WHEN?: Saturday 27 February 2020
WHERE?: Annexet, Stockholm
Tess Merkel (3rd from left above) is the 4th member of supergroup Alcazar to compete in Melodifestivalen individually with Magnus Carlsson (2nd from left above performing Alcastar) making the final in 2006 and 2015 and Lina Hedlund doing so in 2019.
- Read on for reasons including the return of former winners The Mamas and Eric Saade
Alcazar made number 1 in our greatest Andra Chansen songs of all time and Carlsson’s appearance as lead singer for Barbados was 1 of the reasons we were first attracted to the greatest show on earth.
Hosting this heat with superproducer Christer Björkman will be Per Andersson and 2018 winner Benjamin Ingrosso’s mother Pernilla Wahlgren herself an MF runner-up in 2003.
- Tess Merkel Good Life (Tony Malm, Tess Merkel, Palle Hammarlund, Mats Tärnfors)
A third of the current incarnation of the incomparable Alcazar, Tess is the last member of the current line-up to attempt solo MF success following Lina Hedlund’s 11th-placed finish in 2019 with the Dotter-penned Victorious. Tess was part of the Alcazar line-ups that finished 3rd in both 2003 with Not A Sinner, Nor A Saint and 2005 with Alcastar. Four years later they were 5th with Stay The Night (watch above), they failed to make it out of Andra Chansen in 2010 with Headlines and in 2014 they were 3rd again with Blame It On The Disco (watch below).
2. Lovad Allting är precis likadan (Everything is exactly the same) (Mattias Andréasson, Alexander Nivek, Lova Drevstam, Albin Johnsén)
3. Efraim Leo Best Of Me (Efraim Leo, Cornelia Jakobsdotter, Amanda Björkegren, Herman Gardarfve)
4. The Mamas In The Middle (Emily Falvey, Robin Stjernberg, Jimmy Jansson)
The Mamas enlist former 2013 Melodifestivalen winner Stjernberg as well as Jansson who had co-written most MF entries in 2020 at 6. In 2019 they backed MF winner John Lundvik to 5th in Israel and last year they didn’t make it to Rotterdam despite winning MF because COVID-19 caused the 65th contest’s postponement to this year.
5. Sannex All Inclusive (Greta Svensson, Hans Thorstensson)
6. Clara Klingenström Behöver inte dig idag (Do Not Need You Today) (Clara Klingenström, Bobby Ljunggren, David Lindgren Zacharias)
7. Eric Saade Every Minute (Eric Saade, Linnea Deb, Joy Deb, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt)
Saade won MF in 2011 with Popular and finished 3rd in Dusseldorf (watch above). He returned with Sting in 2015 and placed 5th behind eventual contest winner Måns Zelmerlöw (watch below). Co-writer Joy Deb has co-written 2 previous MF winners in Heroes and You which triumphed in 2013 for Robin Stjernberg, a former member of boy band What’s Up! with Saade. In 2019 Saade co-hosted MF and the following year he released his 5th solo album.
Keep an eye out for monstagigz.com as we’ll be previewing all 28 songs after we’ve heard them and predicting how they’ll do in the run-up to their heats. We’ll also predict the qualifiers in each heat in anticipation of Saturday’s show. MF: #GreatestShowOnEarth. Read our previews of heats 1 to 3 elsewhere on this site by using the search function.
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