Hooray – the 1 minute clips of Melodifestivalen’s second heat have now been uploaded online (www.svt.se)! Heat 2 takes place tomorrow night and as always, the public will be voting for two songs to qualify for the final, and two more to progress to the second chance round.
Mans Zelmerlow has delivered an uptempo track similar in style to his last album. Which is no bad thing obviously! It’s not as good (or certainly not as instant) as ‘Cara Mia’, but that’s forever going to remain an impossibly high standard. ‘Hope and Glory’ is delightfully good on its own though. Our favourite part is the ”DON’T” and ”STOP” that he treats us to before each chorus, much in the same vein as the ”COME” and ”CLOSER” that we got before the last chorus of ‘Cara Mia’. Wonderful. We love Markoolio, but we just don’t know what to make of his entry. ‘Karlekssan Fran Mig’ is a really nice, melodious ballad, with the usual charm we hear from his voice. Very catchy, even based on that one minute clip. But what’s the joke?!!! This is Markoolio, surely he’s not just going to stand there singing a ballad all straight faced. We really like it though and we really like him too – so hopefully the Swedish public will afford him the understanding that we haven’t been able to!
Amy Diamond is one of our favourite popstars EVER! So we were glad to hear that she’s coming back to the contest for the second year running. We were even happier to learn that her song is composed by one Alexander Bard. ‘It’s My Life’ was described as an electro ballad, but it’s actually quite uptempo and upbeat. We’re looking forward to this performance more than any other. And as with Markoolio, this is devilishly catchy. We realise that this is a bit of a recurring theme, but we’re ALSO really looking forward to Lili & Susie! These ladies were massively successful in the eighties (‘Oh Mama’ being our favourite of their many gems), and Sweden has been bracing itself for their comeback – they’ve been all over the press and their old hits have been popping up on the radio. ‘Show Me Heaven’ has been composed by Thomas G:Son, which just added to our excitement. Well, it hasn’t disappointed. We’re reserving full judgement until tomorrow though because at present, it doesn’t sound as amazing as the other songs that G:Son has contributed to the competition recently. But it does sound like the kind of song that we’d love in full though. And we bet there’s a key change!
The entries from Lasse Lindh and Cookies N Beanz are absolutely woeful, so we’re not even going to discuss them. We’re not a fan of H.E.A.T either but we imagine they’ve got a pretty good chance of qualifying, as their sound stands out so much in this heat. Lastly, Jennifer Brown sings a rather pleasant, melody driven ballad. We actually quite like it, despite fully preparing ourselves for the fact that we wouldn’t! But we just hope it doesn’t take a qualifying place away from our four favourites!
Our Hope:
Direct To Final: Amy Diamond and Lili & Susie. Second Chance Round: Markoolio and Mans Zelmerlow
Our Prediction:
Direct to Final: Markoolio and Mans Zelmerlow. Second Chance Round: H.E.A.T and Jennifer Brown
