The Melodifestival is back!

We watched the first semi-final from Karlskrona via the excellent SVT Play website. It was great fun as usual, but with perhaps a bit less filler in the show itself; I think they got right down to the performances much more quickly than in the past.

The clear winner was YOHIO, with a manga-inspired performance of "Heartbreak Hotel" which had absolutely nothing to do with the Elvis version, I promise. I gave them extra points for fireballs.

The other winner was David Lindgren, one of those artists who keeps coming to these shows and never gets very far. At least he made the final this time.

Lena Phillipson made an appearance in one of the numbers at the voting interval. I don't know what her secret is but she keeps looking better in my opinion. Look at this clip... and remember she just turned 47!

My mother is visiting and she got to experience the joy that is the Melodifestival first-hand. I think the best way to describe her reaction was... nonplussed.