Well what a shocker of a result that was!
Linda Bengtzing delighted us, hundreds of thousands of schlager fans, and quite clearly and understandably herself, by triumphing last night and winning her Melodifestivalen heat for the first time ever. Totally a sweet victory. And even its announcement alone was fantastic entertainment. SVT ensured maximum tension by leaving her name as the one they announced last, when revealing the five acts that finished at the top of the vote. And because the semi mammoth Melody Club were amongst the names that hadn’t been in the first four of the five, many, including us, assumed sadly that Linda Bengtzing hadn’t made it, and had been eliminated from the contest. Then, not only was her name announced, but it was then revealed that she’d actually won the entire heat – ensuring her a place in the final in two weeks time. Exhilarating stuff, even though you could tell that the tension had gotten to Linda far more than any of us – she was an absolute wreck, bless her! For the remainder of the night too, at the after party, she wore facial expressions that varied from disbelief, to joy, to shock. And we loved that about her. Nobody else competing last night wanted it so much, it really does mean so much to her. Melodifestivalen in general means so much to her too. And we’re so so happy that she’s in the final. Let’s face it – it’s going to be a much better place with her there, prancing around in canary yellow to her song ‘E Det Fel På Mig’!
Our happiness at that result was marred slightly at our disappointment that she wasn’t joined in the final by Love Generation, the hot new girlband with the massive club tune ‘Dance Alone’. Many, including us, had expected them to win their heat. But instead, they had to settle for a place in next weekend’s second chance round. Cruelly, they’ve been placed in a duel against our other favourite in the second chance round – Jenny Silver’s ‘Something In Your Eyes’. But that’s always the nature of Melodifestivalen and especially andra chansen – complete cruelty! Regardless, the Love Generation girls were in fantastic spirits at the after party, and the complete darlings that they’ve always been whenever we’ve met them. They performed their song twice throughout the party on a small stage, took full advantage of the dancefloor, and told us that they’d had an absolute blast and the time of their lives all week. So all is well in camp LG, we guess. Instead of Love Generation, it was Nicke Borg’s melodic rock ballad ‘Leaving Home’ that got a ticket to the final alongside Linda Bengtzing. Not our favourite of the night, but not undeserving either. Weaker songs of the same genre have been in a Melodifestivalen final before, so it makes sense that Nicke finds himself there.
The other spot in the second chance round was given to Linda Pritchard and her big ballsy ballad, ‘Alive’. We’d seen the performance five times before the Saturday night show, as we were at so many of the rehearsals, but she really really blew us away on the Saturday night, giving by far her best performance. The emotion we saw in her was really quite stunning. And thankfully that stirred something in the Swedish televoters. She’s widely expected to be one of the two artists that will progress from next weekend’s second chance round, and into the final.
Lasse Stefanz finished fifth with their new dansband classic, ‘En Blick Och Nånting Händer’. We would have loved to have seen them get a bit further in the competition, but we accept that we are strange, and are in the minority here! Still, we have absolutely no shame in admitting that this song has been one of our favourites of this year’s Melodifestivalen, and one that we’re going to be listening to a lot from now on. It’s just so joyful! We love everything about it! Julia Alvgard finished in sixth place with her song ‘Better Or Worse’. That’s another one that we like a lot, and we’re glad that she didn’t have to settle for eighth place, like a lot of people assumed she would end up in. It was a small victory for her anyway. Melody Club had to settle for a surprise seventh place finish – quite a shock considering their relatively large fanbase and the quality of the song. That’s what a strong heat will do, but that’s got to be quite an embarrassment for these guys. And finally, Anders Fernette finished last with ‘Run’. It’s a radio friendly song that will probably have a little more life in it outside of the contest, but within Melodifestivalen it was totally stifled.
