The music extravaganza that is Melodifestivalen has been keeping people glued to their TV sets on Saturday evenings. We are already in week three, so we are going to take a look at what to expect and the acts currently up north in Luleå on the touring musical circus.
Last week we saw two amazing female artists heading straight to the final, Dotter and Anna Bergendahl. This is something that actually hasn’t happened in 11 years, as the voting system and voting patterns of certain viewer groups seem to have somewhat favored (young) men. We are of course happy that the girls are looking strong this year. Maybe we will finally send a female artist to Eurovision, it’s been such a long time and the Eurovision audiences seem to have grown tired of the nice-looking boys serving pop perfection. 😉
This week kicks off with another female contender to the Mello crown, Mariette. She is coming back for her fourth Melodifestivalen and has been strong on all of her previous entries. This time we are happy to see her doing more of her own thing, more organic and with a bit of guitar-slinging. We are hoping her strong charisma will shine through, because that is what she is leaning on this time instead of impressive bouncy dancers or 8 meter long veils.
Second in the running is Albin Johnsén, who had a big hit with Din Soldat (featuring the amazing Kristin Amparo). This time he is bringing something in the vein of Hov1 or other similar acts the kids are liking nowadays. His staging looked rather messy from the previews, too many things going on at the same time.
Drängarna is a four-man group that has been making music for something like 25 years now, I guess Swedish dansband music with strong folk music influences like the violin and the accordion thrown in. Catchy in a hillbilly kind of way, the children willl certainly like it. On the other hand the young ones may throw their votes behind Anis Don Demina, who seems to be the biggest Mello star on Tik Tok right now. The references for his upbeat party song seem to be something like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
Amanda Aasa won her spot through the P4 Nästa singing contest arranged by local stations of Swedish public radio. This route to the Melodifestivalen has not been really successful, as none of these artists has gone through to the final or even the Andra Chansen. Amanda’s light version of Veronica Maggio pop is not likely to change that either. But there’s another artist in this heat, who was also found through the P4 Nästa contest and chosen to do a strong Jörgen Elofsson -penned ballad. Faith Kakembo, who regularly works as an anesthetic nurse, could actually be the surprise breakthrough of this heat with her soulful and warm delivery.
The evening will be closed by Mohombi, who made a splash last year with his Hello ending up on 5th place in the final. He is back for another hit song, but it remains to be seen if Winners is strong enough to take him even higher than last time around.
Photos © Nina Uddin
