First rehearsal: Loreen

Haha, I got a little ”Mello shiver” just by typing the title above!
Let’s try to do this in English for you fans out there!

So, she’s back!
Five years after winning Sweden its most popular and biggest victory in Eurovision since ABBA (at a time when Melodifestivalen had gone huge in Sweden but its winners hadn’t been that successful in Europe) now Loreen is back to make a statement with Statements.

This time she’s doing it from the (in)famous ‘last one out in the last semifinal’ spot, and without a doubt this year as the artist about who most people are curious, and of who many have the highest expectations.

However, if you expected Euphoria 2, or even if you expected something very similar to what she has released since, you might be surprised and maybe disappointed. If you expected her to shift the boundaries of what a Melfest contender could do in three minutes, then you might be pleasantly surprised.

Statements is nothing like Euphoria.

If you want a sort-of Eurovision reference, then it’s more of a personal, arm, statement like Jamala’s 1944 or Rona Nishliu’s Suus, except it sounds NOTHING at all like those two songs.

It starts with a cry. Then a smaller version of Loreen (think Maddie Ziegler in Sia’s videos) emerges, played by the dancer Tilda Bredal-Hansen.

The first verses are classic Loreen singing, but then Statements takes off with grunge guitars, a rock-hard industrial beat and a lot of repeating of the title.

This is not your typical Melodifestivalen song or Spotify hit.

Then comes the staging…

The stage is covered in white cloth, creating a sort of narrow tunnel. The show is directed by Johan Renck‘s (Stakka Bo) brother Martin, and it is supposed to show different stages in Loreen’s (or any woman’s) life. The dancers are all dressed as Loreen, and they interact with her expressing things like being subjected to hateful comments online, the French Revolution (!) and the iconic picture from the 90s where a Swedish woman hit a Nazi with her handbag. Well, I SAID you’d never seen anything like it at Mello.

It’s flags (but SO far from Carola‘s Evighet). It’s running (I think the part when Loreen runs on the spot beside one of the dancers is my favourite moment). It’s a lot of black wigs. It’s arty choreography. It’s screaming. And it’s far, far from Molly Sanden’s Youniverse from last year, I can tell you that much.

I’m mesmerised. That HARD beat. Loreen’s voice (she has a cold right now, though, so we aren’t hearing much in the second and third rehearsals). The performance borrows the best bits from Sia‘s videos – and I LOVE IT.

It’s a watershed. No doubt about it.

Maybe the biggest in this contest’s history.

But I love it.

So how the heck do we summarise this?

Well, if it was ANYONE else than Loreen, I don’t think it had had a chance in hell to win neither this heat or Melodifestivalen. But because it is her, I’d say this is exactly what people expect and she will have no problem at all fulfilling expectations on Saturday.

Friends Arena is another thing, however. Does Loreen even want to win? Should she win?

Right now, I’d say that this is something that would be easier to win at Eurovision than Melodifestivalen, but I have been wrong before.

It is, without a doubt, the first three minutes this year where I can’t stop watching for ONE second.

Well done, everyone. Well done.