The good news is that Eric Saade is headed to Eurovision 2011. The bad news is that he may need to leave his glass walls at home.

Christer Björkman, the supervisor of Melodifestivalen, told Sweden’s Aftonbladet newspaper that Saade will need to tone down his stage performance of “Popular” in Dusseldorf. Smashing glass walls at the song’s climax poses too many risks for other contestants—we don’t want Slovakia’s TWiiNS to get bloody on stage—and it takes too long to clear the shards.

“We’re discussing alternatives right now to the glass walls,” says Björkman, who is headed to the Eurovision Delegation meeting in Germany tomorrow. “I’m going to ask the question if we can have the glass explosions but I doubt it,” he said. “We’re going to ask the question and see what they say.”

Eric isn’t happy. “The glass strengthens what I want to tell with my number,” he said, adding that he designed the stage show himself. “I’m going to fight to keep my glass. The glass strengthens the story.” Apparently a pop singer’s high school-inspired quest for popularity to win a girl is deep, and it takes shattered glass to mine those depths…

Björkman wants to replace the glass explosions with a waterfall—an element Saade included for his 2010 performance of “Manboy.” Saade dismissed that idea. “The waterfall is a fun effect but it has nothing to do with the story. It’s important the MTV feeling is still there. I don’t intend to change that. We’ll see how it goes.” And waterfalls are SO not MTV people!

You can watch the glass shatter here:

You can watch the waterfall from last year’s contest here:

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Nirgal
13 years ago

Well, Keisha, that was going to be my third option…

No, seriously. He can use ice instead. Of course, he would need to rent a camerino-sized fridge, but hey, it’s all for the art.

Nirgal
13 years ago

Well, they can always use some balloons and burst them at the right moment ¬¬
Why don’t they just use ice instead?