Sweden is my one to watch. Not because I think it’s great, but because I think it might have just enough to pick up consistent 6s and 7s while the other songs divide the bigger points between them and come through the middle. We often don’t see much deviation from the Melodifestivalen performance so let’s see what we get here.
I’ve heard that Tusse has had surgery on his vocal chords, and on the basis of a Swedish TV performance I saw, seemed to struggle. I hope he’s not got any permanent damage; there’s only one Julie Andrews the world can pity at a time.
Tusse quickly lays most of those fears to rest: he’s in fine voice, on the whole. There’s a part where the vocals deliberately strain, as on the recording and in Melfest, but there are only a couple of other times that I detect something less that full power.
The Melfest performance is largely intact. Tusse’s got a slightly showier frock: more flesh on display (well, his upper arms at least) with a splash more bling and flarier slacks. There’s a pleasing amount of backing singer torso in view that could do with some more camera attention if you ask me. A typically clever use of backdrop by the Swedes augments the impression there’s more than just the 6 people on stage on one point.
If you think this has stalled since being selected then hold your ponies, because on the basis of this Tusse’s most certainly in the race.
Monty x