By Aline Mahrud

WHEN? 7pm UK time Saturday 4 March 2023

WHERE? Hägglunds Arena, Örnsköldsvik

WHERE DO I WATCH? SVT Play 

We’ve now seen the performances, all the songs are available and below we predict how each of the songs in Saturday’s semi final – or andra chansen as we prefer to call it – would fare in May in Liverpool at the Eurovision Song Contest itself.

• Read on for reasons including our thoughts on acts including Theoz, Tennessee Tears, Mariette and Melanie Wehbe

Theoz Mer av dig (More Of You) (Axel Schylström, Jakob Redtzer, Peter Boström, Thomas G:son) PREDICTION: 11to 15th

The semi final song we would most like to see in the finalen. 17-year-old Theoz (main picture) performs a highly-choreographed, uptempo and poppy song that reminds us of Take That at their athletic early 90s best. Would benefit to these ears with a switch to English but that’s unlikely as it strives to prove it should make Sweden’s domestic final

Tennessee Tears Now I Know (Anderz Wrethov, Jonas Hermansson, Thomas Stengaard, Tilda Feuk) PREDICTION: 11th to 15th

Heat 2 provided the most unexpected result this season – Wiktoria’s non-qualification – and this made andra chansen alongside Theoz from it and is the next song we would most like to make the finalen. Country can be remarkably contemporary if done well and this boy/girl duo have a story to tell and about first love and we’re enjoying it.

Mariette One Day (Jimmy Jansson, Thomas G:son, Mariette Hansson) PREDICTION: 16th to 20th

Heat 4 was probably most stacked in terms of quality and, although we predicted she’d struggle, this was a strong performance of a catchy pop song. This is Mariette’s 5th MF appearance and it’s clear why she’s always made the finalen because she’s a quality act. This is probably our favourite of all the songs she entered and we’d love for her to make it to the Stockholm stage next week

Melanie Wehbe For The Show (David Lindgren Zacharias, Herman Gardarfve, Melanie Wehbe) PREDICTION: 16th to 20th

Heat 3 went down pretty much as we predicted and we think this mid-paced, ballad-esque number is going to struggle to make it to Stockholm but in terms of offering variety we’d love to see it there. 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. 

Kiana Where Did You Go (Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb) PREDICTION: 11th to 15th

SVT certainly has earned its money’s worth from Thörnfeldt and his 6 co-writes – this is the only 1 not to make the finalen. It will have been of some consolation that both entries that went direkt til finalen in Heat 4 were songs he’d co-written. This has both feet on the dancefloor, is enthusiastically and professionally performed – and we wouldn’t be surprised if it just sneaked past Wehbe to Stockholm.

Elov & Beny Raggen går (The Rag Goes) (Johan Werner, Kristian Wejshag, Mattias Elovsson, Oscar Kilenius, Tim Larsson) PREDICTION: 21st to 26th

MF started slowly for us with a rather tame Heat 1 and this is 1 of the better songs from it. A dancefloor banger staged in a rather generic and disappointing fashion.

Nordman Släpp alla sorger (Let go of all sorrows) (Jimmy Jansson, Thomas G:son) PREDICTION: 21st to 26th

Like Smash Into Pieces, Nordman offer something different to MF – a dark, almost gothic folk which definitely has its place. It’s not a genre we’ve much time for but there will definitely be an audience for this and it could sneak into the finalen.

Victor Crone Diamonds (David Lindgren Zacharias, Peter Kvint, Victor Crone) PREDICTION: non-qualifier

Crone has made a Melodifestivalen finalen before as well as Eurovision for Estonia and we expected a little more from this. It’s pleasant and a co-write but we’d be surprised if it progresses much further.

• 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 1 predictions Heat 2 predictions Heat 3 predictions Heat 4 predictions Finalen predictions
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