Do It Right

The live broadcast of Melodifestivalen typically runs smoothly and without a hitch. It's likely due to the practice, practice, practice beforehand. The artists, dancers, show hosts, backing singers, tech crew, camera crew, etc. run through the program at least three times before the event hits the airwaves every Saturday. Many of the artists need the extra time to try out their routines and work out any issues because of the complicated show numbers. One artist, Sean Banan, has several wardrobe changes, pyrotechnics, confetti, and harness work in a three minute span. Another, David Lindgren, tried the harness route but decided to scrap his idea of flying over the audience because it restricted his overall dance number. I'm sure the head of choreography has waking nightmares for six straight weeks. My condolences.

Many Swedes are meticulous about the way things are done. Things should be done right. With so many cues and details baked into a live production like Mello, it's inevitable something will go wrong. And when it does, it gets noticed. The first semi in Karlskrona had a few hitches. A few graphics and a song recap were delayed when a computer froze up. One of the show hosts, Gina, had to redirect the audience while the tech crew worked out the kinks. You think this would pass without much notice. Think twice.

Some countrymen took to Twitter and Facebook to tsk-tsk the broadcaster and crew for the slip-up. Comments of "This shouldn't happen." and "Why do I pay for this?" were common. One of the more sensationalist daily newspapers, Aftonbladet, event wrote an entire article about the short lived but well noted snafu.

How did the show respond to the error? They made fun of their mistake during the next semi in Gothenburg. The song recap starts up. Black and white footage from the 1950s flashes onscreen instead of the true 2013 footage. Gina, our host, abruptly returns to the screen, "What?! Another problem? What a fiasco!" The real recap is queued up, the audience snickers at the joke, and all is forgiven.

I wonder what the country would have thought about a 30 minute power outage in the middle of a broadcast, a la the 2013 NFL Super Bowl.