Sweden is spoilt with an excellent result record. Five victories, 36 top 10 placements in total – that’s more than half of the whole Eurovision history. There were three top 3 results in the past four years, but it also isn’t very long since Sweden failed to qualify, for the first time ever, in 2010. Before that, in the years 2005 – 2009, their results graph mostly meandered through the valleys of the final scoreboard (19, 5, 18, 18, 21), a fact that is somewhat forgotten already.

Especially at home in the north, high expectations on their representant are default. But also many fans throughout Europe usually expect the Swedish entrant to do very well, year after year. The Swedish flag has become a trademark in Eurovision, a quality seal, such as the Swiss flag on chocolate and knives. This is also reflected in the pan-European perception of Melodifestivalen, the highly popular Swedish final, from which Måns Zelmerlöw (not “Mans”!) emerged as winner, after having tried twice in earlier years.

Heroes, his song, has previously been compared to David Guetta and Avicii, something that I’m not going to repeat here. It’s – “of course” – a favourite to win the contest, nevertheless. It’s modern, instant, catchy, well performed. The light show that we know from Melodifestivalen was striking, and I expect nothing less from Måns’ Vienna performance.

It’s a bit difficult to do my verdict for this, considering that it’s such a big favourite. Probably it will win, and probably, after the big night, everyone will say “oh of course, seriously whatelse could it have been”. But I see a slight chance that it might not. I like the song, but I think that the Swedish perfection might once again be something, that people in the South and East could interpret as coldness. Every movement, right up to facial expressions, that Måns Zelmerlöw will do on stage is probably planned and rehearsed a lot of times before. And I wonder: How much room is there for real emotion on stage, for Swedish entrants? Do others perceive Swedish performances (both, at Eurovision and Melodifestivalen) as that coolly calculated, as I do? Are these people really having fun on stage? See, that’s where I think that Sweden might not win, as Heroes carries the traditional Swedish calculation to extremes. Something that traditional jury members from the various parts of Europe could punish with disregard.

Still, it’s the song with the highest chances to win.

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