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Sweden – Molly Sandén and Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li were the two acts voted through to the Melodifestivalen final yesterday in the 3rd Swedish semi-final. Youngblood and Andreas Johnson went through to the Andra Chansen competition and may still be in with a chance. The 4th semi-final will take place next Saturday.
“Mirakel” to Baku!! <3
It was harder to follow the third semi because at the same time, Eesti Laul started its campaign with an amazing show, well put together, cozy, simple, effective and with the best songs of the year (though they’re all pakced in semi 2: Traffic, Tenfold Rabbit, Malcolm Lincoln, Mimicry and Lenna Kuurma). But I still kept watching Sweden until the end, just muting for the songs in each other’s semi. Like the second semi, out of the 4 songs in Swedish, three are already out of the competition. That simple. I don’t get why they even dare sending swedish entries if they’re all gonna do miserably, unfairly I might add. The third semi wasn’t as bad as the second one in terms of songs, but it was worse in terms of performance and way worse in terms of results. The 4 eliminated songs are in my top 5, actually my top 2 were voted out! The Swedes will never learn. We finally give them songs, and they refuse them, neglect them, ignore them. Once more the interval act consisted of a former MF song, performed in a whole different genre. It was interesting to say the least to see Pontare’s “Silverlight” done in its urban contemporary new style. I must say, for the third time now, that Sarah is an amazing host.
Now let’s dive into this pile of nonsense results.
01 Carolina Wallin Pérez: well “Sanningen” is definitely the best song I heard in all of MF 2012 so far. It’s got an amazing style being moody without being slow and overthe top cliché of the “alternative” genre. It was just a very nice beat, a very nice smooth melody and an incredible voice to deliver it. And Carolina’s look into the camera really worked it over. She was a good performer, a great vocal performer and got an amazing song. The look may be the one issue though. Not her haircut or earrings, that I liked. But that “thing” she wore had no shape whatsoever. You couldn’t even tell if it was just old fashion 50s style she went for. She didnt seem to go for anything and that did look odd. The performance was also problematic. Now you’ve got yourself a slow and moody song that you got to deliver. Sure she worked her eyes on camera. Went there, stepped here. But overall it felt academic, more like the ritual of the alternative performance more than just the performance in itself. I wasn’t really moved by it and knew she’d get kicked off the competition unfairly.
02 Mattias Andréasson: the song was different too. More R’n'B than eurodance but it had that electro soung to it too. Overall, it tried to do too many things at once, and I thought it was way cool but I guess not many people bought into it. Overall he was very charismatic, charming looking and definitely a very strong vocal performer. When he was picked in the top 5 I thought it was between him and Andreas to get saved for second chance, and Andreas does have a bigger and stronger fan base so Mattias was doomed to be that odd duck like Thomas di Leva, different and intersting enough to earn some votes, not enough to make the final cut. Sad.
03 Molly Sandén: I never liked her. It’s that easy. In 2009, she was a teenage hype thanks to High School Musical. And in her heat, she got extremely lucky. Third only of the second round, she should have been kicked off with the regular sysem. But 2009 was the only year when they had duels including in the semis, and in her semi, she had EMD who got a lot of teenage votes, so the teenagers, in the other duel, voted for her over BWO, a miles better than her. Dead last in the final (11th that year), with only 2pts from the short-lived International jury, she really got on my nerves. She grew a mature singer who totally understood that Sanna got second in 2008 with a dramatic and powerful but modern rocky ballad and did the same. In this weak semi, she did deserve to earn all the votes she did. She’s a talented and nice singer in a very clichéd boring song and with a leather look that really puzzled me. But I’m quite confident she’ll do better in the final this time.
04 Love Generation: oh god can this be true, the day I have Love Generation in the top 4 lol. But to be fair, this was the one guilty pleasure of mine. Sure I hate them. They’re shallow, simplistic, barbie figures who think they’re hot. Very annoying. ANd yes their look was really off putting. That blonde fringe kept making me sick and the one-legged illusion-like look. God, scary! And it made them look fat! I mean for barbies you wanna avoid stripes that make you look fat! Apart from that, the light pattern worked well, vocally they were stronger than last year (yes yes they did improve) and the song was much better. It was in fact an improved schlager. It felt more american than your usual Swedish europop and I enjoyed the feeling the song actually had a purpose. But in the end, it was too melodramatic and over the top to please the Swedes who prefer their own eurodance (see “Mirakel” further below). Maybe it’ll be the end of that group, and RedOne will stop torturing Europeans! I guess that’s for the better.
05 Maria Ben Hajji: she was only my 4th or 5th in the web selection and to be fair, I thought she got extremely lucky to get the ticket. Now when you saw her live, you totally understood how unfamiliar she was with the whole thing, spotlights, staging, scenery. It all looked so amateur and fake that I kept feeling sorry for her, knowing she’d be dead last. She started with a billion false notes and fake smiles. Such incomfort was very hard to take. And I never liked the candlelights. They’re the pure symbol of disney on stage imo. From Malta 1998 to Hungary 2008, I’ve hated it all (well, Chiara was such amazing in 98 that I look past it, but still it prevents it from being perfect). So yeah, there wasn’t much for me in this one, except that overall, she did look sweet and had an innocent irrelevant song. It was too harmless to hate. Not good enough to like.
06 Youngblood: a fake group put together by Kempe because he knows that schlager with hot guys do well. Seriously? No. Eric Saade had so much energy, so much charisma, so much power and eager, a huge fan base and asked for excellent songs (excellent in their genre not in themselves) like “Manboy” and “Popular” (imo “Manboy” is brilliant at what it does, and thought “Popular” was a slight letdown). Overall, though, Kempe’s music as you all know is not for me. But Youngblood was more of a joke and a huge copy of Eric Saade than anything else. Sure they looked sexy (well only two really, the one with the open shirt and the blonde that did the backflip) but they couldn’t sing a single note. They had a dull over the top performance with the torch, the lyrics were insulting to anyone’s common sense and the group is so fakely put together (song and name of the group the same, have some imagination guys) that I hoped the Swedes would destroy it. I guess there are too many teenagers watching, but it being only in second chance is a relief.
07 Andreas Johnson: since the not too bad “Glorious” that threw him into fame, Andreas has done millions of songs all sounding the same and none of them interested me. It’s pretentious, not entertaining, typical. And his good boy vintage is really not working with his face and voice. The “la la la” last night just made me jump off madness. In 2006, 3rd, in 2007, 2nd and finally kicked out in second chance by Nordman in 2008 while he was joined by none other than Carola, he came strong in 2010 with what I thought was his better song to date in MF. However, last night it was his worst and I was sure the Swedes were gonna ignore him once more. He’s too famous not to make it to second chance, sadly, but it’s good not to see him in the fina for a change.
08 Björn Ranelid & Sara Li: joke or no joke entry, I don’t speak Swedish and don’t get the amazingness of the lyrics as they are so called online. What is for sure is that, if you want a talking/poetic part with a more singing part, you need to make them both good and them put them together nicely. This wasn’t the case here at all. The talking parts were obnoxious. The singing part was the lowest form of swedish europop/schlager and performed stupidly with a really ridiculous routine and ludicrous look. All in all, this was the night’s horror and of course they bought into it. It’s very scary to see how televote can lead us into the worst possible direction and yes, maybe it’s a Swedish type of spirit and I respect that, but I do think that’s not at all what the contest should be about. I’m quite sure the juries are gonna prevent it from doing too well, but it could sneak in a few good televotes! Scary!
Thanks for the thorough yet concise review. After watching the performances, mine will be very short: completely irrelevant drivel. Next one, Please!
Indeed, BenHajji did not rise to the occasion. I watched the first two performances and Carolina’s. Youngblood can’t sing a single note and their relative success proves how wrong the Swedish televote was. MF should do something about that, otherwise it’ll become ludicrous. I also think that Carolina has the best MF12 song so far.
But how you judge qualifiers when you haven’t seen them?
Why you don’t give a chance to that festival? 
I’m sure that you will like Molly Sanden a lot if she participates in other NF, it’s really good song – ballad for you! She sings nice live…
Marko, I thought you knew me better by now. I listened to all the songs on Saturday when they became available to download before the semi. Molly is a fine live singer, but her ballad is a bit too contrived for me (Nora’s was much better for instance). I give MF a chance every year, still it continues to focus on the wrong priorities and it has become worse since 2010. I know they every right to choose their path. As an ESC fan, I also have the right to say what I think about it. If MF had nothing to do with ESC, I would not waste a minute of my time paying attention to it, believe me.
@ Morgan
I’m gonna call my aunt in Sweden to vote ” Mirakel”!
I love that blonde bitch from love Generation she is THE BEST!
So leave her ALONE!!! 
lol
ahah lol ok if you ask me to, I won’t be too mean to her
Charlotte Perelli’s snippet is sooo great, it’s very ABBA sound!! Go to Globen!:)
From the second chance Sean Banan go to Globen!!!
where did you hear it?
It leaked on internet, somebody post on YT, but then svt delete again, and again, and again. like Loreen – “Euphoria” after first semi! I wish they give up and show us all snippets!
Heeey I found again:
thanks! i got it thanks! well it doesn’t seem to have the huge oomph factor that Charlotte and Kempe’s songs usually have. I love Charlotte and I know what an amazing performer she is, but I fear that like Andreas, her fan base will only keep her alive to second chance. We’ll see how the other songs are, but if Danny has a stronger europop schlager, the voters mgiht chose something else to Globen!