#SWEDEN:Tonight: Heat 5 of Melodifestivalen :Live Blog from 20.00 CET,19.00 GMT.

By rudsar73 on March 2, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

God Kväll Europa, Good evening Europe , Karlstad calling !

Tonight , Sweden continue their search for the act that will represent the nation on home soil in Malmö in May . The fifth and final heat of their Melodifestivalen 2024 contest takes place in Karlstad, hosted by Carina Berg. Six acts will be competing for two places in next week’s Grand Final in Stockholm . The acts are as follows :

Marcus & Martinus – “Unforgettable“

Chelsea Mucho – “Controlla“

Jay Smith – “Back To My Roots“

Elecktra – “Banne Maj“

Annika Wickihalder – “Light“

Medina – “Que Sera“

Following tonight’s heat, there will be a “Run-off vote where acts who finished 3rd and 4th in their respective heats will compete for the final two spots in the contest . We will not see the acts perform but will see recaps of their performances in their respective heats .It’s a bit of a complex thing but each participant will have their scores from their heats added and these are then allocated a percentage score out of 1000 points, which makes up 50% of the voting for this round . The other 50% comes from the public vote tonight and there will be just 10 minutes where the public can vote , starting from the first recap . The results will be given in a similar format to the Eurovision Grand Final, when the public vote follows once the heat results are given , starting from the lowest score from the points accumulated in the heats . The difference is that unlike Eurovision, where there is just one winner, there will be two acts who will be smiling tonight !

The acts taking part in the run -off round are :

Elisa Lindström – “Forever Yours“

Adam Woods – “Supernatural“

Dear Sara – “The Silence After You“

Fröken Snusk – “Unga & Fria“

Klaudy – “För Dig”

Gunilla Persson – “I Won’t Shake (La La Gunilla)”

Albin Tingwall – “Done Getting Over You“

Scarlet – “Circus X“

Join me , Sarah when I will be bringing you Eurovision’s Ireland live blog of the events in Karlstad. Unfortunately Richard, who is usually with you is unable to join us tonight, so you have me instead ! I haven’t yet heard any of the songs, so the opinions I give of the acts tonight are literally my first impressions !Let’s hope it’s an entertaining evening and please do let us know what you think as we go along this evening. You know the drill by now, to keep up with the blog REFRESH THIS PAGE .

You can also watch the show HERE

LIVE BLOG STARTS HERE

You’re a bit early . Join us at 20.00 CET , 19.00 GMT for all the fun and action from Karlstad. In the meantime , get your drinks and snacks ready while we wait .

Good evening and welcome back . Hopefully in about 5 minutes or so, we’ll be going to the live link in Karlstad . Watch this space !

After a lively opening , we meet our host , Carina

After a lot of talking, we finally meet tonight’s Heat 5 artists

Hopefully we’re getting onto tonight’s first act soon.The first act need no introduction, they were runners up to Loreen last year in Melfest 2023 and probably unlucky that they appeared in the year that she took part.

Marcus & Martinus – “Unforgettable“

Starts off with LED backdrop of soundwaves , with staging looking a bit of a faster moving version of Benjamin Ingrosso’s staging in 2018 . With the words Unforgettable in the background . They are then joined by four backing dancers in leather coats , with black being the colour of choice tonight. It’s very typical electro pop, however it does sound very similar to their song from last year. A good opener nevertheless. and there’s no Loreen this year !

Chelsea Mucho – “Controlla“

Chelsea is in a red jumpsuit , flanked by several backing dancers dressed casually . It’s all very happy and partly like, with a tropical sunset LED background . Good connection with the camera from Chelsea, she’s clearly enjoying it out on that stage. It’s very lively and well received by the audience .

Jay Smith – “Back To My Roots“

Dark staging with the words “Back to my Roots ” in big red letters. Jay joined by two guitarists and drummer on stage . It’s an uptempo song , a bit in the Bruce Springsteen style . Lively performance but I felt it was more one for radio than Eurovision .

Elecktra – “Banne Maj“

Elektra is here to entertain !Dressed in all pink flanked by a background of large white feathers, joined by four male backing dancers in black and white suits . There’s stripping off of pink outfit to reveal a green and pink short dress. It’s flamboyant and very in your face that’s for certain ! The audience seemed to like it .

We’re onto the 5th act already …..those Swedes work fast!

Annika Wickihalder – “Light“

From the flamboyance of Elektra , we come back down to earth with Annika. She’s dressed in grey spangly outfit and is alone on stage . Surrounded by spotlights, there are backing vocals evident in part of the songs. It’s not bad, the only thing I would say is that she is at times committing the ultimate sin in Eurovision , not engaging with the camera much and that’s so important if you want to win over viewers at home .Not bad nevertheless .

Medina – “Que Sera“

There are several blocks on stage and they are stood on by Medina and backing dancers . It’s sung in Spanish , one dancer then rides around the stage on a bike , there’s dancing , drums .It’s a a great party song and would certainly get the crowds going in Malmo . We end with pyros galore ! A great one to finish on .

So that’s it! You’ve heard them all ! Who are your favourites ?

In the Green room now with Carina. She’s a very busy woman, hosting and doing the Green room too !

We get the traditional recap now . Even though it’s not long ago, it feels like ages since we heard the first song !Time for a toilet break !

We now have an interval act and it’s Bjorn Gustafsson .He’s a Swedish comedian and actor.

We are having a little sing song from Bjorn .

Hopefully we’ll get the Heat 5 results soon, otherwise this could be a long night ! Think they are coming now …..

Marcus and Martinus are through , no surprise there . They perform their song again while engaging with the audience .I have to say, they can certainly perform and engage an audience. Will they be able to achieve what Loreen denied them last year and get to represent Sweden in Malmo?

We now start the vote for the second finalist of Heat 5 and there’s another recap.I actually think this heat is quite a tough one to call, there are 2 or three good acts that could make it .

Carina interviews some of the audience , to see who their favourites are.

We are onto the Melodifestivalen hall of Fame , who is it this week ?And it’ s Fredrik Kempe, who has written many Melodifestivalen songs , one of which was Charlotte Perrelli’s Hero in 2008 . And we have a choir singing a medley of his songs .

Awww , Fredrik is in the audience and he looks a bit emotional hearing the choir sing his songs, bless him !

And there’s an appearance from Sanna Neilson who sang Undo in 2014.

He looks happy :-)

We have a little film , with Bjorn Gustaffson playing a part . I guess this is a time filler while they count the votes.

Oh… we’re just about to find out the 2nd qualifier , come on the suspense is too much !

We gp through the age groups votes

Jay Smith won the first

10-15 years group -Medina

60-74 years -Annika

30-44 years-Medina -in the lead so far

Televotes

12 to Annika

75 plus years old -Annika again !

3-9 years ol d group -Medina

It’s fascinating to see the variation in tastes with age groups !

16-29-Medina

Medina are directly through to the final ! They perform their song again .I am not surprised they qualified , it’s a very lively song and definitely going to be a hit in the Summer night clubs this year!

But …..that’s not the end of the show folks ! We have the second chance round to come , where 10 acts will battle for the final two spots in the Final .

Annika and Jay Smith were the third and fourth place from Heat 5, so they will be in the battle now.

Now I anticipate a lot of talking here, since we are not going to see any live performances until the two qualifiers are known them they will perform their song.

So, these are the positions after the adding up of points from the respective heats .

So now we will have a quick televote ( 10 mins ) while we watch recaps of the songs and have a lot of talking and banter in the Green Room. The voting starts from the first song from Heat one .When we come to the results, they will be given in the way that they are at Eurovision, with the lowest on the score board getting their public vote result first and then going up until we get to the leader , which is currently Unga and Fria .It’s all very complicated , but then the Swedes like to keep us interested !

Recap over and the vote has closed !

Back in t he Green room with Carina interviewing the hopeful acts .

Interesting head gear. Not a bad idea for a cold night though I wouldn’t like to frighten the neighbours !

Now we get a recap of those acts already directly qualified to the final .

We’re going to get the first qualifier now

58 points for Elisa

Klaudy 78 points

Albin -89 points

Circus X 122 points

Gunilla -113 points

Dear Sara -66 points

Adam Woods-83 points

Jay Smith -129

Annika or Jay

138 points to Annika ! She gets the first qualifying spot !She’ll now perform her song again , then the vote will open again for the second and last qualifying spot .