By Aline Mahrud

WHEN? 7pm UK time Saturday 4 February 2023

WHERE? Scandinavium, Gothenburg

WHERE DO I WATCH? SVT Play 

We suspect that the winner of this year’s Melodifestivalen isn’t within the 7 acts featured here not least because there are so many familiar faces here it feels more of a warm hug of a return than anything especially challenging – but there’s 3 more weeks to come for that.

• Read on for reasons including our finalen and Andra Chansen predictions

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

Tone finished 5th last year with the uptempo anthem My Way and MF’s 1st openly transgender participant feels like a brilliant person to kick off the 2023 edition of ‘the greatest show on Earth’. Always tricky to get a feel of a song from its 60-second clip but Rhythm Of My Show sounds less of an attempt at a crowdpleaser than its predecessor and more of a statement of intent – and we’re here for it. It’s a mood.

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

Much more uptempo than we were expecting. 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 when they finished 5th. Despite this being in Swedish – not a language we understand much of – we think this is going to do very well.

3. Rejhan Haunted (Albin Johnsén, Mattias Andréasson, Pontus Söderman, Tilde “Ronia” Wrigsell) PREDICTION: 7th

Always especially difficult to judge a ballad like this on just of a third of its length but this is pleasant without being especially groundbreaking. Nice though.

4. Elov & Beny Raggen går (The Rag Goes) (Johan Werner, Kristian Wejshag, Mattias Elovsson, Oscar Kilenius, Tim Larsson) PREDICTION: 6th

We’re onto the dancefloor and this duo boasts an uptempo vibe and a catchy whistling hook. Lots of competition from better known names in this heat which might be a challenge for this fun bop.

LISTEN TO ONE-MINUTE CLIPS OF THESE SONGS

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

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. This is less radio-friendly than previous efforts but more of an attempt at a hit we think.

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

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. 20s doo-wap isn’t necessarily a genre we’re desperate for a return of but this is effortlessly charming from these ‘queens of the night’ and boasts 1 key change here.

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) PREDICTION: 5th

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. But maybe a Swedish joik entry just isn’t what the contest needs after the success of Norwegians KEiiNO. in 2019. This can’t help but fall a little flat in comparison.

• Picture via YouTube courtesy SVT Melodifestivalen
• Have you heard any of these songs or seen any of these shows? Let us know what you thought in the comments below Heat 1 preview Heat 2 preview Heat 3 preview Heat 4 preview Heat 2 predictions Heat 3 predictions Heat 4 predictions Semi final predictions Finalen predictions
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