Anyway, here are our candidates for Växjö:
- Anne-Lie Rydé - Så nära: Anne looks like the skeletal hippie art teacher you had in school. Fortunately, she gives us a nice, happy, and brassy schlager song. I like her. A thin sassy version of Shirley Clamp.
- B-Boys International featuring Paul M - One Step Closer: But just which Paul M, I ask? The title "One Step Closer" yielded a quasi-New Have entry for the UK in 1982. For MF (hee hee) 2005, it yields an early 1990's techno/rap combination that is shockingly good. (I can't believe I'm about to use the following expression.) It has mad beats. It also has one of the oddest groupings I've seen so far at these MF finals: A tiny smiling black man, a huge spiky-haired Thor type, a smaller spiky-haired Jack the lad, a grimacing man in corn-rows, and a long-haired "artist" type. Dear lord, I can't believe I like this, but it is that good.
- Mathias Holmgren - Långt bortom tid och rum: The man from the Dyson vacuum cleaner commercials (or his Swedish twin) performs a standard upbeat schlager song. Jiminy, I actually do prefer the B-boys (dare I ask if the "b" stands for "beat"?) over this.
- Rickard Engfors featuring Katarina Fallholm - Ready for me: Skinny man with a dirty mind and mouth speaks over techno accompanied by an operatic soprano. This is Sweden, so I cannot say that this combo surprises me. Musically, it's excellent, arguably on par with the B-Boys and Anne-Lie. Lyrically, I have my doubts that tiny, rake-thin Rickard has any measure of sex appeal. Katarina is excellent, however.
- Date - Hörde änglarna viska ditt namn: I know this is something about "angels whispering your name." What it sounds like is 'Nsync covering The Stylistics...in Swedish. Not one of the Stylistics' funky, upbeat songs, but a ballad. It would be more impressive if the lead singer of Date decided to go for the falsetto. And what does Date look like? 'NSync 2020...not pretty at all.
- Nanne Grönvall - Håll om mig: I quite unashamedly fall to the feet of Miss Grönvall, because she does "bring it" MF entry after MF entry (in both senses of the acronym "mf"). This year, the elfin Nanne seems to be channeling Mija Martina's wall-of-sound guitars, booming backing singers, booming voice et. al. I love this, even more than the B-boys and Anne-Lie. (Boy, this is a good semi.) Coincidentally, Mija Martina is in this year's Bosnian final too with a song that is in the same wall-of-sound style. I most definitely would like to see a Nanne-versus-Mija showdown in Kiev.
- Caroline Wennergren - A different kind of love: It's Cerys Matthews's black girl (or drag queen) protege. SVT's website says that Caroline is an "Ella Fitzgerald look-a-like." SVT's writers are blind. Ella Fitzgerald never looked like a street walker, nor did she sound drunk out of her gourd while singing. Caroline, in fact, sounds like she-of-Catatonia fame, especially on this lounge/samba song. Not terribly original lyrics, but I'll give them some meager credit for referrencing marital infidelity.
- Katrina & The Nameless - As If Tommorow Will Never Come: Well, Katrina and her quasi-Waves seem to be stuck in 1989 with Meatloaf. (This is what happens when you present a BBC Radio 2 show for several years.) I actually can't crticise this too much since the primary flaw is that this is ridiculously dated, with asinine lyrics. (You don't talk about "rocking," you actually do it.)
So, here are my (bound-to-be-off-by-a-mile) desired predictions:
To the final:
- Nanne Grönvall
- B-Boys International
To the Second chance round (tommorow, dear lord):
- Anne-Lie Rydé
- Rickard Engfors & Katarina Fallholm (I just have to see how bizarre that live performance is)
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