Oh My God: Sweden and Others

This week there weren't any national finals, just a bunch of semifinals.

Spain and Croatia had semifinals this week, but no songs in competition were sung so I won’t review those.

Austria narrowed down their field of 30 songs to 10 in an online selection. I like 4 out of 10 of those songs, so there’s a good chance they’ll pick a good one.

Germany held their first semifinal and picked three songs to go to the final: “Maybe,” “Taken by a stranger,” and “What happened to me.” All of these songs sounded kind of like album tracks (appropriately so, since all the songs in this selection are the tracks on Lena’s new album), and the singles are probably in the next semifinal. Out of this group of qualifiers, my favorite was “Maybe” but not by much.

Latvia had their first semifinal and chose five songs to go through to their final. None of the qualifiers resonate very well with me, but if I had to pick a favorite I’d pick “You are.”

Lithuania had their first semifinal, in which three songs qualified. Sasha Song’s “The slogan of our nation” is definitely not his best song but it’s passable. “Days Go By” is also a saccharine ballad, but is more boring. “7th bus” is a decent retro rock song. The best of the non-qualifiers was probably “Candy Baby.”

Sweden had their first semifinal and picked two songs to go to the final and two songs to the second chance round. The first finalist, “In The Club” was really repetitive but not a surprise because Danny seems to be a teen idol type. The other finalist, “Me and My Drum” was a welcome surprise. The second chance qualifiers were “Something in Your Eyes”, which is an ABBA ripoff if there ever was one, and “Desperados.” I’m very disappointed about the 5th placing of “Oh My God,” as it was my favorite in the semifinal.

Norway had their second chance round and chose “Alt du vil ha” and “Fire below” to go to the final next week. I’m happy about the first, not so much about the second as it was my least favorite in the second chance round.

Next week: more semifinals, and at least 5 songs get chosen!