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Perrelli's return to the schlager spotlight yielded mixed results for her dedicated fans 

Third time lucky? Charlotte Perrelli is one of Sweden's most talked about pop stars. Launching herself onto the wider public by winning ESC 1999 for her country, her career since has been filled with poptastic highs and lots of sparkley outfits. A second attempt for Eurovision glory in 2008 led to another win in Sweden, but not such a brilliant placing at the ESC final. This year, a third song, "The Girl" tried to secure its place at Eurovision, but didn't even get past the semi-final heat in 2012. 

12points.tv were situated inside the arena in Malmö for her Melodifestivalen turn and sensed a problem was coming when the reaction of the audience during rehearsals was muted at best after her performance. How could this consumate professional who threw everything but the kitchen sink into this great performance not strike a chord with the Swedish public? The 12points jury does it's analysis below. Was the song girl-licious and girl-tastic or just girl-umpty?

Song/Lyrics - 12/12
Most Melodifestivalen songs that make it far don't get too personal in the lyrics. For example, this year had the classics: "you're amazing/amazing/you're oh oh oh amazing". But through our interview with Charlotte Perrelli, she told us that the lyrics were very personal to her. After some chaos in her own life and a particularly nasty divorce, she had her feet on the ground again and was happy to sing about it all. The music sounds as if it's an old ABBA record with a scratch in it, but managed to throw in musical enough tricks to keep it interesting. 

Performance - 12/12
We saw Charlotte rehearse and perform this song a total of 10 times over 3 days of rehearsals and she hit it 100% every time. No other act in rehearsals could manage such a feat, suffering with tired voices and shattered nerves. Watching Perrelli march back and forth over 3 minutes would be tiring for most people, but Charlotte does what a performer should do - be consistent. The use of the Beyoncé-esque video screens worked well but maybe were a little distraction.

Choreography (including Arm-ography and Hair-ography) - 6/12
We think the staging and choreography are what ultimately kept the votes away for poor Charlotte. I am guessing in an attempt to make this song even more exciting than her other two entries is what derailed it. If you look carefully at the song, it has four different settings over 180 seconds - in front of a screen, on stage, back by the screen, on stage again. It was almost too much to take in. Combine so much movement with some typically frantic and meaningless choreography (a ballet/line dancing combo) and the effect of that could mean all the intricacies are nullified. Swedes DO tend to voite for something that is reasonably safe, and maybe this was just too scary for them.

Camp Factor - 12/12
Charlotte's costume cost 500.000 Swedish kronor (€56.000). Enough said.

Would My Mother Like it? - 8/12
I would imagine she'd like it. She appreciates good camp, like her son.

TOTAL: 50/60.  Well done, Charlotte. Better luck next time. 

Melodifestivalen 2012 kicks off two weeks from today! 12points.tv explains more about the 6-week saga for the uninitiated.

We can hardly contain ourselves here at 12points.tv. Each day brings more juicy news items around this year's Eurovision selection - who's chosen to make an appearance at Baku, who tearfully and angrily goes home without a prize (or in Lys Assia's case, collapses and goes to hospital after this year's Swiss final) and who sounds the most like Lady Gaga. (We predict at least 3 Gaga-esque songs). But all these national competitions pale in comparison to the biggest mother of them all - Sweden's six-week Eurovision selection competition otherwise known as Melodifestivalen. Emulated across Europe, no other imitators can beat the high drama and sometimes high trash of this always incredible contest.  For those of you who aren't familiar with this contest, I will happily explain why it's so fabulous.

Charlotte, Danny, Christer and Lotta. A very exciting Melodifestivalen semi-final approaches.

Tonight, 12points.tv was in attendance at a press conference held by SVT in a posh Malmö hotel. All 8 songs for Saturday's Melodifestivalen were played in their entirety for a room full of journalists. It was like a set up out of a science fiction movie - 3 rows of tables filled with people all staring at a giant portable stereo placed on a table on stage. But everyone was there for the same thing - to get a preview of this weekend's contestants. The songs for the most part did not disappoint.

Usually my own schlager/ESC opinion differs from how Swedes like their songs, so I had a look around the room to see what the journalist's reactions were, so you can get a varied opinion. The strongest songs came from Charlotte Perrelli, Christer Sjögren and Lotta Engmark, and Danny Saucedo, but most songs are at least intriguin. Here are our thoughts.

++ Belarus changes act! ++  Armenian artists want to withdraw ++ Malmö calling ++ Wurst and Lipstick ++..

Belarus is not going to be representeer by the winner of the national final Eurofest, Alena Lanskaya, but by runners-up Litesound. Lanskaya is being punished for the fraude that apparently took place during the voeting, wether she was aware of it or not. Litesound took part in the Belarussian national final with We Are The Heroes and are most likely going to take that track to Baku as well. You can listen and watch here.

Melodifestivalen is about to start but here are some pictures to whet your appetite.

An audible gasp when Lisa Miskovsky takes a place in Stockholm. Perrelli goes home empty handed.

Before her upcoming Melodifestivalen appearance, Swedish artist Loreen sits with 12points to discuss art, music and transformation.

In 2004, an outgoing 20-year old made an appearance on Sweden's first season of IDOL, taking an unknown singer and placing her squarely in the public eye. She then embarked on an adventure where she searched for her purpose as an artist and how to be the most complete musician that she can be. The result of this journey were her two incredble Melodifestivalen performances in 2011 and 2012, along with a satisfaction on her part that she is able to push herself in radical new directions. On 10 March, Loreen appears in the Melodifestivalen final with her song "Euphoria". Her performance is simply astonishing. Loreen spoke with 12points.tv about her long journey to today and how she had to start from the beginning to re-introduce herself to the public.