Hello all,

In order to select my entry for Jonny's amazing escChat Song Contest, I shall be holding a wide-open, public funtime 'national' final called MELODAVESTIVALEN. Geddit?

Help me choose a killer tune from the nine on offer by heading on over to the website: http://www.melodavestivalen.co.uk

Check out the songs and join me every night until Tuesday on my BlogTV! Naturally the final is gonna be a bit of anti-climax, cuz I can't reveal the winner, but I'll be providing the voting stats in full to the legendary Jonny, and there'll be a big exciting reveal as soon as he lets me.

First semi final is tonight (Saturday) at 8pm - hopefully it won't tread on the toes of our national evenings, and I promise it won't be a drag at any more than about half an hour...

I think it'll be fun!

Come to http://www.melodavestivalen.co.uk and help me pick something cool!

Lots of love

Dave x

BY THE WAY >> If you can't be there, feel free to email your votes to [email protected] - give your favourite 3 points, your second favourite 2 points and your least favourite 1 point! Go ahead and vote in advance for each semi if you reckon you're not going to be around for the show!

OMG what an awesome website! I am impressed! No offence Mark but this puts MF-MF to shammmeee!!

Great website..Dave you're a genius
(is the 3rd song of the 1st semi a tribute to Rybak? LMAO)

What a fantastic idea! I'm so impressed, Dave

I'll try to be there tonight, I've got a very busy day.

wow

that website is amazing

Woo! Compliments ahoy! Thank you all! I've updated the website to let you know that you can vote by email if you're not going to be around later... All I'm gonna do is run through the songs and get people to vote either by IM on here, or through MSN, then reveal the results.

I've had a couple of votes so far, and it's terrifying. But I have a really nifty, geeky spreadsheet which can handle it all! Woo!

Thanks SO much for everyone's votes in the first semi final - cheers for watching on BlogTV - so sorry the show wasn't up to much! I'll try and do something a bit better for Sunday's 2nd semi!

Go check the songs in the second semi by visiting http://www.melodavestivalen.co.uk and clicking through to 'Semi 2'. French electro group Justice, former Moloko singer Róisín Murphy and Irish singer-songwriter Wallis Bird are all up for the challenge, and have all individually faxed me over the past 24 hours to express their sincere desire for your votes.

Please feel free to email me to give me your votes - [email protected] - the winner of Semi 1 went direct to the final by just 1 single point so every vote counts!

The results from Semi 1:

Song 1: FrankMusik "3 Little Words" - 27 points - to Andra Chansen
Song 2: Charlotte Perrelli "Show Me A Mountain" - 28 points - to Final
Song 3: Butterfly Boucher "Gun For A Tongue" - 17 points - Eliminated

Looking forward to Sunday night's Semi 2: it should take place at either 8 or 9pm BST - can't wait to receive your votes!

Thanks again for making Semi 1 such a success!

Dave xx

www.melodavestivalen.co.uk

Yayayayayayay they finished in exactly the order I wanted!! Can't wait for semi 2 and I promise you i'll be there!!

Well, well, well! Another close run on last night's second semi final in Melodavestivalen! People's champion Wallis Bird edged through to the final with her song 'Counting To Sleep', and yet another electro-pop masterpiece in the form of Róisín Murphy's 'Let Me Know' limped in to Tuesday's Andra Chansen round. Eliminated was Justice's 'Phantom Pt. 2'.

The full results as follows:

Song 1: Justice "Phantom Pt. 2" - 15 points - Eliminated
Song 2: Róisín Murphy "Let Me Know" - 27 points - to Andra Chansen
Song 3: Wallis Bird "Counting To Sleep" - 30 points - to Final

Some people have said that tonight's third semi looks to be the strongest. We have songs from an American band called Good Old War, UK girl-pop favourites The Saturdays (with what is possibly the best song on their "Chasing Lights" album), and Blackpool electronica girl Little Boots. Yet again, I have found myself in the unique position of having received exclusive fax correspondence from each of the contestants, in which they beg and plead like cheap reality show contestants for your votes. The two girls in The Saturdays who used to be in S Club Juniors seemed to plead the hardest, but the boys from Good Old War were similarly eager.

Tonight at 8pm BST/9pm CEST/10pm EEST at http://www.blogtv.com/people/terminalthree is the time and place for the last of the semi finals. Voting is open now if you fancy it, just email [email protected] - you can check out all three songs as well as take a look at how Andra Chansen and the final are shaping up by clikcing through to www.melodavestivalen.co.uk

Can't wait to see you all at BlogTV later on!

Dave x

Hey all!

With a scarily even distribution of points, last night's third heat of Melodavestivalen was super-close, with only two points separating all three songs. The winner, and heading direct to Wednesday night's final was "Stuck On Repeat" by Little Boots. That's BOOTS, not boobs, or booze, or Lidl Boobs or any other combination of anything even closely related to breasts or discount retailers of any kind. Little Boots. The winner.

Last night's results in full:

Song 1: Good Old War "Coney Island" - 22 points - to Andra Chansen
Song 2: The Saturdays "Work" - 20 points - Eliminated
Song 3: Little Boots "Stuck On Repeat" - 24 points - to Final

So, onto Andra Chansen! Tonight's last chance for a second chance is full of surprises, including FrankMusik, Róisín Murphy and American alt-country band Good Old War. Will FrankMusik miss out by a single point again? Will Róisín edge in front? Or will Good Old War's "Coney Island" turn into the people's champion just like "Snälla, Snälla"? Who knows what's going to happen? Maybe a quick prayer to the schlager gods above will help your favourite artist along the way, but the only thing that will definitely assist them in their quest for Melodavestivalen domination is if you VOTE VOTE VOTE!

At the end of tonight's show, the International Jury will reveal their favourite eliminated song, rescuing them like animal activists would rescue a loveable pony with it's head stuck in a fence. After that, the voting system for Wednesday's final will be revealed.

Tonight at 8pm BST/9pm CEST/10pm EEST at http://www.blogtv.com/people/terminalthree is the time and place for an action-packed Andra Chansen!

Voting is open now if you fancy it, just email [email protected] - you can check out all three songs as well as take a look at how the final is shaping up by clicking through to www.melodavestivalen.co.uk

See you later on! Be there, and join me in abusing random abusive American guests!

Dave x

So, last night's Andra Chansen...

The results:

Song 1: FrankMusik "3 Little Words" - 23 points - to Final
Song 2: Róisín Murphy "Let Me Know" - 18 points - Eliminated
Song 3: Good Old War "Coney Island" - 19 points - Eliminated

So Frank sprinted to the final, and everybody else ran away home. The International Jury stepped in to rescue one of the eliminated songs, and sent "Coney Island" by Good Old War off for yet another shot at potential glory in the final. Is it just me, or is "Coney Island" starting to give off a bit of a "Snälla, Snälla" vibe in this sense?

Tonight is the FINAL of the first edition of Melodavestivalen!

Voting tonight is DIFFERENT, so pay attention boys and girls...!

There are five songs, and as with the heats you should rank them in order of preference. Tonight, you'll be awarding your points as follows:

Favourite song: 12pts (tulv poäng)
2nd favourite: 8pts (åtta poäng)
3rd favourite: 5pts (fem poäng)
4th favourite: 3pts (tre poäng)
Least favourite: 0pts (fk all)

No points totals will be revealed tonight in accordance with Jonny's secrecy rules. There will however be a series of eliminations, where we will ditch the three least popular songs, leaving an air of mystery as to which of the top two songs will actually be the winner of Melodavestivalen! In a unique and typically SVT-esque way, I plan to grotesquely overcomplicate things as follows: after the first elimination of the evening's least popular song, the points it received will be re-allocated to the voter's second favourite song, ensuring a balanced result and even distribution of points. From my (ie: a nerd's) perspective, this makes everything very much more exciting. Also, it should hopefully help to ease the disappointment of those people who had voted for a song that gets eliminated, as at least their second favourite gets a shot at a few extra points.

If you have anything to say about the voting system, please feel free to forward your comments to my Dad, Svante Stockselius, c/o Melodavestivalen HQ, KENT.

Tonight's songs:

Melodave nummer ett - Charlotte Perrelli - Show Me A Mountain
Melodave nummer två - Wallis Bird - Counting To Sleep
Melodave nummer tre - Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat
Melodave nummer fyra - FrankMusik - 3 Little Words
Melodave nummer fem - Good Old War - Coney Island

Please help yourself to the ripe fruits of the Melodavestivalen website at www.melodavestivalen.co.uk - there you can click through to 'Final', and check out the songs in advance of tonight's main event! Voting is open right now should you wish to get in early - [email protected] is the address.

See you all tonight at 8pm BST / 9pm CEST / 10pm EEST at www.blogtv.com/people/terminalthree for the music event of the year*.

Dave x

*Not the music event of the year.

This is so complicating
Are you sure you're not Svante?

We have a winner...!

Well, we sort of have two kind of potential-ish winners. First and second places in this edition of Melodavestivalen were shared, in no particular order, by:

FrankMusik "3 Little Words"
Little Boots "Stuck On Repeat"

The winner will be revealed by Jonny when he releases the names of the entries to the escChat Song Contest. Exciting times!

So, Davis Island will have its first song in just a few hours! Thank you soooo much to everyone who voted and watched, you've all been super-super-super-kind, and it's been lots of fun

*crosses fingers for a few "L'ÎLE DE DAVIS - DOUZE POINTS!"*...

Jag älskar alla dig!