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Eurovision 2018

Winner - Israel - KAN - Netta Barzilai 'Toy' (May 2017)

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GL
globaltraffic24
I have to say this years Melodifestivalen has been distinctly underwhelming. The vocals seem to have been a bit off, the songs not that great (in general) and little in the way of game changing staging for which the show was known. There have been some nice lighting effects and some nice cutting (all automated via CuePilot I assume) but I couldn’t really believe the standard of the last episode - not one really decent song in my opinion.

Now, I don’t speak Swedish, but I get the distinct inpression that Fab Freddie is anything but Fab. And the ‘commercial break’ mid way through the show is clearly also meant to be comedic, but I’m not sure goes down terribly well. Maybe the audience effects aren’t high enough in the mix for me to hear the audience roaring along.

There’d better be something decent in the last heat otherwise it’s not going to be worth watching the final.


I can speak Swedish relatively well. Fab Freddie has been awful, and the audience reaction to him has been terrible. Most are disappointed at his lack of chemistry with David, others find his character quite offensive, like something you'd have encountered on TV in the 70s. The fake commercial break is dire. It features Anna Book, who has appeared on Mello a number of times over the years, since she was a child. In more recent years. she lost lots of weight, got chucked out of Mello for ripping off a song, and regularly appears in the tabloids. Her appearance sums up the general feel of this year's series - a bit cliched and out of sync with the Swedish mood - something Mello has always historically been outstanding at reflecting.
NG
noggin Founding member
I have to say this years Melodifestivalen has been distinctly underwhelming. The vocals seem to have been a bit off, the songs not that great (in general) and little in the way of game changing staging for which the show was known. There have been some nice lighting effects and some nice cutting (all automated via CuePilot I assume) but I couldn’t really believe the standard of the last episode - not one really decent song in my opinion.

Now, I don’t speak Swedish, but I get the distinct inpression that Fab Freddie is anything but Fab. And the ‘commercial break’ mid way through the show is clearly also meant to be comedic, but I’m not sure goes down terribly well. Maybe the audience effects aren’t high enough in the mix for me to hear the audience roaring along.

There’d better be something decent in the last heat otherwise it’s not going to be worth watching the final.


I can speak Swedish relatively well. Fab Freddie has been awful, and the audience reaction to him has been terrible. Most are disappointed at his lack of chemistry with David, others find his character quite offensive, like something you'd have encountered on TV in the 70s. The fake commercial break is dire. It features Anna Book, who has appeared on Mello a number of times over the years, since she was a child. In more recent years. she lost lots of weight, got chucked out of Mello for ripping off a song, and regularly appears in the tabloids. Her appearance sums up the general feel of this year's series - a bit cliched and out of sync with the Swedish mood - something Mello has always historically been outstanding at reflecting.


Totally agree. The comedy is desperately 'one note' and has no real sophistication, yet isn't 'buskis' humour either (which whilst not sophisticated, can be very funny). They could have had a lot more fun with Anna Book. Think back to Christine Meltzer's "Inget konstigt alls" Malena skits


They were cheap and cheerful but had a witty core. Imagine what they could have done with Anna and her character? They could have given her a fake reality show - poking a little bit of fun at Benjamin Ingrosso's family and Pernilla Wahlgréns reality show, rather than painfully awful fake commercials.

Fab Freddie is just dire and makes Filipa Bark look positively Shakespearean... The t-shirts fired into the audience plumbed new depths...

Looking back at the great little vignettes they did with Dolph Lundgren, Lynda Woodruff etc. and you really see how the show has massively dropped the ball this year.

David isn't perfect - but he isn't the reason the show isn't hitting the heights of previous years. With a good producer and writer, David could be a whole lot better.
Last edited by noggin on 18 February 2018 11:28pm - 2 times in total
WO
Worzel
Hopefully they'll avoid jokes about mental health problems and straight jackets this year...
TI
tightrope78
Two articles from SVT itself about Fab Freddie and the public hatred of him:

https://www.svt.se/kultur/hatet-mot-fab-freddie-ar-helt-enkelt-helt-ologiskt

https://www.svt.se/kultur/fab-freddie-det-har-varit-tufft

I was at the semi final in Malmo on Saturday evening and I thought Freddie seemed well liked by the audience. But I can fully understand why audiences won't take to him. Anyone under the age of 25 will never have saw such a representation of homosexuality on mainstream TV, except for Julian Simmons on UTV!
NG
noggin Founding member
Two articles from SVT itself about Fab Freddie and the public hatred of him:

https://www.svt.se/kultur/hatet-mot-fab-freddie-ar-helt-enkelt-helt-ologiskt

https://www.svt.se/kultur/fab-freddie-det-har-varit-tufft

I was at the semi final in Malmo on Saturday evening and I thought Freddie seemed well liked by the audience. But I can fully understand why audiences won't take to him. Anyone under the age of 25 will never have saw such a representation of homosexuality on mainstream TV, except for Julian Simmons on UTV!


I think https://www.svt.se/kultur/hatet-mot-fab-freddie-ar-helt-enkelt-helt-ologiskt totally misses the point. Fab Freddie isn't funny because the writing is terrible and they are falling back on a camp stereotype, which is all that is being presented (even if that is truly who Freddie is) - they aren't subverting it, being witty with it, giving him any killer lines etc. Melodifestivalen has done SO much better in the past...

Fab Freddie may be camp - but that alone doesn't justify his presence in the show. Camp with a purpose would...
TG
TG
Frankly, anyone that has me thinking "Come back Filippa Bark, all is forgiven..." has to be pretty awful...
deejay, globaltraffic24 and Earlie37 gave kudos
TI
tightrope78
Part of the problems with this year’s show lies with the new Executive Producer, Sunil Munshi, who SVT have hired. Munshi came in with a lot of big ideas. He wanted to officially change the title of the programme to Mello, change the logo and replace the theme tune. SVT refused and the result was that we have the rather awkward compromise of the Mello branding sitting beside the proper title and logo. In addition we have the new ‘One Together’ theme almost totally replacing the established theme (which is now only heard at the end). Munshi has a very specific vision for the show and so far it hasn’t really worked. In fairness to him SVT only hired him due to the negative feedback they received last year about the shows. For too long they have relied on Edward af Sillen producing the scripts and a rota of experienced, and beloved, presenters. Now that the rota has been exhausted, and af Sillen is doing other work, the result is in essence a whole new team taking over.

With regards the music Mello has increasingly become a closed shop. Christer Bjorkman runs the music selections with an iron fist. Despite receiving over 2,000 submissions for songs the show is increasingly reliant on a few songwriter (Linnea Deb, Thomas G:Son) who have definitely had their best days behind them. During the summer Bjorkman approaches a few songwriters and asks for a number of ‘copies’ of current hits. The result is the increasingly derivative songs that we have. So far this year there have been three songs that are rip-offs of Despacito!

In addition older artists are generally being shunned at the expense of graduates from Idol and X-Factor. This year Shirley Clamp, Velvet and Alcazar were all rejected in favour of the likes of Edward Blom! With SVT having pedalled a story for the past decade that schlager was dead we saw Jessica Andersson deliver a classic schlager song on Saturday and go direct to the final. The music being shown on Mello, aimed at young people, is increasingly at odds with the type of stuff Swedish people actually like. As for this year Bjorkman has clearly spent the entire music budget on Benjamin Ingrosso’s staging and on attracting world renowned Swedish songwriter Jorgen Elofsson to write Mariette’s song. You get the feeling that Bjorkman will do anything for either of those two acts to win, however the Swedish public may deliver a win for Jessica Andersson instead.

A sign of the type of songs being rejected by Bjorkman’s team is ‘Higher Ground’ by Rasmussen. This won Dansk Melodi Grand Prix last week and will represent Denmark in Lisbon. Whilst it’s unlikely to win in Lisbon it is easily better than almost every song we’ve heard in this year’s Mello so far.

NG
noggin Founding member
tightrope78 - spot on. We do take for granted in the UK how many high quality entertainment show production teams we have. Smaller countries like Sweden have a much smaller pond to fish in...
MQ
Mr Q
I watched Denmark's "Melodi Grand Prix", and thought it was quite a well-produced programme. The special correspondent posted out to Malmö to interrogate ordinary Swedes on their history of not sending votes Denmark's way in Eurovision was fantastic ("are you racist?").

That said, notwithstanding the stroke of genius in launching a crossover between Eurovision and Game of Thrones (see "Higher Ground", above), I thought the music itself was reasonably underwhelming. In terms of the songs on offer, I thought the kids' version of MGP was much more entertaining (and impressive).
TI
tightrope78
Right on cue Edward af Sillen has arrived in Örnsköldsvik and is involved in some capacity with this weeks semi-final! Who knows if this is damage limitation on behalf of SVT?

Yesterday af Sillen and Petra Mede were announced as the producer and host for the new TV4 show 'Stjärnornas Stjärna' that sees well known Swedish pop stars competing to be judged the best all round performers. Apparently the show has previously been a hit in Norway. As well as Mede and af Sillen it's interesting that a number of mello singers are taking part, including Ace Wilder, Wiktoria, Ola Salo and Roger Pontare.



Last edited by tightrope78 on 21 February 2018 5:15pm
MD
MrDexB
Mr Q posted:
The special correspondent posted out to Malmö to interrogate ordinary Swedes on their history of not sending votes Denmark's way in Eurovision was fantastic ("are you racist?").


A frequent reference throughout the whole of Europe.
TI
tightrope78
Christer Bjorkman has been appointed Executive Producer for this years Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon.

https://blogg.svt.se/melodifestivalen-expertbloggen/christer-bj%C3%B6rkman-klar-f%C3%B6r-eurovision-song-contest-igen/

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