Melodifestivalen has reached its fourth week, which means we will have heard all the Eurovision aspirants by Saturday. Here we will take a look at what to expect as the acts have now come to Malmö.
Last week we saw Mariette and Mohombi taking their spots straight to the final. That made Mariette historic, as she has now gone straight to the final all four times she has participated. No one else has managed that feat.
This week’s competition is kicked off my none other than Frida Öhrn, who we know and love from Cookies ‘n Beans, as well as from her classic hit with Oh Laura – Release me. Frida is bringing a sort of arena rock anthem with country vibes. The whole thing is really carried by her lovely raspy voice and stage charisma.
William Stridh is up second with a rather bland pop song in Swedish. He is a Swedish Idol graduate from 2018, when he ended in fifth place. Also Jakob Karlberg, who is singing on the sixth spot on Saturday, has a Swedish-language pop entry. Jakob had a huge summer hit with his Fan va bra in 2015. His Mello entry is hitting home a bit more directly than William’s one, but these two will very likely be seen at the bottom of the result table.
Melodifestivalen veteran and legend Nanne Grönvall is back after 13 years away from the Mello circus. She is bringing her usual fun and energetic persona and singing about wanting to do Carpool Karaoke with James Corden. The number is supposed to be rather crazy and entertaining.
Victor Crone represented Estonia in Eurovision last year rather successfully so he is now back for more in his native country. He has been seen at Mello earlier as well, along with Behrang Miri in 2015. His song has been compared to Avicii‘s EDM-meets-country hits, and it is very likely to get him to the final one way or another.
Ellen Benediktson and Simon Peyron are the only duet in this year’s competition. They are both returning to Melodifestivalen as well. Ellen sang Songbird in 2014 and Simon participated with his band Outrigger that same year. And it also needs to be mentioned that Ellen has released some absolutely fabulous dark pop tunes under the alias of Laura Nox… One of the songwriters here is Paul Rey, who we saw in week 2. He was originally on this song with Ellen, but when his other entry was chosen for Melodifestivalen, they brought in Simon. Everybody is comparing the song to Lady Gaga‘s and Bradley Cooper‘s big movie hit Shallow and it is certainly sounding like a very strong ballad.
The sweet spot of closing the competition goes to Hanna Ferm, who charmed everybody on Swedish Idol 2017 (finished 2nd) and last year’s Melodifestivalen in her duet with Liamoo. Getting to finish the fourth week has been reserved to strong favorites for the top spot, and Hanna looks to be living up to the hype. She brings us quirky pop that is right up our alley – with plenty of wohoos and ladidadidaas. 😉 Comparisons are being drawn to the likes of Ava Max or Marina. We are really hoping this will be a real contender for Eurovision, as it is about time Sweden sent a strong female act after all these years of rather similar nice-looking and pleasant-sounding pop guys. Of course we would be happy if that was Dotter, Anna Bergendahl or Mariette as well, but Hanna would really bring that contemporary pop vibe of something that could be in the charts and on the radio around Europe.
