It is here…the wait is over…Melodifestivalen 2011 begins TONIGHT!
I LOVE melodifestivalen, I love the songs, the good, the bad, the banter – last year I loved Dolph Lundgren doing all sorts of weird and wonderful things and this year I can’t wait to see what treats they will have in store for us.
For those of you thinking I have gone crazy and have no idea what I am talking about this is how Sweden go about choosing their song to send to the great Eurovision Song Contest! There are weeks of heats and ridiculously crazy judging processes which all lead up to one big final where ultimately the wonderful Swedish public and “a panel of distinguished people from around Europe” decide who is worthy to walk in the footsteps of the legends that are ABBA.
If previous years are anything to go by I wouldn’t even bother to try and work out how the voting process works as some people went straight to the final, others to a series of head to head heats and I was lost. There is likely to be pop like you have never heard, some Swedish folk singing, some crazy people who surely can’t think they really have a hope, something completely out of left field and of course those few precious songs that you will be hearing non stop on the radio for the next 12 months!
It is time to put last year’s travesty behind us – I am still bristling about how unfair it was that poor Anna Bergendahl didn’t even get to go to the finals of the actual Eurovision Song Contest – I was so sure she had a chance of winning overall!
The line up for the first night of the competition being brought us live from LuleÃ¥ is – Pernilla Andersson, Danny, Swingfly, Le Kid, Jonas Matsson, Rasmus Viberg, Jenny Silver och Dilba.  You can get Swedish subtitles for the show but seeing as it is live then you might need to bare with it occasionally!
There were actually some great songs that came from last years competition and I am sure there will be many more from this years.  As for the year before last…well from the depths of Snälla Snälla with the incomparable Caroline Af Ugglas to of course the proud winner of that competition Malena “Inget konstigt alls” Ernman with La Voix…OK it wasn’t the finest hour for Swedish schlager (song competition) but hey at least they got onto the main show!
I will leave you with links to a few of my favourite Melodifestivalen moments so far -
- 1 – The performance that made me fall in love with the wonder of Melodifestivalen of the classic – Snälla snälla by Caroline Af Ugglas
- 2 РThis just screams Eurovision to me РPernilla Whalgren 2010 with Jag vill om du v̴gar
- 3 – EMD (2009) with Baby Goodbye – I thought this was actually quite good.
- 4 – Sanna Nielson (2008) with Empty Room – This was a beautiful song and really should have won, in my humble opinion of course!
Anyway, I would go on forever so feel free to share what your favourite melodifestivalen moments are – What has been good? What has been bad? What has been too cheesy even for Eurovision (the kebab pizza song for example – I am not kidding you check it out for yourself!)
Well you know what I will be doing every Saturday night for the next few weeks!
Ha det så bra!!
