Foto: Olle Kirchmeier/SVT
‘Twas heat two of Melodifestivalen last night. And now we’ve got two more finalists, two through to the second chance round, and four songs that have had their prime time TV fame cut to only one evening, and have crashed out of the competition altogether.
The painfully inevitable happened. Sean Banan progressed straight to the final with that atrocity of a song (although we get that that’s the point…sort of) and its ostentatious performance. Oh how we miss the days of when Sweden’s idea of an OTT finalist was the likes of Swedish House Wives. Instead those ladies stalled at a humiliating sixth place. Ouch. Whatever faults their song had, give us ‘On Top Of The World’ and its performance, over Sean Banan’s irritating spectacle any day.
The other finalist was a surprising one – Louise Hoffsten’s ‘Only The Dead Fish Follow The Stream’. Surprising not because it’s not good (it really is very good), but because it’s not really the kind of thing that (we thought) Sweden votes for anymore. And amongst so many other bigger numbers, we expected this to get passed over. But nope. Straight to the final with her. And she looked as surprised about it as we all did.
Our two favourite songs of the night grabbed the two places available in the second chance round – Anton Ewald’s ‘Begging’ and ‘Erik Segerstedt & Tone Damli’s ‘Hello Goodbye’. That’s probably the first time in a very long time that one of our top two didn’t get eliminated, so we’ll mark this down as a success. In these uncertain times of Melodifestivalen, you have to take the positives where you can, and just run with them. In this case, to andra chansen in Karlstad.
Felicia Olsson finished 5th with what was probably our third favourite song of the night, ‘Make Me Number 1’. And below Swedish House Wives at 6th, were Rickard Wolff and Joacim Cans in 7th and 8th – respectively and deservedly.
Performances;
Sean Banan: ‘Copacabanana’
Louise Hoffsten: ‘Only The Dead Fish Follow The Stream’
Erik Segerstedt & Tone Damli: ‘Hello Goodbye’
Anton Ewald: ‘Begging’
Felicia Olsson: ‘Make Me Number 1’
Swedish House Wives: ‘On Top Of The World’
Rickard Wolff: ‘En Förlorad Sommar’
Joacim Cans: ‘Annelie’
Once again though, the whole show was stolen by the opening and interval acts. And this time we didn’t just get Danny Saucedo parading his own fabulousness around, we also got two appearances from schlager legends Hanson, Carson & Malmkvist. They stopped by to perform their Melodifestivalen 2004 finalist ‘C’est La Vie’ (reminding us of a time less than ten years ago when a song like that could go straight to the final), and they also did an inspired and humorous interpretation of Eric Saade’s ‘Popular’ – called ‘Pensionär’. Absolutely brilliant. Not just seeing them on stage again, but also what they were doing on stage. Love them.
Also brilliant was the aforementioned Danny Saucedo. He was joined by his co-host Gina Dirawi for a Bollywood style remix and performance of his own hit single ‘In The Club’ – renamed ‘Indie Club’. Ph’nom. Already such a high standard for these numbers only two shows in. Let’s hope they can keep it up. Danny said to us last night at the afterparty – “just wait until Malmö“!
Those acts really were a must-watch. So here – watch;
Hanson, Carson & Malmqvist: ‘Pensionär’ (including opening sketch)
Danny Saucedo & Gina Dirawi: ‘Indie Club’
