(Photo: Stina Stjernkvist/SVT)
Is it true what they’re all saying? Is schlager back? Not quite, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. But on Saturday night, the Swedish public proved that they still have a massive appetite for it. And thus that there is still a place for it in Melodifestivalen. Kudos to Jessica Andersson for dropping the ballads that she’s been enormously successful with, and having one more outing with the genre we all love. And obvs, kudos to Fredrik Kempe and co for penning her such a tune. She qualified directly to the final with it.
What was the other finalist like? Some soft-rock drivel by recent Idol winner Martin Almgren. Sweden also proving that it can still giveth with one hand, and taketh away with the other.
And through to Andra Chansen? Reggaeton and dancehall, by Mendez and Moncho respectively. Had these two songs not been placed in the same heat, and thus potentially splitting the vote of the many Swedes gagging for a bit of sunshine infused pop music on a mid-February evening, we have no doubt that they would both have made the final from their respective heats.
But what about Dotter? She finished in 6th. And deservedly so. If all of the talented team of artist and songwriters involved in making ‘Cry’ had paid more attention to creating the standard of song they normally do – as opposed to agreeing to SVT’s remit to send them an ‘Issues’ – we’d be looking at a very different result. The whole thing tanked badly. And we really hope that Dotter can recover from it. Let’s all do her a favour and never speak of this sorry mess again.
Anything else of note? Kalle Moraeus can return every year as far as we’re concerned. What a banger. Though it had to settle for 5th place unfortunately. And elsewhere on stage, Fab Freddie seems to be getting more and more to do as the weeks go on. Excellent news. He’s another one who can come back every year please. And we’re still totally here for all of this increasing workload building up to him hosting the final on his own.
You can find the best of the week’s songs on our Best New Pop playlist.
