WHEN?: Saturday 13 February 2021

WHERE?: Annexet, Stockholm

Sweden seems to be embracing the nostalgic and fun songs this year ahead of the ballads which might work in the favour of Eurovision and Melodifestivalen winner Charlotte Perrelli who returns here with a song we’re expecting to be both uptempo and reminding of her experience as well as vitality.

• Read on for reasons including our predictions for who will go direkt til finalen and to Andra Chansen from this heat

1. Charlotte Perrelli Still Young (Thomas G:son, Bobby Ljunggren, Erik Bernholm, Charlie Gustavsson) PREDICTION: Finalen

She won Eurovision in 1999 and Melodifestivalen in 2008 but has failed to make it out of her semi on each of the last two occasions. Still Young is both age-appropriate and exactly the sort of upbeat pop for which she is best loved.

2. Emil Assergård Om allting skiter sig (If everything sucks) (Emil Assergård, Jimmy Jansson, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Anderz Wrethov, Johanna Wrethov) PREDICTION: Andra Chansen

Assergård is a singer/songwriter with three albums to his name including the platinum 2019 release Leva Livet / En samling. This is stirring folk which will doubtless find its fanbase as Lillasyster did from this position in the running order in Heat 1.

3. Klara Hammarström Beat Of Broken Hearts (David Kreuger, Fredrik Kempe, Niklas Carson Mattson, Andreas Wijk) PREDICTION: 5th

Hammarström crashed out in her semi last year and this isn’t the ballad that we were expecting. Co-author Kempe has won Melodifestivalen multiple times as a songwriter but has only penned this and the underperforming Horizon this year.

4. Mustasch Contagious (Ralf Gyllenhammar, David Johannesson) PREDICTION: Finalen

Lead singer Ralf Gyllenhammar finished 7th with Bed On Fire in 2013 and this is a strong rock track. It isn’t especially to our tastes but we were surprised by the success of Lillasyster in Heat 1 and can see this being even more successful.

LISTEN TO ONE-MINUTE CLIPS OF THESE SONGS

5. Elisa Den du är (Who You Are) (Bobby Ljunggren, Ingela “Pling” Forsman, Elisa Lindström) PREDICTION: 7th

Lead singer for dansband Elisa’s, Elisa finished 5th in her semi in 2014 with Casanova. This is pleasant and melodic fare we think will struggle to make it out of this fine and diverse semi.

6. Alvaro Estrella Baila Baila (Anders Wrethov, Linnea Deb, Jimmy ‘Joker’ Thörnfeldt) PREDICTION: 6th

Estrella was a finalist with Mendez last year finishing 11th with a similarly Latin-inspired number and when solo with the fun uptempo Bedroom did not qualify in 2014. This feels slightly more by-numbers than his duet.

7. Tusse Voices (Joy Deb, Linnea Deb, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Anderz Wrethov) PREDICTION: Andra Chansen

Last year’s Swedish Idol winner is a Congolese-Swedish singer with a fine voice but we were expecting a little more from the song given it has a running order position which we have seen the big favourites Danny Saucedo and Dotter
be successful from in the last two weeks. Rhyming the title with ‘choices’ in the chorus is not quite a ‘fire, higher, desire’ progression but seems like the most obvious thing to do.

• Picture via Facebook courtesy Charlotte Perrelli and  SVT Melodifestivalen
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