From our special correspondent in Malmö (Sweden)
Bring up the name Christer Björkman in the Eurovision sphere and observe the reactions. For some, he is an idol, for others, the person responsible for Sweden’s supposed stranglehold on the competition. In any case, he is an essential figure at the event. Candidate in 1992 – the final already took place in Malmö – it was above all as a producer that he demonstrated his know-how. After taking over with great success, in the early 2000s, Melodifestivalen, the Swedish selection for the competition, he was the executive producer of several editions of Eurovision. That of 2024 adds CV. One of its missions is to establish the order of passage of the finalists. One responsibility among many others that he details in 20 minutes.
When we talk about the favorites at Eurovision, we refer to the bookmakers’ rankings. Do you have the impression that the chances of certain artists are underestimated?
Always. When I decide on the order of passage, I base it on my experience and, obviously, my tastes. I also watch the predictions. Sometimes I don’t agree. At the beginning, it was mainly the fans hardcore who express themselves and they are not necessarily right.
Can you guess who will win each time?
Most of the time I have a good idea of the two or three songs that might win… This year I have no idea. It’s very open. There are lots of good proposals, in different genres. There are the fun pieces, the sentimental ones… So, who knows?
The song of France is in the sentimental register…
I adore My love ! But I always like the songs proposed by France, I am a Francophile. It would be great if France won, it’s been so long since you won the competition… Alexandra Redde-Amiel [la cheffe de délégation] does an incredible job, she is very proactive. Before, there was a certain lack of interest. With her, things changed completely. Same with the BBC for the UK, I really notice the difference. With Spain, too, which relaunched the Benidorm Festival as a method of song selection.
Do you think Slimane can win Eurovision this year?
Yes of course. France is one of the six countries I imagine winning.
What will make the difference?
There are six countries that have the song, the artist and the painting that goes with it. This will depend on the performance on the day. The order of appearance will have no influence on that, because I will position them so that everyone can shine.
Usually, qualified artists drew lots to see whether they would sing in the first or second half of the final. This year, a third bulletin has been added to the possibilities: the “producer’s choice”. For what ?
Until 2012, the running order was the result of chance. With this way of proceeding, it was impossible to have an efficient flow for the show. You could end up with seven ballads in the first half, for example. It was then decided to draw lots to distribute them between the first and second half of the final. But, even with this system, there were problems. Last year, four or five of the favorite songs were drawn in the first half, which is not good for the show. So we sought to give ourselves greater room for maneuver. Hence the choice of the producer [qui concerne treize des vingt-cinq bulletins que les artistes peuvent tirer au sort, les autres bulletins mentionnant « première moitié » ou « deuxième moitié »]. For me, it makes things easier to try to put on the best show possible. I specify that, on the night of Thursday to Friday before the final, I suggest an order of passage, but in the end, it is the European Broadcasting Union (EBU, which oversees the competition) which confirms.
That’s to say ?
I do not have access to the semi-final results. Martin Osterdahl [le superviseur exécutif du concours] has them. If I ever mess up in the order I’m proposing, he can tell me “this song there, maybe you should put it elsewhere”. And there, I know that this means that the song had a result that I had not envisaged.
Another new feature this year is that votes will be opened just after the first song and not once all the artists have appeared on stage. Could this have an impact on the result?
We have this system in place at Melodifestivalen [la sélection suédoise pour l’Eurovision] for years and we are satisfied with it. We see that today the young public, who are particularly invested in the competition, are used to reacting. He wants to react when he feels something, without waiting. I believe this will give a fairer result, mainly for those who pass near the beginning. We know that they are more quickly forgotten when there are so many candidates.
This year, artists from the Big 5 countries, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany, qualified directly for the final, will sing during the semi-finals. For Slimane, it will be Thursday. Why did you make this decision?
One of the problems of the Big 5 was that, unlike other countries, they did not have the opportunity to build enthusiasm around them during the competition. There are so many examples of songs that were underestimated before the competition and then revealed their potential in the semi-finals, with spectacular rises with the bookmakers. Eleni Foureira, for example, for Cyprus, in 2018, was 21st before Eurovision. After her semi-final, she became one of the favorites [elle a fini 2e]. There was something similar in 2015 for Belgium with Loïc Nottet. It often happens that someone you didn’t see coming comes crashing in like a cannonball. Now this can also happen for the Big 5. I’m happy that it’s happening. We talked about it for so long.
Is everything ready for this week of Eurovision, the most important?
It’s important because it’s the broadcast week but, for it to be successful, the rehearsal week must be perfect. The rehearsal period is the busiest because each delegation arrives with its own vision of its painting and our job is to interpret this wish, to bring it to life on stage. For this, we must be very careful, listen to the desires of each country, but without losing our identity. Today, the majority of them arrive with a well-advanced project; it is sometimes necessary to fight for the result to satisfy both sides. This year, we only had problems with two delegations where it took us a while to fully understand what they wanted but now it’s resolved. There are still some things to fix, particularly in terms of lighting, the lights are what we work on last because it all depends on the camera angles.
Is the 360º scene an additional challenge?
Absolutely. We have surprises because it’s new for everyone. We are more in the perspective of a tour than a television production. It’s fascinating and it’s a challenge. The difficulty is that, depending on the camera angles, we have black holes, especially in the upper corners. This gave us a bit of trouble “filling” them. Sometimes this suited the productions because this empty space was welcome.
How would you say the Eurovision brand is doing?
It is stronger than ever because of the young audience who are increasingly interested in it. This is due to streaming platforms, TikTok [partenaire de l’Eurovision]… If you look at the numbers from last year, four or five songs exceeded 100 million streams. Tattoo by Loreen is almost 500 million on Spotify and over 2 billion on all platforms combined.
Does a return of the orchestra to Eurovision seem possible to you?
There was a lot of talk about this in Sweden. There are songs that would benefit from this. Is this feasible? With a lot of money. If we had an unlimited budget, we could make a rotating stage with a live setup on one side and the usual setup on the other side. But it would be very expensive. I don’t believe this is possible. If you look at most of the songs in contention this year, the majority, highly produced, would not benefit from an orchestra.
