It’s been a long road, but we’re finally here. Tonight the seven acts competing in the fourth and final semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2017 performed in front of a live audience inside Skellefteå Kraft Arena. After the last pieces of confetti had hit the ground, the Swedish fan club Melodifestivalklubben asked the departing audience members to name their favourite act — and the results are in.
This week Wiktoria topped the poll with 28.3% of the 724 votes. During last year’s Melodifestivalen final she earned the second-highest number of votes from the Swedish public and it seems that they are still loving this curly-haired diva.
She qualified directly to the final by winning her semi-final last year. Can she do the same this year with “As I Lay Me Down”?
In second place is jojkare — and Melodifestivalen 2015 silver medalist — Jon Henrik Fjällgren, who competes this year with Aninia. The duo earned 23.1% of the votes.
In what many fans will surely see as a shock, Eurovision 2012 winner Loreen placed only third with her song “Statements”. She is currently leading our poll of who should win the semi-final, but the audience in Skellefteå wasn’t that impressed. A total of 119 people thought her performance was the best tonight. Do the people of Skellefteå reflect the general population? We’ll find out on Saturday evening.
Just one vote behind is Alice with her EDM banger “Running with Lions”. Alice finished second on Swedish Idol in 2008 and is now debuting at Melodifestivalen. Could her legions of Idol fans take her higher here?
Fellow Idol star Axel Schylström, indie pop group Les Gordons and Sara Varga & Juha Mulari finished in the last three places and, if these results reflect reality, will be headed home.
Melodifestivalklubben stresses that the audience in tonight’s dress rehearsal were families, teenagers and adults. Many of them had difficulty in deciding their favourite act as they thought that many were worthy songs.
Just like the actual show, the rehearsal also includes the winners reprising their songs on stage in front of the audience. The results are completely fake, but they might have affected the result of the audience inside the arena. This week Alice and Loreen were randomly selected as the winners.
The audience poll is considered to be a good indicator of how songs will place in the Melodifestivalen live shows. However, last week Jasmine Kara finished second in the audience poll, but crashed out in the first round of the actual show. Sometimes the visuals seen in the arena don’t fully convey what is seen on the television screen.
Audience poll results: Deltävling 4, Skellefteå
- Wiktoria with “As I Lay Me Down” 28.3% (205 votes)
- Jon Henrik Fjällgren feat.Aninia with “En värld full av strider” 23.1% (167 votes)
- Loreen with “Statements” 16.4% (119 votes)
- Alice with “Running with Lions” 16.3% (118 votes)
- Axel Schylström with “När ingen ser” 9.8% (71 votes)
- Les Gordons with “Bound to Fall” 5.8% (42 votes)
- Sara Varga & Juha Mulari with “Du får inte ändra på mej” 0.3% (2 votes)
Melodifestivalen 2017: Semi-Final 4 Preview
READ MORE MELODIFESTIVALEN NEWS
Photo: Stina Stjernkvist/SVT
Denis! I realy hope that you are right! I will wote my five times on the melloapp and than call as many times possible tonigt and hope that Loreen goes directly to the final. But I have a feeling that the melfest- app has changed the pattern. My 8-year old daughter as Well as most swedish kidz has a mobile and the melfest-app. They won’t wote for Loreen. They will wote for Wiktoria, Jon-Hendrik and Axel. Same things whith the older generation as My 65 year old mother. No cance she will wote for Loreen as many in her generation.… Read more »
This could very well be the actual, and in my opinion fair results, i kinda hope for Axel Schylström to beat Alice though.
Polls do show which way the wind is blowing, so to speak. So don’t count them out. As for Loreen winning or not winning: Many has said it’s to artistic to win. But didn’t Jamala show that you can win with an artistic song in a otherwise commercial contest? So why couldn’t Loreen and her expression win it? or any other artist with an expression? As for not winning due to not being the usual stuff Sweden sends, yes and no. That’s never a reason to not send anyone. It depends on what people see as typical Swedish entry. Sanna… Read more »
First of all, polls are not that accurate! They help people get a sense of which song is more popular! Apart from that, every person has different criteria when voting for someone in a poll.
I’m looking forward to tonight’s show!
Denis, I think she’ll probably qualify, but I have hard time seeing this song (not Loreen) winning the whole mello. I might be wrong, I’m not there and this evening I could change my mind but idk. “Statements” feels different what Swedes use to go for.. and that could be positive. But, at the same time, it’s not the kind of song that Swedes would play on repeat. (But “Undo” won and Swedes didn’t like it that much.. who knows) I need to watch the performance and we’ll see. But, if it’s not appealing to families.. it would be hard… Read more »
Denis: she came in 2nd place in the audience poll back in 2012.
I believe that Loreen will qualify directly to the final, but she will not win the whole thing. My money’s on Nano with Hold On.
Loreen is still the favourite to win everything. The audience poll isn’t taken in consideration since it isn’t taken seriously. Mostly since it consists of families and Loreen isn’t really family material. She’s always much better live, like she was in 2012. Back then she ended up 4th in the audience poll only to end up winning the heat.
She admitted it wasn’t her best rehearsal and that she saved her voice til tonight.
I don’t thing the kids and the older tv audiensce will wote for Lorren! I hope she will make it to andrachansen.
I just read about how the song was created at SVT. Statements was NOT written for melfest at all. When Crister Björkman heared it Loreen asked if it wasn’t. to raw for melfest, bur C B liked it and Lorreen got free hands to make what she wanted at stage.
LOREEN DOESN’T PARTICIPATE WHITH THE GOAL TO WIN!!!
Occidentali’s Karma for Loreen because in 2012 she and her song were overrated and this year Karma comes back to her. She will win nothing like she deserved in 2012 too. You can’t escape Karma Loreen.
Loreens no longer favourite to qualify for the semi or win the whole thing…. first time since she was announced as taking part!
Don’t forget
1. Audience polls aren’t usually that accurate, see: Jasmine and Owe last week as an example.
2. This contest takes place in Skellefteå, in northern Sweden, Jon Henrik probably got a lot of freebie votes from the audience here.
3. There are always a lot of families with kids in the audience, I don’t think kids would vote for Loreen, this song is too deep and dark for them.
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Somehow I expected this! And I’m dissapointed too. Svennebananer!!! I REALLY hope the result will change tonight. Loreen’s performance is best on tv and voting with the app will also make a difference. And I really hope she will give all that she’s got! My fingers are crossed and I will be nervous that’s for sure!
Loreen is phony. Sweden is a PC country, it will not work like last year for Ukraine. People will roll their eyes when they see a girl from Sweden singing about social injustice.
Be not worried, fans of Loreen (myself included). Last week, Owe Thornqvist came sixth in the poll and look where he is now! In saying that, unfortunately Jasmine Kara… well…
The audience polls don’t dictate everything.
I heard that the reason Loreen was 3rd that was because she was mumbling to rest her voice. So she actually didn’t sing the song and that’s why she had lower results than expected
Also don’t forget Loreen doesn’t just sing, she “illustrates”:)
The song isn’t complete without the performance, they go together. In true artistic style. That’s what makes her entry so special to “preview”
The verses are strong but she needed a better/anthemic chorus. I hope this goes to Andra Chansen so people could love it. It seems this is a song you need a few listens to to like it. I hope SVT pick great clips during the voting segment.
In the arena today many families had young kids and they wanted fun upbeat songs, they were bored with the slow songs today. Overall, I’m curious to see how loreen’s stage presence comes off on the TV. I love the song and the music is better than Euphoria’s but the lyrics need to be more thought-out. i give it 8/10
People in forums and in that site they want Loreen to win just because of her past and because is Loreen. I heard the song from the link @Fred shared and it’s nothing special. The 1 min snippet SVT released honestly is the best part of the song.
I’m rooting for Wiktoria.
Marc, Loreen didn’t need to win anything tonight. The contest is tomorrow. Anyone can become better or worse. Last weak Jasmine ended up second in that poll only to actually end up 6th. All that this audience poll shows is that the songs are better and competition more fierce. it was easier to predict winner previously because the songs were weaker.
If you look at SVT’s own poll, Loreen is the overwhelming winner with 60 percent of the votes. More than both Måns and Frans got before their pretty big leads.
I think Loreen coming third might be due to the fact that a lot of families were in the audience tonight.
For those who can’t wait tomorrow to hear Statements and discover the staging https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OA6IAkA3ds
Yes Jon was playing at home.. but the winner was Wiktoria not him xD
I don’t buy this argument, Loreen could very likely go straight to the final tomorrow yes, but if she was gonna win the whole mello.. she should have won with no problem this evening.. and that was Wiktoria.
And it’s Loreen XD She has a name, she isn’t an underdog xD
We all know that this song is decisive, Hopefully if she goes to Andra Chansen, people could grow to love it. She just needs explosive staging to drive the songs message home. Anyways, I’m just happy she’s releasing her album.
Jon Henrik second. Why? Because Skellefte is closer to Sami area, unlike the capital. But the SVT polls cited that Loreen is leading..
@Colin
Yes, I think Wiktoria is also in the mix. 3rd. (It’s climbing on the odds as well)
Tomorrow we’ll know better. And then Spotify will tell us more.
Nano won with 40% or so
Robin 37%
Both with big gaps (And Frans won over 50%)
Wiktoria 29% but is a very tough heat.
Mariette win was very tight.. and in the worst semifinal. I don’t see her winning with that song, idk
Anyway, it’s an open melfest, which is exciting. Sweden don’t have an obvious entry like “Heroes” or an amazing Hit like “If I were sorry”
Honestly, there’s no doubt Loreen will end up anything but number 1 tomorrow. Just look at SVT’s own poll. She leads overwhelmingly. Betting sites have even lowered her odds so low that it’s not worth betting on her.
JonHenrik is leading cause Norrland is his turf and home crowd. Of course they will support him.
In 2012 Loreen also held back during her rehearsal and no one expected anything. Until they saw the performance. She was intentionally weak during rehearsal. The live aspect is where her show shines.
So proud of Alice! Really hoping that Sweden pulls through and votes her through to Andra Chansen or the Final. It’s unfortunate that she got the worst spot in the running order, but hopefully she will be the exception and show everyone how amazing she is. Please vote for her, Sweden!
@Marc – ”A Mello winner should win this poll so easily.” – So, it’s between Nano, Mariette, Robin and Wiktoria, then?
I’m pretty sure Loreen will SLAY tomorrow.
yeah i wouldn’t be shocked if loreen doesn’t win. her song is too artsy fartsy and kinda pretentious.
Loreen was not randomly selected as a winner, it was Jon Henrik together with Alice.
LMAOOO I knew the audience wouldn’t buy that drama class representation Loreen put on. #LoreenIsOverParty
A Mello winner should win this poll so easily. Like Frans did last year.
Atp, it’s Nano vs Robin I think (unless juries overrate Loreen.)
Sweden will rule again this year 🙂
Loreen wili be pushed so hard in MF final with international juries I predict from 11 countries from 120 to 132 points and thanks to that and some votes from televote she wili win whe wili be 3 or 4 with televote behind Robin, Wiktoria and maybe even Mariete. And at Eurovison similar will happen , juries wili push so hard Sweden to win , I predict from 320 to 360 points in final from juries .
Loreen song not have good lyricks,even not so good music, only is interestig stage performance with so many people on stage in 3 minute of song and they swith out from stage in some moment of song and political pictures. I thnik SVT from 2012 and EBU from 20149 when almost one of 2 male host is happy when he heard boo for Russia and twin sister singer from that countries, in 2015 female host stop same in begingn of voting wiht their word to crowd in hall, or 2016 wiht ukraine political song, love so much poltics.
Yay! Swedes taste never disappoints 🙂
Loreen’s song is so overrated for just being from her.
That is a shocker!
Loreen will forever be my queen and she’s one of the few former-Eurovision artists who I still follow and listen to all her music. I’m sure her song will be my favorite no matter what in SF#4 but… I kinda really hope she doesnt win. I want new artists to represent Sweden and have their chance, plus she already won Eurovision, what more can she do?
Lurpis
Kerili did n sing good in estonia semi because she was ill , now Loreen…why fans always have some argument when they saw that their favorite is not favorite of many people.
Loren coming third , even after performing twice?? Thats pretty surprising, I didn’t expect it.
People! It’s because Loreen didn’t sing much. She’s saving her voice until tomorrow because of a virus
Loreen finishing 3rd almost 4th, now that’s shocking
Surprising.
I’m calling this now. Robin Bengtsson will be representing Sweden this year.
Well, Jasmine came 3rd in the audience poll and crashed out in 6th so I’ll take these with a pinch of salt.
Audience poll was wrong last week too. Skellefteå is in northern sweden so Jon-Henrik get’s more votes thanks to that too. Jon-Henrik and Loreen will definitly switch places tomorrow. Statements is also more of TV-performance than Arena.
I m happy to see that overated Loreen bz this bloggs and many fans from this sites, is only on 3 rd place.