Such a shame Loreen isn't going through to the final, a good song IMO, slightly off the beaten track and could have stood out quite well should it have gone further. But she was up against a very commercial opponent in the duels, so I'm sure the young vote had a lot to do with it.
Looks like a strong final. Worth watching folks, even if you don't speak a word of Swedish (as I don't).
It's not just the songs, as you can see from the above clip, the production is also leagues ahead. Compare that to Joe and Jake and, although that was a decent enough song, it was really just two lads singing. And the year before Electro Velvet was better production but the less said about the song and the very misjudged scat mid section, the better.
Interesting that Iceland's RUV - Songvakeppnin took full advantage of it's relatively late finish, albeit due to time zone differences to feature snippets from Melodifestivalen and Melodi GP tonight.
Its also infuriating that NRK have really cut back on content on their international players, as has SVT (but to a lesser degree). MGP was only available online via PC tonight and not on either of the NRK Apple TV or Android TV apps.
Pity the Icelandic second place act, hopelessly behind the winner at the final intermediate stage, but being forced to go through with the Gold Final segment and play along, although winning was near impossible.
Its also infuriating that NRK have really cut back on content on their international players, as has SVT (but to a lesser degree). MGP was only available online via PC tonight and not on either of the NRK Apple TV or Android TV apps.
That may not have been intentional. NRK were tweeting apologies during MGP about the lack of availability.
The F adjective now becomes Frikken or Freaking depending how you interpret his vocalisation, I suspect the latter, albeit vocalised to the former to reflect the original text.
In a year of dull ballads this stands a real chance of victory. The staging is stunning and very reminiscent of Måns Zelmerlow.
What is with all the swearing in this song? I take it will have to be changed for Eurovision.
Robin's song already had revised lyrics when it was performed tonight in the Melodifestivalen final. (Lisa Ajaz's song didn't have revised lyrics though)
SVT have had more complaints than they may have expected domestically. In Sweden neither Swedish nor English swear words are 'that' offensive usually - but many Swedish people are aware of the offense that swearing can cause to Brits etc. and were unhappy for a couple of reasons.
1. They didn't want to send a song that seemed childishly offensive.
2. Melodifestivalen and Eurovision are both family shows, and kids really shouldn't learn to swear in a foreign language without understanding the meaning of the words and how they can be a problem outside of Sweden or when talking to people who aren't Swedish.
Reality in Sweden is that most English swear words are just used as 'cool' adjectives - not to offend.
All that said - turning the F-word into 'frikking' or 'freaking' may still be a bit of an issue for some broadcasters (BBC, RTE, SBS and possibly Maltese TV?) as it is an obvious place-holder...
I love that SVT have finally got to grips with treadmills. Charlotte Pirelli was apparently supposed to have one in 2008 for 'Hero' but it wasn't compatible with her heels...
Though Sanne Nielsen had a fun turntable in 2011 - but sadly didn't win MF.
Nope, that's the song Sweden will have. In recent years the staging (and even the camera direction) has been very similar in the Eurovision finals too.