By Mandy Rogers
This year’s Eurovision host nation Sweden again, went through their usual rigorous selection process called the Melodifestivalen to whittle down their amassed pool of pop talent to just that one special, outstanding act / or artist to represent the Swedish hit-making country.
That Sweden has secured one of the top 3 placings in the contest over the past 5 years and of course, Måns Zelmerlöw’s phenomenal win last year with “Heroes”, made the final entrant choice a bigger responsibility all-round, owing to their glittering Eurovision gold-run of recent times.
For the Swedish I expect that this was quite an unenviable task all-told, but when it came down to it, the Swedes settled their Eurovision hopes in wide-eyed 17 year old Frans Jeppsson-Wall. It all too soon became apparent that the youngster entered the odds as an early favourite with his song “If I Were Sorry” earning almost 2 million Spotify streams, double the amount of any of the other Swedish Eurovision finalists before he was crowned the successful entrant.
You could say a lot of national pride was riding on Frans shoulders. As it came to pass, he delivered by a more alternative outlook, in his fresh, contemporary approach of impressionable hip-hop styled candor. A quirkily jaunty slant on a heartbreak pop song.
Anyways it wouldn’t have been the right thing to follow in the exact same anthemic electronic-pop footsteps as Måns epic, euphoric Eurovision winner – made far more sense to shake it up a bit!
As one of the younger participants on the night though, Frans showed Europe and those watching beyond just how un-phased he was by all the pressure of the massive audience’s eyes fixated upon him to keep Sweden’s top placing momentum intact.
When it came to it, Frans sported more than Morten Harket good looks and cute factor, he held the audience captivated, gleefully clapping along, hanging on his every word.
What did it earn him? It earned Frans the respectable top 5 position. Thus, National pride in Sweden’s Eurovision history remains intact for another year!