We are one week away from the big final and tonight we will find out the last finalists of Melodifestivalen 2024!
The line-up
- Marcus & Martinus – Unforgettable
Text & music: Joy Deb, Linnea Deb, Marcus Gunnarsen, Martinus Gunnarsen, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt - Chelsea Muco – Controlla
Text & music: Anderz Wrethov, Chelsea Muco, Elsa Carmona Oljelund, FERNAND MP, Karl Flyckt, Pa Modou - Jay Smith ‒ Back to My Roots
Text & music: Jay Smith, Jonas Jurström, Jonathan Keyes, Maria Jane Smith, Victor Thell - Elecktra ‒ Banne maj
Text & music: Anderz Wrethov, Elin Wrethov, Jonny Werner, Robin Werner - Annika Wickihalder ‒ Light
Text & music: Annika Wickihalder, Herman Gardarfve, Linnea Gawell, Patrik Jean - Medina ‒ Que Sera
Text & music: Ali Jammali, Anderz Wrethov, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Sami Rekik
Interesting facts of the week (heat 5)
For the first time since 1971, Melodifestivalen broadcasts a fifth heat of the competition. The historic first act on stage will be Marcus & Martinus with “Unforgettable”.
On Saturday, we also see the Final Qual for the first time, where the last two entries in the final will be chosen. The entries’ votes from the heats are recalculated into points, after which the viewers can vote again during the program and thus the same number of points will be added. The final qual takes place immediately after the heat and is part of the same broadcast.
The venue for the broadcast is Karlstad, which made its Melodifestivalen debut as a venue in 2004 and returned in 2006. A bigger impression was made in 2013, when the Second Chance show was decided in the town and Robin Stjernberg managed to fight his way to the final and win the whole competition with “You”. The last visit in Karlstad took place in 2018 when Benjamin Ingrosso‘s “Dance You Off” advanced to the final and won Melodifestivalen 2018.
Five of the eight final entries so far are performed by female artists, that is 62,5 percent. If two more female entries qualify for the four remaining final places, the female share of the final entries will be 58,3 percent. This would be the highest rating since 2009, when nearly 70 percent of the final entries were performed by female artists. After a female-dominated ’00s, the ’10s in the Melodifestivalen finals were strongly male-dominated.
The odds favorites for heat 5 are the two duos Marcus & Martinus and Medina. The last time that neither of the two entries that went to the final from a heat were performed by a soloist was in the third heat in 2013, when Ravaillacz and State of Drama took the final places. Two duos or duets have never taken the final places in a heat.
The Norwegian twin duo Marcus & Martinus made their Melodifestivalen debut in 2023 with “Air”, which became the first entry in Melodifestivalen’s history to go directly to the final without any of the entry’s artists having lived in Sweden at any time. The entry became the fourth, with only foreign artists to go directly to the final from a heat, after Sanne Salomonsen (2005), Swingfly (2011) and Maria Sur (2023).
In the final of 2023, Marcus & Martinus finished in the second place and tied Arja Saijonmaa (1987) as the best placed completely foreign act ever.
The artists who finished in the second place the previous year and won Melodifestivalen the year after are only five: Monica Zetterlund in 1963, Lasse Berghagen in 1975, Chips in 1982, Carola in 1991 and Friends in 2001.
Medina performs “Que sera”, which is the first with Swedish lyrics to go out last in the last heat since Carola sang “Evighet” in 2006.
In this heat, we also see the drag show artist Elecktra. Previously, After Dark (2004, 2007 and 2016), Rickard Engfors (2005), Babsan (2011) and Pink Pistols (2014) have competed with drag, which means that the form of entertainment celebrates its 20th anniversary in Melodifestivalen this year, after the kick-off with “La dolce vita” in 2004.
Behind the stage name Elecktra hides Robin Werner, a trained make-up artist who has previously worked with the make-up of, among others, 2024 presenter Carina Berg and also Carolina Gynning, sidekick in heat 3.
In this week’s heat we also see the two former Idol participants Jay Smith (2010, winner) and Annika Wickihalder (2021).
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 324/2 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.