It’s week 4 in Melloland, the fourth preliminary heat of the musical cirkus travelling around the country in order to find the Swedish representative for the Eurovision Song Contest. The Melfest final of the 9th of March is getting closer, and we are already looking forward to the big Europe-wide show to be held in Malmö this May.
There are another six acts participating this week and the ones gaining the voters’ favor and taking the first and second position will go straight to the final. Those on third and fourth places will still have another chance in a vote that will take place after next week’s fifth and final preliminary heat.
We were given a sneak peek at the rehearsals for Heat 4 ahead of Saturday’s live show, so below you can read what we thought about the entries and what you can expect from the show this week.
1) Albin Tingwall – Done Getting Over You
Albin Tingwall is known from his stint on Idol in 2022, in which he took a deserved second place. So we know the boy can sing, and he does deliver this perfectly fine pop tune very nicely. For the staging they have gone with the typical Anton Ewald treatment, with Albin showing some dance moves along with the backup dancers. One could have wished for something a bit more up-to-date from the school of Harry Styles, because Albin does have plenty of potential.
2) Lia Larsson – 30 km/h
Another representative of the epadunk genre, that is hugely popular with the younger demographic. Lia Larsson made her name on TikTok dancing to other people’s songs, and she is not much of a singer (the backup singers have their work cut out for them). The number is colorful and fun-filled as you would expect, when she’s singing about going 30 km/h on the epa traktor, while the beat is more like 160 bpm. The song is pretty much from the same mass production line that she’s been churning out tunes from at a pace like one per week.
3) Dotter – It’s Not Easy to Write a Love Song
Our long-time favorite Dotter is back in the running for the fourth time. This time she is bringing a very well crafted mid-tempo pop song with wonderful melodies and plenty of dynamics. Her voice really gets to shine as the song is so well-suited for her, which is of course not a surprise since she has written it herself with her partner Dino. The staging is just her and a grand piano, which really looks stylish (but some people are saying there’s a bit too many similarities to Loreen’s look and feel last year). In any case, the best entry of the year so far (and not just because I have my pink fangirl glasses on).
4) Scarlet – Circus X
Scarlet and Thirsty form this metal duo, that brings some fun horror pop / rock / metal to the Mello stage. They are a well-known act in rock circles, but are making their debut for the masses. They are cool characters, a skeleton and a vampire, and they bring matching psychedelic graphics in black and white, yellow and red. And the dancers also look very cool as scary black bird-like figures. Witches and scary Halloweeny stuff has been something of a trend in Eurovision qualifications this year, and this one is definitely better than the one Ireland are sending to ESC.
5) Lasse Stefanz – En sång om sommaren
One of the biggest bands in the Swedish dansdand genre, Lasse Stefanz have been around since 1974 (that’s 50 years!) and have recorded something like 800 songs. They are returning to Melfest after 12 years with a rather traditional but country-tinged dansband song. Country is of course the height of fashion this year, so those twangy guitars, the violin and the accordion are the best part of this entry. The staging has them standing on jetty pontoons by the water, which is matching with the summer theme of the song.
6) Danny Saucedo – Happy That You Found Me
Danny Saucedo famously took two second places in Melodifestivalen back in 2011 and 2012 and he is now bringing what could have been the third part of the trilogy, i.e. returning to his 2010s style of music. It would have been great if he had updated the sound to contemporary standards the way Loreen did last year, but this is a bit too predictable without any surprises. Both the singing and the dancing has been left to Danny alone, and it feels they could have utilised his dancing skills a bit more instead of standing still on the stairs in the grand archway of the staging. Still, he is so beloved by the people it would be a big surprise if this didn’t go straight to the final.
Be sure to catch Melodifestivalen Heat 4 at SVT1 or SVTPlay on Saturday the 24th of February at 8pm
All photos: Stina Stjernkvist / SVT
