Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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...

Valentina Monetta will be joining the cast of Stockholm Pride that includes already likes of Gina G, Krista Siegfrids, Roberto Bellarossa, Margaret Berger, Sean Banan, Lys Assia, Ryan Dolan, Janet Leon, Anton Ewald and reigning Eurovision Queen Emmelie De Forest . Valentina will perform there on August 1, 2013. What a better way to return to Sweden and shower in the adoration of fans before doing it for the third time next May in Denmark? Besides, her album Crisalide - la storia di Valentina Monetta is now also available in physical CD form. Pre-listen and order here .

Sweden picks up its entry for the home soil tonight. One can only hope they will pick a song that will do better than last time the Eurovision was held in Malmö.... (Mind you, Christer Björkman's Imorgon finns en annan dag is one of my Swedish favorites of all time). Unlike last year we don't have a clear favorite so anything can happen, even Swedes going crazy and voting for Ravaillacz and how funny that would be! Still, YOHIO is the one to look out for, but it's not yet sure that he will actually make it.... Despite a minor scandal has arisen as it is thought SVT favors him having a 24&7 crew filming his life and preparations, and even that the original golden boy was Ulrik, but now Christer & co prefer YOHIO...  Hmm, wasn't Sweden supposed to be one of the less corrupted countrie s in the world? Oh yes, that's in the real world and not in the glittery Schlagerwonderland! Once again there is also an international jury that has helped the Swedes to ...

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...

The Melodifestivalen 2013, described as the worst ever in unison by everybody is coming to an end this Saturday.  Pre-contest favorites Army of Lovers rocketed out in fiasco so the field is left wide open to the other pre-contest favorite, Yohio . This 17-year-old creature took himself straight to the final from the first semifinal and has been patiently watching all the serious competition being voted out or failing in the second chance round last week. In Expressen he scored a 37% of the votes when the only lady left in the competition Louise Hoffsten was second with 15% followed by Ralf Gyllenhammar (14%), Ulrik Munther and Robin Stjernberg (8%), Ravaillacs and Anton Ewald (5%), Sean Banan and David Lindgren (3%) and State of drama last with 2%. I guess we can't rule Sean Banan out as he has topped some other polls and maybe David and Ulrik might have a chance, too.  This blogger agrees with this poll that Yohio will win but I wouldn't count Ralf out either. And...

Melodifestivalen started big time last week and the show was great even if the songs ween't maybe the strongest ever. Things may change this week (or then not). I will be watching UMK 2013 final when this is on so I will be back with results in due time. The most important thing to know about the rehearsals is Pernilla Wahlgren fell on her ass with high heals when she got a bit too dancy.... here: And it's worth mentioning Sean Banan has 15 people involved in his number. The rules say max 8 people on stage in melodifestivalen (instead of the 6 in Eurovision) but he's got a way around it: there are max 8 people on stage at the same time . When does someone try this in Eurovision?! And in this semi we have the writers of Eurovision 2011 and 2012 winner up against each other, too. Excited yet? Anyways, it's a very solid pack this week this blogger has difficulty to pick up the faves and yikes (from the reheardal videos, that is). Erik & Tone? I must support Sea...

Looks like there's a change in Sweden. The aertists for the first two semifinals were revealed today and most of them seem to be newcomers to the contest. We do have Cookies N Beans and David Lindgren trying again in the first one, Sean Banan and Erik Segerstedt in the second with some other familiar names like Jenny Silver and Pernilla Wahlgren, and then there's also Tone Damli after all. And a lot of familiar names among the songwriters, too, from Måns Zelmerlöw to Ingela Pling Forsman and Thomas G:son.  And we also have the songwriters of Eurovision winners of 2011 and 2012 neck to neck, too, as also Bjurman and Örn are there.... SEMI FINAL 1 KARLSKRONA (February 2) Cookies N Beans – Burning Flags (Fredrik Kempe) Mary N’diaye – Gosa (Åsgärde, Frändå, Mary N’diaye) YOHIO – Heartbreak Hotel (Fransson, Lundgren, Larsson, Göranson, YOHIO) Jay-Jay Johanson – Paris (Jay-Jay Johanson) Anna Järvinen – Porslin (Björn Olsson, Martin Elisson) David Lindgren – Skyl...

Anywhere else 2.549 songs sent to the national final would be a huge amount but in Sweden it's actually the lowest since 2002! And a drop of 936 since last year. But maybe it only means those unlucky ones that have sent their songs year after year, again and again have finally decided to give up? Or did simply Thomas G:son give up after winning, too, and didn't send in his usual about a zillion songs? :-) Seriously, all that matters here of course is the quality, not the quantity like in many other things in life, too.  Now the SVT jury will pick up 16 songs for the semifinals, one of them at least must come from the so called amateur selection (647 songs in total). Svensktoppen selection winner Terese Fredenwal has already her place secured and the remaining 15 places will be filled by SVT as they please; among the songs sent in or by inviting artists and songwriters directly to make the usual 32 semifinalists. The song titles and their writers will be publis...

Meldoifestivalen Second chance was going pretty well for my liking when there was a chance in the last duels that Timoteij and Sean Banan would go to the final next week. Instead they both lost so it's Top Cats and Torsten Flinck and his Revolutions orchester that went through. Oh well, about Top Cats it's nice it's co-written by Lili & Susie's Susie Päivärinta. Torsten... well, let's say Sean should have qualified only for his sparkling smile, ding digi ding!