Sweden: Towards Melodifestivalen (Part 1)

Sweden – Melodifestivalen is due in only two weeks, and SVT has finally published official pictures and interviews with the 32 acts taking part in this year’s contest. So, in order to build up the excitement, the ET Team is going to look deeper at each semifinal!

There weren’t big news in Sweden since December, when the full draw was announced for the 32 acts taking part in one of the four semifinals. The same format since 2002 is going to be used again with four semifinals featuring 8 original songs, two of which will qualify directly to the final, two to a second chance round and 4 will be directly eliminated.

This January, with less than a month to go before Melodifestivalen kicks off (the first show is set for February the 1st), the SVT official MF site has finally published full official pictures and interviews with each act. Considering how big and popular MF is among the esc community (even with all its many well recognized and accepted flaws), the Eurovision Times thought it was a good idea to watch all interviews and translate from Swedish for all our readers to get to know more about the singers (or at least what they’re willing to tell us) and get ideas what sort of songs we are to expect.

As for the songs themselves, snippets from rehearsals will be presented the thursday before each semifinal and right before each semifinal the full mp3 will be released for the time of the semi. After the semi ends, they will be deleted from SVT to keep the show as neutral as possible, only songs eliminated will be left on the site. At the end of the fourth semifinal, all songs will be available again.

So let’s start with our presentation of the songs. This should build up some anticipation on the actual shows, which will surely be once more extremely followed by the esc community. We will do part 1 today, as in focused on the first semifinal. The next semis will be discussed in following articles. We want to thank here our regular member Eulenspiegel, who helped us with these articles.

Show 1: Malmö, Feburary 1st 2014

1. Yohio To the end (Andreas Johnson, Johan Lyander, Peter Kvint, Yohio)

TEMPO: 80%
MESSAGE: 80%
SHOW: 100%
DIFFERENT: 80%

Yohio: “To the end is a bit more mature than Heartbreak Hotel. It is more ‘grand and epic’. The difference with last year is that I’m more prepared this time. Back then, I had no idea about anything. It was just a merry-go-round of chaos. There was much talk about me finishing second despite getting most televotes. In one way, I consider myself as the winner but that doesn’t really matter to me. What I want people to think of when they hear the song is that you will be loved just the way you are no matter what.”

2. Mahan Moin Aleo (Mahan Moin, Anderz Wrethov)

TEMPO: 90%
MESSAGE: 100%
SHOW: 52%
DIFFERENT: 60%

Mahan Moin: “Aleo is a made-up word that stands for strength, power, fellowship: us. And that’s what the song will be about. People should be honest towards themselves, dare to dream and know that they can’t do anything on their own but they need the strength and community to reach their goal. I am where I am because so many people have supported me. When I’m on stage, I want the message to be clear as well as the joy. I want people to think ”Oh, I wanna hear more songs with Mahan!”.”

3. Linus Svenning Bröder (Fredrik Kempe)

TEMPO: 55%
MESSAGE: 100%
SHOW: 10%
DIFFERENT: 80%

Linus Svenning: “My song Bröder, written by Fredrik Kempe, is dedicated to my brother who died three years ago. I want people to realise that they should take care of what they have and never take anything for granted. The song means a lot to me. It’s a kind of a rock ballad but a bit pop at the same time, and there’ll be a lot of explosions at the end. I’m already a winner coming all this way. I look extremely forward to do it, my pulse is speeding each time I’m thinking of it.”

4. Elisa Lindström Casanova (Ingela ”Pling” Forsman, Bobby Ljunggren, Jimmy Jansson)

TEMPO: 90%
MESSAGE: 50%
SHOW: 95%
DIFFERENT: 50%

Elisa Lindström: “Casanova is a song about a casanova, of course. He has tricked me but I take my revenge with a bang. I want a performance with much tempo, dance but also some acting so the message gets through. It means very much to me to be here, it’s so incredibly fun and has been a goal so I’ll enjoy every moment of it. When the semi is over, I want to have reached the final, but also be remembered as something fun and happy. I will have butterflies when it’s time.”

5. Alvaro Estrella Bedroom (Jakke Erixson, Jon Bordon, Lauren Francis, Kristofer Östergren)

TEMPO: 100%
MESSAGE: 45%
SHOW: 100%
DIFFERENT: 0%

Alvaro Estrella: “I’ve been working as a dancer for a long time and also as a backing singer. I started in MF 2005 behind Cameron Cartio. I reached the top, dancing and singing behind Eric Saade in Eurovision, one of the greatest things I’ve done. After that, it has been Danny’s Amazing and back-up for the Azeri entry. I have all my life wanted to become an artist, but the dancing came in between. I met Jakke and Kristofer from Melody Club and they had written a great song and we recorded it extremely quickly. That’s how it should be when it feels right.”

6. Ellen Benediktson Songbird (Sharon Vaughn, Johan Fransson, Tim Larsson, Tobias Lundgren)

TEMPO: 10%
MESSAGE: 90%
SHOW: 20%
DIFFERENT: 50%

Ellen Benediktson: “I study at a music school. I was a stand-in for the French entry so that the production team could test sounds, lights, pictures and stuff like that. This lead to a phone call from Christer Björkman when I was in class, and he told me he had a song he wanted me to try. That doesn’t happen every day. The song is calm and stripped and I hope I will feel proud and pleased when all this is over. I have no expectations, just to consume all feelings from this experience and have a lot of fun.”

7. Sylvester Schlegel Bygdens son (Sylvester Schlegel)

TEMPO: 80%
MESSAGE: 80%
SHOW: 50%
DIFFERENT: 80%

Sylvester Schlegel: “My song is called Bygdens son and I’ve written it myself. It’s like the story of my life in three minutes, from my childhood to this day. We won with The Ark, but I don’t think I’ve learned much from it. It feels more like a surrealistic dream. It’s a lovely memory and yet it feels like I’m doing this for the first time. I’m very grateful to have this chance to reach out with my own music. I have very mixed feelings about this: I’m both looking forward to this, but I’m also a bit scared because I’m not really sure what I’ve embarked on.”

8. Helena Paparizou Survivor (Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström, Karl-Ola Kjellholm, Sharon Vaughn)

TEMPO: 50%
MESSAGE: 100%
SHOW: 80%
DIFFERENT: 45%

Helena Paparizou: “What got me into this was when I had been in Sweden to finish my album. I was walking in the corridors of Lionheart and I heard the guys in a studio, working with a project. And I stepped in, asking “What are you doing” and “What a great song and what a fantastic title.” They told me it’s a project for MF and then it was so obvious I would do it. I said “This is my song, may I do it?” The message is to be a survivor, and I think it’s important to have that attitude each day. Only you can bring yourself up. I don’t want ESC 2001 and 2005 affect me this time. I want to feel this is my debut and I would be very happy if I represent Sweden.”

So that’s it for the first semi, that features a former Eurovision winner, a former Melodifestivalen winner and a former Melodifestivalen runner-up, but also two songs signed by Bobby Ljunggren (Sweden 1995, Sweden 1998, Lithuania 2005, Sweden 2006, Sweden 2008, Sweden 2010), two songs signed by Sharon Vaughn (Ireland 2012), one by Andreas Johnson and one by Frederik Kempe (Sweden 2008, Sweden 2009, Norway 2010, Sweden 2011). As for some newcomers, Linus Svenning is “big on YouTube”, having 4,8 million viewers for his acoustic covers of well-known songs. Elisa Lindström is the front singer of the new and popular dansband Elisa’s, thus representing the old school schlager this year.

Did you find anything that excites you? What are your expectations in terms of results? Don’t forget to stay tune for the presentation of the next semifinals as well!