A fabulous webstream (I did have some technical, computer-related problems tonight - all unrelated to MF) which meant I missed the first 10 minutes, but these now resolved and once more well done to SVT for producing a weekly must-see spectacular. Counting the days till the DVD drops through my letterbox.
Today Aftonbladet published results of a poll which said that a vast majority of the Swedish public want to see Kristian Luuk presenting MF in 2009. And why not? He's great.
Charlotte Perrelli and her bling-bling microphone (!) kicked off tonight's proceedings. I thought she was a bit nervous in places but she recovered very quickly to deliver a winning performance of "Hero".
Nerves also might have got to Sibel, whose "That Is Where I'll Go" managed to hit highs and lows in its three minutes. OK though, I suppose, but in the draw-from-hell spot, Sibel was up against it tonight.
Rongedal on the other hand managed to deliver a very professional rendition of the very catchy "Just A Minute" which has been one of my favourites of this national finals season. I thought after tonight, this could possibly provide a shock result.
Prior to this year's MF season, the appeal of Linda Bengtzing had escaped me - but no more. Who could not love her performance of "Hur Svårt Kan Det Va", an anthemic showstopper? Whilst I understood why Charlotte's win was inevitable, I still feel that she has a 'coldness' about her, which could not be said about Linda whose performance yelled warmth, humanity and fun.
All I would say about Christer Sjögren and "I Love Europe" was that it gave me the opportunity to go off and open a bottle of red wine, and the bit I did have the misfortune to see was just scary, scary, scary.
Little Amy Diamond gave it her all on "Thank You" and being in a charitable mood tonight I'd say that it was ok to begin with, but it all ended up a bit "naaaaahhh" and I can understand why the viewers/voters would lose interest as it outstayed its welcome.
So to Sanna Nielsen, the first of the serious challengers to Charlotte, thanks to the staging of "Empty Room" which had the audience waving little lights in the air Olsen Brothers-style and it was very well received, however I questioned just how sincere her 'emotional' reaction was.
Then it was time for Nordman who weren't as good as last week - voice was a bit croaky I thought - but the witch-burning and the stage act remained one of the more powerful images of this year's MF. I still rather like "I Lågornas Sken" though.
Frida Muranius featuring Headline probably realised they were among tonight's also rans but they gave an energetic, refreshing and fun performance of "Upp O Hoppa" although the end result was still a bit of a fashion disaster. There's something appealingly ordinary about Frida though.
And now to BWO with "Lay Your Love On Me" which as you probably know was my favourite this year, and just like Sebastian Karlsson in 2007, my rational judgement went out the window the minute that Martin Rolinski walked onstage. Plagiarism allegations (Lili & Sussie/Madonna) have hung over this song, but it is such a great pop song which they did very well again tonight and they should be proud of their performance, although this will probably be their last effort at MF.
"There's a new Sheriffovic in town!" declared Kristian Luuk as he headed for Belgrade in a funny interval-segment.
Bjorn Gustafsson meanwhile hit us with some beatboxing, although I didn't think this was one of his best weeks but he has been the real star of MF this year, bring him back SVT!Just when you thought there would be no more surprises, along came Maia Hirasawa with her own individual take on last year's winner, "The Worrying Kind" by The Ark!
Talking of whom, there was an appearance by a disturbingly facial-haired Ola Salo (OK I know he's doing Jesus Christ Superstar but please shave soon, Ola darling !) anyway then it was time for the jury vote, one after the other giving Charlotte 12 points, although three cheers to Norrkoping for giving BWO their 12 points :)
Result after jury vote:
1. Charlotte
2. Rongedal
3. Sanna
4. BWO
5. Linda
6. Sibel
7. Amy
8. Frida & Headline
9. Nordman
10. Christer
Then came the viewers' votes, translated into points and added to the jury votes. Not even Sanna winning the viewers' vote was enough to shift Charlotte from the top.
Final result:
1. Charlotte
2. Sanna
3. BWO
4. Rongedal
5. Linda
6. Nordman
7. Sibel
8. Amy
9. Christer
10. Frida & Headline
Charlotte wins, no surprise, well done, now go and win it for Sweden in Belgrade!
Oh, and Poster Girl - have you recovered yet??????
3 comments:
I've just downloaded the show off ThePirateBay - didn't see it live. Gonna watch it this afternoon! The right song won I think, but I don't agree with the fans that it'll be in contention. It's too dated.
Congrats on the blog anniversary btw!
It's always a great show every year, even if you don't always like all the songs, the production values are top class, no wonder its the biggest TV show of the year in Sweden.
I was watching the show on the internet and my mum happened to catch the end of it and saw Charlotte's reprise. Her reaction was "that's so old fashioned"! Although I was quite happy with the result (would have been even happier if BWO had done it), I don't think it will do as well as many predict, especially on discovering its very bad draw position in the semi final.
I'm going to order the DVD from CDON, I bought the previous 3 years DVDs last year when I visited Stockholm.
Thanks for your good wishes for the anniversary too!
No! I'm still in total meltdown :D
I completely "got" Nordman after Saturday--I'd been moving towards that earlier, but now it's definitely "all there" for me.
By the way, I know you've mentioned it loads of times and I may have already said this, but I've loved your constant love of Sebastian--SO glad I'm not the only one.
I think you're right on both counts about Björn--it seemed like far from his best night, but if the cheers were anything to go by, he's the real winner of this year's Melodifestival.
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