Saturday was the final night of the very popular music show in Sweden called Melodifestivalen. It is a competition which is aired over a number of weeks. We get better TV reception than Hol and J so they were coming over Saturday nights to watch with us. Apparently this music festival has been around for many years and gave ABBA their start. It is a big event here. Almost everyone watches, and the public can phone in to vote for their favorite song - in the final over 2 million voted. Here is the list of the final 10 competitors, their songs, and the # of votes they got. These are the most popular songs on the radio here right now.
The Ark: "The worrying kind" 492 180
Måns Zelmerlöw: "Cara mia" 402 133
Andreas Johnson: "A little bit of love" 371 222
Marie Lindberg: "Trying to recall" 228 422
Sarah Dawn Finer: "I remember love" 157 227
Sonja Aldén: "För att du finns" 128 806
Sanna Nielsen: "Vågar du vågar jag" 113 012
Sebastian: "When the night comes falling" 86 861
Tommy Nilsson: "Jag tror på människan" 50 850
Anna Book: "Samba sambero" 42 205
If you are interested in checking out the last show, you can watch it on Webb TV on svt.se (go to the melodifestivalen tab on the left and click on the little video camera where it says "Se pa webb-tv i SVT Play"). The songs are all in the first half and the last half is mostly dealing with the voting. One of the competitors who didn't make the final is a musical icon here in Sweden -Magnus Uggla with his song För Kung och Fosterland. The winner goes on to the Eurovision Song contest in Helsinki.
Check out the two kicksleds leaning against the carport. There are at least 8 of these in the barn here. They come in various sizes and are wonderful to use if you are on a hard packed trail, but no fun in powder. They slide on runners about 2.5 m long and the thickness of a skate blade. You can move at least 3 times as fast as you would walking and the ride is quiet and smooth. Get going too fast though, and they become unstable and are difficult to keep going straight. I've had 2 big wipeouts coming down the driveway, but have learned to drag my foot to ensure I don't go fast enough to start the 
oscillation from side to side that happens before a whipeout. Strapping on spiked bootlets helps both with slowing yourself and pushing on slippery surfaces. Kicksleds are very popular here, especially with older people who grew up with them. They are great to keep you stable when it is slippery and are light weight to pick up if you need to cross an area without snow. We saw many in Lillehammer where the roads and sidewalks were slippery.
