JEM, Sanna Nielsen, Panetoz and the five other acts competing in the second semi-final of Melodifestivalen have now completed their second rehearsal. SVT is dead set on keeping us addicted to the competition, so they have released one-minute previews of each act. Their plan worked and we’re hooked. Greece correspondent Billy Xifaras logs on and sounds off on the acts below. (We’ve embedded the videos that are available. You can watch snippets of all of the rehearsals here).
JEM – “Love Trigger”
You can watch the preview here.
Wearing black, white and gold colored clothes, JEM spend the first few seconds in cubes that change colours. Jeremie raps, and then the cubes fall off the edge of the stage, something not shown on TV. Elli wears big black boots with a lace dress, while Mergime wears lower ones with a zebra design. The man in the group wears a shirt with a huge white star on it, and a leather jacket with golden details. The music is perfect (for a party), but the singers can’t really carry it…
The Refreshments – “Hallelujah”
You can watch the preview here.
The Refreshments bring the front-half of a car onto the stage. Drums and a white piano are also present. The girls sitting on the seats of the car singing. Jonas Göransson wears cowboy boots, as high as Helena’s heels, and plays the guitar. Orange, red, yellow, black are the main colours. Seriously y’all: What is going on with country songs in Sweden?
Manda – “Glow”
Do you remember those machines that lifted Aliona Moon and Bonnie Tyler at ESC13? Well SVT is reusing them to elevate these three violinsts. Manda will wear a huge black skirt on Saturday. That’s nice, but she really needs to work on her voice. The songwriters behind last year’s winning song “You” are behind this number, but it is expected to fail anyway. Pink and white lights surround the singer who has stated that she admires Katy Perry.
Panetoz – “Efter solsken”
This exciting group dances across the stage to African drums. It is important that they do not step off the stage, and they really need to improve their timing with the cameras. Panetoz bring energy to the white-yellow coloured Cloetta Center, and will finish their performance with a lot of confetti.
Pink Pistols – “I Am Somebody”
The Pink Pistols bring a lot of red to the stage, and use hand-moves and wind macines throughout their performance. They bring energy from the catwalk to the stage. These two girls and two boys think that their main competitors are “The Refreshments”. Let’s see what our next act has to say about that…
Sanna Nielsen – “Undo”
For Melodifestivalen veteran Sanna Nielse it wasn’t third time lucky. Or fourth, or fifth, or sixth. This year Sanna returns to sing for the 7th time at #melfest14. She also brings shiny stones with her on stage, with which she MUST not collide. Blood ain’t cute. The whole stadium is dark, making this performance all about Sanna. Calm and relaxed, Sanna chose to wear an elegant black dress at her live performance.
Little Great Things – “Set Yourself Free”
After Sanna’s ballad, the stage welcomes rock sounds and green lights with lasers. The energetic song, followed by electric guitars, will make everybody dance as if they were in a rock club. Little Great Things are at a bit of a disadvantage, as they compete between the favourites, Sanna and Martin.
Martin Stenmarck – “När änglarna går hem”
You can watch the preview here.
Martin sings on stage, set to red and orange lights. He seems more prepared than in his 2005 performance, and will for sure pass through Deltaving 2. His emotional song fills the whole arena. At one point he kicks the microphone (something that the producers do not like). Smoke appears on stage and his performance comes to an end.
To watch short snippets of all of the rehearsals click here.
Billy Xifaras contributed this report from Greece. Follow him on Twitter at @bill_xifaras. You can also keep up-to-date on the latest Eurovision news and liking our Facebook page.
Photos: SVT
So this is supposed to be the stronger semifinal? lol O_o
Looks like Sweden will sadly not qualify for the final this year.
Charles – I do agree Manda’s vocals weren’t the strongest but it is a rehearsal for a reason. If she practices enough her vocals will improve and who knows, she might even outshine Sanna tomorrow night. However, I do believe her song is very catchy and fun, despite the not so stellar lyrics. To be honest, something I look for in a song is a nice catchy melody that just reminds me of having fun. I agree 100% on Sanna being the Helena of semi-final 2. Both respected artists with probably the strongest fan base of their semis who have… Read more »
@D: You’re forgiven considering you love “Songbird” … but please check the vocals of the girl singing “Glow” …come on … you have to be seriously joking for liking a song that is poorly vocally performed. She just has no technique neither she really conveys whatever the lyrics express. No feeling, no nothing. If you sing a good song properly, the song ends up in the gutter. My feelings towards Sanna’s ballad are the same as Helena’s “Survivor” … something seems to be missing while parts of it are cool. But unlike Helena, Sanna has green light in advance to… Read more »
I was a tiny bit let down by Sanna too, but I’ll have to hear the whole thing. I really like it overall, though. Pink Pistols is lacking something for me too. Seems catchy.
Hallelujah.. oh dear…. hahahaha and what they wear and what’s with that guy attempting the splits?! It’ll go down well at church summer camp 🙂
So, Manda’s violin players are dressed in curtains
Panetoz reminds me a bit of Jessy Matador & Les Jumo. Not bad! Good number to boogie down to.
Martin’s my favourite here so far.. Sanna not too far behind.
None of these eight songs are sensationally good, but five of them are okay: the ones by Sanna, Martin, Pink Pistols, Manda (she has vocal issues though) and Kolla. Other three just fall flat for me. Love Trigger sounds something that has been heard many times before and even worse, it is performed unenthusiatically. Hallelujah seems to fit more into Nashville then Sweden and Efter Solsken isn’t memorable at all.
@Charles
Well, “Songbird” is my favourite of all so far, and I wouldn’t exactly call that up-tempo, and I wouldn’t call “Undo” exactly up-tempo either.
@D: At this stage we all know you only care for up-tempo songs, songs that make you wake up from some boring state of mind and lack of concentration you might be in .. because for a song like Glow it shows lack of focus you didn’t even notice her shaky awful vocals and comparing this Robin’s You is offensive on behalf of Robin. What is the girl really singing about? Nothing relevant. Whom was Robin singing to? Way better subject If you have some humanity in you. Plus: if u wanna enjoy music you need to be more focused,… Read more »
@Evridiki: Of course it’s because of her song … it’s just a pure and accidental coincidence that your nickname is the name of another Greek-speaking singer .. who actually showcased 2 of the finest entries from Cyprus in Eurovision ever … of course …
Not good song in this semfinal.
My TOP 4
To the final
1.Martin Stenmarck
2.The Refreshments
To the second chance
3.Sanna Nielsen
4.The Pink Pistols
I think that result will be
To final
1.Sanna Nielsen
2.The Refreshments (suprise of second semi final like Ellen on first, remember The Playstons from MF 2011 and Top Cats from MF 2012)
To the second chance
3. Martin Stenmarck
4. Little Great Things or maybe Panetoz , but i thin it wili be Little Great
I don’t like songs from second semifinal. Helena is still my favorite (because of her song, of course 😉 )
Based on the 1 minute snippets. Love: Like: -Manda with “Glow” – A nice pop song, way better than “You”. Probably one of the best in an overall weak semi-final. -Sanna Nielsen with “Undo” – Another nice pop song, but very different. A slower ballad. I like Sanna, but I think if she wants to represent Sweden, she’s gonna have to come back for an eighth go at Melodifestivalen. Eh: -Martin Stenmarck with “När änglarna går hem” – I just found it pretty boring. The chorus is ok, but the verses were putting me asleep. I honestly can’t even remember… Read more »
@Charles no i didn’t even think she was the best in 2005 and neither in 2001. i just love the song. it’s a very strong song
@Dhani: You are being greek with Helena … I don’t believe you even like Survivor, you just like Helena … come on. you gotta be better than that.
1) Martin Stenmarck: I never liked his Las Vegas entry in 2005 but I liked this snippet for 2 reasons: it’s sung in Swedish which is a plus for me, then the chorus (and you can blame all the plagiarisms you want) reminds me of Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away”, one of few songs I personally love. So I wish this either goes to the final or AC. 2) Kolla: I’m not into hard rock … so … nothing to say here. 3) Pink Pistols: I usually prefer these sort of acts at the greatest Stockholm Pride …… Read more »
I would like to know HOW from 2000+ entries they’ve chosen these?
This is worth skipping, even in terms of show, last Saturday it was dead-alike atmosphere, there’s a chance this Saturday everything to be the same.
Sanna Nielsen has the best song in this semi final !!! 🙂
Melodifestivalen means Melody Festival but it’s strange there is no melody focus just Tv show!
Even after the first 2 semi finals in mf, the strongest and best song with best chances to do well in eurovision is still Helena Paparizou’s song. and they were dumb enough to send it to andra chancen.
if they choose yohio, they will end up last in semi final 1, because the song is so dull and boring