Countdown to Melodifestivalen: 2 days to go

Is everyone as excited as I am about Saturday night????

Apart from this morning's Goteborgs Posten webchat (see previous post) there was the following....

Today there were more rehearsals and a press conference in Ö-vik. Expressen has an interview with Salem at the following link: http://www.expressen.se/noje/melodifestivalen2010/1.1869939/salem-al-fakir-jag-ar-lugn-som-en-porlande-back : I thought this was a very interesting interview indeed, in which Salem states that he remains calm and has everything under control. He describes the performance as taking shape - he'll be sitting at a black piano and there will be some other things happening on stage. Salem says that he feels no pressure as he is his own biggest critic.

About "Keep On Walking", Salem says that this was inspired by his own feelings..."many feel that they are far, far down sometimes and need to get up. There is a help for me and a help to others that there are more who are in the same situation - it's a hopeful song".

Mattias Dahlström (Dagens Nyheter) describes "Keep On Walking" as a 'Beatles pastiche' and wonders if it's maybe too vague to be a Melodifestivalen song....http://www.dn.se/blogg/melodifestivalbloggen2010/2010/02/04/salem-al-fakir-pa-scen-6048

The general view so far based on the press articles and blogs I've read would appear to indicate that "Keep On Walking" is: a catchy song/big arrangement/disappointing/potential radio hit/too good for Melodifestivalen/not right for Melodifestivalen/a grower/too good/not one of his best/too clever/reminiscent of his first album....

What everyone needs to remember is that "Keep On Walking" wasn't specifically written for Melodifestivalen, unlike many of the songs on show over the next four weeks: in that context it will be even more interesting to see how well the song is received by the Swedish voting public.

We and then finally hear the song in full on Saturday night.

In the meantime you can keep up to date with Salem's Ö-vik adventures on Facebook, where there are lots of great new photos too :))) http://www.facebook.com/salemalfakir

Tomorrow: at last we will finally get to hear (a brief clip of) "Keep On Walking" on SVT's website tomorrow afternoon!! (I won't be able to hear it till tomorrow night as I'll be at work, so I'll be counting the hours till I get home....!)