All the stars in heaven will shine for me

Ohhhh, yes. It is on. At this rate, this semifinal is going to be better than the actual final. The songs...they're amazing. I'll update in just a couple of minutes.

I am incredibly impressed. All predictions were that this was going to be the best semifinal round, and so far it easily is, but I had no idea it was going to be this good. Wow. In no particular order, the best:

Magnus (opening with Bosson-esque "ohh"'s, this song is so good. It's fast, it's poppy, it's got everything you could possibly want in a song. My favorite of the round, I think, though there's so much quality here that title could end up shifting around a lot, but this was the song I found myself wanting to listen to while I was sitting around waiting for my computer to do some stuff, so it wins out for now. It's one of the favorites to make the final, and it better! To quote someone else, though--I can't remember who, or I'd cite it--it might be very Melodifestivalen but maybe not very Eurovision. I don't care, though--it's sensational. Really. I can't even begin to get across how good it is--just listen to it already!)

Nanne (I was a little worried at first because it's acoustic-sounding, but she is going to perform the heck out of this, I'm sure, which will really elevate the song. Catchy vocal part, catchy guitar, and some lovely orchestral-ish punctuation of the song...I just sort of wish it wasn't so acoustic. As I said, though, I'm sure my opinion of it will climb immensely when I see it performed--she's such a powerful performer and really makes you see how brilliant her songs are.)

Måns (I'm hoping Mans does really well with this song and then decides that he wants to continue with this musical direction, as opposed to the "singer-songwriter" direction he's threatening. Nanne's a singer-songwriter, too, but I suspect he means something less fun, and this song is AMAZING. He's probably singing "When someone loves like I do, dreams can true," but to me it sounds like "When someone looks like I do, dreams can come true," and that's what I'm going to imagine he's saying instead. I'm not sure how well he'll perform it, but on quality of the song, I'd love this to at least make it to the second chance and the final from there. Please, Måns, release a full album of music like this! He seems a little emotionless at points, but oh gosh...I love this song. It starts out dark and slower, with Mans's voice muffled, but it breaks out into fantastic dance-pop. As if that wasn't great enough, out of nowhere, we get handclaps. Handclaps! Oh my gosh, is it good. It may, ignoring the performances, steal the title of my favorite from Magnus.)

Sebastian (ahh, this is great as well, up there with some of the best of his work. Don't let my lack of words here fool you--I love it as well.)

The Attic feat. Therese (it can't be a coincidence that this song opens up with a reference to "human rights" when the theme song for Melodifestivalen last year, also made by the Attic, was called "Human Rights," can it? Very clubby, very good. Even it fails to make the final--and I wonder if it being so clubby might hurt it--I don't know how it couldn't be a club hit...I love it a lot.)

MissMatch (these girls will probably be overlooked, cursed with being in the toughest semifinal and not being famous ahead of time, and I have a feeling a lot of Melodifestivalen fans might not like it, but I like it--I hope we hear more from them. It's a little rocky without being what I would necessarily call pop-rock. Plus, it's got panting.)

Sonja also has a beautiful ballad that is growing on me, but with this much amazing up-tempo stuff, there are so many other songs I'd rather see make it through. The Shieda song is nice enough, but can't compete when up against songs like these. You can listen to all the songs here.

Please, please, please let the stream work tomorrow! My hopes for the final and second chance--well, it's tough. I'm narrowly going to go Magnus and Nanne based on the reports that Nanne's performance easily tops everyone else's (otherwise--and I can't believe I'm saying this--it'd be questionable for me as to whether she should even make the second chance. Oh, saying that feels awful!), but Måns is close, and I definitely want him at least in the second chance and making it to the final out of there (or maybe in the final instead of Nanne...I love his song so much!). The second second chance spot--between Sebastian and the Attic feat. Therese, for me. There are five absolutely top-quality songs in this round, though, and it's such a shame more can't make it to the final. In fact, given the new structure of the second chance round, there's no way more than three songs from this semifinal will end up being in the final, which is ridiculous.

I'm in music paradise! I can't believe how great this round is. It really is going to be better than the final, I think.