By Aline Mahrud

WHEN?: 7pm UK time Saturday 18 February 2023

WHERE?: Sparbanken Lidköping Arena, Lidköping WHERE DO I WATCH?: SVT Play

Last year our favourite MF entry was a songwriter performing her own tune (Cazzi Opeia’s I Can’t Get Enough) and this heat sees 2 women renowned for their work for others step up to the mike to perform their own work.

• Read on for reasons including Laurell, Melanie Wehbe and Marcus and Martinus

5. Laurell Sober (Anderz Wrethov, Andreas Johansson, Laurell Barker, Thomas Stengaard)

Laurell is a Canadian singer-songwriter living in Malmö who in 2019 was the 1st woman to have 3 songs competing in the Eurovision Song Contest final. In all, half a dozen of her co-writes have made Eurovision finals with her biggest success being the 4th place for Luca Hänni with She Got Me for Switzerland in 2019.

She’s started releasing her own material and her co-writers here show promise for something special. Her most recent solo single was Sober and below is Habit

3. Melanie Wehbe For The Show (David Lindgren Zacharias, Herman Gardarfve, Melanie Wehbe)

Wehbe co-wrote Move which won MF in 2020 when sung by The Mamas but never made it to Eurovision because it was Covid-cancelled that year. She released her own EP Bloom last year if you want to get a taste of what you can expect here.

1. Paul Rey Royals (Dino Medanhodzic, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Liam Cacatian Thomassen, Paul Rey)

Rey finished 6th in 2020 with Talking In My Sleep and 12th a year later with The Missing Piece. Last year he had a co-writing credit on our favourite song from 2021, the aforementioned song performed by Cazzi Opeia. This year his co-writers also include Medanhodzic who had 2 finalists last year and often writes for Dotter and LIAMOO, who has appeared at 3 MF finals.

4. Nordman Släpp alla sorger (Let go of all sorrows) (Jimmy Jansson, Thomas G:son)

This ethno-folk duo finished 9th in 2005 with Ödet var min väg (Fate was my way) and 6th in 2008 with I lågornas sken (In light of the flames)

Check out site Scandipop for the word on Heat 3’s new faces.

2. Casanovas Så kommer känslorna tillbaka (Then the feelings come back) (Henrik Sethsson, Mikael Karlsson)

6. Ida-Lova Låt hela stan se på (Let the whole town watch) (Andreas “Giri” Lindbergh, Ida-Lova Lind, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb)

7. Marcus and Martinus Air (Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb, Marcus Gunnarsen, Martinus Gunnarsen)

• 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 2 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