gooddelta

Edit - too early, I thought it had finished oops.

It has four sets of 12 points and only a few other voters, so no.

i thought the same r.e. 'taxi, taxi', and I like your interpretation of it!

Another 12 and 10, thanks Jim and Jade <3

Loved The Seed, nice to see that in the lead so far - everything I've heard from Anna Lunoe so far has been great. Now I'm revealed I can thank Brer, Chez and Dobbo for the 12 points - wow! Amazing to receive three sets, although it's funny but unsurprising to me how marmite this entry is proving. I guess vocally it's not particularly accessible but I adore the latter half of the track with the drum and bass. I heard this song back in 2023 and it still has fewer than 2,000 streams on Spotify (probably 20 at least from me) so I wasn't really expecting much.

Amazing 01 KAJ 02 Klara Hammarström 03 SCARLET Great 04 Maja Ivarsson 05 Måns Zelmerlöw 06 Dolly Style Good 07 Meira Omar 08 Saga Ludvigsson 09 Greczula Average 10 Annika Wickihalder 11 John Lundvik 12 Erik Segerstedt Pretty even split into four groups for me. But please pull through KAJ. The juries need to not tank this. Klara's is her best entry yet for me though, obsessed with it. And I was so into the Scarlet song too, I didn't really care that much for Circus X. Maja was a great find, would love to see her surprise with a good result. Måns' song is all about the final 45 seconds - if the rest of the song was like that it would be up in the 'Amazing' category, the outro is so good. For all the bile many Eurovision fans throw at Melodifestivalen, nine songs in this final are happily on repeat in my playlist, along with several that didn't reach the final. Prediction: 1. Måns (they won't let him lose, surely, the juries will be briefed, Sweden seem to think this is a Eurovision winner, and the bookies' odds appear to agree) 2. KAJ (could see it winning the public vote but not in a landslide fashion) 3. Greczula (just outpaced by that top two but he'll be back with a bigger song another time - classic Melfest strong top five debut with some winner vibes but better to come in future) 4. Klara (I hope for higher!) 5. SCARLET 6. Meira (seems to be a very popular song for one that took a long route into the final - its landslide in the second part last night was impressive) 7. Erik 8. Saga 9. Dolly Style 10. Annika 11. Maja (would love to see it a little higher) 12. John (controversial last place prediction but I think it could go all wrong for this, there are better male pop options and it just falls so flat in its attempt to sound big)

One of the most surprising heat winners since I've been watching. Good track and tbf she gave a great performance, and I enjoyed the staging, and I guess it's not dissimilar to Wiktoria's stuff that was popular. I didn't notice the app heart going off much during her performance though. Presumably Scarlet got the most votes, while Saga did the best with the age group split to win the heat in as much as the way that they work it out. My two favourite songs from second chance through to the final I think, although I wouldn't have minded Arwin or Ella either tbf. But with how well they've done on the Swedish charts, Meira and Dolly Style deserve it. All making up the numbers anyway, it's obviously Måns vs KAJ next week. Think it's in the hands of the international juries to decide.

I felt like Moss Kena was 'the chosen one', with the jury comments, but the public just didn't care enough. Lyza's voice crack was awful oops. Looks like Baller was a bit of a dark horse in the end and not one they probably anticipated winning at the outset!

Called Raab doing that to Feuerschwanz, he didn't want them and it would have easily won the voting with the metal fanbase that always turn out so well to these things. That said, Baller WAS my favourite, LOVE it, my favourite German entry for quite some time. I don't really expect it to do much sadly - it's not that jury friendly and it's going to get lost on the televote behind the obvious bait songs. But a nice addition to the final, and it's cool to see Germany sending something German and that actually sounds like stuff in the charts there.

A good song from Denmark, wonders will never cease. Let's hope it scrapes a Q.

Amazing work Dan, thanks so much for putting together such an excellent compilation and informative write-up. When trance is at its best - as it is on so many of the songs here - it’s my favourite genre.

Very poor, poor start to the year. This time last year seems like a happy memory, although 2024 also tailed off massively in the second half. It's a bit of a worry that the industry has seemed quite stagnant for the best part of 7/8 months now, so surely there is a big flood of hits to come in the next couple of months, as many of the big international artists release in Q1 and Q2 now, but Q1 has seemed a bit subdued in that respect aside from the odd few.

I Wanna Be The Only One was my favourite song of 1997 - pure uplifting joy, and what a moment for Eternal to finally get a No.1 so far into their career. Easther and BeBe both deliver a vocal masterclass on the track too, he was such a great guest vocalist on it. I'm glad it had such high sales to fend off a soaring Time To Say Goodbye, but I wished that had got a week in somewhere too as it's beautiful, and such an unusual big hit in 1997. I said earlier in the thread, but it's annoying for me that Eternal released three of their most quality singles in 1997 and then it all imploded. I also think MMMBop is a great track, the verses especially, a very nostalgic kind of feel to it, even when it came out. And the chorus is stupidly catchy of course. Waltz Away Dreaming is ok, not a George Michael classic, I guess even his name power didn't get it that high compared to most of his hits. Gina G at No.11 on one of the weeks too - near miss for her La Isla Bonita soundalike, but I didn't really expect that kind of single from her. Closer Than Close is a really good dance/almost early garage kind of hit. Also, really good to see Katrina and the Waves had such a big post-Eurovision hit with Love Shine A Light - it's quite an unfashionable song really, and sounds more like a hymn, but Katrina sang the hell out of it at Eurovision - the live performance with the brass section is one of the best live moments the contest has had imo. This was also around the time that New Labour also won the general election, Cool Britannia iconography was everywhere, the UK felt like a very positive place at this moment - certainly not something that lasted though, with Princess Diana's death a few months later. Didn't realise Olive's album was called Extra Virgin - that's a fantastic title!

A DNQ is no barometer of the merit of a song anyway - Pink Pony Club is challenging for No.1 this week (yes I’m aware it had a deduction but clearly it would only have been like 15th in its semi anyway without one). I’ve had DNQs with some of my favourite songs I’ve ever sent but I agree that I have very few regrets with my entries - clearly I always loved them at the time. The Turkish song I went out with two contests ago is fantastic and charming - it’s no less a song because it didn’t make it into the final. I do like when some of the less conventional stuff makes it into the final on here - because several songs in this final would never have any chance whatsoever to cross into the mainstream, but that doesn’t mean they are not deserving of being heard and enjoyed, they just don’t suit commercial tastes.

Scarlet's song is a great track and far better than their entry last year - doesn't sound like one Sweden would send to Eurovision though. Kind of Gaga does When I Grow Up vibes in the verse. Think it's still Måns' to lose, assuming juries bury KAJ as expected. Presuming he's got the jury win sewn up and 1st/2nd on the public vote. KAJ will be 1st/2nd on the public vote but probably mid-table with juries, Scarlet I would expect to be top five on the telvote and jury, but can't see it being enough against those two. Arwin is my other favourite, I loved a song by him last year called För bra för att vara sant so I had relatively high hopes anyway, but definitely not disappointed. Nice schlager chords and urgency. Vilhelm Buchaus seems to be the other favourite to progress in one way or another, I thought that one was ok. Victoria's song is a bit of a dated mess, but enjoyable in a Cascada's 2009 album fashion. Arvingarna's is fine, the worst of their recent trio of entries though, I don't expect it to progress. And Saga Ludvigsson's is another competent but unremarkable country pop song for this Melodifestivalen season. Anyway, when all is said and done with the 30 songs, despite all the cries of a weak year, I have at least 5-6 on repeat, with another two additions this week, and that's still a significant amount more than I have on repeat than any other national final, so go Sweden!

Ooooh, thank you so much voters <3 An honour to be through with this, as the message behind it means a lot to me. I'm glad people I hoped might like it in in the other semi will have the chance to hear it too.

First two of my votes out there in Semi 1, both of those were great.

2 points! :o I’d have voted for Summericia, it doesn’t feel that far removed from Sovarasma’s German winner this time last year. That is a real surprise to me.

Continuing to chip away from the bottom and going for Craig David - not good at all.

Would love to see it, but I'll be amazed if they stretch The Vault into the 90s. The 80s ones don't even seem to sell that well. Although hopefully there is still good profit in them considering most of the songs used are not usually touched with a bargepole so are hopefully cheap to pick up. I could maybe imagine them doing a Vault covering the entire decade in one album.

Agreed and I'd stretch that all the way down to Boyzone because Lutricia McNeal, Tin Tin Out, Imaani and that Boyzone song are favourites of mine, and I like that Louise track too. I'm so happy Sarah and Paula got a place!

Son of Dork - that whole project was pretty awful.

Ceasars for me, but close between that and Amy.

True! Weird that Steps aren't here actually. Even if Heartbeat/Tragedy are being saved for 1999 when they peaked at No.1, 5,6,7,8 peaked in 1998 so it goes against their own usual rule a bit if they put it on 1997.

Love it, even more my thing than a lot of the main release, disc 3 is near perfection, I hope they pick all the correct single edits. Although the single mix of Let Me Entertain You isn’t even available to stream. Quite surprised that High and Here’s Where The Story Ends weren’t included on the main release.