Since 2009, SVT changed the melodifestivalen rulebook and threw out a few paragraphs from the ESC. You were allowed to have eight people on stage and your backing vocals could be prerecorded to open up for more of a show element.
In many ways it has worked wonders - most participants do the best they can to set up impressive show numbers, which help making melodifestivalen a spectacular tv-show. It looks better than ever and is Sweden's most popular event on television.
And yet, I have a little tingling feeling that something is missing.
Found myself at lunch with colleagues that had watched Melodifestivalen without liking it much. They (Swedish speaking finlanders) couldn't connect neither to the songs nor the show. They found the humour too much of an inside joke, and thought the average presentations were plastic.
Spoke to my mother, who thought there was too much unnecessary dancing distracting from the songs.
Spoke to a fellow long-time melodifestivalen fan who thought the show looked good, but he didn't feel that the songs reached out to touch him anymore. Breathtaking surface and nothing underneath. And that is where I tend to agree.
The entries are still, on average, way beyond a level most national finals could dare dream of and the songs are impeccably produced as well as perfectly packaged. But I miss a bit of a beating heart. A bit of soul. Everything looks splendid but I don't feel much when listening to the songs.
Most participants seem more concerned about the visual presentation than the songwriting, to be honest.
I think SVT is clearly on the right track, producing spectacular Saturday night entertainment for the masses, this is not criticism as such. But maybe it would be time to put a little more emphasis on songs rather than technology?
In the end, this is a song contest and without great songs the audience will not stay put. And I refuse to believe that really great songs and a really great show are incompatible species.
