Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

After the highest scoring televote Top-10 (see previous post) here comes the ten highest scoring jury favorites.  Here Salvador Sobral from Portugal still reigns but this year's winner Nemo came close with his endless string of 12 points by juries. One can question does the juries favor Sweden but indeed here we have four Swedes in the Top-10. Does it feel like right? No, if you ask me. Australia's runner up is featured here as is Norway's Alexander Rybak and Kristian Kostov but indeed the Top-10 differs from the televote one as there are only four songs in common: Amar pelos dos, Fairytale, Euphoria and Beautiful mess.  Salvador Sobral - Amar pelos dos  382 (Portugal 2017 /winner) Nemo - The Code  365 (Switzerland 2024/winner) Måns Zelmerlöw - Heroes  353 (Sweden 2015 /winner) Loreen - Tattoo  340 (Sweden 2023/winner) Dami Im - Sound of silence  320 (Australia 2016 /2nd) Alexandr Rybak - Fairytale  312 (Norway 2009/winner) Loreen - Euphoria...

Ok, after last night's nightmare conditions here is what I thought. Great show, to start with. Petra and Måns were really kicking ass I think. The audience was wild, at least so it seemed on my cellphone screen. A very entertaining opening number. A few good lines like You can't vote for your own country. believe me I tried (Måns) Well, I voted for Italy. Sorry. (Petra) And that thing about the orchestras in the numbers clip.  "They always played great... and then there was that time in Rome!" Also Petra Mede's naughty shot on Man Vs. Machine got media/social media wild in Finland. Or something similar. In the end I predicted 9/10. If I did my prediction after the performnces it would have been 10/10 as Kaliopi didn't quite nail it, did she? I would have dropped her then and replace by Poland, that was my reserve anyways. Shouldn have known better. No matter how little I like it personally. Most countries performed well. Poland missed the last n...

Here we go: This season's first plagiation case: YLE published yesterday the #UMK16 entrants and soon enough on internet the comments started flying on Rafaela Truda's Rise up . It is said to be a copy of Ariana Grande feat. Iggy Azalea's Problem . Is it a problem? Listen and judge yourself below.... I can't even.... Rafaela comments: I do understand my song may sound a bit like Grande's song as both use saxophone. However the melody is completely different and my song is more Eurovision like. We (co-writers Olli-Matti Kalliosaari and Kalle Mäkipelto) tried to make it more Balcan sounding with saxophone. While doing the demo we did notice the similarities but we liked it so much we left it like it is. We are not stealing it, we tried different things. Last year Måns Zelmerlöw won Eurovision with a song that sounds like David Guettai! it's a question of inspiration, not stealing!"

Måns Zelmerlöw won hands down the Swedish final with a total of 288 points against Jon Henrik's 139. Nine out of 11 international juries gave him full marks and he also got twice the amout of televotes as the runner up. Heroes is a combination of a good artist, great staging and a catchy tune. No doubt one of the best songs this year in Vienna. Eric Saade only managed 5th when both juries and televote placed him 4th and Hasse passed him by one point :-) That must sting a bit! Another big loser Magnus Carlsson.... 1. Måns Zelmerlöw 288 ( int.jury+televote 122+166) 2. Jon Henrik Fjällgren 139 (51+88) 3. Mariette 102 (74+28) 4. Hasse Andersson 78 (10+68) 5. Eric saade 77 (48+29) 6. Linus Svenning 59 (41+18) 7. Isa 56 (38+18) 8. Samir & Victor 49 (29+20) 9. Magnus carlsson 28 (10+18) 10. JTR 25 (21+4) 11. Jessica Andersson 23 (15+8) 12. Dinah Nah 22 (14+8)

Sweden, the most anticipated national selection by many, comes to an end this Saturday, giving us one of the very last songs for the Vienna 2015 line up. This season in Sweden has been dominated by young male artists and it would be quite a shock if one of them won't win it in the end. As the final is getting nearer all the pressure is building on Måns Z. Let's see if he will be third time lucky! Samir & Victor propably has a big local hit in their hands but Eurovision? No way. Good opener but that's all it is, one would not even notice it's actually in the competition.... JTR , another act with some following I suppose, next. Another useless filler in the line up. Medicore boyband stuff. Totally uninteresting. Dinah Nah trusts good old la, la, la and it's an okeyish uptempo number. Unfortunately Dinah herself is the weakest link in it with her flat voice and moves. Jon Henrik , first of the favorites offers a screen full of Lappish and Sami exotism (tha...

Sweden has never won the Eurovision song contest with a male solo artist but this year they are really trying. The final next Saturday (along with the one in Norway) is the last of the season 2015 and it is filled with muscled guys who seem to love parade half naked showing off. Some of them can also sing and perform, some... well, a bit less so. The main contenders seem to be Måns Zelmerlöv and Eric Saade . Then there's  Jon Henrik Fjällgren to shake the things a bit. Let's see who wins that fight. It seems both Måns and Eric need to beat Jon first, but then also each other to win.  Samir Badran and Victor Frisk are also ready for the battle even if they had to make it through the second chance round. They know how to pose but that's just about all it is about... Barking dogs don't bite. Samir also challenges Linus Svenning  with the tattoo department. Linus can deliver, we know that, but Samir ... well, he gives great poses. And what about th...

The fourth and last Melodifestivalen semifinal comes from Örebro. Caroline Wennergren makes a very welcome comeback in MF, and so does Måns Zelmerlöf, one of the pre-designed winners this year. Then we have a 67-year-old debutant, Hasse Andersson. After listening the snippets I'm left quite confused. Is that all there is? If Midnight Boy's entry was the only one that got me a little bit interested, and only because I was a huge Stock-Aitken-Waterman fan in the late 80's, something must be wrong,  me or MF, I don't know which one. Anyways, I'm not even trying to predict this time. I try to make some sense to MF once the finalists are out and maybe there is something to like after all. Maybe.  Midnight Boy - Don't say no   7th Caroline Wennergren - Black swan   5th JTR - Building it up   TO FINAL Hasse Andersson - Guld och gröna skogar   Andra Chansen Dinah Nah - Male me (La la la)   Andra Chansen Annika Herlitz - Ett andetag  6th ...

This morning the remaining 14 artists, songs and their writers were made public by Christer Björkman. Andreas follows his fathers footsteps, Isa moves from JESC to ESC selections, Jon Henrik was adopted from Columbia to a Sami family as a baby and then won Talent Sweden this year. All but Ellen and Andreas in the third semifinal debut in Melodifestivalen. Rio De Janeiro born Caroline returns in the fourth semifinal, as does Måns but all the others are debutants, even 66-year-old Hasse. Semifinal 3 - Östersund, February 21, 2015 Andreas Weise - Bring out the fire Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad, Henrik Jansson, Thomas G:son Isa - Don't stop Isa Tengblad, Johan Ramström, Gustav Svenungsson, Magnus Wallin, Oscar Merner Kalle Johansson - För din skull Martin Eriksson, Thomas G:son, Thomas Karlsson Kristin Amparo - I see you Kristin Amparo, David Kreuger, Fredrik Kempe Ellen Benediktson - Insomnia Ellen Benediktson, Anderz Wrethov Jon Henrik Fjällgren - J...

Melodifestivalen acts will be announced next Monday and Tuesday. The rumor mill of possible participants has been running wild for weeks already and finally we know who are really in and who are not. What we know so far is that Sanna Nielsen will debut as the host and with her will be Robin Paulsson , a very well known television host, also him making his MF debut. We also know one of the contestants already, Kalle Johansson . He won the Svensktoppen nästä 2014 contest and the award was a ticket to Melodifestivalen 2015.  SVT received 2.177 songs this year and it seems the famous Swedish schlager is making a comeback. There are minor changes to the format and instead of 32 songs there will be only 28, but 12 of them will advance to the final instead of 10. Makes sense? Måns Zelmerlöv is supposed to be making a comeback to the contest, as are Lili & Susie, Linus Svenning and Charlotte Perrelli . Sean Banan has also made it clear he has sent a song. Other names ru...

This week it's been all about Eurovision videos but something else has been going on. Måns Zelmerlöf has moved away from Cara mia days and his Broken parts shows as a very different Måns. Staying in Sweden we have Robin Stjernberg with Scars , a strong anti-mobbing song and video. Readers of this blog aren't certainly among those nasty people who tease others, right? RIGHT? Lauri Ylönen of The Rasmus is releasing his second solo album later this year and the new offering from it is She's a bomb . The music is what it, is but Lauri is a bomb in it :-) Eros Ramazzotti has started his world tour and this blogger will see him again in Helsinki in May, meanwhile here's his first offering from the new album, Un angelo disteso al sole .

This year's Melodifestivalen may have been musically rather boring and average but has turned out to be rather entertaining if you like some male bonding. And we are not talking here simple hugs after qualification or such, but kissing! Even with some tongue action at times it seems. The culmination must have been (so far) the on stage kiss in dress rehearsals when Mattias Andréasson was playing the part of Tone Damli who was absent from her duet with Erik Segerstedt. The song Hello, goodbye nicely deals with a one night stand.... (If Erik and Tone ever kissed, I must have missed that.....) Sean Banan was kissing literaly everyone after his qualification but for example Anton Ewald, Christer Björkman himself and Måns Zelmerlöf shared some spit with him on camera.... Anton also fell victim of overjoyed Robin Stjernberg's kisses (and tongue) when they both qualified from the second chance round. Another couple doing some tongue action were Army of Lover's Alex...

Great to come to home to these wonderful news: Petra Mede! Did anyone ever mention her name? No. Somehow I knew SVT had something in their sleeve so I was pretty sure it wouldn't be Sarah Dawn Finer nor Måns Zelmerlöf or any of the other mentioned. I remember Petra from Melodifestivalen 2009 and I just adored her! She's the lovechild one Lena Philipsson and Christer Lindarw and surely will be having some surprises a la Lill Lindfors! I can't wait to see her in action! :-)

Next Monday, January 28, 2013 SVT will announce the host for Eurovision 2013. A direct stream will come from Stockholm's Operakällaren at 11.10 CET. Christer Björkman will be at the spot to reveal the mystery (wo)man. Who do you think it is? Sarah Dawn FIner and Måns Zelmerlöf have been rumored by the fans, but SVT may have other plans....

I wrote earlier today about Katri Helena cancelling her Christmas tour. Now from neighboring Sweden comes news that Måns Zelmerlöw does the same. All of  his Christmas with friends tour or 27 concerts have been cancelled. Reason? Weak ticket sales. How come? Isn't he the Swedish public's sweetheart anymore?  On the wild speculative side one could think he has cancelled the tour so he has time to prepare for another big one-man-show coming up next spring? We'll see....

The stage in Baku's Crystal Hall hasn't probably yet been completely taken down when in Sweden the guessing for the future Eurovision 2013 hosts are being discussed in a serious matter. At the moment there are two front runners, namely Måns Zelmerlöf and sarah Dawn Finer. Both singers with Melodifestivalen experience. Måns also has gone a long way from Cara mia to become Sweden's hottest male host in TV, and Sarah of course charmed the nation and not only as one of the hostesses for Melodifestivalen this year. And what to say about her alter ego Lynda Woodruff who gave out the Swedish votes in Baku? Could she take it over? But there are about two dozen other names in the talks from Gina Dirawi to Jovan Radomir, from Charlotte Perrelli to lena Philipsson, Carola, Mark Levengood and Petra Mede. Just to name a few. 

Loreen's winning entry Euphoria is #1 all over iTunes and one would think it's a perfect time to release an album but no, it will only come in September 5, 2012. She will release a new single late July-August, then the album. He record company is telling they really want to do things well and prove Loreen is more than one song and will make a world star. She won't lack songs as it seems everyone wants to write for her and be on her debut album in Sweden and beyond. Prior Euphoria Loreen has only three singles to her credit; The snake in 2005 after Idol, and My heart is refusing me from Melodifestivalen 2011 that was produced by Måns Zelmerlöv who actually started a record company just to be able to sign her! Last year she also released Sober . Here's some more of her.

The winter makes us wait for itself this year (think that the past two winters we were already covered with tons of snow and freezing our butts of and now I still haven't seen one snowflake and can recall only one night when the temperatures dropped below zero...). But it doesn't bother Måns Zelmerlöf who is releasing another Christmasy album and securing his post as Sweden's favourite crooner these days. Here's Kära vinter , aka Dear winter .

It's ten years since Melodifestivalen started it's semifinal tours and for the occasion the annual Melodifestivalen 2011 double-CD gets its special edition compilations released as well. The silver pack includes besides the 2011 CD a 80 page book and 100 Melodifestivalen favourite songs over the years on 4 CD. And if that's not enough there's the golden DeLuxe pack: besides all the before mentioned goodies also a special CD including alternative versions of the songs, read original demos by artists who didn't get to sing the songs in the end like Sonja Aldén belting out Invincible instead of Carola, and Daniel Mitsogiannis doing Cara mia that then made Måns Zelmerlöv a superstar. But are they in? We just have to wait and see until March 4, 2011 when they will be released. A must for fans, me thinks.

Måns Zelmerlöv is releasing a Christmas album on November 15, 2010. The album features as guests Björn Skifs, Pauline and Jessica Andersson. Besides classics there is one original song, December, written by Jörgen Elofsson, Andreas Carlsson and Niklas Strömstedt. Here's a little teaset, Christmas song . Besides this Måns is busy rehearsing Romeo & Juliet musical and starting a new record comapny with some friends. Their first project is Loreen's entry in Melodifestivalen 2011, My heart is refusing me .

Maria Haukaas Storeng who hold it and was strong in Eurovision 2008 worth of a 5th place has recently released her 3rd album Make my day . She tried again with the title track in 2010 and was even involved in the Swedish melodifestivalen 2009 with Sahlene with Killimg me tenderly . On this album she has teamed up with another Swede, Måns Zelmerlöv in Precious to me and it all works much better!