clacke
Watched #ESC2026 semifinal 1 last night.
Surprised that Sweden went to final. It's a banger of a song, but the performance was unstable.
This morning I went back and listened to the performance in Melodifestivalen. If she performs like that in the ESC final, she might win.
clacke
Even more surprised that Montenegro didn't go to final. Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, all three former Yugoslavs this semifinal had great submissions, but Montenegro was my favorite of all 15 songs last night.
At least Croatia got in. Amazing performers, very cool song, but probably a bit slow for the EDM-heavy field this year. It's a real K-pop Eurodance field, and I think that's great.
clacke
clacke
Honest Vocal Coach: "Shock qualifier! Semi Final 1 Recap Eurovision 2026"
Excellent recap, says it all better than I could, no disagreement.
clacke
clacke
clacke
Kid: "Why are all of Sweden's neighbors so much better than Sweden?"
Good question, kid.
clacke
Kid: "Why is this song so much better than the one he won with?"
Somehow that's always how it works. 😅
clacke
Ok, so apparently I've been a bit unfair to the Swedish song.
When I first heard it, I thought "this should be a banger, but why did they send someone who can't quite hold a note and is consistently the slightest bit flat the whole song?". It ruined the song for me.
The singer, Felicia, had a cold and a fever while performing. Two days ago she fainted during rehearsals, and in yesterday's grand rehearsal she reduced her participation to strictly her performance of the song. Even in the Melodifestivalen final back in February something was a bit off.
If you listen to her first performance, her high notes have better support and the whole song is much better.
Felicia: "My System" (live, Gothenburg, Melodifestivalen Heat 2)
clacke
When she sings it in all head voice, it's clear that she's an excellent vocalist. Maybe singing in high chest notes is new for her?
But she's previously known as an "EPA-dunk" singer, that's modern Swedish working-class party music, surely that must involve some coarser vocal qualities too? I'll check out her earlier works.
Felicia: "My System" (acoustic studio version)
clacke
This version is absolutely awesome.
Tommy Johansson: "My System" (metal cover)
clacke
We watched the grand final vote tonight. As per usual, there was a lot of shouting "what's wrong with people" at the TV. 🤣
I didn't expect Sweden to be in the top 10 – I maintain that the song itself is a banger, while the song was flat and didn't improve in the final – but I was still surprised how low it got. Felicia, we have seen what you can do when you're at full strength. I hope your system will have a chance to recover now.
clacke
Masked Singer Sweden: Chameleon, all songs
clacke
With her Fröken Snusk ("Miss Smut", her previous persona) music, it's all highly processed vocals without much need for range. You can't really tell if somebody is a good vocalist or not.
But she was on Masked Singer Sweden, and did an incredible job singing Zara Larsson, Adele and Whitney Houston, really challenging stuff, and she showed off great dynamism, range and precision, whether in chest, head or mix.
She's having a really unlucky couple of months, that's what's going on, her instrument fighting other stuff when she needs it the most.
clacke
Always happy to see an oddball song win! This song is a rollercoaster and all over the place, but they are all good places. 😄 Congratulations to Bulgaria and Dara!
Of the top 10, I would have placed 6 of them there. I'm the most surprised that France didn't make it. The song is more interesting than several that made the cut, and the vocal performance is just jaw-dropping, even before you consider how early in her career the singer is.
A big thank you to the popular vote for getting Greece's song into the top 10. I don't know why the juries didn't like it.
This year's second biggest mystery after Israel: Why didn't Armenia's song even get to the final? It belonged in the top 10.
clacke
Israel keeps sending forgettable songs and ending up second place. Is it European guilt and sympathy voting, is it the ad campaigns people are talking about, or is it the pay-to-win public vote system? A little of all of the above?
I'm not even going to ask why the ESC can't exclude Israel for illegal wars and war crimes, when excluding Russia was easy. The politics are easy to explain, the popular vote is not.
clacke
Richard Penner
@clacke Thanks for not reacting to my actual name. :)
clacke
Richard Penner
@clacke The song was a banger but the singing was flat?
clacke
Richard Penner
@clacke So I have been informed.
https://translate.google.com/?sl=de&tl=en&text=ein%20Penner&op=translate
clacke
I have listened to the Gothenburg performance again, and while it is better than the later ones, it still isn't great. For some reason, SVT never released a studio version either; The official music video is just one of the live performances.
The lyric video from Felicia's own channel is better than any other recording. It's autotuned.
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