If you have any familiarity with Melodifestivalen – the Swedish finals leading to the Eurovision Song Contest – you’re probably aware of Eric Saade who represented Sweden last year. His song, “Popular” was a good song, performed well, though it was criticsed by some for being too derivative of of Boney M’s “Rasputin” and a 1980s Swedish hit by Lili och Suzi.

The previous year, Eric had also entered Melodifestivalen with the song, “Manboy“, a song which incidentally had nothing to do with that famous episode Marlon Brando edition of Southpark. But with a chorus that proclaimed, “Manboy, I can be your manboy”, it wasn’t long before I found that song flooding back into my mind for the third edition of Melodifestivalen for 2012.

“Youngblood, Youngblood, I wanna be a Youngblood” owed a fair bit to Eric Saade. And why not? It was written by the same song-writer, Fredrik Kampe who, once great, now seems to be penning songs by numbers. Sadly. Even the dance routine looked like something from Eric.

Co-incidentally, Eric Saade’s recently dumped partner, Molly Sandén was also in this year’s Melodifestivalen. Hers was probably the standout performance from this week’s show. “I don’t miss your dirty clothes on the floor, so why am I crying?”, she sang with a great deal of passion and emotion.

My favourite from this week was probably Mattias Andréasson, whose song “Förlåt mig” (Forgive me) was also sung with passion and emotion. Sadly. he didn’t make it to the final, and you could see from the look on his face, he wasn’t happy.

Other tracks, like the one by Love Generation was forgettable, were it not for their costumes, and Andreas Jonsson, who has entered several times before once again proved to consistently underwhelming.

The standout track for complete weirdness was “Mirakel” (Miracle) by Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li. I had no idea who Björn Ranelid was until tonight. According to Wikipedia, he is a very well-known Swedish author.

“You’ve been for a holiday in the sun?”, one of the hosts asked him at one point during the show, a reference to his deeper than deep tan.

“They look like Britney Spears and the older gay guy with a great stash of cocaine she met clubbing one night”, I thought to myself, as they performed their song. Well, not so much a song. She wailed a few disco lines, and he spoke some rather cryptic lines about what love is, and why it’s a miracle. It’s also perhaps a mirakel that the song has made it straight through to the Swedish finals, and perhaps could end up representing Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. And you know what? It’s quirky enough to actually have a chance of winning. Seriously.

There’ll be another Melodifestivalen update tomorrow. Unfortunately I slept through last Sunday’s live telecast, and so only caught up with it today. I’ll be up early tomorrow at six to watch. Other highlights for tomorrow include another film at the Mardi Gras Film Festival, and I’m actually back on the radio tomorrow from 1305-1600 AEDT on ABC Local Radio digital and online and Radio Australia. No tracks from Melodifestivalen, unfortunately. :)