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New jury too...
Sweden: Preview shows on SVT
As a SVT tradition, they will air preview shows of all the entries. But this year SVT has changed the jury, from the Nordic version till almost all Swedish. Only Thomas Lundin from Finland will be back from last year.
The new judges are: the musician and comedian Thomas Järvheden, tv host and comedian Babben Larsson and the singers Shirley Clamp and Lena Philipsson.
Shirley Clamp has been in Melodifestivalen three times. First time was in 2003 with the song Mr Memory. It didn’t make it to the final. She did better in 2004 when she made it to second place with Min Kärlek. In 2005 she made it to fourth place with Att älska dig.
Lena Philipsson is one of the most successful artists from Melodifestivalen in Sweden. She has been in the contest four times, first in 1986 with Kärleken är evig, which came in second place. In 1987 she came in fifth place with the classic hit Dansa I neon. Then tried again in 1988 and came second place again, this time with the ballad Om igen. In 2004 she made a comeback with the song Det gör ont and finally won Melodifestivalen. She performed the song in English for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, It Hurts came shared 5th place together with Cyprus. Lena has also been a host for Melodifestivalen.
- 1st preview show on SVT1 - April 27th 18:30 CET
- 2nd preview show on SVT1 - May 4th 18:30 CET
- 3rd preview show on SVT1 - May 11th 18:30 CET
- 4th preview show on SVT1 - May 18th 18:30 CET
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I hope this is a prelude to Shirley returning. I'm glad Lundin is back too.
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Sounds like a good jury. 2 singers who should know what they are talking about, 2 comedians who can give the show a touch of irony, and a very professional and enthisuastic music expert-
But expel Björkman, I'm sick of him.
with so many comedians on this show's jury it looks like the Swedes are catching the "Western disease" of ridiculing the contest, thereby sowing the seeds for Eurovisions rapid decline in their country.
@ Stockholm calling
Well, if she is a fan of ESC I´m alright with her being in the show. I don´t recall her being in MF92 (but I don´t trust my memory), however that was the first time I saw Björn Kjellman sharing his interest in the competition. 
POWER EPIC METAL rulez.
Finland to win!!!!!
Annika A:
Babben is a huge MF fan. I remember seeing her and Björn Kjellman together in MF 1992 giving their opinions of MF and ESC entries. I agree with you, Björn would be perfect for this panel.
This really sucks. Why they all have to be Swedish? That's no fun. Especially not with 2 more female schlagerpop singers. I don't like that Lena Philipsson. Ugh!
It won't be much fun to watch this year then, apart from Thomas Lundin.
I love Lena PH, She's a delightful woman
Can't wait to see the shows!
Good news and bad news.
The good news are Thomas Lundin (as usual) and Lena Philipsson (I bet she have interesting things to say!). The bad news are of course that there is no nordic panel anymore.
I´m a bit sceptical about Shirley, Babben and that other guy. I´ve watched Babben´s show a few times and she´s not THAT funny. Shirley should stick to singing (after seeing her in Folktoppen) adn that other guy I don´t know about. But with him and Babben (being obvioulsy comedians) I´m worried that it´s gonna loose the focus on the songs. And then...TWO schlager-stars? Then why not have Björn Kjellman?! His been in MF but also has a genuine interest in the competition.
All in all, it´s sad that they lost the nordic angle.
Calm down, girls! The Nordic countries never needed to work together to produce a preview show in order to attract votes for one another. That comes naturally. After all their languages, culture and musical tastes are similar. The same happens in the British Isles with the UK and Ireland giving each other high marks. I can see the UK voters giving top marks to Ireland this year for the sheer lunacy of their entry.
How sad that it's not a Nordic show anymore!
Does anyone know if YLE in Finland (at least the Swedish channel there) will be showing this, since Lundin is involved?
Keith Timmons:
The Nordic preview shows were entertaining but it is my belief that people vote for the songs they like. Last year Sweden, Iceland and Finland had in my opinion very good entries (they were in my Top 5 along with France and Andorra). I was not surprised that they received high - well deserved - scores from their neighbours.
It's nice to see that Thomas Lundin will be in the new panel. I like his comments.
@Keith Timmons
Gonna make it clear so you understand. The fact that you thought I tried to quote you kind of shows how smart you are and how serious your posts are to be taken...
I think it's a shame that there will be no nordic jury! I love this shows! In 2002 and 2003 Sweden had similar shows like the one they will have this year and that was not as funny....Well we'll have to see...At least Thomas Lundin is still there, he is gerat!
And for the conspiracy theories...I don't believe that the nordic countries have been given each other more points in 2004-07 that previuous years....
@ Keith, some answers:
Will Norway, Iceland and Denmark participate or not?
> No they won't, as this article clearly states.
If not, why not?
> Not all five countries wanted to continue with the format.
If the intention was to save money, has the need to save disappeared?
> No, we are saving all the time. But there are different ways to save money. And in television, priorities change all the time.
How will they be presenting the entries this year?
> Differently from country to country, I suppose. I only know about Sweden (from the present article) and Norway, where (NB: according to the plans at present) there will be four half-hour programmes dedicated to the previews, in late April and early May. Details are not known yet, but with a total of 2 hours airing time, minus all the introductions, it is obvious that there won't be time to show all 43 videos in full.
Block voting has always existed in the ESC. But I don't believe that in the past, the Nordic preview show had anything to do with that. There was more focus on the Nordic entries only because this was a Nordic production, not with the putspoken goal to influence the voting in the ESC. Why would the average Finnish viewer on the night of the Eurovision remember that he/she saw the Icelandic video in full one month earlier, and not, say, the Portuguese one? The fans' attitude to the ESC is totally different to the general public's, which I believe your conspiration theory clearly shows. But we'll wait and see. If you are right, we will see a sharp decline in "block voting" between the Nordic countries on May 20, 22 and 24.
@K2 International, haha you tell ME to calm down? 
Look at your own post.
I don't believe for a second that you have been involved in this production. But if you are, tell us about this year's show. Will Norway, Iceland and Denmark participate or not? If not, why not? If the intention was to save money, has the need to save disappeared? How will they be presenting the entries this year? Will you provide various celebrity know-it-alls to announce this year's crème de la crème or will all the songs be presented neutrally, unprejudiced and in full length?
Surely you agree that block voting is damaging the contest. I assert that this show has contributed to the formation of a Scandinavian voting block. No, it's not the ONLY factor, but it is an obvious contributor and it will raise the level of fairness to have the bias of this show removed from our screens.
@ Keith: Good grief, you need to calm down and get your facts right:
Jostein Pedersen gave Carola 1 point (not 0) in 2006,. And whereas YOU might think she didn't deserve more than 0, Europe proved him wrong by voting Sweden into a 5th place that year.
You wonder whether I have ever watched the Nordic preview shows. FYI, I have not only watched them but been more involved in them than you could imagine. And I know for a fact that they were NOT produced in order to make the Nordic countries give more votes to each other, but to SAVE MONEY (splitting the cost of one production between five countries).
Each year, there were at east some negative comments for the Nordic entries, especially from the celebrities (outside the official panel) who commented only on the Nordic songs. Last year, Swedish drag star Christer Lindarw axed the Norwegian entry, calling Guri Schanke an old hag. He wasn't very nice to the Danish (drag) entry either. And in 2006, Charlotte Perrelli said about Lordi: "That stinks!" (She was confronted with that comment in last year's show.) How about that for cameraderie?
You should look up the expression "conspiration theory" in your dictionary. And then wait until the end of May and see if your theory is right. Because if it is, the Nordic countries will be giving each other significantly less points than before, what with the Nordic preview shows not being done this year.
It's a bit sad, but I think it's better if there are no "Nordic Preview Shows"! No one didn't really dare to critizise the other judges entries in the contest! So it ended up a bit pathetic when they always gave high points to each others entries!
And I'm not VERY impressed with the jury this year. I think SVT should have a jury of more different music-taste and personalities. Thomas Lundin and Babben are Amazing though, and I really wants to see them in the jury!
Shirley! Please come back to MF-09!
a just love LENA .it hurts was one of my best songs that year in 2004 sweden will win this year i just love HERO and Charlotte OFC
@Viktor Hansson, is that supposed to be a quote? I never said that. I don't write things like "eachother" and "somone".
The point is that nothing negative was ever said about the Nordic songs. They were given unfairly positive exposure in order to attract votes from the other Nordic countries. Yes, Jostein Pedersen had the balls to give Carola the 0 points she deserved in 2006, buthat probably cost him his place on the jury and as the commentator for Norway. Naturally the remaining jurors thought twice before criticizing another neighbour. Just look at that disgusting display of political politeness towards Eirikur last year. Did [i]anyone[/i] seriously think that song was worth 5 points? Everyone knew the song had no chance and they still gave it top marks. Except, of course, the rest of Europe who had no desire to see Iceland in the final.
Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland all gave one of their neighbours 12 points last year. Finland gave Sweden "only" 8 points. The two participating Nordic countries (Sweden and Finland) received a minimum of 4 points from [i]every[/i] other Nordic country. Naturally the bonding created by this preview show played a part in this. Good riddance!
I love Lena. She's so sexy!
Keith Timmons [44873]
I think it was the opposite, we started to hate eachother as soon as somone didnt say something 100% positivte about the songs.
So dont know what you talk about? keep quiet.
@K2 International, in what way would it be naive? Have you ever watched this show? Judging from your comments it seems likely that you haven't. If you had, you would have seen the camaraderie and political politeness that went on between the countries. It was sickeningly obvious that the goal of this show was to promote each other's entries within the Nordic block, and they succeeded at this. Their aim was to promote the Nordic entries under the pretext of presenting all entries. If you cannot see the difference in presentation and appreciate the effects it had on its viewers you don't know much about marketing. This show was us playing dirty and I'm glad we've put an end to it.
It was always nice to learn afterwards what the Nordic jury said, but with only Swedes...and two comedians, at that? Nah, not interesting. But the Swedes will probably be all over this.
J K : that sog was one of my fav too as u can see on my prof 
such a pitty ...
@ Keith: You are disturbingly naïve if you believe the Nordic show "promoted block voting between the Nordic countries". NOBODY in any of those five countries would vote for another Nordic entry just because it had been praised on that show. Frequently, poor Nordic entries have been voted down by all the other Nordic countries. In 2004, Norway only got 3 points (albeit from Sweden, but it was a song written by Swedes). In 2005, Norway gave only 1 point to Sweden's entry "Las Vegas".
But I agree that the Nordic preview show was ridiculous in it's "Nordic cameraderie" - where almost only praise was given to even the most hopeless Nordic entries. Worst in this respect was Norway's Per Sundnes' "performance" last year - pathetic! And then he went on to axe the songs from Serbia an Ukraine... What an expert!
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