Douze Points!

That is one of our best titles yet... lol.

"Sweden is a rich country with a high standard of living. Swedes have one of the world's longest life expectancies. The country has many natural resources including iron ore, lead, granite, zinc and forests. Forests cover about half the land and there are important timber and paper industries."

Whittaker's World of Facts - Russell Ash

Nathan's view
Melodifestivalen was fantastic. It has to be one of the best things I have ever witnessed! I loved it from start to end and it was so entertaining. Charlotte Perrelli's song Hero is a great upbeat pop song which fits perfectly with Eurovision this year. This is going to be Charlotte's second attempt at Eurovision having won it with her first entry in 1999, in Jerusalem, Israel. This song is fantastically written and I know that she can go to Belgrade and win Eurovision again, and I wouldn't be surprised if she did! I know that Hannah will agree with me about the song and although she wasn't here to see the Melodifestivalen final I know she wanted to watch it! Hannah, I promise to find a webcast, and if I can't, I may buy the DVD!

Hannah's view
I love this song. Its upbeat, has a strong beat, great lyrics and a brilliant singer with an amazingly strong voice. I think this is better than Sweden's entry last year - The Ark, and this has a very strong chance in winning Eurovision this year. There is a mixture of ballads and pop songs this year (with the odd exception - Finland etc.) and this is definitely in the top 5 for the pop songs, if not the entire contest! Great song!

Public results:
11 points to Amy Diamond
22 points to Christer Sjögren
44 points to Nordman
66 to Rongedal
88 to BWO
110 to Charlotte Perrelli
132 to Sanna Nielsen

CHARLOTTE PERRELLI WINS!

Ok so Linda got NONE from the public?! How?!

Final results:

1. Charlotte Perrelli- Hero - 224 points
2. Sanna Nielsen- Empty Room - 206 points
3. BWO- Lay Your Love On Me - 158 points
   
4. Rongedal - Just A Minute - 142 points
5. Linda Bengtzing- Hur Svårt Kan Det Va? - 64 points
6. Nordman - I Lågornas Sken - 48 points
   
7. Sibel- That Is Where I'll Go - 39 points
   
8. Amy Diamond- Thank You - 36 points
9. Christer Sjögren- I Love Europe - 23 points
10. Frida featuring Headline- Upp O Hoppa - 6 points
    

As we can see BigPoll was right, once again! Unfortunately Linda could've done with points from the televote, but no worries as Charlotte Perrelli's Hero is a fantastic song. I am fully backing Sweden this year! You have to feel sorry for Frida and Headline with just 6 points and if Christer hadn't got any points from the televote then he would've had just 1 points.

In Belgrade it will be Charlotte's second attempt at Eurovision, having won on her first attempt in 1999, in Jerusalem.

Here are the Melodifestivalen Jury Results:
Örobro gave 12 to Charlotte Perrelli
Luleå gave 12 to Charlotte Perrelli
Falan gave 12 to Charlotte Perrelli
Karlstad gave 12 to Charlotte Perrelli
Umeå gave 12 to Charlotte Perrelli
Norrköping gave 12 to BWO
Göteborg gave 12 to Rongedal
Sundsvall gave 12 to Charlotte Perrelli
Växjö gave 12 to Sanna Neilsen
Malmö gave 12 to Sibel
Stockholm gave 12 to Charlotte Perrelli

From esctoday.com...

Complete jury results:

1. Charlotte Perelli - 114 points
2. Rongedal - 76 points
3. Sanna Nielsen - 74 points
4. BWO - 70 points
5. Linda Bengtzing - 64 points
6. Sibel - 39 points
7. Amy Diamond - 25 points
8. Frida feat. Headline - 6 points
9. Nordman - 4 points
10. Christer Sjögren - 1 point

All ten songs have just been performed in Sweden. Here are my thoughts on each song.

1 - Charlotte Perrelli - Hero
Charlotte's use of black and white at the beginning is great - then turning into colour at the first chorus! Like normal Charlotte's vocals were very strong, and so was her performance. The crowd loved her from start to end.

2 - Sibel - That Is Where I'll Go
Sibel wore a long pink dress, much like a wedding dress, and sung a slow ballad. Her strong voice blew me away as she really pulled it out of the bag for the Final. I thought the use of the wind machine was great and contributed to her strong performance.

3 - Rongedal - Just A Minute
It's very 'Mika-ish' and very 'Eurovisiony'. They use a great contrast of high and low voice. They also have a good connection with the camera and there's even a very noticeable key change!

4 - Linda Bengtzing - Hur Svårt Kan Det Va? (How Hard Can It Be?)
The first thing that I noticed in her performance was the great use of choreography. Yet again Linda's strong vocals really made be believe in the song. You can even hear the crowd singing the chorus 'se mig, hör mig, rör mig, hur svårt kan det va?' with her and that adds to the great atmosphere that her song creates. Yet again, her and her dances connect with the camera well and you can see that they are enjoying themselves. She did herself proud!

5 - Christer Sjögren - I Love Europe
Not much to say about this except it was quite a plain, boring performance and it wasn't the greatest of songs.

6 - Amy Diamond - Thank You
Thank you Amy for such a great performance, you are only 15 and you were even given a fake ID card as a joke in her interview afterwards! Back to the song, and Amy and her dances wore fantastic outfits in gold/black with diamonds for Amy Diamond. Her vocals were very strong and it has a catchy chorus that I have been singing all day long! Great usage of the stage led to a great performance.

7 - Sanna Nielsen - Empty Room
This really was the best of the two ballads. Her strong vocals and use of stage led to another great performance. She became very emotional during her song too.

8 - Nordman - I Lågornas Sken (In the Light of the Fire)
A folk rock... not very popular in my books. It is, however, quite catchy, unfortunately. Their stage effects were the best part of their performance, they used fire!

9 - Frida feat. Headline - Upp O Hoppa (Get Up and Jump)
Great catchy pop song. Headline's contributions were fantastic too. The backing singers also added to the performance as they contributed fantastically too. You have to love a song like this!

10 - BWO - Lay Your Love On Me
This song really wants to make you dance! The good vocals gained big cheers from the crowd throughout. They used the stage really well and their usage of a 'lift' with pyrotechnics must make them a favourite tonight.

Final thoughts...
I still hope Linda Bengtzing wins but anything can happen! The results will be posted later!

Well - we were wrong... The BigPoll results have been released 1 hour before Melodifestivalen starts and it seems that Charlotte Perrelli will win, according to both the Swedish public and International readers of esctoday.com.

However in the International readers' opinion BWO would finish second and Sanna Neilsen third. In the Swedish opinion, this is switched so BWO would finish third and Sanna would finish second. Unfortunately for both Hannah and I, Linda is predicted to finish fourth in the International view, but in Swedish eyes, she will finish sixth. In International eyes, it seems that Amy Diamond will finish fifth, but the Swedes think she will finish seventh. Rongedal is predicted sixth by International readers, but the Swedes think they will finish fourth. Sibel is predicted to finish seventh by International readers, Sweden thinks she will finish fifth.

The bottom three is exactly the same for both Swedish and International readers with Nordman finishing eighth, Christer Sjögren finishing ninth and Frida feat. Headline is expected to finish last.

Hopefully, in our opinion, BigPoll will not be right, but knowing how well it has worked in the past, I believe that Charlotte Perrelli will be going to Eurovision again this year!

This week San Marino announced that Miodio would be going to Belgrade with the song Complice. Then, during the week, they released a 30 second video clip of the song going to Belgrade and now they have released the full video for us to enjoy!

Anyway, here is the video for Complice: http://www.sanmarinortv.sm/produzioni/default.asp?id=380&item=132&mode=1

It's the final national selection tonight - and I'm going to be watching the SVT webcast and keeping you updated with my thoughts and opinions.

Obviously being a big Eurovision fan I always look forward to Melodifestivalen because Sweden always sends a fantastic song.

I am still annoyed that Nordman beat Carola and Andreas in 'Andra chanson', so my favourite now is Linda Bengtzing and it grows on me all the time!

Coming up in a close second and third are Charlotte Perrelli and Amy Diamond respectively. The both have very catchy choruses which I can already sing to, so that's a good sign, a Eurovision song has to be singable and that is exactly what Linda, Charlotte and Amy have in common with their songs.

I expect it to be very close tonight in all the voting. I hope for Eurovision's sake that Linda wins, and then changes her song into English for the final.

So stay tuned here from 7pm tonight. I will post a webcast link, and my opinions tonight (there's no Hannah, she's buggered off with her friends tonight, tonight of all nights).

Having just watched all the interviews, thanks esctoday.com, you can tell who really wants to go to Belgrade. Amy Diamond would be representing Sweden and the UK if she went, and as mentioned in the interview, she could end up as the highest placing for a singer from the UK for a few years. Linda Bengtzing's interview was another confident interview, she knows she can win and there will be more energy in the performance than there was in the semi-finals. Sibel said that she'd love to represent Sweden in Belgrade, and that could be a good choice in 'the Year of the Ballad'. BWO didn't really want to do Eurovision, so why are you here? Frida and Headline gave a great interview, now we know where that jacket came from, thanks BWO!

All in all, looking at all the interviews I now hope that Linda wins more than I did before!