After month and month of preparations tonight it was finally time for Sweden to select two more artists for the Swedish final. This was one of the most exciting semi finals for years where no one could have foreseen the result.

The songs

Song number 1: Anton Ewald – Begging
(Fredrik Kempe and Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad)

Anton Ewald was clearly one of the audience favourites tonight with his explosive and sexy performance. However, his singing still raises a lot of questions. Since the rehearsals started on Thursday there have been questions about how much of the singing he does and how much he leaves to his choir backstage. For parts of the song he didn’t even bother to pretend that he is singing and has his microphone lifted in the air.
But no matter if he sings or not, the audience in the arena loved him and gave him a lot of support.

Song number 2: Felicia Olsson – Make Me No 1
(Amir Aly, Henrik Wikström, Ingela Pling Forsman and Maria Haukaas Mittet)

Debutant Felicia gets energy from the supporting audience in the arena. Though it’s also quiet obvious that the knowledge of that there are millions of viewers at home watching her makes her nervous. Her voice shakes a little from time to time but she has come a long way since her first rehearsal on Thursday.

Song number 3: Joacim Cans – Annelie
(Joacim Cans)

Joacim Cans moved to Gothenburg as a teenager where he later joined the heavy metal band Hammerfall. Despite Gothenburg being Joacim’s hometown the response in the arena was cool and not as good as coul be expected. And unlike debutantes Felicia and Anton, Joacim only seemed to get energy from the audience which made him step it up even more than during the rehearsals.

Song number 4: Swedish House Wives – On Top of the World
(Peter Boström and Thomas G:son)

These three ladies for sure got the audience in the arena going. Their up tempo song is contagious and the audience cheered and claped along. There was even audience standing up in the arena during the performance. 

Song number 5: Erik Segerstedt & Tone Damli – Hello Goodbye
(Robin Fredriksson, Mattias Larsson and Måns Zelmerlöw)

These two have had a hard time connecting to each other during this weeks rehearsals and they didn’t succeed to connect all the way tonight either. Though the audience didn’t care about that, they seemed mesmerised by Erik and Tone’s soft duet and supported them with a lot of applause after their performance.

Song number 6: Louise Hoffsten – Only The Dead Fish Follow The Stream
(Louise Hoffsten, Sandra Bjurman and Stefan Örn)

Louise has been an underdog earlier in the week but was one of the artist that got most support both during the dress rehearsal yesterday and during the live show tonight. The audience really liked this well produced performance and feelgood song.

Song number 7: Rikard Wolff – En förlorad sommar
(Tomas Andersson Wij)

The arena quiets down during this soft and sweet performance. The performance is really lifted by the images projected on the piano, an effect which is best displayed when you see it on the TV screens. As Rikard is a loved Swedish artist and actor he gets support in the arena, but did he get support from the viewers watching this at TV as well?
Unfortunate for Rikard the audience in the arena know which artist who comes next

Song number 8: Sean Banan – Copacabanana
(Sean Banan, Ola Lindholm, Hans Blomberg and Joakim Larsson)

The man, the myth, the legend Sean Banan. Sean Banan’s act apparently was what the audience in the arena had been waiting for during the whole night. He got the loudest cheers of the evening right from the start. The noise in the arena when Sean flew against the end of the song was overwhelming.

The show

The show is opened with a recap of what happened last week during the semi final in Karlskrona after which the hosts wishes us welcome to Gothenburg. Danny once again makes fun of the fact that he finished as a runner up when he participated in Melodifestivalen last year.
As the tradition is at this point, the hosts announces which artist are participating in this weeks semi final. 

The presentation of the artists are followed by a pre-recorded video with former Melodifestivalen participants Siw Malmkvist, Towa Carson and Ann-Louise Hansson interpreting several Melodifestivalen entries. After the pre-recorded video is shown, the three ladies comes out on stage and performs Eric Saade’s song Popular, but with new funny lyrics about how it is to be retired.

After the first round of voting was finished Siw Malmkvist, Towa Carson an Ann-Louise Hansson performed their Melodifestivalen entry from 2004, C’est la vie.

After the second round of voting hosts Gina Dirawi and Danny Saucedo performs a spectacular Bollywood version of Danny’s Meldifestivalen entry from 2011, In the club.

The result

Five songs went through from the first round of voting:

1. Sean Banan – Copacabanana
2. Anton Ewald – Begging
3. Louise Hoffsten – Only the Dead Fish Follow the Stream
4. Erik Segerstedt & Tone Damli – Hello Goodbye
5.
Felicia Olsson – Make me no 1

After a second round of voting Sean Banan and Louise Hoffsten was announced as this weeks finalists.

Anton Ewald and Erik Segerstedt & Tone Damli will have to go through the Second chance round in Karlstad on March 2nd.

The rest of the result:

5. Felicia Olsson – Make me no 1
6. Swedish House Wives – On top of the world
7. Rikard Wolff – En förlorad sommar
8.
Joacim Cans – Annelie

Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest
Sweden debuted in the contest in 1958 and has an impressive record in the contest with five wins: 1974, 1984, 1991, 1999 and 2012. The country has many top 5 finishes but had some rather disappointing results in the end of the 00’s until Eric Saade restored some of the glory by taking 3rd place with Popular and the year after the success was a fact with Loreen’s Euphoria.