For the Swedish finalists this is the night before the big clash on saturday when Sweden’s going to select who is going to represent them in Baku in May. According to the Swedish newspapers, in theory, Sweden already have a winner. But do they really? After tonight’s rehearsal several acts still seems to be in the game.
The opening act
The show is opened with a recap of the Melodifestivalen winners the last 10 years. After that the hosts Sarah Dawn Finer, Gina Dirawi and Helena Bergström sings the song New York, New York but with the new title Baku, Baku and of course new Swedish lyrics. The song is about the host country of this year’s hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest, Azerbaijan. The hosts are accompanied on stage by several female dancers.
After their performance the hosts presents tomorrow night’s participating artists and explains the voting procedure. As in the semi finals the viewers will vote for their favorite act but in the final it will be one big difference. There will also be 11 international juries with equal amount of points to give as the viewers.
The artists that win Melodifestivalen gets the trophy called Sångfågeln. Every year last years winner are asked to come and hand over the trophy. Eric Saade is called to the stage already at the beginning of the show to hand over Sångfågeln. He enters the stage with the Melodifestivalen dancers that have been with us during the semi finals and second chance heat. The performance starts out as a dance act but after a while Eric starts to sing his songs Hearts in the air and Hotter than fire. And during one part of the performance he is actually flying over the stage.
The songs
Song number 1: David Lindgren – Shout it out (Tony Nilsson and Fernando Fuentes)
David has the black set of clothes on during the rehearsal (white shirt, black pants and jacket). Lots of cheering during the performance, especially during the break dance part. The audience in the arena loves David and he gets a lot of applause after his performance. David seems to enjoy his time on stage and delivers a solid rehearsal and is vocally flawless.
Song number 2: Thorsten Flinck & Revolutionsorkestern – Jag reser mig igen (Ted Ström and Thomas G:son)
As during his performance in the semi final and in the second chance heat the song starts with Thorsten singing acapella. Thorsten is an excellent singer. He is a little theatrical on stage, not as much as during the rehearsal yesterday though. He misses a few camera angles but that shouldn’t matter that much for him as his performance isn’t dependent of that he gets all of the cameras right. The audience in the arena likes Thorsten and cheers a lot after his performance.
Song number 3: Dead by April – Mystery (Pontus Hjelm)
The guys in Dead by April really give it their all during the rehearsal tonight. The volume in the arena is also much much louder than during yesterday’s rehearsal. The audience seem to like it and cheers during the song. Dead by April gets a lot of applause after their performance.
Song number 4: Lisa Miskovsky – Why start a fire (Lisa Miskovsky, Aleksander With, Bernt Rune Stray and Berent Philip Moe)
Lisa sings flawless during the whole performance. She gets a lot of applause entering the stage but during the performance it’s very quiet in the arena. Probably because the song is quiet and full of feelings. After the performance Lisa gets quiet good response from the audience but it was expected to be much more since Lisa is seen as an underdog that can do really well in the final.
Song number 5: Top Cats – Baby Doll (Lina Eriksson, Mårten Eriksson and Susie Päivärinta)
Lead singer Jon Kleppenes in Top Cats is an excellent singer, though he always looks a little bit insecure on stage when there is a lot of audience in the arena. During tonight’s rehearsal he looked calmer than during the performances during the semi final and second chance heat. The audience loves this energetic rockabilly song and cheers a lot after Top Cats performance.
Song number 6: Loreen – Euphoria (Peter Boström and Thomas G:son)
During yesterdays rehearsals Loreen didn’t sing during two of the three run-throughs. Now she sings and does it really well, it was smart of her to save her voice until tonight. It’s very obvious in the arena that Loreen is one of the favorites to win tomorrow. She gets a lot of cheers before and during the performance. And there were probably a lot of people going deaf after her performance from the audience screams. She really got overwhelmingly much applause after her performance.
Song number 7: Ulrik Munther – Soldiers (Joy Deb, Linnea Deb, David Jackson and Johan Åberg)
Ulrik is an excellent singer with a strong voice. Something that is less good is that he has a habit of closing his eyes a lot on stage which probably makes him less available to the viewers at home. In the arena it doesn’t matter as much that he closes his eyes, and the audience at the rehearsal loves Ulrik, especially the girls, they scream their lungs out after his performance.
Song number 8: Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li – Mirakel (Fredrik Andersson and Björn Ranelid)
This is one of the most talked about act in Sweden this year. On yesterdays rehearsal Björn sang in English for a while but today he sings in Swedish all the way through. Björn seems excited on stage and Sara Li sings flawless as always. There was not that much response in the arena during the performance, but Björn and Sara Li gets good response afterwards.
Between act 8 and 9 we get to see a prerecorded video, a message from EBU host Helena Bergström tells us. Keep your eyes open, doesn’t the representative from EBU look familiar?
Song number 9: Molly Sandén – Why am I crying (Molly Sandén, Aleena Gibson and Windy Wagner)
Molly seems very emotional during tonight’s rehearsal. She is a great singer but tonight her voice sounds a little shaky. It gets a little better towards the end of the performance. Molly gets a lot of applause after her performance.
Song number 10: Danny Saucedo – Amazing (Danny Saucedo, Peter Boström and Figge Boström)
During the rehearsals yesterday Danny didn’t sing during the two first run-throughs due to a sore throat. During the third run through his voice sounded strained. It sounds better now and dance he pulls of perfectly. The audience in the arena really loves this and claps a long throughout the whole song. Just like Loreen he gets an overwhelming response from the audience after his performance.
The interval act
Helena Bergström’s characters are back in pre-recorded videos and after that Gina talks to the artists in green room for a while before it’s time to reveal the result of the international juries voting. After the international juries announced their points we meet one of Helena Bergström’s characters who have found her way to the arena.
It’s a tradition that last year’s winning song is performed. Last year, hard rock band Dynazty performed Anna Bergendahl’s “This is my life”. This year, Eurovision Song Contest winner Helena Paparizou performs her own version of Eric Saade’s song Popular.
