Melodifestivalen, the national selection that most fans are waiting for, continues in Sweden tonight!
The line-up
- Albin Tingwall – Done Getting Over You
Text & music: Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb
- Lia Larsson – 30 km/h
Text & music: Axel Schylström, Jimmy Jansson, Lia Larsson, My Söderholm, Thomas G:son
- Dotter ‒ It’s Not Easy to Write a Love Song
Text & music: Dino Medanhodzic, Johanna “Dotter” Jansson - SCARLET ‒ Circus X
Text & music: Emil Behmer, Henric Pierroff, Ian-Paolo Lira, Jessica Rachel Chertock, Scarlet, Simon Boustedt, Staffan Amberlind, Thirsty
- Lasse Stefanz ‒ En sång om sommaren
Text & music: Anders Wigelius, Anderz Wrethov, Robert Norberg
- Danny Saucedo ‒ Happy That You Found Me
Text & music: Danny Saucedo, Kristoffer Fogelmark, John Martin, Michel Zitron
Interesting facts of the week (heat 4)
Danny Saucedo is the only of this year’s artists to be inducted into Melodifestivalen’s Hall of Fame, which was presented in the 2023 final, where he was inducted for the songs “Amazing” and “In the Club”. It was precisely in Eskilstuna 2020 that the Hall of Fame was introduced for the first time. In this year’s song, “Happy That You Found Me”, he has teamed up with songwriters who have previously been behind, among others, Avicii’s “SOS” and “Fade into Darkness” as well as Swedish House Mafia’s “Don’t You Worry Child” and “Save the World”.
Favorite tipped Danny now competes and can defend the male artists in this year’s Melodifestivalen. Only a third of the songs that have gone through so far are performed by male artists. Danny turns 38 the day after the competition.
At the same time, Danny has the chance to become the person who has won the most heats in the history of Melodifestivalen, a record he currently shares with Mariette. He has finished in the first place in all of his previous four heats. With a final place, he thus also takes the record for the most direct qualifications to the final in a row and joins Sanna Nielsen’s record for the most direct qualifications to the final, and moves up to the second place on the list of the most final places in the modern Melodifestivalen. He has also gone directly to the final once as a songwriter, for Molly Sandén‘s “Youniverse” (2016), a song which, however, did not win its heat.
The duo SCARLET is the third anonymous act of the year, after Fröken Snusk and APOC in Smash Into Pieces. Before last year, Norwegian Kamferdrops (2018) was the only anonymous artist who competed in Melodifestivalen. SCARLET’s song “Circus X” has eight songwriters and thus ties the Melodifestivalen record with Outtrigger (2014) and Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods (2023). The picture production of the act is planned to have 104 clips, which is the most this year, next to Maria Sur at 86.
This week also features the year’s oldest artist, the 71-year-old Christer Ericsson in Lasse Stefanz. He joined the band in 1969, two years after it was formed by, among others, Olle Jönsson. In recent years, the band’s music has reached a new audience among young people who ride EPA at “30 km/h”, which is also the title of Lia Larsson‘s song. The debutant is backed by songwriters such as Thomas G:son and Jimmy Jansson, who went to the final with both their entries last week. G:son thus became the songwriter with the most final entries of all time.
Dotter has the longest song title of the year (“It’s Not Easy to Write a Love Song”), which is just three characters short of breaking into the top three of all time.
The New Format
Six entries compete in each heat, a total of 30 entries (previously, 28). Two entries per heat go directly to the final, two are still in the competition and two are eliminated. There are thus ten entries that directly qualify for the final from the five heats.
The final will continue to have 12 competing entries and the last two finalists will be presented in a completely new show, live from the arena directly after the fifth heat. Viewers will then have the opportunity to distribute even more hearts via the app and phone to their favorites among the ten remaining entries, i.e. those who came third and fourth in the five heats. All of these competing artists are in attendance and viewers get to watch a flash replay of their previous performances. The result is based on a tally of the number of votes in the heats and the number of votes in the extended part of the fifth heat.
The final will be just like the previous years with twelve competing entries where the viewers account for half of the votes via app/sms and half of the votes are cast by an international jury.
3/2 Heat 110/2 Heat 217/2 Heat 3- 24/2 Heat 4
- 2/3 Heat 5
- 9/3 Final
You can watch the show live at 20:00 CET HERE or via our Multi-window live feed.