The third Melodifestivalen heat took place last night (AS IF we only have seven songs left to hear now, it always goes too fast). And we have two more finalists, two songs scraping by with a second chance, and it’s the last we’ll see of one particular artist in Melodifestivalen ever again…
Here’s what happened;
Yes yes yes, Taylor Swift, ‘Shake It Off’, etc etc etc. We heard the similarities too. But the progression of Isa to the final was a fantastic result for Sweden. Not mainly because of the song (though we love that too), but because of the birth of the proper popstar that we all witnessed last night. Did you SEE her?! She performed the LIFE out of that song. Every thrust, strut, and smile was rehearsed to perfection – and she knew every single camera angle for those entire three minutes, to maximum showcase all those elements she’d rehearsed so well. We’ve followed her career for a while on Scandipop, but THAT performance last night was the proper arrival of Isa to pop music. She’s going to be major. And we’re all in for a treat once she gets going beyond Melodifestivalen. And shake it off – ‘Don’t Stop’ is a jam.
Jon Henrik Fjällgren. *SIGH* ‘Jag är Fri’ turned out to be a bit of a non event, disappointingly. He was always going to be a Melodifestivalen finalist, such is the high volume of good will that Sweden has towards him. But that’s no excuse for turning up with a quarter of a song stretched out over three minutes. What the actual fuck WAS that? And we’re not dissing the genre or the style here – that had its charms, obviously. But it was purely style over any substance whatsoever. If Sweden send this to Eurovision (and they very well might), they’re not making it out of that semi. As nationally appreciated as Jon Henrik is, everyone else around Europe (and Australia) is going to be needing a lot more from him. That small matter of an actual song, perhaps.
Shock of the night was Kristin Amparo‘s ‘I See You’ ONLY making it as far as Andra Chansen…for now. It’s surely going to get its place in the final via coming through Andra Chansen though. That’s a dead cert. The studio version of the song was released after the contest, and revealed itself to be a proper stunner. And it will probably end up becoming one of the biggest hits of the year in Sweden, regardless of what happens in Stockholm in mid March. Speaking of which – that odd colour fade thing that the camera did on her throughout the performance, absolutely needs to go in time for her performance in the final. That did not have whatever effect they had desired it to. Just let her sing the song. That’s all she needs to do. Both her and the song are incredible – nothing else is needed.
The remaining four songs were always going to be the bottom four on the night, and could really have ended up in any order, as they were all pretty much on a par with each other, where there chances were concerned. It was Andreas Weise however, who nabbed the last remaining ticket out of this heat, with his John Newman meets Robbie Williams number ‘Bring Out The Fire’. We reckon it was the “dum-dum-dum” that did it for him.
We thought that we would have liked to have seen that last AC place go to Ellen Benediktson‘s ‘Insomnia’. But that was probably never going to happen after that performance – which was a bit of a hot mess in all honesty. And the song itself just wasn’t as strong as it needed to be in order to convince everyone of the Insomniatic that was hiding under that Songbird all along. We’d like to hear more from Ellen in the future though, and we reckon she’s got much better songs to come as well.
Kalle Johansson‘s ‘För Din Skull’ went into the contest with a view that anything above finishing 7th was going to be a triumph. But actually, as the song and performance unfolded on the night, he looked like he might even make it to Andra Chansen. Of the bottom four songs, we’d say that his isn’t just the best, but also the one with the most hit potential. Just imagine Petra Marklund singing that studio version. It’s a great track, and really shouldn’t have finished as low as it did. And as harsh as it sounds, it probably wouldn’t have done so badly had it been given to an actual popstar.
Andreas Johnson finishing last in his heat was a bit of a surprise too. Particularly as he did so with his best Melodifestivalen entry to date. Maybe if he hadn’t bored everyone of him so much with those last few entries, he might have fared better with this one. As it happened though, his Melodifestivalen career has finally fizzled out. A sad way to go.
Here are the performances and studio versions of all of the songs aside from the two finalists;
