Sweden, semi 3: Impressed by Saade

Just had a look at the quick teaser previews broadcast of the songs in the third semi final of Melodifestivalen, which will come live from Linköping this week.

It is always hard to say anything constructive after hearing the 60 second clips only once. When the songs don't have their three minutes to unfold and show their best sides, everything sounds a bit the same. Polished and professional, but also anonymous and a bit forgettable.

I will feel different when I hear the songs in full, but I am not overwhelmed by this bunch either.

Some good stuff - Sebastian sounds promising and I will love Linda Sundblad to bits once I hear the full song.

Some not so impressive - The Playtones represent something I am not too fond of and Simon Forsberg's lyrics are pretentious enough to make me blush.

What impressed me most is, rather surprisingly, Eric Saade. Not so much for his song, which has been so haussed I almost felt a wee bit tired of it already before hearing it.

But the boy has such a professional attitude. When interviewed by the pretty forced and artificially cheerful host Elsa Billgren, you could tell young Saade got a bit annoyed at her. He wanted to explain things about his number, while she only wanted to cackle and babble and paid no attention to what he had to say.

You can say a lot of things about Eric Saade, but he is doing his thing most seriously and sincerely. His attitude alone would be worth a trip to Düsseldorf.