• Sweden edition

Sweden and Ernman gear up for Eurovision

Published: 12 May 09 10:58 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/19402/20090512/

Malena Ernman is in Moscow preparing for her semi-final heat of the Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday. Meanwhile Swedes are gearing up for the party, hopeful that the opera singer can bring home the glory.

Ernman earned the right to represent Sweden in the 54th Eurovision Song Contest when she won the national "Melodifestivalen" on March 14th in a nail-biting finish with her powerful operatic entry "La Voix".

"I’m about to faint. It's totally unbelievable. I don’t know what I should say, I’m totally blank," Ernman gushed on being declared the winner.

Sweden expects, and will be hoping that Malena Ernman keeps her wits about her and hits all the right notes to claim one of the ten places in the final available in the first semi-final which takes place in Moscow on Tuesday evening.

The second semi-final will take place on Thursday with the final on Saturday evening at the Olympic Indoor Arena in the Russian capital.

The twenty qualifiers will be added to the "big four" of France, Germany, Spain and the UK, as well as hosts, Russia who enjoy automatic final slots.

New for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 is the re-introduction of national juries to complement televoting in part to try to arrest the advance of so-called neighbourly voting and to encourage more objectivity in the allocation of points.

A total of 42 countries are competing with Latvia returning after an absence of 11 years.

Malena Ernman - La Voix

Peter Vinthagen Simpson (news@thelocal.se/+46 8 656 6518)

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12:48 May 12, 2009 by justanotherexpat
What the merry frig is she wearing in that pic????????
19:04 May 12, 2009 by peropaco
whatever she is wearing seems like it is getting ready to pop like an ill-filled helium balloon
21:32 May 12, 2009 by Muttlestar Galactica
Mmmmm, Sweden's entry has a touch of a certain 80's British Airways ad campaign about it.
21:56 May 12, 2009 by justanotherexpat
Hmm. Balloon. Artificial. Yep, sounds about right!
21:59 May 12, 2009 by Muttlestar Galactica
We have a fair group gathered around the box for tonight's proceedings. Four men. two gay, two straight.

And It's a very very sad state of affairs when we all agree the best looking totty so far has been the girl from Iceland...

Hilariously, Turkey continues to trot out tacky elevator Muzak.
22:04 May 12, 2009 by Jasoncarter
Sweden are either going to storm it or not get past the semi final. The performance this evening was a bit iffy, at best, but a pastiche of Nessun Dorma is just the sort of thing that yer actual masses love on the right day.

The presenters are like a Volvo crash test film. The same accident getting looped over and over and over again...
22:04 May 12, 2009 by Beavis
First Charlie and now Mal, cant Sweden see the drag things been done already?
22:11 May 12, 2009 by Muttlestar Galactica
It's times like this I really miss Christopher Price, the BBC3 Liquid News present who died back in 2002. He'd have been a natural successor to Wogan in the U.K.
22:22 May 12, 2009 by Beavis
Denmarks "song" is especially disturbingly bad.. and look who is the composer:

Composer(s) Lars Halvor Jensen, Martin Michael Larsson, Ronan Keating...

There is no hope..
22:29 May 12, 2009 by Muttlestar Galactica
And the Pigeon get's RSI from hitting redial for Sverige...
22:35 May 12, 2009 by Jasoncarter
I agree - was very sad when he topped himself. The BBC have stupidly overlooked Paddy O'Connell who does a brilliant job of the semis in favour of Graham Norton, who's going to barge straight down the 'Oh it's all so TRASHY and RUBBISH and LOOK AT THE STUPID PEOPLE' without any wit or charm whatsoever. Shame.
22:42 May 12, 2009 by Muttlestar Galactica
I actually also thought he'd successfully thrown a seven as well, yet apparently is was meningoencephalitis*. I rather personally get the feeling he'd scored some dodgy coke which led to the infection.

Agreed, Norton is overrated. Shallow, banal Irish fags only have a certain shelf-life.



*http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2053119.stm

22:44 May 12, 2009 by Jasoncarter
This bit while they are counting the votes with Tatu and the military choir/drummers/cossack dancers. It is EXACTLY like the Tingeling bit from the Melodifestivalen...
22:45 May 12, 2009 by Muttlestar Galactica
Sakis & Alex sitting in a tree...

R.U.T.T.I.N.G

I'd put cash on it.
22:50 May 12, 2009 by BillyB
due to some peoples enthusiam of the event ...Muttlestar...DidiE to name two...i have decided to give it a try tonight...

First thing that i noticed was a big pink tank on stage...dont see that everyday
22:52 May 12, 2009 by Muttlestar Galactica
Thank fjuck for that!

Sweden's through.

My life would have been abject misery if this had not come to pass.
22:56 May 12, 2009 by Stebro
nooooooooooooooooooooo, now we'll have to hear about this forever...
22:59 May 12, 2009 by Muttlestar Galactica
Excellent...The Scandies take it for the final so far.

Hopefully this will see an end to the plinky plonky stranglehold of our Eastern European villager friends, for one year at least.
00:08 May 13, 2009 by peropaco
I hope this unsightly looking Malena doesnt win. It would be rather unpleasant to see all the impinged,daft, morose and slobbering media euphoria it would create. On another note; why is it hard to find beautiful Swedish women past the age of 35? I mean they are hot between 18 and 34 but thereafter they start to resemble an ugly Olga all wrinkled and dried up.
06:55 May 13, 2009 by askin
I am dazzled and lost. Are EUROVISION SONG CONTESTS for music or for show? If they are for music, why all that show? (To make up for the lack of music perhaps...Italy never enters these contests for their low quality of music.) If they are for show, why call them SONG CONTESTS?

Askin Ozcan
07:43 May 13, 2009 by Puffin
Did anyone else think that Finland's lead singer looked like Dobby the house elf?

Like Iceland's singer - and a proper song as well - some mistake surely?

Is it true that Andrew Lloyd Webber will be on stage doing the piano accompaniment for the UK entry?
07:53 May 13, 2009 by Princess P
I liked the Armenian one. Their frocks were gorgeous.
09:14 May 13, 2009 by Muttlestar Galactica
Well Hey there, nice to meet you both.

Well you see, in a cunning ploy to influence voters, the countries that actually turn up for the fight/tournament seek to win the contest by "entertaining" them with a performance consisting of music, song and dance.

A: See my response above.

B: Hilariously though, this is the 1st time I've ever heard an Italian complain about style over substance. Not something I ever thought I'd live to see. Unless of course cheeky little you seeks to employ that naughty mechanism called artifice?

Oh dear sweetheart, that's horseshit. Throughout the contest's history, Italy has flounced out of it on a number of occasions (5). These surly exits typically follow a spell of not winning...

Well it seems Italy's previous entries were not too bothered with this question judging by some the past colourful performances it fielded in order to market a song to the voters, yet you do tend to disappear for years at a time when the going get's tough...

Personally I think you should humbly appeal to the vanity/humility of Burlesconi and ask him to enter. He's well-known, wealthy enough to afford his entry, plus could compère the concert should he win...

How could you lose?
10:51 May 13, 2009 by amira helenius
I like the Iceland song and the one from Malta was wonderful, she got a great voice.
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