Ding Ding- Let's hear it for the boy, Danny- wins in round one

The first semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2011- had one show-topper from Nanne Gronvall singing 'I have nothing' -it was so fantastic to see Nanne back on Melodifestivalen stage we hope one year with the right song Nanne will return to Mf contest again. Until then Nanne confirmed her Schlager-Diva status in Lunea so well.

Meanwhile- Danny became the first to qualify for Globen with his Dance track 'In the club' as he was always a dead certainty for the final. Since he is so popular Danny will be a hit of the 2011 season- yet is this song really a perfect choice for Eurovision? I am not convinced. Then we got Swingfly just another chart hit in the swedish charts that would'nt work too well for Sweden in Dusseldorf - I think. So it certainly looks like a up-beat Melodifestivalen for 2011

One of the first qualifiers for the second chance was Percilla Andersson, a great tune- in fact one of the best on the night. Then what happened to Le Kidd- the performance and tune was certainly worthy of at least 2nd Chance round, it failed to gain the votes. Another causality was the summer-pop song from Jonas Matsson's 'On my own' the only consolation was he showed off his arm tatoos- this alone got one tele-vote from us.

Then came Jenny Silver, what a song! - her performance was nothing short of amazing... and the song everything you can expect from pure-schlager - for sure Bjorn and Benny will be checking their unsured back catalog- on hearing this song ('are you sure we did'nt do this one!' nan!) . This song just has to go to Globen,it made 2nd chance only 'Something in your eyes' is what swedes do best- Jenny was so worthy of that 2nd chance place at Globen.

I hope they do -Listen to their heartbeats' in Melodifestivalen this year, and don't get lost in just trying to be original and a bit different- this has so often not worked for Sweden.

What not we can ask ourselves? it worked well for Belgium's Tom Dice in ESC 2010. That's true but from Sweden the expectation will always be higher- as a leading musical market of Europe.

shades 'n' tatts of Jonas Matsson

Jenny does Schlager- and not just in Lulea! in denmark too?

It looks like a most exciting start to Melodifestivalen 2011- with the first semi final in Lulea. There has been a few review & rehearsals taken place. The top favourites at the moment is Danny of EMD, Pernilla Andersson, Jenny Silver. Jenny debuted in 2010 with 'A place to be' a Minogue-eque song that was one of the best of last year- yet missed out on qualifing outside the semi-final.

Now jenny has gone completely schlager with 'Something in your eyes' and with songwriting credits from Thomas G:Son who has brough us many schlager classics in the past.

With Freinds entry 'Listen to your heartbeat' & Carola's mightly 'Invincible' & 'Vem e du vill ha' back in 2002 for Kikki Lotta & Bettan. To name just a few- then last year for Denmark 'In a moment like this' that gave Denmark 4th place in Oslo 2010. So it's really no surprise to see G:Son featured twice with songs in Melodifestivalen 2011 ( he wrote Sanna Nielsen's I'm in Love')

As well as in Dansk Melodi Grand Prix over in Denmark -2 more songs choosen for the danes final in a few weeks.

The first reviews for Jenny silver's entry is a real return to G:Son form - just classic schlager with an Abba-like chorus- with an amazing key change, and even simular to a recent remix of 'Fantasy Island' Tight Fit's 80's hit - that we all adore. All this and a fab frock to boot!

ohhhh.. I feel a historical schlager-moment could well be born in Lulea on saturday.

check out this great clip & interview that reveals the new Jenny silver -look for 'Something in your eyes' (in fact in this clip-she looks almost like a swedish jennifer saunders!!)

Meanwile the danish Schlager G:Son entry is another 'Jenny'- with non other than 90's singer Jenny Berggren from Ace of Base- She recently started her own solo career as ole Ace of Base reformed in 2010- with two replacement girl singers. Ace of base- had been rumoured to take a song into Melodifestivalen/Eurovision for about the past 8 years - yet it just never happened. So maybe now Jenny-does-Schlager in MGP, they may at last take to the Eurovision stage -even if its one Ace of Base member..her song is 'Let your heart be mine' good luck- to both the Jenny's

for a possible Dusseldorf -schlager battle? who knows.

UK have make their minds up! or BBC have- Blue will sing in Dusseldorf

Blue: Boyband- Duncan James, Simon Webbe, Antony Costa and Lee Ryan - the lads were one of the most successful boy bands in the UK, scoring three number 1 albums and singles in the UK as well as selling over 13 million albums over in Europe.

They split up in 2005 to concentrate on their own solo careers but announced they were reforming in 2009. Two of the guys have previous Eurovision connections, Antony Costa had a strong contender for the UK selection back in 2006- when the song 'Beautiful Thing' came 2nd to Daz Sampson 'Teenage Life' in Making Your Mind Up-show. Duncan James has been rumoured to represent UK at Eurovision a couple of times, however only poped up in ESC 2009 to report the UK voting results.

-Duncan James finally gets his chance of Eurovision glory for UK

Didrik returns to MGP to sing 'Yes man'- & Norway goes all Boney M on us!!

For me one of the most exciting parts of MGP Norway 2011-was the return of Didrik- yes, the smile is back. He even performed with Bjorn Johan Muri, who was a runner -up to Didrik in MGP 2010 with 'Yes man' (clip)

They both sung this tune mainly as it became a massive hit in Norway last year after the MGP final.

Another goodie -was one of the song's that qualified last night for the Norway Grand Prix Final -Stella Mwangi with 'Haba, Haba'

-ok, its so very Boney M- with a little bit of

Duck sauce, this could it be the tune, to put Norway back

in the big league in Dusseldorf 2011?

The Running Order for Melodifestivalen 2011- Artists & Songs

Coop Arena, Luleå, 5 Febuary 2011

1 Dilba - Try Again
2 Swingfly - Me And My Drum
3 Jenny Silver - Something In Your Eyes
4 Jonas Matsson - On My Own
5 Le Kid - Oh My God
6 Rasmus Viberg - Social Butterfly
7 Pernilla Andersson - Desperados
8 Danny - In The Club

Scandinavium, Göteborg, 12 February 2011

1 Brolle - Seven Days And Seven Nights
2 Loreen - My Heart Is Refusing Me
3 Babsan - Ge Mig En Spanjor
4 Elisabeth Andreassen - Vaken I En Dröm
5 Sanna Nielsen - I'm In Love
6 The Moniker - Oh My God!
7 Anniela - Elektrisk
8 Christian Walz - Like Suicide

Cloetta Center, Linköping, 19 February 2011

1 Linda Sundblad - Lucky You
2 Simon Forsberg - Tid Att Andas
3 Sara Lumholdt - Enemy
4 The Playtones - The King
5 Shirley's Angels (Shirley Clamp's girl group) - I Thought It Was Forever
6 Sebastian Karlsson - No One Else Could
7 Sara Varga - Spring För Livet
8 Eric Saade - Popular

Malmö Arena, Malmö -26 February 2011

1 Melody Club - The Hunter
2 Julia Alvgård - Better Or Worse
3 Lasse Stefanz - I Surrender
4 Linda Pritchard - Alive
5 Anders Fernette - Run
6 Linda Bengtzing - E De Fel På Mig
7 Nicke Borg - Leaving Home
8 Love Generation - Dance Alone

..and News from ireland as Eurosong final gets closer

Jedward's Eurosong for the Irish selection final in a couple of weeks- is to be called?

Yes - 'Lipstick' & an April tour and album should follow for the twinz.

it's the Schlager-Countdown ...one week to go til the curtain falls in Lulea

Dilma was a 90's favourite in sweden- she has the task of opening Melodifestivalen in 2011.

Song 1- 'Try Again' has not always meant success, until recently.

Back in 2007 Elin Lanto sung her 'Money' 2008 Face-82 - 'alla gamla x'

2009 Nina Soderquist rocked us with her 'Tick tock' -All of these did'nt manage to get a place

in Globen final! (Elin did get into 2nd chance round) This all changed last year as the almighty Ola sung 'Unstoppable'- he was certainly that - finishing 7th place in the final and going on

to have one of Sweden's top singles for 2010.

For this year for starters in the New 'internationale Mf'-we have Danny from EMD with his dance tune 'In the Club' he has the last song advantage next saturday in Lulea. Looking at the songwriting credits, (as the songs have yet to be revealed by Svt) we think we should see the schlager-vote pullers in songs from La Kid & Jenny Silver & Danny. One to watch is the best web-joker ever we think Jonas Matsson's 'On my own' (well in the last 2 years)

this tune could be the first web based tune to move out of a semi-final round.

Meanwhile Dilma has a rather excellent single out -Check out 'I'm sorry' - her old hit given a fresh mix with DeeJay Jay. Great

very everything but the girl-eque

Lena Meyer-Landrut- brings us Good News next month

Some real Good News' from Germany Lena Meyer-Landrut, will release her next album early february.

Lena will release the album “Good News” on February 8th and the album will contain the 12 pre-selection songs for Germany's Eurovision entry this year in Dusseldorf among the songwriters are Robbie William's hit tunesmith Guy Chambers and Stefan Raab.The final selection will take place on February 18th.

Not only will Lena begin her first tour in April 2011- but also she has dared to start a Eurovision-trend by after winning coming back the 2nd year to defend her winning title like in Sports event. It will be interesting to see how Gernmany goes. This album is full of Eurovision song contenders all released in advance of a per-selection broadcast by a solo artist- and is perhapes another historical first? for Luvly Lena.

Eurovision 2011- Logo-theme is 'Listen to your Heartbeat' (well almost)

This is the logo and theme for Dusseldorf- this theme, brings to mind

the heart-felt passion of stompers and recent euro-classics. Or is the message here -'we may wanna check on our heart rate during the Semi's to make sure we have not fallen asleep!'

- Even if Friends' swedish dansband sang this same theme already in 2001-we like it.

'Listen to your Heartbeat' -2001

Ireland prepare for EuroSong - that could be a Jedward Vs. The Wedding Singer Super-Final!

-Nikki Kavanagh

There is a list available of the five artist competing to sing for ireland- the most promising we found to be- Jedward twins & also keeping-up-Kavanagh appearances is young Nikki who sung as a backing for Niamh Kavanagh ( one-time Eurovision winner back in 1993 ) Nikki Kavanagh is Niamh's cousin with a great voice and keeps herself very busy as Singer, TV Sports presenter, Make up Artist & Wedding Singer! Wow!

Other names confirmed are the Varn Sisters & Don Mescall, one more vacant spot is promising a quartet from Ireland EMi- an irish Bucks Fizz II -Could this be what they are hinting at? Meanwhile the most hopeful we think is Nikki & Jedward- so if you ever wanted a up-coming eurovision star at your wedding just book-in quickly now...

Here is a spiel we found from Nikki's web site-

Nikki Kavanagh is a professional singer in great demand on the Irish music scene. She works regularly with RTE Concert Orchestra & The Modern Gospel Ensemble. Nikki can help you plan and arrange music for your wedding day that best suits personal tastes. She strongly believes great detail needs to be paid not only to the songs chosen, but also to the style in which they are sung in and the instrumentation that accompanies these songs – all of this adds to your special day.Nikki can also help you to look fabulous on your wedding day with her make up skills. Having trained in Make up Forever and achieved distinctions in her exams she gained experience working on Gosh TV commercials and also as Top Make up artist Zoe Clarke’s assistant on the now worldwide “Celtic Women” dvd shoot. With four years of wedding seasons behind her Nikki now specialises in this field and works very closely with the bride to ensure they are happy on the day.

Melodifestivalen -with new voting Rules in the Globen Final 2011

-Eric Saade has a 2nd chance at Eurovision glory, will the new voting help him in 2011?

Over in Sweden there has been lots of discussion going on- as New voting rules have been brought in.

The changes to Melodifestivalen voting for 2011.

A normal 11 jury will give a total of 473 points. The juries will be ALL international juries giving their votes from 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points, as per normal. This has seen over the past 3 years the concept of foreign juries has gone from 1 (2009) to totally taking over from any swedish regional jury. Then the public televote percentage has been reduced by 26%, so the swedish public has less of an influence on the Winner.

If we took away the regional juries input from 2010 Globen Final from the then 5 international juries from Greece, France, Ireland, Norway, Serbia & Russia. The likes of SalemAl Fakir, Eric Saade & Andreas Johnson songs would have been in the Top 3 scoreboard- with no sign of Anna' This is my Life' winner. Then with a reduced swedish TeleVote added to the final mix- we would have seen Salem Al Fakir's 'Keep on Walking' the winner (he came 2nd) with perhapes runner -up of Eric Saade's 'Manboy'- A very different result indeed, yet I think Eric Saade (or Timoteij) -would have still been a 'perfect choice' in Oslo, Salem's song is rather excellent for me, but still would have carried no lesser risk of making Eurovision Song Contest final last year than Anna Bergendahl turned out to be last year. So how will a Sweden/international' entry do in Germany? keep your schlager dial here to find out...