Swedish~ Stereo~

Hope you haven't missed first episode of "Inför Eurovision Song Contest 2011" - preview-show where Swedish music experts discuss songs of upcoming Eurovision - probably you have analogues in your countries if you live in Europe but however the show is really worth watching because of quite interesting participants - Lotta Engberg, Andreas Johnson, Sarah Dawn Finer, Christine Meltzer, Thomas Lundin, Christer Björkman.
It's hard to follow if you don't know Swedish but you have ability to switch subtitles, maybe it'll help you!
So if you want to know which entry sounds like Magnus Carlsson with "Dansar I Månens Sken", who reminds mix of Anastacia, Pink and bat, what common "One More Day" and One More Time have, if it's good to send Le Kid from Serbia and who tried to steal Gaga's "Born This Way", come here and watch.
Switzerland, Norway, Serbia and Finland have got highest marks, watch full table here.

Yesterday SVT showed the last part of "Inför ESC 2010" that you can watch here. Jury discussed the rest of 2nd semifinal and finalists of this year. Germany, Norway and Croatia has become today's favorites.



Common results of the 2nd semi:
Israel 24
Sweden 21
Croatia 19
Armenia 16
Denmark 16
Turkey 16
Bulgaria 15
Lithuania 15
Romania 15
Georgia 13
Ireland 13
Switzerland 13
Azerbaijan 12
Cyprus 12
Ukraine 9
Netherlands 2
Slovenia 0

Rehearsals in Oslo are already in a full mode and yesterday was the first day of Swedish rehearsals, Anna Bergendahl received positive feedback from press in common and jumped up to #6 by odds.



Also check press-conference with Anna (part 1, part 2).

This year contribution of Swedes in Eurovision is especially massive, we have five Swedish songwriters playing for other countries, two songs produced by Swedes and even one Melodifestivalen participant at the stage.

NORWAY

Didrik Solli-Tangen - My Heart is Yours
[Hanne Sørvaag, Fredrik Kempe]
(MF-veteran Mr. Kempe and Norwegian-Swedish Hanne Sørvaag who already composed German song in 2008)

DENMARK

Chanée & N'Evergreen - In a Moment Like This
[Thomas G:son, Henrik Sethsson, Erik Bernholm]
(Thomas G:Son is another legendary name, Henrik composed Eurovision song for Friends)

IRELAND

Niamh Kavanagh - It's For You
[Niall Mooney, Mårten Eriksson & Jonas Gladnikoff, Lina Eriksson]
(Jonas participated before in pre-selections of Malta, Ireland and Denmark and you could hear loads of great stuff from Eriksson family on MF before)

GEORGIA

Sopho Nizharadze - Shine
[Hanne Sørvaag , Harry Sommerdahl, Chistian Leuzzi]
(Hanne was lucky twice to fight for 2 countries this year and Harry is also Swedish songwriter who worked before with Robyn and BoA)

AZERBAIJAN

Safura - Drip Drop
[Stefan Örn, Anders Bagge, Sandra Bjurman]
(Anders has written and produced songs for Madonna, Janet Jackson, Santana, J.Lo, Nick Lachey, Jessica Simpson, Celine Dion and Enrique Iglesias)

ICELAND

Hera Björk - Je Ne Sais Quoi
[Örlygur Smári, Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir]
(Producer of the final version is Niclas Kings who gave tons of hits to Kate Ryan and participated before as songwriter of Belgium-2006 and producer of Iceland-2008)

MALTA

Thea Garrett - My Dream
[Jason Cassar, Sunny Aquilina]
(Producer of this song is Johan Bejerholm who produced Azerbaijan-2009)

BELARUS

3+2 - Butterflies
[Max Fadeev, Malka Chaplin]
(Famous Swedish pianist Robert Wells will perform on the stage with Belorussian band)

Annual tv-show "Inför ESC 2010" currently takes place on SVT-channel. Every week you can see experts panel discussing songs of different participants of upcoming Eurovision. This year you can see among experts Marie Serneholt, Kayo Shekoni (ex-Afro-dite), Lena Philipsson, Thomas Lundin (Finnish artist and tv-host), Rennie Mirro (musical artist and brother of Sarah Dawn Finer), Christer Björkman is host of the show as always. In a third part of the show experts were amazed the most by Israeli singer Harel Skaat and on the other hand left Slovenian representatives - Ansambel Roka Žlindre & Kalamari without any points at all. In the end of the show experts revealed their favorite Melodifestivalen-songs who didn't manage to win the contest. Marie and Mirro chose "Moving On" by Sarah Dawn Finer, Thomas - Shirley Clamp's "Min Kärlek", Kayo - Alcazar's "Not a sinner nor a saint" and Lena - Nanne's "Håll Om Mig". You can see this episode here and see results below. Next week we'll see the last of 4 episodes.

By the way for all Eurovision followers now you can read official blog (in Swedish) of Swedish delegation where you'll find posts by both Christer Björkman (head of delegation) and Edward af Sillén (scriptwriter and director of Melodifestivalen) about everything regarding Anna Bergendahl's and her team's trip to Eurovision in Oslo.