Sweden 2022: Cornelia Jakobs with ‘Hold Me Closer’

Cornelia Jakobs was able to see off televote fav Anders Bagge to the delight of international fans and heads to Turin as current 3rd favourite.

I don't really get the warmth or wow factor that others have for this. It's a nice song with a shaky vocal in parts and thats we’re i’d leave it rather than some sort of rebirth for Sweden at the contest. Cornelia has a similar look to her as Sanna Nielsen - the power vocal and probably fills a similar role in the contest. Favourites came and went in 2014 with Sweden always high and steady in the odds but without enough in the tank to ever really push ahead.

Ukraine and Italy are currently the two ahead and Sweden are reliant on both slipping up, whilst also dodging the Conchita or Common Linnets type springers from the rest of the pack- those countries with a much higher variance.

The visuals are good with strong progression and it really works well in recap form even if some tinkering could elevate it further. Knowing Sweden we should just see a copy paste job rather than big changes anyway.

There'll be a sterner test of her jury credentials at Eurovision than that melfest field but she's probably still going to get the majority of her points from them. On the televote side I'm not sure the esc fandom love-in will be replicated as strongly with Sweden always seeming a bit over supported when the melfest “favourite” prevails.

The semi couldn't have panned out much better for Sweden with the other female ballads in semi 1 and a second half draw in a disjointed field. On paper it's a shootout between them and Poland for the win there. I'm doubtful this will take us back to Sweden but a good result is not in question.

Personal Rating: 6/10

Competitve Rating: 9/10

Early Prediction: Semi 2 1st-3rd, Final 3rd-6th