Sweden in shock at missing Eurovision

by Tom Espen Hansen 125 views

Swedish newspapers are outraged after Sweden failed to pass through the Eurovision Song Contest semi finals for the first time ever. They have trie to put the blame on Christer Bjorkman and call for him to leave his post and hand over the responsibility to someone else, despite Melodifestivalen remaining one of Sweden's most successful television shows.

Christer points out that he is not in charge of the jury who picks the songs, and that it was the swedish people who voted Anna's song to the top of Melodifestivalen. Bert Karlson, manager of lots of Swedens entries in the past, says that the Melodifestivalen jury has to be replaced. He claims that they are only looking for songs in their own interest.

Despite a strong performance and good staging of the song This is my life last night, the entry that many in the press centre had picked as a possible winner, and the Eurovision Research Network said would be the best winner for the competition's credibility, Anna Bergendahlæs entry was not one of the ten qualifiers from the second Eurovision Song Contest semi final.

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet also looked to Norway for reactions, and former NRK-commentator Jostein Pedersen states that he feels sorry for Anna who did her best. Chairman in the Norwegian Eurovisionclub is afraid of the headlines in Swedish newspapers, thinkng about meters of critisism against Anna and Christer.

In a interview with expressen Anna says that she is really proud of the job she and the whole Swedish delegation has done. Of course she is dissapointed of the fact that she didn't go through to the final, but she was really impressed of the two other ballads that went through, Israel and Georgia.

Swedish readers state that they should have voted for Selem al Fakir's song, and they think he could have done well. many speople says that Anna looked nervous but still she did her best. The song was just good enough. She doesn't feel she is responsible for the result, because she had the majority of the Swedish voters backing her.

Anna's song This is my life won Melodifestivalen national final in March with over 300,000 televotes in Sweden. The song was one of the favourites to win the Eurovision Song Contest, placed in the top five with most bookmakers and fans.