Tonight Sweden held its fourth heat in the national selection Melodifestivalen. The viewers choice tonight were JTR and Måns Zelmerlöw which means that both are now competing in the final that will take place in Globen on the 14th of March.
The fourth out of five heats that leads up to the final were held
tonight in Conventum Arena. Two songs goes straight to the final while the
third and fourth placed songs are getting a place in the fifth heat. Eric Saade and Jessica Andersson qualified to the final from the first heat, Mariette and Magnus Carlsson was the top 2 in the second heat and last week Jon-Henrik Fjällgren and Isa came victorious from the third heat.
The songs:
1. Midnight Boy
– Don’t Say No (Music & Lyrics: Johan Krafman, Kristofer Östergren, Olle Blomström)
Midnight Boy, or Johan Krafman as his real name is, is making his debut in Melodifestivalen with a synth pop song that has strong influences of the 80’s. Think Modern Talking! Four dancers joins Midnight Boy on the stage, the two male dancers are bare chested – just as Midnight Boy who also wears a red jacket with black leather pants.
2. Caroline Wennergren – Black Swan (Music & Lyrics: Nicklas Eklund, Joel DeLuna, Aimee Bobruk)
Caroline Wennersgren got a sensational breakthrough in Melodifestivalen 2005 when she came from nowhere and conquered a 5th place in the final. She stayed away from the competition since but is now back with a midtempo song which has some resemblance to Amy Winehouse. Behind Caroline is an orchestra (who of course are not playing the instruments for real). Caroline has a good voice and stage presence and she looks cool throughout the performance.
3. JTR – Building It Up (Music & Lyrics: John Andreasson, Tom Lundbäck, Robin Lundbäck, Erik Lewander, Iggy Strange Dahl)
After having achieved some fame in Australia the three man strong boyband JTR, who consists of three brothers, are trying to achieve some success on their homeground Sweden. The band starts out in the crowd and then moves up to the stage after the first refrain. This is boyband pop in the style of One Direction and their success tonight lies of course in the hands of the younger audience.
4. Hasse Andersson – Guld och gröna skogar (Music & Lyrics: Anderz Wrethov, Elin Wrethov, Johan Bejerholm, Johan Deltinger)
Hasse Andersson is the oldest debutant in this years Melodifestivalen and is a well known name in Sweden since the 80’s after his biggest hit Änglahund. His songs often has a characteristic happy sound and Guld och Gröna Skogar is not exception, its style reminds slightly of Kalle Moraeus MF-song Underbart which also uses fiddles. Hasse has a guitar on stage, a female fiddler and six dancers. The stage is decorated as a swedish traditional outdoors dance band court. If JTR were aiming towards the younger audience Hasse is probably targeting the older.
5. Dinah Nah – Make Me (La La La) (Music & Lyrics: Dinah Nah, Dr. Alban (Alban Nwapa), Jakke Erixson , Karl-Ola Kjellholm)
Dinah Nah, or Malin Sundström as her real name is, was part of the duo Caramell who had a hit with Om du var min in the 90’s. Her song Make Me (La La La) is an eletric dance track. Dinah, dressed in a white tank top and pants, and her six male dancers, also dressed in white, are keeping a high tempo throughout the song.
6. Annika Herlitz – Ett andetag (Music & Lyrics: Amir Aly, Maciel Numhauser, Robin Abrahamsson, Sharon Dyall, Sharon Vaughn)
Annika is perhaps most known in Sweden as the voice of Elsa in Disney’s movie Frost. She sings a ballad which not only sounds a bit like a Disney-ballad but also goes very much in the same way as MF-ballads did during the early 90’s. Annika stands on a podium that works as an elevator and raises here up at the end of the song.
7. Måns Zelmerlöw – Heroes – (Music & Lyrics: Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb)
Måns Zelmerlöw, finalist in Melodifestivalen 2007 with Cara Mia and 2010 with Hope and Glory, is back with a song that has strong influences of Avicii. The number includes a big screen with animated characters who does dance moves together with Måns. Måns is one of the hot favourites to go far in the final this year and proves that tonight.
The show:
After a quick look back at the last weeks heat the show starts with the opening number by the hostess Sanna Nielsen where we get to see a new tougher side of Sanna in a song and show number with her singing Free Your Mind together with her dancers. After getting thrown out by the dancers she returns doing some rapping while knocking down all the dancers. She is then joined by the nights other host Robin Paulsson.
After the seven performances there is a sketch featuring Robin Paulsson and how he manages to screw up delivering the letter with voting results in time to the hosts in 2014. Just like in the past heats there is a session with the fictive character Filippa Bark who talks with the performers in the Green room where she asks all kind of embarrassing questions.
After having the first results with the top five songs going through to
the second round there is another sketch with Robin and two of the backing singers where they explain the true meaning of some of the songs that has taken part in Melodifestivalen through the years. We are then taken back to the Green room with Filippa and the remaining performers.
The result:
Five songs went through from the first round of voting:
Song 2: Black Swan by Caroline Wennergren
Song 3: Building It Up by JTR
Song 4: Guld och gröna skogar by Hasse Andersson
Song 5: Make Me (La La La) by Dinah Nah
Song 7: Heroes by Måns Zelmerlöw
After the second round of voting ended the first finalist to be
announced
was JTR. The second finalist was Måns Zelmerlöw. Dinah Nah and Hasse Andersson were 3rd and 4th and goes to Andra chansen (the second
chance heat)
The rest of the results:
5. Black Swan by Caroline Wennergren
6. Ett andetag by Annika Herlitz
7. Don’t Say Noby Midnight Boy
(Note: who came 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th is not revealed until after the final in March).
