By Aline Mahrud

WHEN?: 7pm UK time Saturday 11 February 2023

WHERE?: Saab Arena, Linköping WHERE DO I WATCH?: SVT Play

Wiktoria (pictured) returns to MF after 4 years away with her 4th entry with 4th being her best ever finish with her debut entry Save Me in 2016.

• Read on for reasons including Wiktoria, Theoz and Panetoz

1. Wiktoria All My Life (Where Have You Been) (Herman Gardarfve, Melanie Wehbe, Patrik Jean, Wiktoria Johansson)

Wiktoria has a co-writing credit here as she did in 2019 when beautiful rain-soaked ballad Not With Me finished 6th. That year we thought it was a potential Eurovision winner.

As I Lay Me Down was uptempo in 2017 finishing 6th again and we thought it the best entry that year.

Her original entry Save Me was similarly upbeat in 2016 producing her best ever result although we weren’t so keen on its staging.

Wiktoria is seemingly more popular with die-hard MF fanatics than either the public or jurors who might be less than impressed by her extremely committed vocal. Hard to know whether this will be a banger or a ballad but it’s the song we’re most excited for in this heat.

7. Theoz Mer av dig (More Of You) (Axel Schylström, Jakob Redtzer, Peter Boström, Thomas G:son)

17-year-old Theoz performed the poppy Som du vill (As You Wish) in 2022 finishing 7th in the contest and earning a top 10 hit in his native country. Co-writer Schylström appears later in the selection as a performer and G:son famously co-penned Loreen’s 2012 contest winner Euphoria.

4. Panetoz On My Way (Anders Wigelius, Daniel Nzinga, Jimmy Jansson, Nebeyu Baheru, Njol Badjie, Pa Modou Badjie, Robert Norberg)

This male quintet finished 9th with Efter Solsken (After sunshine) in 2014 and 2 years later Håll om mig hårt (Hold me hard) was 8th. 1st English language entry for them with prolific MF collaborator Jansson once again aboard this is unlikely to be a ballad. In 2016 they opened the show and were our favourite act.

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

2. Eden Comfortable (Benjamin Rosenbohm, Eden Alm, Emil Adler Lei, Julie Aagaard)

6. Maria Sur Never Give Up (Anderz Wrethov, Laurell Barker)

Co-writer Barker performs in the following heat and co-wrote Switzerland’s 2019 entry You Got Me for Luca Hänni which finished 4th.

5. Tennessee Tears Now I Know (Anderz Wrethov, Jonas Hermansson, Thomas Stengaard, Tilda Feuk)

3. Uje Brandelius Grytan (Stew) (Uje Brandelius)

• 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 1 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 Wiktoria, 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