News Wrap-Up: Saturday 3rd March

Firstly Spain, Estonia and Lithuania have selected their songs for this years Eurovision. Spain have selected Quédate Conmigo which is a very good song. I am a tiny, tiny bit uneasy about it I think there is a small bit of depth missing from the performance but we will have to wait until May to see whether it works on the Eurovision Stage.

Estonia selected Ott Lepland to represent them in Baku. His song for Baku "Kuula" is very deep and is fairly strong.  I do still maintain this was a poor choice and there was better in the competition. I really hope they keep it in Estonian. 

Lithuania have decided to send Donny Montel with his song Love is Blind to Baku. This was the favourite, though certainly not mine. Anyway we'll talk about these things later.

Anyhow in other news:

• In Melodifestivalen to most fans disappointment - including my own, Top Cats got through to the final with Thorsten Flinck. 
• Keeping with Melodifestivalen 2012 early odds and polls would suggest that Loreen should win. We will have full coverage of Melodifestivalen this week and will have a big post tomorrow night.
• A snippet of the Azeri song has appeared online. You can listen to it here, though from the snippet it does not exactly fill me with confidence of an amazing Azeri song at Eurovision. 
• Sean Banan did an excellent parody of Danny Saucedo's Melodifestivalen song which you can watch here.

I'll have a piece up on Melodifestivalen Final sometime tonight.

Andra Chansen: Football For Eurofans

Those of you who are not huge fans of Melodifestivalen will be glad to know that in eight days or so this wave of excitement will end. However also, very sadly as Melodifestivalen comes to an end so does the National Final season and with that comes a strange silence over the world of Eurovision fandom.

But enough pessimism on with Andra Chansen. If you have never been through Andra Chansen before Scandipop have an explaination of it here.

The first duel is between Dynasty and Top Cats. Dynasty have a fairly average sounding rock song helped by a lack of rock in Melodifestivalen this year. Top Cats have something that sounds like The Playtones last year but it is not anything monumental. My guess is that Dynasty should win this duel. However rock is often screened out of Andra Chansen.

The second duel is probably the most high profile for Eurovision/Melodifestivalen fans. Timoteij with their rather good song and Andreas Johnsson. Those who remember his MF 2006/2007 entries will see some parallels between Lovelight and those. However I think his song is just a little below those greats. I would love to say that Timoteij will get through but this is just to close to call.

The third duel contains Lotta Engberg and Christer Sjogren up against Thorsten Flinck once again this could go their way. I reckon that Lotta and Christer will do it their chessy but sweet song could appeal to a more wider vote. Nevertheless there is a certain "Caroline Af Ugglas" feel to this song. That has proven in the past as being a vote getter.

Finally duel four will consist of Sean Banan and Youngblood. Here you have a rather poorish song and another rather poorish song. However Youngblood probably will get through from here as there is little to take the young teen girl vote.

I'm not going to go into depth about the second round but it certainly looks like we will have an exciting and heartbreaking contest.

A Look Ahead To Tonight

All times mentioned in this article are CET for GMT subtract one.

There is a huge amount on this evening with 3 song selections and 2 semi-finals there is little reason to be bored. 

• Norway kicks of in about an hour at 19:55 for their final pausing at 21:10 and restarting for the super final at 21:40. We are expecting a result from Norway around 22:45. We are hoping for a Reidun Saether/Plumbo victory.
• Sweden gets going at 20:00 with their semi-final until 21:30. I think I speak for many fans by saying vote for Timoteij Sweden.
• Iceland have a two hour show from 21:30-23:30 they will be the last country tonight to give us a song and we sincerely hope that it is by Greta & Jonsi.
• Hungary kick off at 20:15 with a result expected around 22:00.
• If your watching Lithuania their show is from 20:00-22:30.

So we have a long night in store. Time to get the dinner eaten and popcorn on and enjoy every minute of the  biggest Scandinavian weekend of the year. 

Vote For Timoteij!!!!

I was almost going to take an evening off blogging when I realised that the songs from Melodifestivalen still had to be reviewed. So before we head off to look at the live stream from Gothenburg here come the reviews:

Ulrik Munther - This is a direct appeal to the Justin Beber fans of Sweden. His sing is of the high quality that we have come to expect from Sweden. Why he has a mouth organ I will never figure out but I think this is pitched very well at the voters and should go directly to the final in Stockholm. At a personal level I think it is a good listen but think there is better in this semi-final. Grade: B

Top Cats - When I first started watching this clip of the song I could have sworn I was after watching The King by The Playtones. However unlike the Playtones this is not nearly as strong the song may be good for the genre but it lacks a sense of connectedness that we expect from songs. Very average entry which will struggle in Melodifestivalen. Grade: D-

Sonja Aldén - This is might be a case where we actually need to hear the whole version of the song. I'd be surprised if this clip was taken late in the song as the song has not built up at all. Every year some big name comes crashing out of Melodifestivalen and this could be that entry this year. I think it feels very cold and stagnet this is due to the lack of warmth and passion in the ballad but perhaps I could understand it more if I spoke Swedish. Grade: C-

Andreas Lundsteadts - After Alcazar split last year I felt that it was obvious that one of them would turn up at Melodifestivalen. This song is a little to sutble to be Alcazar and indeed it could cancal out with some of Mimi-Oh's vote. This might be a little over dramatically performed. It is quite radio friendly but I think this may not be good anywhere. It is a good song in certain respects. Grade: C

Timoteij - This was the song that I have been waiting for for quite some time. Of course this is the fan favorite in this semi-final however I think that it does offer everything that Timoteij are good at. However unlike their Norwegian neighbours the Swedes do not seem to embrace the ethnic pop to the extend others did. However if this doesn't go directly to the final it will be a surprise. If I could critise them I would say that their choltes don't exactly match up/ contrast from the song well. But this really is nit picking. Whether or not they win Melodifestivalen remains to be seen, but let us enjoy a great song. Grade: A+

David Lindgren - An over techno song which doesn't offer very much but it could come across well on TV. I don't whether this is way off of the mark or just a maybe. I'm not the biggest fan as you can tell. Grade: D+

Mimi Oh - A direct competitor to Andreas however I think that this works a lot better. Overall this subtle pop does not do very well in competitions however I think that this is well performed and colourful enough that it should hold up and possibly gain a place in Andra Chansen. P.S. I wrote up these reviews quickly and was listening to Mimi's song again and really it is very good. Not good enough to go to the final but I really like this one. Grade: A-

Thomas Di Leva - A Patient has escaped from the mental home in Sweden. Maybe seen singing crap pop songs that may have been seen in Eurovision during the 70's. Grade: D

I think I speak for many blogs around Europe in hoping that TIMOTEIJ <3! go through to the final, and while I like Mimi Oh I reckon it will be Ulrik Munther. The songs that get through to Andra Chansen are a bit harder to work out I think Mimi Oh and David.