janet leon

Heading up north this week to Ö-vik for our final semi-final and to début the final songs that are in contention for the crown this year.

Alcazar – Blame it on the disco
=> Finalen
❗ Personal Favourite

With no surprised, Alcazar is back with a disco hit that is high energy, lots of glitter and lights, and has enough flashes to send anyone into coma or at least induce an epileptic shock. Super fan favourites but never able to achieve victory, this group enters in a giant disco ball, which is very dramatic and totally Alcazaresque. The vocals are good, and the dancing is disco and glitter inducing, overall it’s a great song that is good for the clubs and the radio but in terms of how it’s going to fair in the competition I’m not convinced that it’s a winning song. The dancing, the song, and the presentation are all there, but it just lacks the Eurovision factor. To be honest I’m surprised nobody didn’t have whiplash.

I.D.A. Fight me if you dare

I’m not really sure how to attack this one. English was iffy and it’s really difficult to see where this song is going musically. The chorus is alright but the verses and bridge are a bit ambitious as to their direction, and with a group like this just doesn’t do much to convince me of success. I think really the whole English struggle throughout was making for a really difficult watch the whole way through, and then it just getting more angry as it goes doesn’t sell it for me.

Janet Leon – Hollow

For the last few years there has been some excitement for Janet Leon, but really she’s just been a huge flop each time with songs that aren’t very strong. Coming dead last this time, the starting singing is a bit edgy and not really clear if it’s right, and then it progresses to be less than dramatic. The lyrics don’t seem to flow with the music, and it tries to oversell and then the dancing in the background is the better distraction because really at the end of the day the song isn’t that strong. We all know all the eyes were on the blonde male dancer – lets be honest here.

Ammotrack – Raise your hearts
=> Andra Chansen

Well some more hard rock with this band, that really doesn’t do anything at all for me. The melody is boring, the singing is rough, the votes that it got perplex me. I guess a lot of men voted and hard rock people like it, but I found this a flat song that didn’t show well on TV and is certainly not a choice.

Josef Johansson – Hela natten
❗ Personal Favourite

I find this entry to be a personal interest for me. I look a lot like him, and am a lot whiter but our hair is very similar. Admittedly the way he wears his hair in this one is how I go to bed with mine, but the style is a bit put together but still a bit messy, which I actually kind of like. Enough about his style, his song is a good radio song but no winner. He’s very nervous on stage, clearly, and he’s all alone which makes it even more difficult for him, but I think that he does it very effectively. Towards the middle and end of the song it becomes a bit of an anthem which is very relatable to me. But then again let’s be honest here, I am just paying attention to his image and being jealous at how he’s a better looking version of me. I mean he’s 10 years younger than me but I still look that age. 😀

Linda Bengtzing – Ta mig

Trying again with another high energy spazz-attack song, Linda tries to convince us to take her. The best part of the sing is the fact that she’s not dancing around and stays pretty stationary. Generally speaking her song are very in your face and energetic, but this one has the energy in it, but it lacks something like most of her other entries. She’s seemingly angry and pushing a lot with her vocals, and after about 10 years of being a professional she’s gotten the singing down and doesn’t forget her lyrics. Let’s be honest, I like her, but she will never live down singing the wrong words! Another flop this year, fails to qualify.

Ellinore Holmer – En himmelsk sång
=> Andra Chansen

A bit of a surprise qualifier to the second chance round this year, this pretty unknown singer stands up on stage and nervously sings a ballad alone on the stage. She was able to sing it effectively and make it sound beautiful, but really this pails in the comparison to Undo, because let’s face it, it’s not power ballad. It won’t likely come out of the second chance round, but it’s a beautiful little song this year that is very similar and makes me think of Songbird from a few weeks past.

Anton Ewald – Natural
=> Finalen

Again this former dancer turned singer tries to qualify for Eurovision again this year, and unsuccessfully with a worse song than the year previous. His vocals are really iffy and he seems like he’s yelling more than he’s singing. His dancers are drawing more attention that him, and despite being the Eric Saade type wet dream image that the little girls want, it gets old fast. He’s got the pop-girlies on his side, but I hope it doesn’t do well in the Final. I’m harsh but fair – it’s just a weak song…

As you can see only two personal favourites in this one, but few of which actually qualified for the final. At this point going into Andra Chansen, it’s pretty open ended as to what the result will be.