National Final Throwback – Loreen – Statements

We love going back and rediscovering some of the lesser known national final songs, but today we decided to pick one of the most talked about from recent years. It was the comeback everyone was waiting for – we are of course talking about Loreen’s return to Melodifestivalen!

Having won Eurovision in 2012, many were wondering if the Eurovision journey would be over for Loreen, or whether we would see her back in the national selection once again. Having a massive fan following, we knew that if she was to return, she would definitely be the one to beat!

When it was announced that Loreen would return, the fandom went wild. When we heard her Melodifestivalen song Statements, the fandom went wilder. We know anything can happen at Melodifestivalen, but what we were fairly certain on was that we would be seeing Loreen in the final… or so we thought.

The song itself is quite different from her Eurovision entry. Statements has darker undertones with some rock elements which we didn’t hear in the more dance pop style of Euphoria. Although different, the common factor was definitely Loreen’s intoxicating voice. It was still identifiably Loreen, but it was good to hear something darker, and had it reached Eurovision, it would have been a song that could stand alone instead of being Euphoria part 2.

Unfortunately she returned in a very strong year of Melodifestivalen. Seeing her advance to the second chance round rather than being a ‘direct to final’ qualifier was a bit of a shock, but obviously the biggest shock of all was to see her fail to qualify to the final in the second chance round. This is Loreen we are talking about?!

I think this song was strong enough to at least get to the final, but perhaps the immense hype surrounding her entry was to her detriment. In a sense, I think that this song is perhaps too good for Eurovision. It’s more artful than many of the entries we do hear at Eurovision, so instead it will have to remain as Melodifestivalen legend.

I’m hopping on the ‘robbed’ train and giving this a 10/10.