Melodifestivalen Semi Final 4 Preview
Semi 3 feels like a long time ago with everything that's gone on between then and now. It was a pretty accurate week of predictions with the obvious exception of Lancelot- what can I say, the Swedes can be temperamental with that kind of thing. The Lisa-Faith switcheroo remains suspicious too so I won't dwell on those positions but Anders 1st and Tribe Friday last were two nailed on certainties. On to the final week:
Anna Bergendahl - ‘Higher Power’
Anna brings a strong opener and this may be a step up from her recent attempts. The backdrops quite nice but Anna could have benefitted from more progression than just removing her cowboy hat. Will be a real threat with the older demographics but should do well across the board putting her in a strong position for the second round of voting.
Lillasyster- ‘Til our days are over’
Melfest's Rock for the sake of variety only tradition has become a weekly thing with Lillasyster returning as more filler. This is stronger than last week's tribe Friday but will probably suffer a similar fate towards the bottom of most demographics.
Malin Christin - ‘Synd on Dig’
When outperforming your odds still has you going out at this stage you know you're in trouble. Another test of the gentle ballad but whilst Malin gives a good performance, there's nothing to truly elevate this
Tenori- ‘La Stella’
There's not much precedent for how this will get on but what there is suggests Sweden may be open minded to this. It's a horrid example of the genre and served with a huge slice of cheese which should stop it tonight but there may be enough novelty to avoid last.
Medina - ‘In I Dimman’
I quite like the party atmosphere this one has and in a somewhat scaled back year this does stand out. An improvement and more accessible than ‘90 Talet’ so this goes as the best of the rest and middle man in the semi.
Angelino - ‘The End’
A strong song as expected from Angelino but this is not a guy truly at home on the big stage in the way his two main rivals are. He's improved from what I've seen but Sweden will need to take to him quickly and there's always that lingering doubt over ballads given the app system.
Klara Hammarstrom - ‘Run To The Hills’
Neither the song and especially the staging feel particularly strong to warrant the traditional pimp slot and as an overall package this is weaker than expected. Edm is still a genre not really perfected in Eurovision or its national finals and this is another example but the folk elements add some character. Klara is likeable but I've always found her lacking that real winner quality and some of the big notes have been a bit off in rehearsals. This probably gets the little heart beating the most and Klara's best route through may well be to win the semi.
I have it as really tight at the top of this one and could settle on any combination of the frontrunners in 1st-3rd. I'm unconfidently going for Klara to win with Angelino in second. Anna may miss out by a narrow margin with her just maybe getting left behind in the running order and huge genre pivots this week. Medina get 4th whilst the other 3 don't have much hope in my book:
Klara Hammarstrom
Angelino
Anna Bergendahl
Medina
Tenori
Lillasyster
Malin Christin