There's a clip from a BBC show just after the 1988 contest, where the UK lost to Switzerland by one point, where everyone's fuming that the UK didn't win and saying that it's all political voting. Even when we came second or third all the time people still complained because in their minds we should win every year.
Sounds like the World Cup where it's always an outrage when England get knocked out because they should win because they won once in 1966 don't ya know?
Alexander Rybak is back and heading to Lisbon after winning the Norwegian national selection. The song itself, 'That's How You Write A Song' is a bit boring in all honesty...
Melfest was the closest for years, with no clear winner. With twelve entrants the televoting voting percentage for the winner Benjamin Ingrosso was only a smidgen over 10.5pct.
Last edited by DVB Cornwall on 10 March 2018 10:35pm
Melfest was the closest for years, with no clear winner. With twelve entrants the SMS voting percentage for the winner Benjamin Ingrosso was only a smidgen over 10.5pct.
Yet the UK Jury gave 12 points to Samir & Viktor with Shuffla which was dreadful song IMO. Wasn't overly impressed this year with the artists as a whole this year unfortunately which is a shame as Melfest and Sweden is the one that I look most forward to.
Melfest was the closest for years, with no clear winner. With twelve entrants the SMS voting percentage for the winner Benjamin Ingrosso was only a smidgen over 10.5pct.
Don't you mean phone, SMS and app voting - or has there been a breakdown by platform?
Melfest was the closest for years, with no clear winner. With twelve entrants the SMS voting percentage for the winner Benjamin Ingrosso was only a smidgen over 10.5pct.
Yet the UK Jury gave 12 points to Samir & Viktor with Shuffla which is dreadful IMO. Wasn't overly impressed this year with the artists as a whole this year unfortunately which is a shame as Melfest and Sweden is the one that I look most forward to.
This whole run of Melodifestivalen has been sub-par. It's been slaughtered in the Swedish tabloids, has seen a drop in ratings, and for the first time in a while hasn't been the most watched show of the week in Sweden. The humour has fallen flat and the music has been a bit average.
It's reached a point where the music direction and CuePilot execution is almost too slick, but the production of the other elements is very 'student TV'... Real disconnect.
It's become too formulaic this time around, even for heavens sake, issuing the timetabled running order to the minute to the viewer in advance, so nothing has come to the keen viewer as a surprise. Fat Freddie was a disaster, recurring thoughts of Larry Grayson in Russell Grant's form factor grated, is that really 2018?
There'll be a battle royal in SVT over M. 2019 with the radical suggestion of renaming the whole thing Mello, as it's known colloquially in Sweden probably winning through. The preponderance of having at least one novelty entrant in the SFs needs to go, concentrating on the Swedish Pop Market. should be enough.
I'm wondering whether Christer's reign might be coming to an end too. Sand's term as head honcho must be close to the end, so Bjorkman would seem to be a logical successor there, opening a vacancy to revitalise the SVT show.
The real big surprise to me this National Selection round was the wonderful atmospheric French eliminators, which was quite a change in FT's approach. It's clear that outsourcing these to ITV Studios was a brilliant move, bringing into them the obvious ITV expertise to the fore.
Anyway, 2019 looks to me to be heading to Iberia, but the other part thereof, again. The Spanish Entry is superb.
Onward to May.
Last edited by DVB Cornwall on 10 March 2018 10:59pm
It's become too formulaic this time around, even for heavens sake, issuing the timetabled running order to the minute to the viewer in advance, so nothing has come to the keen viewer as a surprise. Fat Freddie was a disaster, recurring thoughts of Larry Grayson in Russell Grant's form factor grated, is that really 2018?
I think there was a major disconnect between what they thought they were trying to do, and what they actually did. It fell totally flat.
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There'll be a battle royal in SVT over M. 2019 with the radical suggestion of renaming the whole thing Mello, as it's known colloquially in Sweden probably winning through.
I'm not so sure. The 'Mello' branding that crept in (Anna Book vignettes, cue cards etc.) was apparently a Sunil Munshi thing - and I think the 'Mello' brand is likely to depend on whether he remains or not. The overall creative direction of the show this year has not been fantastic - so I wouldn't bet on him returning...
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The preponderance of having at least one novelty entrant in the SFs needs to go, concentrating on the Swedish Pop Market. should be enough.
I disagree - it's a family show. There are 28 entrants. You can cope with a couple of entertaining wild cards.
This goes to the core of Melodifestivalen though. It used to be an entertainment show that selected a song to send to Eurovision. It's morphed into a mini-Eurovision. The novelty acts sit well with the former, and don't sit well with the latter, but I think the former is what the show should be. It's why we loved the show. I don't want to watch a cut-down ESC, I want to watch a fun, witty, well crafted entertainment show. (As I suspect do most of the Swedish viewers)
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I'm wondering whether Christer's reign might be coming to an end too.
Well the reality is that Christer is really only there to handle the music... He's relied on others to generate the actual show. And this year there's been a mis-fire in that regard.
The music this year was a bit so-so though... Nothing majorly stand out.
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Sand's term as head honcho must be close to the end, so Bjorkman would seem to be a logical successor there, opening a vacancy to revitalise the SVT show.
I guess it depends how much they want to re-invent the show. You can revitalise it by hiring a team who know how to make entertainment TV - not stage plays...
Whatever happens there will be changes ahead for Mello 2019. For one thing David Lindgren will not return as host. It will be interesting to see if SVT return to more familiar faces or decide on a new generation of hosts. I’d honestly be surprised if Sunil Munshi returns as the Executive Producer. His ideas, including the ‘Mello’ branding, simply haven’t worked. Mello is known of its fun and colourfulness (glitter!) and the use of black and white branding really looked out of place.
Needless to say the scripts and overall creative direction need a makeover but also the staging of the performances need serious work. Whilst many were visually stunning they lacked any real live atmosphere. There was a real problem this year with the backing vocals being too loud in the mix, with the viewer not being able to hear the lead singers. The result was numerous bland, overally produced, performances. As for the audience they often appeared to be in a collective coma!
I’d be quite happy to see Christer retired, however it’s unlikely as he has already indicated that he will be leaving in 2021. I can’t see SVT wanting to push him out beforehand. Music wise they need to widen the net of songwriters that they work with. 2019 is likely to be helped with the return of popular artist like Wiktoria and Ace Wilder. With regards the novelty acts they absolutely have to stay. They are as much part of Mello as “Nu Kor vi”! The real problem with the music is the app. Many people who watch the show feel that the app favours the younger acts whose fan base is more likely to spam the app with votes. SVT really need to lessen the number of votes that can be made via the app as many viewers are now simply fed up with it.
The SVT website and Twitter account are quite good at throwing shade at themelves (which is actually quite brilliant) and they have hinted numerous times over the past month that perhaps after 17 years it’s time to change the format. I could easily see andra chansen being ditched, this year’s was a disaster (the lowest rated Mello edition since 2010). Some changes are definitely required for Melodifestivalen to remain the premier national final, however I kinda fear that Fab Freddy will be used as a scapegoat for this year’s poor performance.
I'd be surprised if they'd wanted to bring Lindgren back for a third straight year anyway - they never tend to have a host for more than two years at a time. But something needs changing next year - over modernising it just hasn't worked. Shame they seem to have lost the trusty hand of Edward af Sillen.