Sebastian and Måns to the final

by Peter Hellström 64 views

Former Idol-participants Sebastian and Måns Zelmerlöf moves on to the final in Stockholm with their songs When the night comes calling and Cara mia. Sonja Aldén and veteran Nanne Grönvall both succeeded to get a new chance to reach the final by going through �Andra chansen� (The Second Chance round) in what is considered the best Swedish semifinal among many reporters and viewers.

Sebastian and Måns received the most televotes of the evening. Sebastian was one of the two big favourites before the show and won the poll made by esctoday.com after the first public rehearsals yesterday. Sebastian put on a great performance on stage and managed to live up to the high expectations.

– It can’t be any better than this! It’s like a dream! I think both Måns and I have had a great advantage of having a lot of fans from Idol, he said to esctoday.com after the show.

The youngest participant in the contest, Måns Zelmerlöf, got the second ticket to Globen this evening with the uptempo song “Cara Mia”. He was thrilled about the success and told esctoay.com that the strong chorus probably appealed to a lot of people.

– I was sure to be out of the contest when Magnus Carlsson and I was left in the end, he told esctoday.com at the rather chaotic press conference afterwards.

Sonja Aldén finished in fifth place last year, but was now able to reach “Andra chansen” with the only ballad of the evening, “För att du finns”.

– It feels fantastic! I want to say a big thank you to everybody who voted for me! This is amazing!

Nanne Grönall was the second artist who qualified to “Andra chansen” in Nyköping. Despite that she was one of the big favourites before the contest she tried to convince the journalists in the green room that she wasn’t dissatisfied.

– Let’s go to Nyköping and deliver again! I never take anything for granted and I am not sad about the result. Not at all! My goal was to be among the top four songs and I made it, she told esctoday.com.

After the first elimination of the evening three songs were voted out of the contest. The Attic feturing Therese with “The Arrival”, Sheida with “I mina drömmar” and MissMatch with “Drop Dead” didn’t receive enough votes to continue to the second round. Magnus Carlsson, with great merits from the contest managed to stay in the contests after the first elimination, but finished fifth in this semifinal. That was his worst result in Melodifestivalen.

– I have never performed the song as good as I did tonight. I just can’t feel disappointed about my performance, Magnus told esctoday.com.

– Of course it was terrifying when I waited for the result and Måns I and were the only ones left in the contest. There was nothing I could do… just wait and hope for the best.

Sheida finished sixth and told esctoday.com that they never expected to be among the five songs for the second round.

– There were too many good songs and well-known faces in the line-up tonight. We felt that it was important not to compromise and change anything in our music when entering the contest. We are extremely proud and happy about what we have achieved here tonight, Ulrika, the singer in Sheida, explained after esctoday.com.

Therese and The Attic finished in seventh place with “The Arrival”. When speaking to esctoday.com in the green room Therese explained that she was thrilled that Måns qualified for the final in Stockholm.

– He was my favourite and I’m glad he made it!

When analysing the result tonight Therese and The Attic said that house music is not what the Swedish audience expect to hear in Melodifestivalen.

– We believe people still vote kind of conservative. The guys from Idol have a lot of fans from that show who are used to voting for them. We are rather new faces for the public and the goal for us was to get the chance to reach out to the Swedes.

The two girls in MissMatch finished in the last position but didn’t seem sad at all.

– How can we be sad? We made a great performance in front of million of viewers. We are going to celebrate tonight!

– We never expected to reach any high position tonight. People expect schlager and pop and our song was something totally different, they told esctoday.com with big smiles on their faces.

During the evening a total of 623.321 calls and sms were made to vote for the eight songs, which is the highest number in any semifinal in Melodifestivalen ever.

The full result of the Melodifestivalen semifinal from Örnsköldsvik:

To the final:

Sebastian “When the Night Comes Falling”
Måns Zelmerlöf “Cara Mia”

To “Andra chansen” (The Second Chace round):

Måns Zelmerlöf “Cara Mia”
Sonja Alldén “För att du finns”
Nanne Grönwall ”Jag måste kyssa dig”

Eliminated from the contest:

5. Magnus Carlsson “Live Forever”
6. Sheida “I mina drömmar”
7. The Attic featuring Therese ”The Arrival”
8. MissMatch “Drop Dead

The fourth and last of the Melodifestivalen semifinals this year will be take place next Saturday in Gävle.

There are photos from tonight’s show is available in the Gallery.