Morten Thomassen from Norway looked at the songs in the 4th semi final in Sweden in search of their 2024 Eurovision entry. ESC Covers google translated it from Norwegian to English.

This is a blog entry and represents only writer Morten Thomassen’s own views.

While country after country chooses its representative, our Swedish friends crossed the half-finished race with this semi finals and I must say a few more or less well-chosen words about the six songs that have tried their luck this weekend.

Melody 1 – Albin Tingwall –

A slightly rusty voice is the first thing that meets us and then the song turns to the kind of energy that I rarely manage to become a very big fan of. Here, it is simply the wrong type of energy, so this is an ever so small bombshell for me. Colorful performance, I’ll let you draw it up a bit, but I find the song quite unoriginal and the guy needs to sharpen up vocally throughout the song.

Melodi 2 – Lia Larsson –

They are not afraid to use colors in this year’s Mello and here comes another one of the formulaic songs, usually there are some cool guys who sing this type of song so cool that a handsome girl does this dunk party song in Swedish. But, no matter how hard she tries, she somehow can’t get the temperature up on stage and with just the right amount of vocal effort I can manage my way through.

Melody 3 – Dotter –

We slow down a bit in terms of tempo and some may have gotten a little too much inspiration from a song that won ESC last year when it comes to the performance. But, that’s exactly what I choose to overlook since the song has the melancholic undertone that I like very much and when the artist has so much empathy in the voice and the performance, this quickly becomes a favorite of mine. This became strong and intense and very similar indeed.

Melody 4 – SCARLET –

It’s not Halloween, but it’s very similar, you could say. Two slightly creepy-looking ladies who actually deliver the goods both vocally and performance-wise. Here you bring out the mood of the song in a very good way and the song that may not ooze originality gets its originality from the performance and that’s fine for me.

Melody 5 – Lasse Stefanz –

There are many ingredients in a Mello buffet you should know and one of them is that you let one of the good old dance bands get their 3 minutes on air. Mostly, the songs have no chance of even making it to the finals, but the fans of this particular band and this kind of music have got their due. There is rarely any doubt that these guys can sing, the song is similar and we will have three pleasant, if somewhat boring, minutes.

Melody 6 – Danny Saucedo –

The biggest ring reef of the evening in a Mello context and there is little doubt that this is a song if you intend to sail directly to the final. There is really very little to put my finger on, neither vocally nor performance-wise, except that I find this very bland and something I feel is perhaps a bit exhausted on this artist’s part. Why couldn’t he surprise us with something new instead of spitting out a song you feel you’ve heard before.

Unsurprisingly, Danny and Dotter went directly to the final while SCARLET and Albin still have a hope of getting to the final and next week Marcus and Martinus will finally come, there will be a Norwegian victory this year I think, they are still at the top of the betting- list.

Featured image – Sveriges radio