It’s Melfest Week 3 – and dare I say, the strongest heat yet?
The Lovers Of Valdaro – Somebody Wants
Somebody wants? No. I want. It’s me. I’m the person doing the wanting here. And what I want is more than a one minute clip of what is clearly a perfect club night banger.
I stan the Lovers of Valdoro HARD. I liked them when they first released their song as part of P4 Nesta last year. I liked them even more when I found out that Erik, their singer, was one of the backup dancers for Do Re Dos in that wonderfully inventive staging of Number One last year. I liked them even more when I found out their Instagram accounts were a lot of photos of them with cute dogs.
But the think I like about them the most is that they are masters of the over-the-shoulder flirting. I’ve never seen anyone – anyone – with the ability to deploy a come-hither look so effectively.
DTF, please. DTF! (And yes, here I do mean the classic Direkt to Final.)
Dolly Style – Habibi
Look, the only Habibi I want this season is the Habibi in Soldi, okay?
There’s just something that rubs me the wrong way about this song. Maybe it’s the use of obvious Bollywood rhythms in a song that doesn’t otherwise reference the culture, or the co-opting of Harajuku style, or the use of an Arabic term of endearment. I get that Dolly Style is supposed to be fun and playful, but the harvesting and stripping of global cultural trends for the purpose of a Swedish pop song just seems…sad. It takes what’s rich and interesting and sanitizes it, thus making it somewhat bland in the process.
Meh.
Martin Stenmarck – Let the shit burn
Google now automatically translate Swedish pages into English for me, so I can’t even remember what the original title was, because Let the Shit Burn is just so much funnier, especially after you listen to the song.
It’s a classic anthemic man ballad, allowing Martin to show his manliness likely through some clenched fists and soulful squints. But what amuses me the most is that he says he wrote it for his daughter. Yes, his daughter, and he still titled it Let the Shit Burn. Martin Stenmarck, when are you releasing YOUR how to parenting manual?
Lina Hedlund – Victorious
Lina Hedlund of Alcazar is serving up some disco realness here. I live for big voice lady bangers, so I fully support this going to the final – but I think it will be all dependent on staging.
Omar Rudberg – Om om och om gen
Oh, Omar.
I had such high hopes for you and your floppy hair and pouty lips. And you almost deliver! That falsetto note in the studio version will be oh-so-impressive if you manage to carry it off live. And you’ve got a fantastic singalong chorus that even I, a non-Swedish speaker, can manage to sing along to.
It’s just the reggae beat. I just can’t get behind the reggae beat. I know that you think it’s conveying a bit of the island spirit, but it’s distracting and draggy and please remix this.
Rebecka Karlsson – Who I Am
I think this could be the surprise DTF of the evening. As much as I hate ballads and faux inspirational songs, I actually like Karlsson’s story of a small town girl made good (in a slightly larger small town, given Mello’s location on Saturday.)
Her live version will provide the opportunity for some powerhouse vocals, and I just hope she manages to pull it off. She was a little shaky in the rehearsal clips.
Jon Henrik Fjällgren – Norrsken
I can’t say anything bad about this, because it’s a competent, well-performed song. (Well, the flute is a bit overbearing.)
But I also can’t say much that’s good about it, because I like bangers, and Jon Henrik consistently delivers non-bangers. He delivers soaring vocals and nature imagery and those white jeans (always, always in the white jeans). And he nails the delivery of all of those (except the white jeans) and it just doesn’t resonate with me.
I’m sorry, Jon Henrik! I can understand why you give people goosebumps, but it’s just not me!
CONCLUSION
I don’t even know how to predict Mello anymore. So what I’d like to see if Lovers of Valdaro and Lina DTF, with Jon Henrik and Rebecka to Andra Chansen.
dudepoints.fun 