As expected, it was an exciting first Semifinal in Växjö, Sweden, where Melodifestivalen veterans and newcomers kicked off the Grande Dame of National Finals in style.  Country, schlager, comedy, and metal faced off against each other, with two songs proceeding “Direkt till Globen” (straight to the Finals at the Globen Arena on March 10), and two moving on to the Second Chance, or Andra Chansen, round on March 3.

Moving on directly to the Final are:

• Dead by April – Mystery
• Loreen – Euphoria

Moving on to Andra Chansen are:

• Sean Banan – “Sean den förste Banan”
• Thorsten Flinck & Revolutionsorkestern – “Jag reser mig igen”

Missing out this week were:

• Afro-Dite – “The Boy Can Dance“
• Marie Serneholt – “Salt and Pepper“
• Abalone Dots – “På Väg“
• The Moniker – “I Want To Be Chris Isaak (This Is Just the Beginning)“

In order to keep the Finalist and Andra Chansen songs on generally equal footing (that is, to prevent a song premiered in Week One to have an unfair advantage over songs from Semifinal Four), Swedish broadcaster SVT tends to keep qualifying songs on lockdown until the Final, and will have videos deleted off of YouTube in order to keep the playing field level.  SVT also doesn’t divulge which of the continuing songs came in first or second, for much the same reason.

We’ll have eight new songs next Saturday, when the Second Semifinal will be held in the Scandinavium Arena in Göteborg.