Rehearsals: Day 1: Part 3 Switzerland - Finland

Rehearsals continued today in earnest and videos have now appeared for them all. But now onto the last three.

Switzerland - Rehearsal Video
Switzerland have come on in leaps and bounds since the national finals in December [then again they've had since December]. The staging is really well done, the vocals and more importantly diction have stepped up to the mark and the whole thing is looking rather polished. The general consensus is that this has indeed improved but no matter what I read today I still think that this just screams non-qualifier. I don't fully know why that is though.

Belgium - Rehearsal Video 
Despite some peoples arguments this is a song I have a soft spot for. I think that this has really come up in the rehearsals. The staging of the whole song is wonderfully understated and I think that Iris has the voice to carry this song off. Interestingly there is a very little we learned today. The rehearsal has been very similar to the national final performance. Possibly the closest so far today.

Finland - Rehearsal Video
Finland were the last to take to the stage for rehearsals today. The song is vocally good but coming after Belgium this is a lot less dramatic. To be honest this song was one that I have really loved but today I felt that it stopped short of actually coming up to the mark. Many acts have impressed me today but Finland really has not. This might come up a bit in second rehearsals but at the moment I'm not feeling it.

A Swedish Song From Finland

After rather average results Finland decided to completely overhaul their selection process, they had indicated that they would do this at the end of UMK 2011. However what they replaced it with, an X-Factor style competition has had very mixed results as a national final selection process, so what have they sent?

Finland decided to send a song in Swedish this year, meaning that we will hear Swedish sung in the contest for the first time since 1998. The song "Nar Jag Blunder" by Pernilla Karlsson is a gentle piano ballad and is a great gentle song, rising and falling in wonderful musical arcs. It is subtle and is performed in a wonderfully understated way. Pernilla has a wonderful voice that is really suited to the song.

"This all songs well and good really" you might say. Well sadly as much as I do like this song I think that it has many limitations. It is not the most entertaining of songs, which is made clearly evident by need for a dancer to perform on stage. The song has no real end either, it just sort of grinds to a halt (no crescendo). It offers little in terms of a hook. Being in Swedish doesn't help that though. I fully respect Finland's choice to leave the song in Swedish.

This song has really is going to be under pressure to qualify in semi-final 1. Sandwiched between Belgium, who have another straight forward and uncomplicated ballad. Really it is difficult to see how Finland might qualify for the final when the public televote might be so against it. Why would they be against it? Well, I think being a dry ballad it might not exactly set the place on fire on Tuesday night half way through all of the songs. On the other hand it may stand out to more conservative voters, however I think they will drift towards Belgium.

Verdict: This might not drive the fans or the public crazy in the semi-final but in spite of its many failures it triggers something happy inside of me when I hear it. I'm not convinced it is a qualifier though.


Grade: A-

Another Eurovision Entry And Some Semi Final Results

Finland have decided to send Pernilla Karlsson to Eurovision. It is what we would call a "Brave" entry. It lacks something and then something else and then.... Anyway the song is called Nar Jag Blunder. The dancer would suggest that there is something for that you have to be distracted from something.....

Sweden surprised us all by deciding to stop Charlotte Perrelli in her tracks. She is now out of Melodifestivalen. Danny and Lisa went directly to Globen which was surprising for Lisa to get through. However Danny was not anyway surprising. His performance was vocally unsound and would be very difficult to do at ESC. However it is Danny and judging by the audience reaction he will be the one to beat on Saturday 10th.

Estonia and Lithuania also held semi-finals and I have not studied them in enough so do please read about on escXtra