Time to immerse ourselves within Melodifestivalen for yet another weekend (and we love it!). This morning we arrived into Skellefteå, and this afternoon we sat through the full rehearsals of each of the songs competing in tomorrow night’s heat three of the contest.
It all went down a little (a lot) like this;
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Eddie Razaz – Alibi
Låtskrivare: Peter Boström, Thomas G:son
Eddie Razaz launching his solo career at Melodifestivalen with a song by the two gents behind ‘Euphoria’. We were always gonna love this. And we really really do.
Our favourite parts? This song has TWO different fab post-choruses – one vocal and one instrumental. Quite the feat when you consider they’ve been packed into what needs to be a three minute pop song. It’s also shoehorned in a few other elements of Popular Song that are always a winner to us – a piano intro that leads into massive synth, and a dance break middle eight. And kudos to Razaz/Boström/G:son for steering clear of the dubstep breakdown in the instance of the latter. That’s dead now. Timoteij simultaneously perfected it and killed the dubstep breakdown with ‘Tabu’.
One criticism that he’ll probably get with this song and performance is that in its genre, we’ve certainly seen and heard it all before. BUT both ‘Alibi’ and the performance that Eddie gives of it are exceptional. It’ll be unfair if Eddie doesn’t do well in this contest simply because of the week in which he’s been placed – two weeks after viewers saw something similar with David Lindgren, and one week after Anton Ewald. But that might just end up being the case here, despite the fact that Eddie’s song and his vocals are much better than Ewald’s, and on more or less a par with Lindgren’s (although he’s got much more of a star quality to him than the latter does). Oh, and to keep the comparison going (see – even we’re doing it. It’s difficult to get away from), Eddie Razaz’s ‘Alibi’ is a far better Melodifestivalen debut than David Lindgren’s ‘Shout It Out’. So there.
Elin Petersson – Island
Låtskrivare: Elin Petersson
All T, no shade – this is just plain boring. Truly. And you know sometimes when a boring song is almost a little bit saved by a great vocal performance? Well no – she pisses that away too. She sounds scared. Unsure of herself. Unsure of her song. And with good reason too.
It’s not OFFENSIVELY bad. It’s just nice. Pleasant. Nondescript. It doesn’t go anywhere. Nothing happens. The chorus is forgotten halfway through the second verse. Perhaps we’d like it a lot more if we didn’t have last week’s ‘Hello Goodbye’ to compare it to. But less than a week later than that, ‘Island’ just comes across as a charmless, less tuneful, not as competently delivered, poor imitation.
If Sweden votes this through tomorrow, we’ll….we’ll…..we’ll….well we won’t be all that surprised actually, given recent form. *insert sad face*
Ravaillacz – En riktig jävla schlager
Låtskrivare: Kjell Jennstig, Leif Goldkuhl och Henrik Dorsin
It’d be too easy to slate these Ravaillacz guys and their song. But the truth is, if it were by Hanson, Carson & Malmkvist, we’d be all over it. So we won’t.
It’s certainly not something we’ll be playing after the contest. But the whole performance that they give of it is really cute and charming. And actually, an enjoyable three minutes of tomorrow night’s show. Four old chaps having a laugh on stage, and being quite camp with it. It’s a head tapper. It probably won’t be so cute and charming if it gets to be performed in the final though.
Amanda Fondell – Dumb
Låtskrivare: Freja Blomberg, Fredrik Samsson
We had high hopes for this one. And we still do have high hopes for the studio version. But seeing it live…it’s just a bit of a strange, dark mess really.
The song takes more than one listen to tell just how good it is. And it is really good. But in a contest like Melodifestivalen, those first few minutes of WTF that the viewer may more than likely feel here, isn’t going to do it any favours. Things are hindered further by the fact that the song doesn’t really get going until the second verse, when the beat properly kicks in. And then there’s that marmite vocal of Amanda’s. It’s hard to make out what she’s saying half the time, and that’s from someone who actually wanted to tune into what she was singing. Many others simply won’t bother because they’ll be put off by that voice.
It’s even difficult to fully appreciate the dramatics of the song and the performance, because of the silliness and frivolity of the main word being used as a derogatory term throughout – “dumb”.
The whole mirror thing that she uses throughout the performance is a saving grace though. It’s not a new concept by any means, but they’ve executed it extremely well.
It’s certainly a creative, inspired, and different performance. And as a result it’s taking a massive risk. If it pays off she’ll be critically applauded, and Swedes will love her. But if it falls flat (which it did, to these eyes and ears), she’s a little bit fucked, bless her!
Like we say though, looking forward to the studio version of this immensely.
Martin Rolinski – In And out of Love
Låtskrivare: Thomas G:son, Andreas Rickstrand och Martin Rolinski
Now this is FUN!
Starting the performance being lowered from the ceiling in a giant box, having 50 litres of yoghurt thrown around beside him, and then exiting the box and taking to a camp strut down the catwalk. It’s exactly the light relief needed after Amanda Fondell’s dark and drab number. Plus we love the added bonus of seeing Martin Rolinski back on stage, performing like this (bearing in mind, the last time we saw him on this stage was in 2009, and in an industrially grey performance that even Amanda Fondell would be proud of). This is the Martin that we, and so much of Sweden, fell in love with during ‘Temple Of Love’ and ‘Lay Your Love On Me’.
As for the song, well it’s catchy, 80s influenced, synth pop. Dramatic disco. And like Razaz, he employs an effective post-chorus. Good post-choruses are the new key changes in Melodifestivalen, didn’t you know?! Although this still manages to bring back memories of a great Melodifestivalen of yesteryear.
It’s been reported lots that this is very Modern Talking. But we’re finding it has more in common with (pop geek alert) a track from Magnus Carlsson’s last album – ‘ Take Me To Your Heart’.
Caroline af Ugglas – Hon har inte
Låtskrivare: Heinz Liljedahl, Caroline af Ugglas
A performance that’s instant, but of a song that’s anything but.
We loved Caroline’s delivery of this. It’s intense, it’s captivating, and it’s difficult to take your eyes off of her while she’s doing it. But equally, it’s also really hard to take any notice of the song she’s singing as a result. The lyrics come through of course, but anything else about it stays completely under the radar until (in our experience) the third listen.
We can imagine a lot of people being touched by her words and in her delivery of them on Saturday night, but we can’t believe anyone would really be able to hum the chorus again before SVT plays the recap.
Her impressive display of emotion might be enough to make this qualify to at least the second chance round tomorrow night. But there’s no chance of this being a serious contender, like she was in 2009.
State of Drama – Falling
Låtskrivare: Göran Werner, Sebastian Hallifax, Emil Gullhamn, James Hallifax
Dull, forgettable, heard it on the radio thousands of times before…………Sweden’s gonna love this!
Absolutely not our cup of tea though, we’d spit it out.
And where’s the “sexy show” they promised us in so many pre-contest interviews?
Janet Leon – Heartstrings
Låtskrivare: Fredrik Kempe, Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad
This is without a doubt our favourite song and our favourite performance of Melodifestivalen 2013 so far.
BUT. With regards to the performance, there’s a lot that can go wrong. And for the first three run-throughs of the four takes that she did today, a lot did go wrong. At times it was a bit of a mess, which is a shame considering it has all of the ingredients to make it, as we said above, our favourite performance of the contest so far this year. Likewise, she wasn’t exactly on point vocally either, until the fourth and final run through. But then that suggests that she was perhaps just saving her voice. Let’s hope so anyway.
The song is a sublimely catchy disco pop number, with enough strut and enough sass to elevate it into something very special indeed. And then there are the strings. As always, Anton Malmberg’s production is immense. It sounded fantastic in the arena, it’s gonna sound amazing on record, and hopefully it’ll translate onto television too. This needs to be a finalist. As in, the Melodifestivalen 2013 final genuinely needs this right now!
The clothes, the moves – all the little extras are there too. We just hope that they all come together in time for tomorrow night.
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SVT have uploaded 60 second clips of yesterday’s camera rehearsals, which you can watch here.
Heat 3 takes place tomorrow evening at 7pm UK time, and will be streaming live at SVT’s website here.
And check back here on Sunday, for a full breakdown of the results, plus all of the performances.
The Melodifestivalen 2013 CD, featuring all 32 songs, is already available to order from our store.
