(Photo: Stina Stjernkvist/SVT)
He won! He certainly did. He walked it. And smashed the record for highest margin of points in a Melodifestivalen win EVER. He won by an unprecedented 149 points. And to put that into perspective, ABBA’s ‘Waterloo’ was the previous record holder – winning Melodifestivalen 1974 by 91 points. And Måns did more than double what Loreen managed in 2012, when ‘Euphoria’ won Melodifestivalen by 70 points. Amazing.
And how did the other songs finish? WELL. Here’s what the leaderboard looked like in the end;
- Måns Zelmerlöw: Heroes – 288
- Jon Henrik Fjälgren: Jag Är Fri – 139
- Mariette: Don’t Stop Believing – 102
- Hasse Andersson: Guld och Gröna Skogar – 78
- Eric Saade: Sting – 77
- Linus Svenning: Forever Starts Today – 59
- Isa: Don’t Stop – 56
- Samir & Viktor: Groupie – 49
- Magnus Carlsson: Möt Mig i Gamla Stan – 28
- JTR: Building It Up – 25
- Jessica Andersson: Can’t Hurt Me Now – 23
- Dinah Nah: Make Me (La La La) – 22
Crikey. Indeed. One can only imagine what the Eurovision leaderboard is going to end up looking like in May, when ‘Heroes’ represents Sweden. The nation’s fourth Top 3 finish in five years is pretty much guaranteed. Although betting agencies have already made Sweden the favourite for the big win – which we can well see happening too.
A good Melodifestivalen final all in all? A brilliant Melodifestivalen final – the best one this decade. Last night’s show was pretty much hit after hit. So kudos to SVT for that – and to the Swedes for their good taste and votes!
Anything else? A shout-out must go to the songwriting duo Joy and Linnea Deb. This is the third year in a row they’ve penned the breakout song of the year’s Melodifestivalen. This year they wrote ‘Heroes’ (along with Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad), last year they were behind Ace Wilder’s ‘Busy Doin Nothin’, and the year before they wrote their first winner – Robin Stjernberg’s ‘You’.
