Hi everybody! esc-chat.com is in Globen and reporting live from the Friday night dress rehearsal for Melodifestivalen 2012, the Swedish selection  for the Eurovision Song Contest.

After four semi-finals and a Second Chance round, the big night is almost here – so stay tuned below as we give you minute-for-minute updates on all the happenings in the home of schlager!

21:53 Sarah Dawn explains that it’s considered bad luck for one of the artists to perform as the “winner” in the dress rehearsal. Seems fair enough. Anyway, a bit more chat from the hosts as they thank us for following the whole six-week MF process – and so we at esc-chat.com would like to take the opportunity to thank you for reading our live blog tonight. Keep reading the site for more MF weekend updates, and enjoy the real show tomorrow night!

21:48 We’re down to Lisa and Danny in the race to find the fake winner. And Lisa wins! Well, that’s nice. I suppose she’s probably the least offensive potential winner in there, so maybe that’s their logic… Anyway, Lisa doesn’t even come up on stage to collect her (real) trophy; instead, Thérèse Löf from MF 1992 (!) performs a version of David Guetta’s “When Love Takes Over” as our victory reprise. Which is basically Danny’s song anyway!

21:45 And finally, it’s time for the fake televotes! Poor Ranelid comes last, with just 16 points. Boo! And they’ve nobbled Loreen too. One assumes this is entirely random, although I was sort of expecting them to make it into a dead-heat between all 10 artists like the only other time I’ve watched one of these fake voting things (though admittedly, that was ESC 1998 – so a long time ago, wasn’t it?).

21:39 Heeeere’s Ehlena! The good Ms. Paparizou is indeed our interval entertainment, performing a version of “Popular” that starts in a “Hey Big Spender”-esque big band style. Lots of dancing girls and cabaret, if you get my gist. This is like something straight out of Chicago. Oh, except then a beat kicks in after the first chorus and we’re into dance-meets-military-rhythms territory. You know what? This would be quite cool if it was performed by someone with any kind of charisma. As it stands, you can safely schedule your toilet and/or refill break for this particular three minutes.

21:32 Gina has to run to the green room to introduce the final snabbrepris, bless her. It’s followed by more Swedish humour.

21:28 Fake votes from Belgium first, given by fake Sandra Kim. They “liked” Lisa best. Lisa is doing a good job of pretending to be happy. (Sarah Dawn Finer is the one calling in the juries, incidentally, which makes sense – you wouldn’t argue with her.) Estonia next; the (real) spokesperson will be no one I’ve heard of. Danny gets an amazing top mark from them, anyway. Julian Vignoles will give the Irish votes; his fake (female!) equivalent gives top marks to Loreen, and the real crowd in Globen sounds genuinely happy. Meanwhile, the points on the board bear no relation to what we’ve actually heard so far. Hurrah! And finally, it’ll be Tooji giving the votes for Norway – woohoo! His stand-in gives top marks to Lisa, who has “won” the fake jury vote. Well then.

21:25 Greenroom banter now. They’re talking about “tomorrow”, so no scripted stuff pretending that tonight is already the big show, mercifully. And now it’s over to the international juries – well, four of them, anyway, as apparently that’s all we need to talk to tonight.

21:20 More Swedish humour now, with the familiar characters sitting at home watching the show that we’ve come to know and, well, know. Meanwhile, we’ve just read in Aftonbladet that tonight’s show is the one the international juries will vote on. Neither Felix over in the chatroom nor I think anyone has done particularly poorly tonight, so that shouldn’t make a huge difference to proceedings.

21:18 A first snabbrepris, and a chance to see how the songs all fit together in this running order. David Lindgren only a few seconds after Danny’s performance ended? Not a happy comparison for David. Lisa comes across well. Loreen is Loreen. They should use the “oj oj oj oj oj” section in Ranelid’s reprise (but they don’t – boo). And soon enough we’re back at Danny. Didn’t we just have this one? Either way, the fictitious lines are fictitiously open!

21:13 10. Danny Saucedo – Amazing
So, will Danny be singing? And if so, how will he sound, considering he’s battling with the MF Week Cold of Doom? The t(w)eenyboppers in the crowd probably won’t care, but his chances of toppling Loreen might just depend on it. So far so good, actually – those initial low tones are nowhere near as ropey as they were in the semi-final. He looks a bit feverish, but that might just be sweat and/or glitter. He gives out a brief “c’mon!” as he high-fives an audience member, which inadvertently reveals just how much of this is on the backing track, actually. But we suspected that anyway. The routine is as we knew it before, glow-in-the-dark hazmat suits and all. Huge response in the hall, and I don’t think that’s just because of the audience demographic. Certainly Loreen’s closest challenger unless something very weird happens.

21:08 9. Molly Sandén – Why Am I Crying
Back to normality as Molly enters the stage with Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” as her musical backdrop. Chains all over her shoulders – her outfit is like a Kelly Clarkson/Vesna Pisarovic fusion, and it… sort of works. Now, how on earth is this going to do in the voting? It’s quite effective in this draw slot, and there’s never any question of Molly putting a note wrong – she’s basically flawless tonight too – so will it benefit from being essentially the only big belter of a ballad in the line-up? One thing’s for sure – if she does win, Saade handing her the trophy as she prepares to sing her break-up song again could be quite interesting…

21:03 A somewhat bizarre Little Britain-style interlude now – a film clip featuring an alleged EBU representative (who looks suspiciously Sarah Dawn-shaped) talking about the preparations for “Azerjiban”. I think we call this Swedish humour, innit.

21:00 8. Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li – Mirakel
Ranelid seems even more orange than ever before, if that’s at all possible. This is the bookies’ favourite for last place, and frankly, it’s hard to see why – an assumption that the juries will give it a big fat zero, maybe! Either way, it’s still a work of barmy, brilliant genius, and you forget so much about what actually goes on in the performance if (like me) you haven’t watched it since the semi-final. Will Ranelid rock out in English and French like he did in yesterday’s rehearsal, though? He does! And Spanish too! Or was it Italian? Who cares? OJ OJ OJ! Herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrregud!

20:55 7. Ulrik Munther – Soldiers
Ulrik is showing off his arms. This is not quite the same as when Jónsi does it. Christ, could there be more of a contrast, from Loreen to this? And I don’t actually mean that in a bad way – the simplicity of the harmonica intro brings you back down to earth after all that euphoria, and the audience around Globen holding up lights is very effective on what we veterans call the Jostein Hasselgård shot. Ulrik has some of that same boyish charm – as well he might, since he’s only just turned 18 – and I actually reckon this might pick up some points from the jury and the televoters alike. The t(w)eenybopper audience went for it, anyway – we’ll see if everyone else agrees.

20:50 6. Loreen – Euphoria
A quick plug for Tredje Chansen before song 6 – Loreen’s in that too! – and then the overwhelming bookmakers’ favourite enters the stage. What can you say about this performance that hasn’t already been said? You either like it or you don’t, but she sings it out of the park – and you can see more of her eyes today, too. Not sure the audience clapping really helps during the verse, but you can hardly ask them not to! And hey, it gets loud and dancey quickly enough after that. A few problems with the wind machine blowing her hair in directions that aren’t the carefully planned ones, and I’m still convinced something is going to go horribly wrong with the backing dancer’s kicks at some point – but this is pretty much a perfect performance. And there’s even a funky slow-motion effect on the final shot. Nice!

20:45 5. Top Cats – Baby Doll
It’s never ideal when the song accompanying your boxing-ring walk is better than your actual MF entry. Although I do like the MF entry! How will the second Andra Chansen qualifiers fare? They’re obviously loving being in Globen – the singer literally never stops smiling – but seeing the songs back-to-back like this, I’m starting to wonder if there’s a hint of “musical variety overdose” creeping in at the seams by this stage. OK, we don’t really want an MF with 10 identi-schlagers and nothing else, but maybe there’s a reason the next song has been drawn where it has… Cracking performance by the Top Cats if you like that kind of thing, anyway – there’s no faulting their energy and enthusiasm.

20:40 4. Lisa Miskovsky – Why Start A Fire
Lisa is loving it on her way towards the stage – and why not? She’s already won, in a way, with her “surprise” qualification in the Perrelli semi. Since then, I’ve suspected this would be pure jury fodder in the final, and it does come across as a classy addition to the line-up after the somewhat unusual nature of the last two entries. Lisa is singing well enough, as you might expect. The sheet-waving backing dancers work best in the close-up shots, and less well when they’re showing off how big Globen is and how enthusiastic the audience is – although it’s nice to see that they are. The parents more than the kids, I’m sure, but then Mummy and Daddy have to give you permission to use the phone, don’t they?

20:35 3. Dead By April – Mystery
Now, with all the Loreen hype, a lot of people have forgotten about this one since way back in the first semi-final. But in this context, after the studied introspection of Flinck, the first time the shouty metal bit kicks in before the chorus here… well, it really works. (It turns out I’d also forgotten how many tattoos the lead singer has. Crikey!) The song is still kind of schizophrenic, but it’s a decently tasty slice of stadium rock. Might get lost in this company when it comes to the voting though. I hope not (though my Unibet account begs to differ).

20:30 2. Thorsten Flinck & Revolutionsorkestern – Jag reser mig igen
I have to confess to having developed a huge soft spot for this one. Even if it is a G:song! And it seems to be doing well in the newspaper polls, although I suspect this is not the audience for it tonight – I’d have hated it when I was 8 too… Slight technical pause at the start, then the Flinck growl kicks in. He’s about half a beat behind when the backing track takes hold, but he forgot his lyrics completely last week, so it hardly seems to matter! Someone in the front row can’t clap along in time either, anyway, so it’s not just Thorsten. The big question is: will this have an Af Ugglas effect from 2nd place in the draw, or has it already won its battle? I wish I knew – this is a strange year for MF!

20:25 1. David Lindgren – Shout It Out
They’re still doing the boxer-style walks down the aisle for the participants. Makes a bit more sense now that they’ve all at least qualified for the final, so the audience actually knows who they are! Even diddy little David Lindgren (who has a lot of signs in the audience, actually). No postcards beyond that accompanied by a voice-over, interestingly. David, smart in a dark suit, can sing a bit – of that there’s no doubt. And it’s an ideal song 1 really, reminiscent in a way of when “Hope & Glory” opened the show. I suspect it’s heading for a similar result, to be honest, and certainly not better than that – it’s all very effective as a party-starter but I don’t see anyone having it as their hot favourite considering what’s coming later.

20:20 Applause for Saade. Except for one man in the audience, who takes a very big swig of beer instead. I do believe we’re ready for song 1…

20:18 Eric Saade brings in the trophy then indulges in a medley of his songs complete with Some Dancing. And now he’s levitating above the stage. That’s pretty cool, if a bit Bilan.

20:15 Trying to read the audience reaction from the brief run-through of tonight’s participants. Big cheer for Loreen, Molly, Danny and Dead By April. Indifference towards Thorsten. A few boos for Ranelid!

20:14 Oriental can-can girls!

20:13 We’re starting with a rendition of “New York, New York”… except the lyrics are changed to “Baku, Baku”. Baffling. But somehow very MF.

20:11 Te Deum plays, then we have an ultra-quick summary of the last ten years of winners. It is, after all, ten years since the first MF in the current format.

20:09 Sponsor adverts! Now we know we’re getting going…

20:07 The hostesses with the most(…esses?) are just running through several attempts at recording a trailer for tomorrow night’s show. It’s not entirely clear what it is they’re getting wrong, but the producers don’t seem happy yet. Not that the crowd minds – they’ll cheer anything with a bit of glitter.

20:03 We’re being introduced to our hosts, all of whom are wearing silver and gold and glitter. Sarah Dawn is looking particularly buxom even by Sarah Dawn standards.

20:00 Pretty awesome, is the answer – the arena is packed (only the top levels are empty) and the floor manager is warming everyone up nicely. We’re probably not going to start on time at this rate, but then it’s “only” a dress rehearsal… and yet everyone seems to be holding posters for their favourites. Remember when I called Sweden crazy?

19:45 OK, time to wander down to the arena and see what the atmosphere is like on the ground!

19:36 Now that I say that, I wonder how many tickets they’ve actually sold for this thing. Thousands of people turning up for a dress rehearsal for a Eurovision national final. Sweden is crazy. But in a good way.

19:33 Walking up to the arena this evening was quite something. I’ve been here for the MF final itself before, sitting and screaming alongside the usual  heady mixture of families, gay fans and everything inbetween – but I have a feeling tonight’s audience will have a much younger average age than the final itself. Tons and tons of kids around. It’ll be interesting to see what they make of Thorsten Flinck – and whether we can actually hear anything during Danny’s performance…

19:25 While I’m blogging for you here, my colleague Felix will be giving his perspective live in our chatroom – so do log in and join him there. He’ll do his best to answer any questions you may have about who’s singing well, who’s wearing a ridiculous outfit and which songs the crowd is really going for…

19:15 CET: Welcome to the press centre at Globen! We’ll be moving to the arena itself for the show (as long as we’re allowed to use our laptops in there), but for now, we’re chilling with the other journalists and fan site people, enjoying slightly stale coffee and self-assembly hotdogs, as the atmosphere gradually hots up.