Often there are few surprises in a Swedish Eurovision rehearsal.
So often camera angle for camera angle, the performance is identical to Melodifestivalen.
But at Sweden’s first rehearsal at Eurovision 2019, John Lundvik switched things up.
His backing dancers have new outfits, the performance has more energy and soul, and the stage is brighter.
There are lights on the screens, lights from above, and light from the strength of the gospel vocals.
If criticism in recent years has focused on Swedish entries being “soulless” this performance neutralised that problem.
John Lundvik has charisma for days and his showmanship shows on stage.
This only got tighter and better with practice.
John Lundvik — “Too Late for Love”: Reviews and Reactions
Sweden: First rehearsal at Eurovision 2019
Sweden: First press conference 2019
Read all of our Eurovision rehearsal reviews
Photo Credit: EBU
Is it too late for a touch of red on the outfits?
He will win.
DAT TROUSERS
best of today, left Switz barefoot.
Sweden needed a bounce-back entry after last year and they’ve certainly got it. I think this is going to be in contention all the way through to the end of the results reveal.
Everyone’s clothes this year…either so boring or so ugly….rip…
On a differnt note, his staging is so-so for me. Got the right idea but i am not sure about that salmon color
His choreo needs some shirt ripping for sure. Show us that bod-ey, hon-ey!
Another cheater this year. Even on the poor press center livestream sound you could easily hear he was using autotune. Disgusting, that’s why they needed a delay offstage and they switched with Austria.
imagine being this delusional ^^^
Oh, a troll in the press center. NOT OK.
What? We swedes are kind of tired if we send good songs and people will not vote for us because we are Sweden. We dont come to be last every year.
I still prefer Bigger Than Us, no matter if the staging for Too Late For Love is improved, I just find the song boring, its in the low 30’s in my Top 41. Given the production quality of the song, Sweden will most likely get another Top 10 finish (even though I pray it won’t qualify). Michael Rice is by far the most superior vocalist of the year. (I’ll say as vocalist goes Duncan, Michael, Katerine, Sergey and Leonora are the Top 5 for me) and with Michael Rice, it’s getting a lot of undeserved hate cause if you were… Read more »
OH MY GOD THANK YOU!! Someone is finally speaking sense. I don’t think I can disagree with a single point made. The UK is severely underrated, Michael hits every note every time and I’m sure he said something different will be done with staging so hopefully that will add to his appeal with the juries
You “pray” it won’t qualify? That’s harsh.
I agree! I think Michael has a great voice and is a captivating performer. He owns the song and sells it! I think it is better than Sweden.
UK should be happy is they are 15th. Very bland song
I couldn’t disagree more.
Both are good entries but I can’t agree because…
a) John is the superior vocalist (comparing his demo version of BTU to Michael’s.)
b) TLFL is still (across the three minutes) the more engaging song
c) John is a better performer on stage
d) We know what we’re getting with Sweden’s backing singers…the UK’s have traditionally been a weak point
I started with two points but went on a bit. It’s cool that you’re really pushing the UK this year but I think a top 15 would be a good result for them!
I will settle for 15th at the very least, because if you look at the Jury vote criteria one of the measures to award Jury points is to merit the vocal quality. Another is to merit the staging, something over the past few years the UK has been doing very well.
So those alone will be enough for the UK to get something at least and to avoid last place which many people think the UK will finish which I think is completely unjustified.
Are there still people who think the UK might finish last this year? Can’t imagine many have France or Germany above it…
Hi Liam, I keep seeing comments like this one from you on a lot of posts on here and I think it’s cute how much love and faith you have for the UK entry this year. However, I think it’s important to remember that just because you personally dislike a performer-/staging-/song etc. that doesn’t mean that everyone else does. Unfortunately your comments come of as very bigoted. Remember that not everyone is going to think and feel the same way as you. It’s not “unfair” when a majority disagrees with you – it’s “unfair” when you don’t put any value… Read more »
Niya, it was never my intention to come across bigoted, but I try to reign my comments in a little bit in the future so they don’t sound so overly harsh/critical/bigoted etc so thank you for pointing that out for me. As for the UK V Sweden issue, I am angry with the consistent overhyped nature of Sweden when it comes to their entries, I have nothing against John I think he’s a lovely bloke but the song does absolutely nothing for me. Also, the UK being undermined every year and I know they didn’t start taking the contest seriously… Read more »
My take is that UK doesn’t really care for the contest. They are automatically in the final every year and very seldom gives us something to enjoy. Now, I’m not that a big fan of our (Sweden’s) song this year. But I wouldn’t really vote for UK either because they’re basically two versions of the same song. I think we’d appricrate UK better if they did not qualify directly. They’d have something to fight for. Personally, I only listen to the music on beforehand in an attempt to be less biased torwards the songs. Usually though, the pieces that I… Read more »
Salmon/turkey steak with a side of green salad, Looks at the cheeseècake but will, loyal to the sparkle on his instagrammable face, choose a fruit for desert. Balanced diet recipe, decent song recipe. Recipe will get the balanced singer through and gain him a vote or two from both, the juries and the televote. Mission accomplished?
One of our better entries we’ve sent! Excited to see the full rehearsal and hope for the best!
And you guys are always miserable under all the articles about Sweden, so sad
will qualify for sure, but it’s not the winner for me
(I am pretty sure though that juries will overrate this song)
cant wait for tomorrow netherland and russia!
12 points to svenska
I wouldn’t change a thing about the Melfest performance, but it seems the huge tweaks were all about making it brighter, so maybe they won’t bother me that much. I love the Mamas and John. There’s a lot to discuss about the song, but I believe Sweden is selling it in the best possible way.
This perfomance lucks originality and emotion. It will be in top 10 however, because… juries.
It looks great. A great rehearsal. Go Sweden.
I am sorry… I like it less and less… So many other more worthy songs to win this year or even score a top 10. This is not one of them…
This is great, top 5 in final well deserved.
All that matters about this song is John,the Mamas , the interaction between them and the joy and energy. That is where the focus will be. Ligthness, darkness, does that really matter?
Yes. And other delegations think about it, too.
I love slick Swedish entries, but I cannot warm up to this one. I prefer Austria 18. It had more soul, this comes across …how to say….composed with brain, and not with heart. But of course, it will do extremely well.
Sweden already has at least 100 points locked from the juries… Remember who decides the running order…
TOP 2 with juries in semi final and fina with The Netherlands.From 3 to 6i n semi,and from 5 to 8 in final with televote. In semi and final from 1 to 3 place.
Well… I don’t know for sure but i think that the original (dark) staging had a lot more impact than this brighter stage.. But i can be wrong, because i only saw this clip, but still a top 10 contender imo.
the quintessential jury bait
Hmm. I will be honest. This is in my top 15 but I wouldn’t assume Sweden will win the juries just yet. Just because Austria did very well last year with gospel music doesn’t mean that some of the juries will vote the same way with Sweden. Top 10 with juries yes, but Sweden’s choice could also backfire. Regardless the staging seems to be up to Swedish standards and I have no doubt they will put up quite a show.
The jury is completely different people this year… Meaning that this years jury did not get to vote for Austria last year at all. Still think that there are other songs that will score better with the juries still than Sweden this year.
Weird to say, but I like the NF staging more. Perhaps, the shape of the stage and the use of lighting did make the performance work at it s best potential. Now the staging gets a little brighter but the use of LED to show tungsten strips was kind of off for me. And the big lamp prop looked weird now thaf it stands in the middle. I expected a lot more planning towards transforming it to this stage.
OMG this is so basic and bad produced, but jury will be loving this as always (’cause is Sweden so they have to put a lot of points on this)!
Makes me sick and they will bash Sergey because he’s russian
your commet is idiotic. Should John Change country?
Rasmus – maybe you should change your behaviour. You’re insulting people all the time and you’re really surprised that some people don’t like Sweden in ESC?
maybe you are a swede that always thinks what your friends tell you to think. Im not like you.
Why would the jury vote cause its Sweden? The juries vote for songs they like, no matter what country it is.
Yeah, as if! Juries tend to vote for specific countries whatever the song thet send. Sweden is such an example. Every year no matter the song juries vote for Sweden. That’s unfair. On the other hand, countries like Greece have never been voted in the top10 by juries.
Sweden make Great music for Sweden, and galf Europé.
Actually, France is more overrated by juries compared their televotes, but i cant see you commenting this at articles about France?
That´s just stupid. So juries vote for Sweden. Maybe that´s because Sweden send good songs then..? You sound like a person who is jelaous because juries don´t like your countries song. Conspracy theories. Juries vote for songs they like and what country has nothing to do with it. Period.
sweden one of my favourites this year but this looks awful
how can it look awful BEFORE you seen the reheasel? It was not out when you commented so…
Nothing is posted yet so it’s amazing that you can see it’s awful. Wish I had that power.
Looks great, but I wonder how they’ll hide the lamp because Sweden wants it perfect and I think they would want to remove the lamp.
Boring. I want Sergey !