Mark, Andy, Dean, Joe, David and Andrew.

The total points given by our texters were as follows. You will see that the bottom four all scored one measly 8 points each. I used my casting vote to split these as it made almost no difference to the totals.

'INTERNATIONAL JURY' TEXT SCORES
Position/Points/Song/Artiste

1st 176 Hero - Charlotte Perrelli
2nd 140 Lay your love on me - BWO
3rd 82 Just a minute - Rongedal
4th 80 Empty room - Sanna Nielsen
5th 22 I love Europe - Christer Sjögren
6th 10 Upp o hoppa - Frida ft. Headline
7th 8 That is where I'll go - Sibel
8th 8 Hur svårt kan det va? - Linda Bengtzing
9th 8 Thank you - Amy Diamond
10th 8 I lågornas sken - Nordman


HOUSE PARTY SCORES:
Position/Points/Song

1st 182 Lay your love on me
2nd 132 I love Europe
=3rd 114 Hur svårt kan det va?
=3rd 114 Just a minute
5th 112 Empty room
6th 108 Hero
7th 99 I lågornas sken
8th 72 That is where I'll go
9th 64 Upp o hoppa
10th 47 Thank you


OVERALL: HOUSE PARTY & JURY COMBINED:
(Please note these are NOT the two sets of scores above added together, as the text votes were converted into Eurovision points.)

Position/Points/Song

1st 362 Lay your love on me
2nd 324 Hero
3rd 258 Just a minute
4th 240 I love Europe
5th 238 Empty room
6th 168 Hur svårt kan det va?
7th 154 Upp o hoppa
8th 144 That is where I'll go
9th 117 I lågornas sken
10th 83 Thank you

Labels: Eurovision 2008, Melodifestivalen

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Democracy. It's a fragile thing. In Sweden last night, for the second time in four years, SVT decided to ignore it. They didn't just ignore it, they stomped all over it in silvery high heels and kicked it away. Sanna Nielsen (left, possibly crying) won the public vote, after her faultless rendition of Empty Room, but Charlotte Perrelli will be Sweden's representative again at Eurovision, because the regional juries, made up of a few handfuls of people, gave Charlotte a commanding lead. The jury votes are given equal weight with the televote, so the wishes of the public are ignored again. This is just what happened in 2005, when the public voted for Nanne Gro:nvall, but Martin Stenmarck went to Eurovision, chosen by the juries. It's a really stupid system, made even more galling by the fact that Perrelli's vocals were far from perfect, whereas Nielsen performed a more difficult song quite brilliantly.

This is the second time in three years that Sweden has sent one of its former Eurovision winners back to the contest. Carola won Eurovision in 1991 and went back in 2006. Charlotte (then Nilsson) won in Jerusalem in 1999. At this rate, Herreys will be digging out their golden shoes for a Eurovision trip in 2010.

Oh well, we had a really fun Melodifestivalen party and I won the 'pass the glitterball' prize; a Serbian-English dictionary, which will come in very handy in May!

Labels: Eurovision 2008, Melodifestivalen

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Labels: Melodifestivalen, Sweden

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Plucky little San Marino (©) revealed their début song for Eurovision on Tuesday (above), after hosts Serbia chose their sure-fire top six song on Monday night. After Russia, Portugal, Armenia and Belgium all chose at the weekend, that means we now know 42 of this year's 43 songs. That just leaves Sweden, and it's anybody's guess! The Melodifestivalen final takes place tomorrow, without Carola (hurrah!) but with almost everyone I know in attendance (or so it seems at times).

Carola and her foolhardy duet partner Andreas Johnson were knocked out of the second chance Andra Chansen heat on Saturday night by gnarly Nordman, so they won't be appearing in the final and he will. She probably had the fear right from the start, when she realised Nordman was singing a song about burning witches. Luckily for Carola, she kept away from the set and they found someone else to play the part instead. (Quite horrible it was too, with a woman disappearing into the flames, which were thankfully only digital. You can see it below, if you like that kind of thing.)

Most people think the Swedish winner is between song 1 and song 10. 'Hero' is a schlager stomper by 1999's Eurovision winner Charlotte Perrelli (formerly Charlotte Nilsson). Because she's had her turn, I think I would prefer to see BWO (formerly Bodies Without Organs) have a go and bring some contemporary pop to the contest. It would also give BWO a realistic hope of a follow-up hit to their UK #69 smash from two weeks ago, Sunshine In The Rain, which dropped straight out of our top 100 this week after its seven day stay, which was largely due to playlisting on BBC Radio 2.

However, both Charlotte and BWO's songs are superb and Rongedal's is a great pop track too, in the vein of Mika or Scissor Sisters (or any other current male singer who sings in the higher register). Personally, I love Linda Bengtzing and her song, one of only three in Swedish, is a belter too. Even the gorgeously cheesy 'I Love Europe' by Christer Sjögren would probably do quite well in Beograd if the Swedes have a collective moment of madness come the televote. Sanna Nielsen has the big ballad, except that Sibel came through the Andra Chansen, so she also has a big ballad, which may well see the way clear for Charlotte to win. That's not my theory, it's the theory of two "brittiska experterna" quoted in the Swedish press this week:



That's funny, they look amazingly like the two blokes whose house I stayed at last Saturday after watching the Andra Chansen and the Spanish marathon...

Here are all ten finalists, in the running order for tomorrow. Which one's your favourite? Who do you think is going to win? If you're thinking, 'Oh blimey, I'd really like to watch all ten of these videos, but my busy lifestyle only allows me time for nine', I can help. Don't bother with 'Upp o Hoppa'. It's crap.

1. Charlotte Perrelli - Hero
2. Sibel - That is where I'll go
3. Rongedal - Just a minute
4. Linda Bengtzing - Hur svårt kan det va?
5. Christer Sjögren - I love Europe
6. Amy Diamond - Thank you
7. Sanna Nielsen - Empty room
8. Nordman - I lågornas sken
9. Frida ft. Headline - Upp o hoppa
10. BWO - Lay your love on me

1. Charlotte Perrelli - Hero



2. Sibel - That is where I'll go



3. Rongedal - Just a minute



4. Linda Bengtzing - Hur svårt kan det va?



5. Christer Sjögren - I love Europe



6. Amy Diamond - Thank you



7. Sanna Nielsen - Empty room



8. Nordman - I lågornas sken



9. Frida ft. Headline - Upp o hoppa



10. BWO - Lay your love on me

Labels: Eurovision 2008, Melodifestivalen, San Marino, Sweden, YouTube

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"Dramatic energetic disco with a heavy bass. Double chorus sections, spoken seductive part by Marina, and of course a key change. Madonna meets Boney M meets Abba at their darkest. Fireworks, elevators, bombs. And Marina on a long bright red couch, from which she will never move one bit, except when she mumbles or plays the synthesizer solo. 100% show, 100% drama."

Doesn't that just sound like the most fantabulous Eurovision entry ever? Whoopee! Sadly, it's the BWO song, 'Lay Your Love On Me' in tomorrow's Melodifestivalen heat in Sweden, not one of ours, as described by the band's loveable lunatic Alexander Bard to the Schlagerboys. It's my favourite song of the year and I haven't even heard it yet.

Fear not though, the UK's songs for Eurovision have been revealed today to a salivating public on the new, super-duper BBC Eurovision website. (If you thought you'd seen it earlier in the week, look again and blink. That was just the warm-up act. Today's version is the proper one.)


The clips on the BBC website are only 30 seconds long, but the full versions are available in all the usual places. In all honesty, the clips are quite misleading and don't give enough of an impression to make any proper judgements.

Luckily for you, I've played the full versions in order to have an opinion to share with you. Unluckily for you, I've played them in heavy rotation and lost all objectivity, forgetting to make any comments on them after just one hearing, which is how they will be judged next Saturday and how one of them will be judged in Beograd (if there's any of the city left by May).

All the songs are good. There's no turkey. (That's Ireland tomorrow.) But none of them are brilliant. This bodes extremely well for the TV show, because I haven't a clue what's going to win now, but there's nothing here which will hoover up points in Serbia.

Andy Abraham and The Revelations both have really strong songs, when taken out of the Eurovision context, but that's where they're best. I just can't envisage either of them on a Eurovision stage. But I can imagine The Revelations representing us, about 25 years ago. As a catchy Motown pastiche, their song is fabulous, and I'm enjoying it over and over again, but it's not what we should be sending to Eurovision. Andy's is funky and catchy, but this type of song would just sink without trace in Beograd, sad to say.

Rob McVeigh's power ballad is good, but it just doesn't achieve its full potential. It promises to go somewhere, then backs down again, then has a sort of fireworks moment, but it's more of a sparkler than a Roman candle. It needs a bit more punch, but that could easily be done before May, if he manages to scrape through next week. Rob should definitely wear his shirt open like this though. That will help.

Michelle Gayle's song, already with the disadvantage of the stupid title Woo (U Make Me), gets off to a very sudden start and reaches the chorus in record time, but the chorus is a load of nonsense. This is the kind of song that only exists in Eurovision preselections, in the same vein as Liz McAtomicKitten's effort last year, which also had a daft title with brackets in, namely (Don't It Make You) Happy! Michelle's song would never be played on the radio in this country and would never be a hit (except it if were to win this, but I don't think it will).

Simona's song is the weakest of the lot and I don't like her voice. It's rather screechy on this. Listen to the recording and it sounds like a high risk song for a live performance. It's not a song I expected from a former Maria contestant, which is brave of her, but if the judges put this through to the televote and not Rob's song, there will be rioting in the studio.

Which leaves LoveShy. Welcome to Serbia, Aimee and Emma. I think this is strong enough to do it, if the live vocals can cut the mustard with the beefy backing track. To be honest, the production on this recorded version sounds a bit muddy and muffled, but I think it may sound clearer on stage. They have also promised to have at least one 'Mr Gorgeous' on stage with them, which may just swing it. I intend to find out in the next few days if any of them will be familiar faces.

So, there we go. My prediction, having heard the songs, is exactly the same final (LoveShy vs. Rob) as I predicted two days ago before hearing more than a snippet of all of them. How odd, or strangely prescient, depending on your point of view.

Now, what will it take to get BWO (right) to represent us next year? (Failure in Sweden is probably the realistic answer to that question. Now I don't know whether or not to support them in the Melodifestivalen. Oh, life is full of dilemmas.)

Labels: BWO, Eurovision-Your Decision, Melodifestivalen, predictions

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I knew it would get onto YouTube pretty quickly. Here's Carola's reaction last night. She's trying to look pleased that her duet with Andreas Johnson has only finished third or fourth and won a place in the 'second chance' heat, not the final. Her face tells a different story.



You can make up your own mind about their performance last night here. It's not a bad song, but there's quite a bit of screeching from Carola and three or four of the other songs were better.

Labels: Andreas Johnson, Carola, Eurovision 2008, Melodifestivalen, Sweden, YouTube

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'The One And Only', or 'That show with the Dusty Springfield woman' as we've been calling it since week one, has been won by Dusty Springfield tonight, which should have surprised no one and is very well deserved. She was amazing. I don't think there's been a more obvious winner of a TV singing competition since, ooh, Connie as Maria.

The next obvious win will be next Saturday when Dustin, not Dusty, wins the ticket to Eurovision from Ireland, where he works in North Dublin as a builder, despite being a turkey. A turkey who looks like a vulture. A puppet turkey vulture. That's him looking down on you from the top left. If Dustin doesn't win next week I will live on potatoes for the week after. Possibly.

Dustin was even on The One Show in the UK this week, when they announced that the UK's Eurovision hopefuls would be featured on the show before our national final. (I'm hoping that our show features at least one ex-soap star, a transparent girlband, Bob the Builder, a failed Maria and a singing dustman, but what do I know?) Westlife were also in the studio when Dustin appeared by video link 'from Ireland' and Adrian Chiles seemed surprised that Westlife knew of Dustin, which is odd, as the turkey has been famous in Ireland longer than Westlife have and released a fair few albums and singles of his own. If the BBC researcher had been skilled in the art of YouTube searching - admittedly it's not something anyone can manage - they could even have found this, which I had seen before, and then no one would have been surprised. Dustin even manages a reference to last year's disastrous Eurovision result for Ireland.



At least there were surprises in Sweden's televised singing competition tonight. I watched the second Melodifestivalen heat live on the net (in almost judder-free, full screen quality - thank you SVT). The horrible homophobe Carola had teamed up with the previously likeable (although I will now question his judgment, or his level of desperation) Andreas Johnson, who she cruelly beat to the Eurovision place in 2006. Despite Sweden's liberalism, they make strange allowances for this bloody awful woman and this, in theory, should have been a dream ticket to the final. However, they didn't make it. The only managed to win a place in the 'Andra Chansen' second chance heat, which means they finished third or fourth tonight. I laughed a lot, especially as the camera was on her face when the result was revealed and she looked like she had just realised she had wet herself. It was priceless.

Sanna Nielsen claimed one of the places in the final with a good ballad which she sang superbly at first. (She wobbled a bit in her reprise, but she was already through by then, so I think the shock of qualifying was getting to her a little). She sings in English superbly, with very clear enunciation and very little accent, which lifted her song way above the others tonight.

The other finalists were Rongedal, who did a great presentation of a pop song, Just A Minute, with twins (I presume) looking like Richard O'Brien in red suits, singing like Jake Shears. It clearly caught the Swedes' attention.

However, I can't help feeling that Sweden's best chance for Beograd has gone by the wayside. Andra Generationen finished fifth, so will go no further. Their song Kebabpizza Slivovitza, although it was tonight's light relief, would have gone down well with ALL the Balkan countries and picked up votes from everywhere else too. It sounded like a Swedish pop song performed by a Macedonian wedding band, which is pretty much what it was. With a nod to the Eurovision host nation in the title, it would have gone down well in the hall at least. (Slivovitza is Serbia's 'national drink'; a plum liqueur that I look forward to sampling when in Belgrade!)

Oh well, Eurovision in Belgrade has more to worry about than whatever song Sweden is sending. The elephant in the room is about to wake up and roar. Following the election of the 'pro-European' candidate as President in Serbia last weekend, Kosovo seems certain to declare independence tomorrow. The streets of Belgrade are full of people already tonight. Let's hope they manage to come to a peaceful solution.

Labels: Beograd, Eurovision 2008, Kosovo, Melodifestivalen, Serbia, Sweden

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Well, at least the regional juries and the national televote both agreed on the Swedish winner this year, for the first time in at least three years. The Ark's retro shang-a-langing won convincingly last night. The Schlagerboys were distraught as Anna Book schlagered her way to one solitary point (versus The Ark's 248), by sounding out of breath all the way through 'Samba Sambero'. It was doomed. I tried to warn the Schlagerboys by text, because I know you can't hear properly when you're in the hall - I was there last year. We heard from them later that they are now "over Sweden". I think they may be convinced to change their minds.

The dark horse contestant also cocked up slightly on the vocal front, but in a different way. Marie Lindberg's lack of experience - she hadn't sung in front of an audience until she performed in an arena last month, and qualified for the final - showed through at the start, with a few bum notes in the first verse, which made it slightly uncomfortable to watch; I really felt for her. The Swedish public did too, voting her their fourth favourite in the televote, leaving her fifth overall. The juries had all ignored her, apart from Malmö, who gave her four points. I suspect she may be from somewhere near Malmö.

So, The Ark will no doubt be listed as one of the favourites in Helsinki. They've definitely secured Sweden another top ten finish, but I'm not sure it's the winner. (To my mind, that's currently Switzerland's DJ Bobo.)

We had a great party last night watching the Melodifestivalen final. Twenty-one people, including a Finnish woman (who spoke Swedish, which was useful), a Belgian man and a Frenchman. These were the results of the Glitterball Mansions international jury (with the real Swedish positions in brackets):

1 (3) Måns Zelmerlöw
2 (7) Sanna Nielsen
3 (1) The Ark
4 (4) Sarah Dawn Finer
=5 (8) Sebastian
=5 (9) Anna Book
7 (6) Sonja Aldén
8 (2) Andreas Johnson
9 (5) Marie Lindberg
10 (10) Tommy Nilsson

(To be continued - I'm off to watch the rugby first!)

Labels: Eurovision 2007, Melodifestivalen, Sweden

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There will be 21 of us, crammed into the parlour at Glitterball Mansions tonight for the live final of Sweden's Melodifestivalen, some Swedish food and a very special announcement from our hosts. As far as Globen is concerned, Sweden, please pick this! Tack så mycket!

'Cara Mia' - Måns Zelmerlöw



It seems most people in Sweden think The Ark will win instead, while the big boss man of Melodifestivalen, Christer Björkmann, says that Sweden needs to pick a ballad. You can play a fabulous game while watching this video of The Ark's performance, by seeing how many of the following references you can spot:

The intro: Bardo's 'One Step Further' and Charlotte Nilsson's 'Take Me To Your Heaven'.
The tune: Edison Lighthouse's 'Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Grows)' and 'Cinderella Rockefeller' by Esther & Abi Ofarim.
The rhythm: Bay City Rollers' 'Shang-A-Lang'.
The look: Marc Bolan meets Babylon Zoo.
The synchronised guitar movements: The Glitter Band.
The lyrical references: 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' and The Move's 'Fire Brigade'.
The vocal stylings: Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and David Bowie.
The homage to Gina G's dress: That sparkly thing around his neck. (He's admitted this.)

Then there's the undressing, by a man for a change. How many more references can you spot?

'The Worrying Kind' - The Ark



Our chums the Schlagerboys (and a few others) are in Stockholm. The poor, deluded things are flogging Anna Book's dead horse 'Samba Sambero' for her, but Chig can confidently predict that the winner has been narrowed down to one of six (from ten). Now just watch one of the other four go and win.

The ten contenders are all below on one audio clip, with photos. Roughly in order of their winning chances, Chig predicts a winner from one of these six:

'Cara Mia' - Måns Zelmerlöw
'The Worrying Kind' - The Ark
'Trying To Recall' - Marie Lindberg
'I Remember Love' - Sarah Dawn Finer
'A Little Bit Of Love' - Andreas Johnson
'When The Night Comes Falling' - Sebastian

I can't see any of these four winning:

'Jag tror på människan' - Tommy Nilsson
'För att du finns' - Sonja Aldén
'Samba Sambero' - Anna Book
'Vågar du, vågar jag' - Sanna Nielsen

What do you think?

Labels: Eurovision 2007, Melodifestivalen, Sweden

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Drag queens are like buses. Some of them even look like the back end of one. We already had one drag act in this year's Eurovision, from Denmark, but last night we gained a second, from Ukraine!

Denmark's drag queen, DQ, is of the skinny, Las Vegas glamour variety, but has very little in the way of a show and may struggle to get past the qualifier.



Ukraine's Verka Serduchka, on the other had, is already in the final. She hails from the Dick Emery/Les Dawson school of drag. The song's called 'Danzing'. It makes no pretence at glamour but is more of a German Bierkeller drinking song. (It's partly in German, just to reinforce the point.) This is a DJ Ötzi-style song for Eurovision, in that, by any objective judgment on the song, it's a pile of poo. However, on the 'memorable after first hearing/viewing' scale, it scores a great big ten out of ten. Bearing in mind that the UK gave 12 points to Lordi and 10 points to Lithuania's 'We Are The Winners' last year, I can see where lots of the UK's points are going this time. Still, if we end up in Kyiv again next year, there'll be no complaints from me. I'll be able to afford to go, for a start...

This is the entire lyric of Verka Serduchka's 'Tanzing' (minus the repeats). (Thanks to Adrian B. in Romania for this, which I copied from his message on ESC Today.) Note the 'political' jibe at Russia. If Israel are going to be in trouble for their anti-Iranian lyric, maybe the EBU will have to consider this line as well?

Hello everybody! My name is Verka Serduchka!
Speak English? Don't understand?
Let's get dancing!
Sieben, sieben, ai lyu-lyu (Seven, seven, bye-bye)
One, two, three, dance!

It is good dancing! Where are your hands? Higher!
I want you (to) sing! Russia, goodbye!

Ukraine is cool! Ukraine loves dancing! Let's dance at Maidan (Independence Square)

OK, happy end! [Or is it 'Okay, hit the end'?]

Here's the performance from last night's Ukrainian final. (Thanks to Keith.) The song even has TWO key changes!



Finally, a reminder that this year's national final season has seen even more 'glitter och glamour' than these two, from the drag act which should really have qualified for tonight's Melodifestivalen final. Here's the ode to onanism that Sweden tragically let slip through their hands (ahem) two weeks ago. After Dark finished fifth in their heat with 'Oh, when you take things in hand', so we won't be seeing them in tonight's final at Globen. Nevertheless, this is the funniest song I've heard all year. It's also insanely catchy, once you're past the obvious 'Go West' association. Enjoy!

Labels: After Dark, Denmark, DQ, drag, Eurovision 2007, Melodifestivalen, Sweden, Ukraine, Verka Serduchka

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Another Saturday night, another batch of national finals and heats for Eurovision, so tonight we will be back at Glitterball Mansions. The Scooch song may be taken off non-stop repeat play for just long enough to watch a bit of telly, so we'll be watching the beginning of the Swedish 'Andra Chansen' heat, where Chig hopes that Elin Lanto and Nanne Grönvall will get their second chance ticket to next week's Melodifestivalen final. Tonight's show could go on for ever, as the format is knockout rounds, as shown here by the Melodimen. I make that a lot of voting, plus fifteen performances, if there's a reprise of the winner.

We'll have turned over long before then, as it'll be time for our annual dose of HRT. Yes, it's time for the final night of Croatia's Dora, usually one of the highlights of the season along with Slovenia and Sweden. It's certainly one of the longest finals, but when you've experienced Spanish television, nothing feels too long. Croatia had semi-finals on Thursday and last night, halving the field of sixteen each time, so there are 16 of the 32 songs left tonight.

Highlights of the eight acts through from Thursday night include top Croatian hunk Luka Nižetić (left), who had a go in 2005 but revealed himself to be strong on good looks and weak on stagecraft. All of the partially-clothed pictures seem to have gone from his official website in favour of a still very sexy business look (but what's the windmill all about?). Never fear though - Schlagerboys to the rescue!

Also through from Thursday are Feminnem, who represented neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina in Eurovision 2005. You have to be Croatian to enter the Croatian Dora, but they do hold Croatian passports, so they're okay.

Through from last night's semi-final, I'm particularly looking forward to seeing The Sick Swing Orchestra and Trio Fantasticus, simply because of their names.

The regular reader may recall some recent drooling over him on the left; Sebastian in the Slovenian final (not to be confused with another unsurnamed Sebastian who's in the Swedish final next week. Are you still with us?) Well, what do you know? In the interests of post-Yugoslav unity, Sebastian and Luka teamed up for a TV appearance, singing an answer song to Geri Halliwell, 'Mi Chica Latina'. Two hunks for the price of one. I don't know where to look first.

Labels: Croatia, Dora, Eurovision 2007, Luka Nižetić, Melodifestivalen, Sebastian, Sweden

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01:39. Just home from Schlager Towers. Spain eventually chose the boyband Nash to finish near the bottom of the Helsinki scoreboard for them, with the Thomas G:son song 'I Love You Mi Vida'. It was a tortuous process which filled 3 hours and 40 minutes of Spanish airtime, only finishing at 02:10 Spanish time (01:10 here). Out of the songs which finished in the top two of the scoreboard (from the 25 original options available) it was the wrong song, by the less talented singers. It should have been Mirela, with La Reina de la Noche.

Sweden got it half right, choosing Andreas Johnson for the final, but dumping saucy After Dark, who finished fifth, in favour of a ballad that won't go very far in the final.

It's bedtime. We'll be watching more national finals tomorrow (ie. later today); Armenia choose their second ever Eurovision entry and Montenegro choose their first as an independent country. Oh yes, the Balkan block increases by another one this year!

Labels: Eurovision 2007, Melodifestivalen, Mirela, Mision Eurovision, Nash, Spain, Sweden

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We're decamping (ahem) to Schlager Towers tonight for an evening of Swedish schlager and Spanish cançiones, with heat 4 of Melodifestivalen in Sweden and the final - at last - of the tortuously long Mision Eurovision process in Spain. (If you click on the picture of the contestants here, you can listen to all of tonight's Swedish songs in a radio player-type thingy.)

Two highlights in Sweden should be Andreas Johnson and After Dark. Andreas would have won last year if the witch hadn't entered, although inevitably tonight's song is weaker than Sing For Me, which was one of my favourite songs of 2006 (not just Eurovision-related). See it here:



After Dark is a drag act, with possibly the most innuendo-laden song ever seen in a national selection. Their song translates roughly as 'Oh, When You Take Things Into Your Own Hands', but it's more complicated than that. We'll have more on this nxt week. In the meantime, let's marvel at After Dark's performance of La Dolce Vita, which secured them third place in the 2004 Melodifestivalen final. This is a much watched performance at Glitterball Mansions, our usual refuge of TV watching during the Eurovision season. Keep your eyes peeled - there are two people in the act, although tonight it's only the skinny one because the other one is recovering from pneumonia.

Give me glitter and glamour!



In Mision Eurovision, we are faced with the intriguing and bonkers situation where we have five songs left, and five acts. Four of the acts are solo women and the last one is a boyband, called Nash. Tonight, if I've understood this correctly, each act will perform at least part of each song, giving the Spanish public a mind-boggling 25 possible permutations on which to vote. Most of the songs are good and most of the acts are good, but whether each act is suited to each song is another matter entirely. What we're really hoping for, which will be hilarious, is for Nash, the boyband, to end up singing 'Busco Un Hombre' (I'm Looking For A Man) or 'La Reina de la Noche' (Queen Of The Night). We will also be continuing our disagreements over which one of Nash is the better-looking one. For me, it's obviously Basty, who reminds me of J from 5ive.

With 25 possible combinations and TV España's fondness for chatting in between things and programmes over-running massively, I'm taking my sleeping bag and a food parcel to Schlager Towers. We could be in for a long night!

Labels: After Dark, Andreas Johnson, Melodifestivalen, Mision Eurovision, Nash

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