Saturday, February 09, 2008

It's all coming back

Me, in a Last.fm comment I left yesterday: "Heaven help us, 'I Love Europe' is going to do well, isn't it? If it knocks Velvet to fifth place or something, there WILL be trouble!"

And sure, you could blame any of the other three entries that qualified ahead of "Deja vû," but no, it is directly Christer Sjögren's fault. I even loved the performance of "Deja vû"! Sigh. Not really a shocking result, though, I guess.

Also--and don't kill me, schlager fans--but I loved Michael Michailoff's "That's Love." The fact that it took sixth while both Andreas Johnson's entries have sailed easily into the finals is ridiculous (don't get me wrong, I like Andreas, but his Melodifestivalen entries are far from my favorites of his songs--or maybe I just don't like his voice on them). Not that I expected it to do anything, or anyone else in blogworld to like it (well, at least Troy ranked it in his top half based on the one minute clips; I've got no idea what he thinks of it now).

I'm thrilled that Amy Diamond qualified to the final, though. That's a plus--I loved "Thank You" and her performance of it.

Sigh--well, I shouldn't be surprised--last year, two of my favorite three entries in the first semifinal were disqualified as well.

Edit: trying to look on the bright side, at least that means Swedes will be able to buy Velvet's entry from Telia (available already!), and hopefully it will hit the Internet sooner.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Come on Poster Girl - even the biggest schlager fan's patience was tested tonight with some of the songs on display. Velvet missed a few notes at the end as well. And Amy Diamond singing live... er... she's probably better in a studio.

Poster Girl said...

Oh, I think you may be right about Velvet, especially in one of those big crescendo moments--and I get easily distracted by flashing lights and smoke and wind machines--but you know, the funny thing is, I would've sworn to you up and down that I was really impressed with Amy--I definitely left with a great impression of her performance...but I just went and looked it up on YouTube, and it's...different than I remember. Breathier. Hmmm--for some reason, that's not how I remember it at all.

Anonymous said...

Usually I watch MF each year in the Swedish pub in London and I'm always taken away by the cheesiness of it all (the drink helps). Tonight I was at home and watching it on the SVT site and saw it in true clarity. Amy Diamond is much appreciated in Sweden but I didn't think she could cut it live.

And the general rule with MF is that the song you really like never makes it into the final. (See 'MOVE' from last year)

Anonymous said...

I think 'Amy Diamond' has by the best song, its an amazing pop song i hope it does well.

Its an outrage Velvet didnt get through as ive loved all her/their songs so far and been waiting for the second album for ages as 'Fix Me' was one of my favourite songs of 2007.

Does anyone know if/when the Melodifestivalen album with all this years entries is/will be released?

Poster Girl said...

You know, that could have been it--the environment, for me, as well as the fact that it wasn't exactly quiet where I was. I do still love "Thank You," though! Sigh--poor "Move." I still think it was great. At least I had a better strike rate this year than last year--my two favorites from 2007's semifinal were cut immediately and my third favorite made it to the second chance round. This time, at least one of my two favorites directly qualified to the final, even if the other of my favorites plus the other song I liked got cut.

I loved "Thank You" (and the choreography) as well! And I'd love another album from Velvet--I hope her getting knocked out here doesn't stop that from happening. The Melodifestivalen album comes out on March 16.

Anonymous said...

Great blog, Poster Girl. I was in Scandinavium last night so I only have the live performances to go on. I think I realised as soon as it finished that 'I Love Europe' was going to be at least in the top four, but direkt till Globen was a big shock. There were a number of people groaning around me when the result was announced so it may be that it won't do too much damage in the final. Amy looked and sounded great in the arena and it really is a very good song. As a Brit, it was strange to hear her speak very briefly in a native English accent! Suzzie Tapper was a huge shock in that it probably got the worst reception in the hall and I really didn't rate it as a song or performance. A poor imitation of 'För att du finns' as far I could see.....Like you, I also rated Michael's performance and thought he stood a good chance of getting through to at least Andra Chansen. Great vocals and a great reception from the crowd. Gothenburg was alive with Melodifestivalen fever. Schlagerking, Bert Carlsson was selling Skoda cars in the main shopping mall and there was conversation about MF nearly everywhere you went. If only the UK could get this excited!

Poster Girl said...

Oh, thank you! And it's so great to hear from someone who was actually there! I'm envious ;)

"I Love Europe" just doesn't have enough melody for me...it just seems like he's reciting lines over the top of a song. It's interesting to hear that about the Suzzie Tapper performance--if it's main appeal is those lyrics, and the fragileness she portrays when she's singing, I would've thought that would translate to the people in the arena as well as it did to the people watching on TV--though maybe not seeing her so close up made a difference? Not that I'm rooting for the song, though.

Oh, that environment must have just been SO fantastic! I get excited just reading about it! Thanks for the frontline report!

Anonymous said...

Man, am I glad to find some other nutters who like Melodifestivalen as much as I do.

Viva BWO.

I couldn't even bear to put an entry on my blog about this week's semi as it was pretty ropey all round.

Jamie said...

I liked 'Deja Vu' but it was kind of schlager by numbers with a nod in the direction of 'Eytymon'. Plus Velvet's vocals were kind of dubious at some points. Still it'll probably do well on the swedish charts.

Michaell said...

Velvet is soo having another #1 in Poland, I liked Amy Diamond if she makes it to Belgrade she sure be getting lots of polish points-since u hear her on the radio alot-
and I really liked this old woman Suzy(?) I cant remeber, anyways she seems to have been through a lot in her life, u can hear it in her voice, and I liked her idontgiveafuck-attitude

Poster Girl said...

Ha ha, oh, there are a lot of us! Definitely looking forward to the BWO entry--which I've only read good things about so far, too, making me even more excited!

I hope it does...plus I'm usually a sucker for schlager by numbers anyway. I think I like "Deja Vu" even more than "Etymon," though I'll need to get the studio version and give it some listens first to really know.

Suzzie? Yeah, I think her song was about her struggles--she's got Parkinson's, apparently, and the song is about how love still managed to find her--and that's the titular "miracle." I'll be surprised if Amy makes it to Belgrade (though I think "Thank You" is great), but I'd love it if Velvet can keep up the commercial success with this song.