Elisa Lindström – Ditt Hjärta i Min Hand

“Is it a cymbal crash you can hear in the background, or the sound of sparklers shooting off? Who knows.”

Tom: It’s always good when I can translate a title in my head.

Tim: Every year, thousands of songs get submitted for Melodifestivalen, and every year the vast majority of them get rejected. Most of them never see the light of day, and those that do get released are never spoken of as having been rejected, obviously. However, this is a lovely schlagery pop track, coming in at precisely three minutes, with a perfect “let’s get the Catherine wheels spinning” moment. Draw your own conclusion.

Tom: That could have been a Melodifestivalen track at any point in the last thirty years.

Tim: It certainly could, and wouldn’t it have been nice to see on stage? Probably start out with her in a nice white dress, a guitarist and a drummer in the background, nothing until the crash for the first chorus, BOOM the lights come up and we’ve some dancers jumping around and giving us the oh-woah-ohs that they’ve lifted from This Is Me.

Tom: That’s where I’ve heard them before! (I mean, it’s a Millennial Whoop, but you’re right, that’s basically This Is Me.)

Tim: Then, of course, that GLORIOUS key change, fireworks everywhere, probably risking burning down the stadium but never mind, because just LOOK.

Tom: Is it a cymbal crash you can hear in the background, or the sound of sparklers shooting off? Who knows. I almost physically facepalmed at that key change. Yes: I can absolutely see this on stage.

Tim: Mind you, it’d then crash out in fifth place, and we’d all be disappointed again, so maybe it’s for the best. No, who am I kidding, it’d have been BRILLIANT.

Saturday Reject: Elisa Lindström – Casanova

“That song IS Melodifestivalen.”

Tim: THIRTEEN WEEKS TO GO, THOMAS!

Tom: BRING IT ON!

Tim: For those that weren’t with us last year, this is the part of year when we scour the various national competitions to weed out the songs that are very good, but apparently just aren’t quite good enough to be sent forth to represent their nation. God only knows how this one wasn’t good enough, but it came sixth in last week’s Melodifestivalen heat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0OSxRa6DO0

Tim: Because seriously, that song IS Melodifestivalen. The lights, the confetti, the generous key change —

Tom: The wind machine. Oh, that wind machine.

Tim: — the beat-perfect choreography and most of all the aggression in it. Not an angry aggression, not an unpleasant one – instead, a performance that states, in no uncertain terms, that THIS IS POP. This is MUSICAL PERFECTION. This is UNBEATABLE.

Tom: You say “unbeatable”, but…

Tim: Sadly, Sweden disagreed.

Tom: Yep. We’ve established before that schlager doesn’t really do well at the final. Are they right to reject it as a winner? Probably. Does it deserve to be abandoned? Hell no.