Tim: This here is a guy who won a Swedish radio competition, Svensktoppen Nästa, to get onto Melodifestivalen, and in the tradition of all such winners, was likely to come dead last. So it was a pleasant surprise when he actually only came 6th with this, translating to For Your Sake.
Tim: And I’ll tell you the problem with this: he looks like he’s on Glee.
Tom: Oh my, he really does. The stares into the camera, the happy walk through the crowd. The jump as he comes out of the middle eight.
Tim: And that is quite the jump – it’s all there. It also doesn’t help that he bears more than a passing resemblance to evil competing singer Grant Gustin, but all combined together it’s really the enthusiasm that makes it – obviously it’s necessary with any major-key performance, but he comes across less as “this is great, join in!” than “OH MY GOD I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M HERE”.
Thing is, it’s a very good song – they’re giving it everything with the lights and the glitter and the backing band–
Tom: Speaking of which, are his backing band in fast forward or something? It’s like they’re being played back in the wrong speed.
Tim: They do look a bit sped up, don’t they? Huh. And the song’s also co-written by the ten-trips-to-Eurovision Thomas G:son, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with his voice.
Tom: I think it’d be a solid middle of the table at Eurovision: there’s nothing to make it stand out, but it is at least a good song.
Tim: Harsh as this may sound, I can’t help feeling that a more experienced singer might have done very well with this; I do hope he doesn’t get discouraged by this, though, because there’s a lot of future potential.