I think this is probably the most Finnish entry they could have gone with, in so far as it's dark and bleak and won't appeal much outside of Finland. Fair enough it winning on both jury and televote but I've not got this pegged as doing much.

This one is just too subtle for me. It's going for that Silent Storm esque vibe but there's just no climax, I think Lucie's effort is much better than this in terms of stripped back to the max ballads. At least all of the joke acts were wiped out but this is the weakest song selected so far for me, I think it will need a lot of time to grow. I do like the piano instrumental bit though, have done since I first heard it in November.

Must say I am very much appreciating this warmup for Melfest, particularly as it seems to be very wide open as far as the jury voting is concerned.

 

This was my first warmup for Melodifestivalen as well. But it was god awful.

The only song I really enjoyed was Zühlke. I couldn't believe Emma was a favorite after watching all the performances. Appropriately placed in my books - something like 80 points behind the eventual winner.

Blackbird is like a song Sarah McLachlan rejected in 1998, yet it’s still probably the best of the lot!

 

Yay my favourite won :lol:

 

Dated Sarah McLachlan soundalikes ftw yassssss.

 

Pretty slim pickings overall though, there was almost as little choice as the UK had.

It's nice enough, I really liked the final 20-30 seconds and it's the sort of thing that should grow. Think I have a better initial impression of it than "Sing It Away" and it could be their best entry since "Marry Me".

 

My First Band though :cry:

 

The true star of last night's show *.* SVT ought to sign her up for Melfest host next year.

Blackbird is nice but it won't do a thing. At best it'll sneak into the final and come like 25th but I can see it around 13th in the semi. Not that any of them would do much better, if anything more, than this, it was slim pickings.

The true star of last night's show *.* SVT ought to sign her up for Melfest host next year.

 

THIS

If Emma was able to perform at the standard we hoped then I think she would've qualified, but I agree that in its current state it would've done a "Maria Olafs" at best. I am gutted that we've lost an "amazing" song to an "average" song (in terms of my rankings categories) but I can see why it happened. It's not like when Anja Nissen gave one of the best national final performances I've ever seen last year with her "amazing" song and then lost out to another "average" song, that was even harder to swallow.

I'm starting to think My First Band had the best song.

woohoo, it took guts to watch all of Finnish entries and, you know, Norma's performance was meh but at the same time they did a great job and Blackbird's probably the best, like it's slightly outstanding. My First Band gave me kinda DNCE vibes and despite the fact that I totally hate DNCE :D I liked MFB's song a lot (eyes closed to lyrics tbh).

Sadly I do think the same - it won't even be able to qualify.