Melodifesivalen 2014 - Survivor- May 1st 2025

Hello all !! For today's Eurovision Histories edition, we are taking our first look at a song that competed in a national final but didn't win. And where better to start than probably the most famous national final from Eurovision powerhouse Sweden !!! We're not going too far back in time however, just to 2014. A time where I was a 2nd year university student who was spending all her free time watching Eurovision videos and drinking too much cheap booze ! It was a time in the wider world with crimea being annexed, Ebola and missing planes ...

In the world of Eurovision, it was to the 59th edition, held in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 10th ( and the 2 semis on May 6th and 8th) . However, we aren't here just yet to talk about the entry that did represent Sweden that year. We're here to look at a song that got to the final of Melodifestivalen. 

Melodifestivalen 2014 took place all over Sweden between February 1st and March 8th 2014. This was the last Mello ( as I have nicknamed it) to take place in the format of 8 songs competing over 4 heats. The second chance round took place on the 5th week and then the final 10 songs ( 8 from the heats and the 2 second chance qualifiers ) competed to take the honor of going to Eurovision in the last week.

It's time for some facts before we get into what I think and some more history. Also here's a link to the heats performance of the song if you haven't seen it or forgotten this one. 


Song : Survivor 
Artist : Helena Paparizou 
Place in Semi 1 : 3rd ( Qualified for Second Chance) 
Place in Andra Chasen : 2nd (Then won the duel to final) 
Place in Final : 4th
Points : 84 

Heat 1of Melodifestivalen took place on February 1st 2014 in Malmö. 8 songs fought it out to get 2 spots in the final with the next 2 going to the Second Chance round. Survivor performed last that evening and came 3rd, getting into the second chance round. Helena that night wore a long black Dress and sang alone on stage with pre recorded backing ( Melodifestivalen had been allowing this since 2009). If you are familiar with Helena already, she is a Eurovision veteran who participated twice for Greece in both 2001 ( with the group Antique) coming 3rd and as a solo act in 2005 where she won the contest! Helena was born in Sweden so took a chance to represent her birth country.

During the 2nd chance round, held on March 1st in Lidköping, Helena again was one of 8 songs fighting it out for 2 spots in the final. During this period of time, all 8 songs performed over 2 rounds of voting. Then when down to 4 songs, the 1st and 4th songs would battle and the 2nd and 3rd songs would battle. Whoever had the most votes would win. Helena, for this performance dressed a bit more causally and ended up placing 2nd out of 8. She then battled the song Echo, winning the duel with over double the amount of votes to secure a place in the Melodifestivalen final. 

I'll talk a bit about the song first here as it had a lot of backstory! I was hooked on this song from the first time I heard it watching the first heat on my computer. It's a uptempo ballad about being a survivor after a relationship has ended. To quote the song ' beautiful but fire' is a lyric I resonate with. Helena's stunning vocals sell the message on stage and you feel how she is that powerful woman. It's still in my playlist 11 years on and has gotten me through 3 breakups ! 

On the night of the final, March 8th, held in  Stockholm, Helena performed 6th of the 10 competing songs. She wore a gold and black jacket and black trousers this time with no other changes to the performance. Then it came time to vote ! Survivor came 4th with the juries, getting 57 points and 7th with the public getting 27 points. This gave her a combined total of 84 points, placing her 4th overall. The winner of the show was Sanna Nielsen with Undo who went on to come 3rd at the contest in Denmark. 

Do I think Survivor would have faired any better than Undo in the contest? I think with good vocals, it would of easily been up there ! To sum it up in 3 words, I'd say powerful, divalicous and attitude! 

Until the next time, remember history is important especially if it's Eurovision History  !!! 

Ellie x 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eurovision 1999 - Croatia - 28th April 2025

Welcome to the start of a new project, where we will be looking at all of the eurovision entries from the first until the most recent. We will also look at national finals and all the rich tapestry that this amazing competition has given us over the 69 editions we've had.  A quick bit about me, my name is Ellie, I'm 30, British ( I live in London) and I've been a massive eurovision fan since I was 12 !! My first core memory was watching Lordi win in 2006 and being royally pissed that Belgium didn't qualify that year.My favourite Eurovision Song is Germany 1981 ( we will come to that one ...) and my favourite contest is 1994 ( ironically the year I was born) But I have a nerdy passion for all things Eurovision and was lucky enough to go to LEP for the first time this year!!!!  Today we will be going back 26 years to 1999, a simpler time where we had solar eclipses... worrying about Y2K and of course the 44th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Jerusalem, Isra...
Read more

Eurovision 1967 - Belgium - May 7th 2025

Hello all. In today's entry in the Eurovision Histories series, we are heading back 58 years to 1967. The last contest to be broadcast in black and white in fact and a time of McDonald's inventing big macs and lots of civil wars. We're looking at our first Belgian entry and the first to be sung in Flemish.  The 12th Eurovision Song Contest took place on April 8th in Vienna, Austria. 17 countries competed this year after Denmark withdrew this year. It was hosted by Erica Vaal.  Let's give the facts first before we look at the song in question (and a link to the performance if you haven't seen it or have forgotten it )  Song: Ik heb zorgen Artist : Louis Neefs Place : 7th  Points : 8  Belgium 1967 Belgium selected their song via a national final. It was a very odd selection involving 9 semi finals where 10 artists sent multiple songs to compete in these semi finals. These varied between 5-9 per artist. Different songs competed in each semi final and then 7 songs o...
Read more

Eurovision 1987 - Austria - May 4th 2025

Hello all ! In today's edition of Eurovision Histories,  we're going back to the 80s again to look at 1987. Again, it was the time for massive perms, crazy eyeshadow looks but in the wider world we also had big storms and the start of what would become the Internet!  The 32nd Eurovision Song Contest took place on May 9th, also known as Europe Day in Brussels, Belgium. Hosted by singer Viktor Lazlo, this contest saw the most participants to date at 22 entrants ! We'll be looking at the participation of Austria today and our first entry sung in German.  Here are the facts before I get too far into my thoughts and a performance link in case you don't know this one or have forgotten it !  Song: Nur noch Gefüh Artist: Gary Lux  Place : 20th  Points : 8  Austria 1987 I cannot find any information to indicate that Austria held a national final this year to select their song. However I do have info on our Artist at least. This was Gary's 4th time at Eurovision...
Read more