When I was growing up, watching Melodifestivalen every year was a tradition. You popped some corn, sat down with the family and tried to predict who the winner would be. And even though not every song was up to par, it was fun. I remember enjoying myself at least a little bit.
As the years went on though, I started losing interest. I still watched, but wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about it as before. Not only that, but I started disliking the commercial and overly audience-pleasing nature of it all. Was it just me getting older or has it gotten worse than before?
Oh, it's gotten worse for sure. MUCH worse.
Even in some of the worse years, some songs still lifted it up a bit. Even though you had to sit through some crap, occasionally something good would pop up. This year I waited for that song.
It never arrived.
Officially I have to call this the worst the Melodifestivalen has ever been. If it wasn't obvious before that this charade has gone on for too long, it's now yelling at you like a shrieking animal in pain.
To specify exactly what I mean, here are the main big issues:
1. The songs. With only a few slight deviations, they sound exactly the same. You have these introductions with the singers speaking passionately about their dream in life and how they want to entertain or touch people. But as soon as they start singing, you're muttering to yourself "Yep, I've heard THIS before..." And not only that, but the lyrics only seem to get worse and worse. For God's sake, try to hire some more songwriters instead of letting three people do the job for the most part. Some of the lines are just unbelievable.
"Oh nana, oh boy oh boy"? It's like it's written by a baby just learning how to talk.
2. The host. The kind of hosts that are attempting so hard to act quirky and hip just irk me. There's no natural charm, there's none of the likability of someone like Kristian Luuk or Ingvar Oldsberg. Unlike those guys who don't have to put on an act to win their audience, David Lindgren feels like he's desperately begging for people to listen to him.
3. The humor. The time when Björn Gustafsson stood for the entertainment is still the best in recent memory. And some definitely tried to top that, but never came close. This year however, they weren't trying at all. Terrible attempts at "meta" jokes where they don't seem to be making fun of themselves as much as they are just promoting themselves in wacky ways. And they have a sidekick host this time who's the most annoying I have ever seen. Look, I'm sure that Freddie is a very decent guy in real life. I don't have anything against him as a person. But in this show he's just not funny. It's pretty much like Sean Banan when he does comedy, where there seems to be no joke besides him acting goofy. And it gets very, very old very, very fast.
4. The actual winner. Why do the voters always pick the most generic song possible to win, one that's so bland and safe that the only thing it does well is make some money for a big music company. Then again, I shouldn't expect too much out of people who think Eric Saade makes quality music.
There's no heart left in Melodifestivalen anymore. If I wanted to hear generic catchy pop tunes that will get stuck on your brain, I'd listen to the radio. There's no use wasting 2 hours anymore for sensationalist entertainment (and I'm using the latter word loosely) that's no more complex than an episode of Idol or X-Factor.
