SWEDEN

The Swedish Final was held on March 12th at the Friends Arena in Solna, hosted by Gina Dirawi & William Spetz. Before the final there were four semi-finals and a second chance round, all chosen though public voting. The winner during the final was chosen by televoting (50%) and a panel 11 international juries (50%). The winning act was Frans singing “If I were sorry”

This is mid-tempo low key song with a very conversational tone about it. The backdrop behind him is back and the gold parts behind in change into different shapes and words. The camera work is a bit jumpy at first but this mirrors the mumbly, tip of  the tongue tone of the song You can hear his English accent – although to my ears it feels like he has over-Lena-ed it and sounds more Mockney Dick Van Dyke than a true British accent. There is not much to the backing track and has a folksy jumpy feel. The lyrics are a bit nondescript and I would say that many of the rhymes are not good and he tries to hard to make the non-rhymes rhyme, e.g. sorry and glory. It sounds more like a poem being rapped out. As a piece of music it reminds me of the style of Just Jack.

Frans Jeppsson-Wall is part Nigerian, part English, part Swedish but lived in Sweden until he was 8. He then moved to London , along with his twin sister. and younger brother . Frans’ best known song is "Who's da Man" about Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović. It stayed at the top of the official Swedish Singles Chart for 13 weeks. After 8 years away, Frans returned to the music scene with his participation in the Swedish national final. He is the second youngest Melodifestivalen winner ever behind Carola in 1983.

France will needs some backing singers although these will probably end up being out of sight. Frans is a good-looking young man and all the ladies will adore him (as will some of the young men). It is quite a modern song and will probably work well on contemporary and easy-listening radio stations. It doesn’t have much of a tune and doesn’t have any major ups and down or lifts to rise to a big finish.  Part of me wishes that the last chorus has a bigger beat or double-time it just to gather up the pace a bit, otherwise it leaves you a little bit deflated. There is no ‘song’ and he can’t really sing very well. One wonders if the Swedes really want to win again because this has 'not winning' written through it like a stick of rock. The app voting available in Sweden mean that this not only appealed to the younger demographic but made it easier for the to vote for it to - something not transferable to Eurovision itself. I personally would have this bottom 5 but will probably end up around the 10-15 mark.

ARTIST – Frans

SONG – If I were sorry

MUSIC – Oscar Fogelström, Michael Saxell, Fredrik Andersson, Frans Jeppsson-Wall

LYRICS –  Oscar Fogelström, Michael Saxell, Fredrik Andersson, Frans Jeppsson-Wall