WHEN?: Saturday 6 February 2021
WHERE?: Annexet, Stockholm
It’s business as usual for Melodifestivalen in 2021 as Heat 1 opens with the pre-contest favourite, this year Danny Saucedo (pictured above), as it did last year when Felix Sandman could only make Andra Chansen.
- Read on for reasons including details of other Heat 1 returning acts including Jessica Andersson, Paul Rey and Arvingarna
There are differences though and Covid-19 for example means the show won’t tour outside Stockholm and presenter and producer Christer Björkman will bid farewell to Melodifestivalen this year after 2 decades at the helm.
Björkman will be joined as host by 2004 winner Lena Philipsson who sang our greatest Melodifestivalen winner.
The biggest story of Melodifestivalen 2021 is the return of 2020’s top 2, The Mamas and Dotter, who were separated by only 1 point back in March 2020 but both feature in separate, later heats and we will preview them on Fridays in January.
7. Danny Saucedo Dandi dansa (Danny Saucedo, Karl-Johan Råsmark)
Saucedo was asked by departing Melodifestivalen supervisor Björkman to co-host but decided to compete instead. He has competed 3 times each time as co-writer. In 2009 his boy band EMD finished 3rd with Baby Goodbye, he was 2nd in 2011 with In The Club (watch above) and runner-up a year later with Amazing (watch below).
3. Jessica Andersson Horizon (David Kreuger, Fredrik Kempe, Marcus Lidén, Christian Holmström)
Andersson won MF as part of duo Fame with Give Me Your Love in 2003 finishing 5th in Riga. She has competed solo in Melodifestivalen 5 times – making the final in 2010 (I Did It For Love, 8th), 2015 (8th again with Can’t Hurt Me Now) and 2018 (11th with Party Voice). Her other entries not making the finalen were Kalla nätter in 2006 and Kom in 2007. In 2011 she won Let’s Dance, Sweden’s Strictly, she’s released 4 albums including a Christmas release with Magnus Carlsson and performed in Little Shop Of Horrors.
4. Paul Rey The Missing Piece (Fredrik Sonefors, Laurell Barker, Paul Rey)
Rey made the finalen from Andra Chansen and finished 6th from 2nd in the running order, traditionally the least coveted slot with Talking In My Sleep, which he also co-wrote.
5. Arvingarna Tänker inte alls gå hem (Not going to go home at all) (Stefan Brunzell, Nanne Grönvall, Thomas G:son, Bobby Ljunggren)
The man band’s 6th MF entry follows victory in 1993 when they placed 7th in Millstreet with Eloise. Their last entry was 2019 when I Do, also co-written by MF royalty Grönvall, finished 7th.
Other acts are:
- Kadiatou One Touch (Joy Deb, Linnea Deb, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Anderz Wrethov)
- Lillasyster Pretender (sak Hallén, Jakob Redtzer, Martin Westerstrand, Ian Paolo Lira, Palle Hammarlund)
6. Nathalie Brydolf Fingerprints (Andreas Stone Johansson, Etta Zelmani, Laurell Barker, Anna-Klara Folin)
Keep an eye on monstagigz.com during January as we’ll be previewing 2021’s 28 entries. During February this site will predict how each heat will go on the Friday after we’ve heard the songs before the Saturday events. In March we’ll forecast how the finalen will go and how each of the 12 qualifiers would do in May in Rotterdam at Eurovision.
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