With Melodifestivalen songs now officially available for download, let's see how things stand on the Swedish iTunes chart:
Malena tops the chart, with only three non-MF songs--Depeche Mode, Lady GaGa, and James Morrison and Nelly Furtado--making it into the top ten. All the participants charting in the top 100 as of 3:30 PM EST:
1.) Malena Ernman, "La Voix"
2.) Måns Zelmerlöw, "Hope & Glory"
3.) Agnes, "Love Love Love"
4.) Alcazar, "Stay The Night"
6.) Velvet, "The Queen" (on sale for days now)
7.) Sarah Dawn Finer, "Moving On"
8.) Star Pilots, "Higher"
*Possibly my favorite part of the whole Swedish iTunes chart right now is that, though "In The Heat Of The Night," the group's earlier single, has reentered at #52--as is to be expected and with other artists' earlier singles doing the same thing--Boy Meets Girl's "Waiting For A Star To Fall" has also entered the iTunes chart at #53. Apparently a lot of people picked up on that similarity.
11.) Lili & Susie, "Show Me Heaven"
16.) Anna Sahlene & Maria Haukaas Storeng, "Killing Me Tenderly"
17.) H.E.A.T, "1000 Miles"
20.) Molly Sandén, "Så vill stjärnorna"
25.) Emilia, "You're My World"
32.) Maja Gullstrand, "Här för mig själv" (on sale for days now)
33.) Marie Serneholt, "Disconnect Me"
37.) Amy Diamond, "It's My Life"
39.) Nina Söderquist, "Tick Tock" (on sale for weeks now)
40.) Cookies 'n' Beans, "What If"
46.) Sofia, "Alla"
47.) Caroline af Ugglas, "Snälla Snälla"
58.) Rigo & the Topaz Sound feat. Red Fox, "I Got U"
67.) Jan Johansen, "Se på mig" (an entry from years past making an appearance due to Darin's performance of it during the interval act)
70.) Susanne Alfvengren, "Du är älskad där du går"
71.) BWO, "You're Not Alone (Oscar Holter Radio Mix)"
*charting higher than the ballad version of the song actually entered in the contest is this dance remix
83.) BWO, "You're Not Alone (Ballad Radio Edit)"
84.) Thorleifs, "Sweet Kissin' In The Moonlight"
85.) Lili & Susie, "Show Me Heaven (Oscar Holter Remix)"
*a great slightly edgier version of the song
Noticeable absences include E.M.D.'s "Baby Goodbye" which, though for sale elsewhere, hasn't been released to iTunes yet. Scotts' "Jag tror på oss" (which I actually really like) is available from iTunes but isn't in the top 100. Charting better than might be expected due to their placing are Velvet, Anna Sahlene & Maria Haukaas Storeng (though they're only doing better than one act that beat them in their semifinal final, showing either the strength of that fourth semifinal or that the fact that it just happened means more songs from it are being bought), Maja Gullstrand, and Marie Serneholt, with Nina Söderquist and Sofia also putting in showings better than might be expected from their results in the contest.
In reality, reading too much into these numbers would be silly...but what fun would that be? If we pretend they're an accurate representation of Swedes' preferred songs and ignore the fact that the duel system means almost anything can happen and lends itself towards strange results (see the huge number of votes in the Carola and Andreas vs. Nordman duel last year), that iTunes buyers don't necessarily coincide at all with telephone voters, and that having just watched the fourth semifinal Swedes are probably thinking more about those songs than those of past weeks, what would these chart placings mean would happen on Saturday?
Sarah Dawn Finer would easily beat Scotts and Lili & Susie would beat BWO. In the Sarah vs. Lili & Susie matchup, Sarah would win, qualifying to the final.
In the bottom half of the bracket, Star Pilots would beat Amy Diamond and Caroline af Ugglas would beat Rigo, with Star Pilots going on to beat Caroline and thereby qualifying to the final.