It’s Friday, it’s dress rehearsal day – but before (and after) that, we’ll be updating this rolling blog post with our impressions of the MF bubble and the city in general, so stay tuned!

14:00 (Martin)

As things don’t get going until this evening, I thought I’d start the day by taking a look at the betting markets. Svenska Spel sensationally closed the books on Loreen yesterday, claiming that she is guaranteed to win. However, several other online bookmakers are still offering odds on a “Euphoria” victory – so if you’re as certain as the Svenska Spel people and you’re willing to put your money where your mouth is, you can find 1.22 at bwin.

The same site and b365 are offering 4.5 on the next favourite, Danny Saucedo – or if you think a shock is in the offing and Thorsten Flinck could capitalise on his momentum and growl his way to victory, he’s 21.0 at both of the aforementioned sites.

However, I think the win market is a bit of a washout – and if you agree, you might be more interested in Unibet, which offers some interesting head-to-head bets: for example, 2.55 for Ranelid to beat Dead By April. Seems like good value to me!

They also have a “top 3” market – 3.00 says Flinck will reach the podium (or just 1.01 for Loreen, if you really want to put your life savings on the line!). Meanwhile, Lisa Miskovsky is 12.50 to win the jury vote, which could be an interesting gamble.

Finally, though – and most interestingly, if you ask me – Unibet is also offering odds on the song that will finish in last place. They think the most likely candidates are Ranelid (2.30) and Ulrik Munther (2.50), but if you believe the televote could be extremely spread-out and random (particularly if Loreen soaks up 50% of the votes!), you might be interested in Top Cats at 4.50 or Dead By April at 7.50.

Either way, there’s enough interest in MF in Sweden and beyond to ensure that you can still make a tidy profit tomorrow night even without going anywhere near the hot favourite Loreen!

Stay tuned for more blog updates during the day…

15:37 (Felix)

Yeah, it’s nice to start a usual Stockholm day with a coffee in the hotel room at 15:37.
I don’t consider the shopping that happened just before as “day activities”, I just file it under “last night”, so now, coffee, cheese sandwich, Vaniljbulle, good morning. And what’s missing? A newspaper, right, so let me make use of my internet package from the hotel!

If you check the online papers yourself, you will notice that you have to scroll quite a way down to finally hit the first picture of Ranelid – and today it’s Thorsten Flinck who’s talking about Ranelid – in a better way than the headline would suggest.

Danny is talking about his diet (he apparently had manboobs), and someone else is comparing Danny with the Titanic, and Loreen with an iceberg. But we also have to add that such a clear favourite can fall flat on its nose when every Swede thinks “oh she’ll win anyway” and decides to save the money for the televoting.

So, from my trips through town so far I can say – if you hear an MF song coming out of some speakers in cars, hotel lobbies or shopping places, then it’s – surprise – Euphoria. It *is* a hit, after all.

And now, I’m focussing on my Vaniljbulle.

Stay tuned for more!

18:48 (Felix)

We are back to the press centre! My computer survived a fall from the toilet seat, and I had no idea about its fate until I had the chance to open it just now! According to Martin, the coffee in the press centre is already ancient, so I think I will pass.

We are here to blog (here) and chat (in the chat) from the dress rehearsal of Melodifestivalen – directly from Globen!

Watch out for our new rehearsal blog article that’s going to be published soon!

22:09 (Felix)

As the dress rehearsal is over, we are soon leaving the press centre and head to the party in town!

You can still read Martin’s live blogging in this article – as soon as we have more news and stories we’ll be back!