LexC

Those first few juries seemed to just be voting at random!

Eeep - I hope a 45 point lead is enough of a cushion for Cornelia to see off an Anders public vote win - if I have any nails left by the end of the night I’ll be surprised!

Has to be Cornelia - classic Swedish heartbreak pop in the vein of ABBA, Roxette, Robyn ect - Sweden don’t f*** this up challenge!

Would love Tone to come back in a future year with a top shelf banger!

Call me an old crusty but I actually really liked Lundvik’s performance there!

Oh no did I just see G:Son had a haircut!

Klara slapped! Wouldn’t be mad if that nabs a surprise win!

Liking the grandeur of this opening!

Here we go ladies!

Conveniently her new single "I Am What I Am" is dropping on Monday that may or may not be the new song.

Hoping for saudade, saudade or degra.de to take this but I think Portugal might continue their hipster vibes of going all in English when everyone else seems to be going native language and pick "Why?"

All signs seem to be pointing to Malta ditching Out of Sight for another track, possibly penned by Milanov (of If Love Was A Crime, Beautiful Mess, Chameleon, Violent Thing and more fame)

Final pre-full lineup ranking. Amazing 01 France: Alvan & Ahez - Fulenn 02 Greece: Amanda Tenfjord - Die Together Great 03 Spain: Chanel - SloMo 04 Ireland: Brooke - That's Rich 05 Netherlands: S10 - De diepte 06 Latvia: Citi Zeni - Eat Your Salad 07 Czech Republic: We Are Domi - Lights Off 08 Montenegro: Vladana - Breathe 09 Cyprus: Andromachie - Ela 10 Australia: Sheldon Riley - Not The Same 11 Switzerland: Marius Bear - Boys Do Cry 12 Albania: Ronela Hajati - Sekret 13 Finland: The Rasmus - Jezebel 14 United Kingdom: Sam Ryder - Space Man 15 Italy: Mahmood & Blanco - Brividi Good 16 Norway: Subwoolfer - Give That Wolf A Banana 17 Austria: LUMIX feat. Pia Mia - Halo 18 Israel: Michael Ben-David - I.M 19 Estonia: Stefan - Hope 20 Poland: Ochman - River 21 Denmark: REDDI - The Show 22 Ukraine: Kalush Orchestra - Stefania 23 Moldova: Zdob si Zdob & Frati Advahov - Trenuletul 24 San Marino: Achille Lauro - Stripper OK 25 Belgium: Jeremie Makiesse - Miss You 26 Croatia: Mia Dimsic - Guilty Pleasure 27 Romanai: WRS - Llamame 28 Malta: Emma Muscat - Out Of Sight 29 Lithuania: Monika Liu - Sentimentai 30 North Macedonia: Andrea - Circles 31 Germany: Malik Harris - Rockstars 32 Georgia: Circus Mircus - Lock Me In Meh 33 Slovenia: LPS - Disko 34 Bulgaria: Intelligent Music Project - Intention No 35 Serbia: Konstrakta - In Corpore Sano

Now its official I can give my full thoughts on this one - best UK entry since 2011 (yes that's damning with faint praise slightly but still) and I've got no doubts this is going to much better [/bagachipz] than the last few years. People are comparing the probable result with maybe a Lucie Jones style result but the difference is Lucie was selling the shet out of what was best an okay song whilst Sam is both a strong vocalist and has a strong song behind him. And comparing this male ballad with the likes of Switzerland, Germany, Poland and Australia I think this compares pretty well. So colour me cautiously optimistic!

The vibe for this was obviously "sultry" rather than slutpop but I still dig this one!

You'd think so but it's not always necessarily the case - I don't think The Mamas were leading on streaming ahead of their televote win in 2020? Sweden are also really well known for having a big shift from the heats and semi final/andra chansen where they just vote for what they enjoy to the final where they get their game face on and go more with what'd be best to represent them in Eurovision which is where I think Anders in particular might not get the big public vote score that many seem to be predicting he'll get. Of the four heat winners I see Klara as probably the most likely public vote winner but potentially being Wiktoria'd by the juries, Anders being nowhere with the juries and around 4th with the public and Liamoo/Corneilia being solid across both with Cornelia in particular getting some strong jury support that is enough to give her the win. Juries 01 Cornelia Jakobs 02 Faith Kakembo 03 Liamoo 04 John Lundvik 05 Anna Bergendahl 06 Klara Hammarstrom 07 Robin Bengtsson 08 Theoz 09 Anders Bagge 10 Tone Sekelius 11 Cazzi Opeia 12 Medina Public 01 Klara Hammarstrom 02 Cornelia 03 Liamoo 04 Anders Bagge 05 Medina 06 Theoz 07 John Lundvik 08 Tone Sekelius 09 Anna Bergendahl 10 Cazzi Opeia 11 Robin Bengtsson 12 Faith Kakembo Combined 01 Cornelia Jakobs 02 Klara Hammarstrom 03 Liamoo 04 Anders Bagge 05 John Lundvik 06 Faith Kakembo 07 Anna Bergendahl 08 Theoz 09 Medina 10 Tone Sekelius 11 Robin Bengtsson 12 Cazzi Opeia

Amazing 01 France: Alvan & Ahez - Fulenn Great 02 Spain: Chanel - SloMo 03 Ireland: Brooke - That's Rich 04 Netherlands: S10 - De diepte 05 Latvia: Citi Zeni - Eat Your Salad 06 Czech Republic: We Are Domi - Lights Off 07 Montenegro: Vladana - Breathe 08 Australia: Sheldon Riley - Not The Same 09 Albania: Ronela Hajati - Sekret 10 Finland: The Rasmus - Jezebel 11 Italy: Mahmood & Blanco - Brividi Good 12 Norway: Subwoolfer - Give That Wolf A Banana 13 Israel: Michael Ben-David - I.M 14 Estonia: Stefan - Hope 15 Poland: Ochman - River 16 Denmark: REDDI - The Show 17 Ukraine: Kalush Orchestra - Stefania 18 Moldova: Zdob si Zdob & Frati Advahov - Trenuletul 19 San Marino: Achille Lauro - Stripper OK 20 Croatia: Mia Dimsic - Guilty Pleasure 21 Romanai: WRS - Llamame 22 Malta: Emma Muscat - Out Of Sight 23 Lithuania: Monika Liu - Sentimentai 24 North Macedonia: Andrea - Circles 25 Germany: Malik Harris - Rockstars Meh 26 Slovenia: LPS - Disko 27 Bulgaria: Intelligent Music Project - Intention No 28 Serbia: Konstrakta - In Corpore Sano My wish for an "amazing" song to put in its own category has been granted (lets see if Sweden can make it two!) so I think this year is turning a corner now.

Yeah it's supposedly some kind of Silvia Night style performance art character piece about the state of Serbian health insurance. I think?

Hnmu0qSyYzI Finalists: Cornelia Jakobs - Hold Me Closer Robin Bengtsson - Innocent Love Theoz - Som du vil LIAMOO - Bluffin John Lundvik - Anglavakt Tone Sekelius - My Way Anders Bagge - Bigger Than The Universe Faith Kakembo - Freedom Cazzi Opeia - I Can't Get Enough Klara Hammarstrom - Run To The Hills Medina - In i dimman Anna Bergendahl - Higher Power I might have said this before but it bares repeating - what a lineup! Even in an off year, Melfest is in a league of its own.

It's a really strong top 5 but the pick has to go to Reykjavíkurdætur pEg4JadOyvU

BRETON RAVE UP!

Fulenn gets the ticket or we riot!

So Anna, Tone, Theoz and Cazzi complete the final line up. For all that the average quality might have dipped a bit this year, that’s a really good final lineup we’ve got here!

Sweden said trans rights!

I really like this, very well produced!