Now that all four heats have taken place, there is one more round of Melodifestivalen to go before the big final. And that’s Andra Chansen – the second chance round – which happens next Saturday.
All of the songs that came 3rd and 4th in their heats, will sing again on Saturday. And from those eight songs, people will vote for their favourites, with the top four making it through to another round of voting. In the next round of voting, there’s a duel scenario. The song that came first will face the song that came 4th. And the song that came 2nd will face the song that came 3rd. Viewers vote in both of those duels, with the winner of both duels then making it through to the following week’s final. Not as complicated as we’ve made all that sound. And twice as exciting.
We’ve all heard the songs and seen the performances (and if you haven’t then they’re all below, in the running order in which they’ll perform on Saturday night), so we know what to expect from the music. But what of the result?! Well Aftonbladet put up a poll on their website last night, asking Swedes to vote for their favourite act/song in Andra Chansen. And at the time of writing, after 12,500 votes cast, Helena Paparizou and JEM are the two in the lead – which is precisely the result we want on Saturday. Hooray! Close behind are Martin Stenmarck, Ammotrack, and Linus Svenning. With State of Drama, Ellinore Holmer, and Outrigger quite far behind.
The major flaw with Andra Chansen duels is the element of the anti-vote – where an act competing against someone more famous and often more opinion dividing, wins their duel simply because so many voters dislike the artist they’re up against, and have been spurred on to vote against the more controversial of the two. However it doesn’t look likely to happen this year, as all eight of the artists competing seem to quite inoffensive, either just starting their journeys, or having had a long careers where they’ve not really managed to rub people up the wrong way. Our only concern is if perhaps Helena Paparizou come up against either Outrigger or Ammotrack, and it becomes more of a genre battle that inspires protest votes, with callers rebelling against the classic yet desperately uncool and unfresh Melodifestivalen sound of yesteryear. But let’s hope that doesn’t happen, eh?!
In what’s quite a guitar heavy round, it certainly appears that our two favourites – JEM’s ‘Love Trigger’ and Helena Paparizou’s ‘Survivor’ – look set to stand out. Here’s how they’re all gonna look and sound on Saturday night;
1. Ammotrack – Raise Your Hands
2. Linus Svenning – Bröder
3. JEM – Love Trigger
4. State Of Drama – All We Are
5. Ellinore Holmer – En Himmelsk Sång
6. Martin Stenmarck – När Änglarna Går Hem
7. Helena Paparizou – Survivor
8. Outtrigger – Echo