I sat down to watch Britains Got Talent on Sunday night as I missed it on Saturday night. So sob stories aside there were some delights, like the fact that David Walliams is now a judge and Simon Cowell is back. (There was also someone from Baywatch there who didn't know the slightest bit about talent but was great to look at.) But with the show aside every piece of talent that I looked at was straight out of Eurovision. Some with slight changes, let's have a look. (Sorry if you have to watch some of these on Youtube it won't let me embed them.
That's not Tom Dice (it's Sam Kelly instead). No it is not, but it could be him singing here. Sam Kelly is here singing Make You Feel My Love.
It The (Ballroom) Schalgerboys Ok, you won't see this at Euroclub (at least based on the things I've heard.) But still, this is all I could think of while I watched this. It may be the gayest thing I've ever seen.
Bradley and Barbara It may not be Bjorn Ranelid and Sara Li but it's close.
Costume Changes I am torn between Sean Banan and just a heap of costume changes, both of which we have seen at Eurovision. Dennis Egel is his name anyway. Make of it what you will. Ell and Nikki's rehearsals Certainly if you listened to the reports from the rehearsals Nikki was holding Eldar back which is kind of what is happening here. Good looking, not quite as good a singer girl, Charlotte is holding back phantom of the Opera (or Mc Donalds) [I can be so cruel] Johnathan. Anyhow this also provided for some really great awkward television when Simon suggested he dump Charlotte.
With another national final season over us and me being away from blogging and technology for a few nights, we turn our attention back to remember the highs and lows of the national final season that was. While it is almost over it will leave us with some great memories. Part 2 continues our series. #
As I should be back tomorrow so we will be back to normal but just to point out that tomorrow we should finally hear the UK entry and any others we have not heard yet. But in the meantime our series continues.
The Best Song Of The National Final season I was one of the few fans who felt that this was song of national final season 2012 but here it is (feat. the amazing Sara Li):
Jedward's Fans Forget Jedward they were soooo yesterday's post - they have fans lots of them - and they are about as nutty as them. Follow a few on Twitter and find out.
Greece Holding Their National Final in a Shopping Mall I know things in Greece are bad but seriously I didn't think that a shopping center would be the best option to film a national final but anyhow that's their choice. We only need to panic about them if they win Eurovision and they propose a variety of farms with barns on which to hold their national final.
Sarah Dawn Finer - Comedian? I don't think anyone expected something so excellent in terms of humour from the Swedes but by God did they do so. This was such a great sketch that we had to share it once again.
Our Eurovision Friends Without going for a big cheesy ending we just would like to say that the greatest trill of all was having so many people to talk to on Twitter or otherwise for national final season. Thank you all so much.
Did we miss something? Yes, we did, but we didn't see every national final. If you think that their was something that we missed do get in touch via the Contact Us! section and if we think that it is worthwhile we will put it up in a Part 4. (Obviously giving you full credit with a link).
Last night Melodifestivalen was on. Despite the fairly vast amount of criticism of the final this year, very few people actually put their money where their mouth was and watch Romania.
So what happened? Well, all songs were performed and voted on. Loreen won with her great song Euphoria. So let's take a look at how Sweden voted and what the pattern might tell us about Melodifestivalen.
Songs and Success
While the winner of Melodifestivalen was pretty much certain and Danny came in second as expected. However the next few placings were surprising. David and Ulrik tied for third place. They were a bit ahead of where they were expected to be. The big surprise in my view was the poor showing by Molly Sanden and Lisa Miskovsky.
How does Sweden vote?
Sweden use the same method to calculate the winner as Denmark. Juries around Europe award points to their favourite songs using a standard set of points (1,2,4,6,8,10,12). This means that one jury will award 1+2+4+6+8+10+12= 43 points. Eleven Juries award 11 x 43 = 473 points. The Public then award their own set of points 473 points. This is broken down based on the percentage of televotes it receives. So a song that gets 10% of the televotes gets 10% x 473 = 47.3 points. This then rounded to the nearest whole number.
This method was used last year but last year the juries did not have a clear winner. (Sanna, Eric and Danny were within five points of one another.) However as Eric was the winner of the televoting by a good margin (8.8%) he received 42 points more than Danny.
Voting Patterns
An interesting pattern emerged in the televoting. The table shows how much of the televote the top two songs took. The table beside them shows the top two in last years scoring. The top two this year took an unprecedented amount of the votes.
How did the juries vote in percentage terms? Well we converted the jury vote i.e. expressed it as a percentage of 473 points. Comparing it with the public percentages with jury percentages also helps to understand how voting worked. N.B. - Series 1 is jury votes, series 2 is public votes. (I'm not an amzing Excel wizard, sorry).
The other notable thing is that Loreen won the contest with a record number of votes in absolute terms. She pulled in a massive 670,551 votes which according to this SVT article is a record. The article is well worth a read.
Reactions
Eurovision fans are broadly happy with Swedens result and there is widespread recognition of Loreen as an exceptional artist even if she was not everyone's favourite. A number of older fans think that this is a bad choice for Sweden comparing Loreen with Kati Wolf last year who did well on fan polls but came 22nd in the final. I think people who argue that may be slightly out of touch with Eurovision Music - but that's just an opinion. However: Let the record show I believed on the 11th March 2012 I believed that Loreen was the most likely to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2012
In Sweden the fact that Loreen won seems to be rather popular but there is a couple of juicy stories from Melodifestivalen for those of us who like to take a peak at the Daily Mail.
Bjorn Ranelid has stated that only one Swedish writer wished him good luck in Melodifestivalen. Bjorn states that he now knows who his friends are and that Swedish writers have show their true colours (That's pretty cold - Ed.)
Danny has decided to be a sore loser and ran from the "green room/space" before Loreen could do a reprise. He also didn't take part in the after parties. He just went home to his girlfriends house. Today he said that Sweden had made a bad decision to send a schlager entry with Loreen. (And sorry Danny could you clarify What was your song then?) Anyway a couple of artists in Sweden have come out to say that they feel sorry for him and that they understand how much he wanted it. We just think that the better song won. Hard Lucj Danny. Well Done Loreen.
And Finally....
Of all the surprising things to come Melodifestivalen the amazing Sarah Dawn Finer Lynda Woodruff went down a storm with fans (while also poking the Brits, which we welcome.) Huge well done to Sarah for her hilarious piece.
