30 minutes ago the first dress rehearsal finished in Jönköping. We did see a good show but there are a couple of technical problems that SVT will have to solve until tomorrow. Due to these problem the show lasted 15 minutes longer than expected. Kinnarps Arena was sold out and a very happy and cheeful audience enjoyed the show.
The opening act was very impressive with Kristian Luuk coming down the big stairs andwelcoming everybody to Jönköpingwhile the audience let their balloons go up in the air. After this, Kristian sang a little tune about how he will not be the center of attention tonight.
Then it was time for the first song to come on stage which was Elin Lanto with her song Money, she did a very proffesional performance with 4 dancers all in black and in nice hats. The song was well received in the hall. After this energet,ic performance it was time for a nice cuddly ballad performed by Andersson & Gibson. Their song Anything but you reminds you a lot a Simon & Garfunkel song and people liked this one as well. On stage with them they have 60 candlels so it's a very impressive spectacle.
The audiencewent wildwhen Kristian Luuk introduced song number three Samba Sombero performed by Anna Book. She delivered a fantastic show and sang her heart out for all of us and she received the biggest round of applause so far. After this schlager experience, it was time for more a more modern sound from Addis Black Widow and their song Clubbin. They have had trouble during the rehersals and those problems seemed to remain unsolved so far. Their voicesweren't the best and they gave a very weak performance, which failed to impres the audience, even though one of them had dressed up to be married on stage.
After a rather weak performance, it was time for something completely different. Andreas Lundstedt dominated the stage and delivered a marvellous performance of Move. This is a song that really makes it hard to sit down since you want to stand up and dance the night away toghether with Andreas. Time to relax and slow down again. This time with a power ballad by master Tommy Nilsson in his own composition Jag tror på människan (I believe in mankind). He has a very powerful voice and he really delivered the song in the best possible way. But is this really 2007 and will people go for this on saturday? Well the audience gave him a big round of applause anyway.
Song number seven almost Hypnotizedus all. Sofia surprised us all with a very professional performance and very strong voice, and the audience seemed to like this little greek flavour of the evening, but will she be compared to Helena Paparizou? Finally it was time for the first wildcard to enter the stage with their song "God morgon" (Godmorning) a good song but nothing more. For some reason it didn't seemto reach people's hearts, even though they delivered a good performance.
Thenit was time for theSaga about Judy who lives in Jönköping and wants to become a singer. She decides to give it a try and heads of on a journey to Stockholm (Globen). This mini musical featured previous Melodifestivalen songs in a new musical style performed by some of Sweden's top artists such as Gunilla Backman and Niklas Andersson. A very good idea and it will be exciting to see the next chapter in this about this girl and her dreams to become a big star.
After this a dummy vote took place and again there were some technical problems while the short clips of each song where shown, so this needs to be fixed for tomorrow as well.
Don't forget to have look in the Melodifestivalen gallery (here) where you can find pictures from the rehearsals.
