By Aline Mahrud

WHEN?: 7pm UK time Saturday 4 February 2023

WHERE?: Scandinavium, Gothenburg WHERE DO I WATCH?: SVT Play

Melodifestivalen returns to the venue of the 1985 Eurovision for a 1st heat in its 2023 edition which sees the swift return to the MF stage of the contest’s 1st openly transgender participant – Tone Sekelius (pictured above) – who finished 5th last year with the uptempo anthem My Way.

• Read on for reasons including Victor Crone, Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Eva Rydberg and Ewa Roos

Sekelius has a team of experieinced MF writers behind her entry Rhythm Of My Show which includes Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt who has a credit on this season’s most anticipated song, 2012 Eurovision winner Loreen’s entry in the 4th and final heat.

1. Tone Sekelius Rhythm Of My Show (Anderz Wrethov, Dino Medanhodzic, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Tone Sekelius)

In 2022 we said: ‘1 of our worst forecasts this year was that MF’s 1st trans contestant would finish last in Heat 2. My Way is a grower and was far better sung live than we feared and we very much wanted this would-be anthem to have another shot at glory in the finalen.’

2. Loulou LaMotte Inga sorger (No Sorrows) (Jonas Thander, Loulou LaMotte)

LaMotte won MF in 2020 as part of The Mamas although the Eurovision Song Contest was cancelled because of Covid that year. She did however back Swedish entry John Lundvik in the 2019 final in Tel Aviv with The Mamas (on the left in the clip above) when they finished 5th.

6. Eva Rydberg and Ewa Roos Länge leve livet (Long Live Life) (Emil Vaker, Henric Pierroff, Kalle Rydberg)

This duo performed the life out of the very retro Rena Rama Ding Dong in 2021 propelling it to the Second Chance round. The new song is co-written by 79-year-old Rydberg’s son and Roos is a relatively young 73.

5. Victor Crone Diamonds (David Lindgren Zacharias, Peter Kvint, Victor Crone)

Swedish singer Crone represented Estonia in 2019 with Storm in Tel Aviv finishing 20th. He finished 9th in Melodifestivalen a year later with Troubled Waters.

7. Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods Where You Are (Sávežan) (Calle Hellberg, Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Joy Deb, Oliver Belvelin, Oscar Christiansson, Richard Lästh, Tobias Lundgren, William Segerdahl)

Fjällgren is an interpreter of Sámi joik and finished 2nd in MF in 2015, 3rd in 2017 and 4th in 2019. Can he break his cycle of diminishing returns after a 4-year break? He certainly has enough songwriting help to aid him to do just that.

Of the new names to us in this heat we urge you to check out 1 of our favourites sites Scandipop.

4. Elov & Beny Raggen går (The Rag Goes) (Johan Werner, Kristian Wejshag, Mattias Elovsson, Oscar Kilenius, Tim Larsson)

3. Rejhan Haunted (Albin Johnsén, Mattias Andréasson, Pontus Söderman, Tilde “Ronia” Wrigsell)

• Keep an eye on monstagigz.com during January as we’ll be previewing 2023’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. Heat 2 preview Heat 3 preview Heat 4 preview Heat 1 predictions Heat 2 predictions Heat 3 predictions Heat 4 predictions Semi final predictions Finalen predictions
• In March we’ll forecast how the finalen will go and how each of the 12 qualifiers would do in May in Liverpool at Eurovision.
• Picture via Facebook courtesy Tone Sekelius, Melodifestivalen and SVT
• Have you heard any of these songs or seen any of these shows? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
• Enjoyed this review? Follow monstagigz on Twitter @NeilDurham, email neildurham3@gmail.com and check us out on Instagram and Facebook