By Aline Mahrud

WHEN?: Saturday 1 March 2025 7pm UK time

WHERE?: Husqvarna Garden, Jönköping

Male soloists have perhaps surprisingly won each of the 1st 4 MF heats and we’ve our fingers crossed for female duo Scarlet (pictured above) to step up on Saturday and break that run with their hard gothic rock.

• Read on for reasons including Saga Ludvigsson, Arvingarna and Victoria Silvstedt

1. Arvingarna Ring Baby Ring (Stefan Brunzell, Thomas G:son) PREDICTION: 3rd

It’s more of the same as mature boy band Arvingarna return to MF for their 7th tilt at the title after winning with the Beatles-ish Eloise which saw them finish 7th in 1993 in Ireland.

Recent results included a 7th place finish in 2019 with I Do of which we said: ‘A much more upbeat, jollier and straightforward-sounding schlager entry than we were expecting. They certainly aren’t just here to make up the numbers and we would expect them to reach the final via Andra Chansen.’

2 years later they made the final again finishing 9th with Tänker inte alls gå hem (Not going to go home at all) of which we said: ‘There’s lots to enjoy in this schlager stomper of old. It interpolates elements of Steps’ fine cover of the Bee Gees’ Tragedy and It’s Raining Men by the Weather Girls which is a good start and the fact that the Swedish title sounds like something very rude in English is once heard and never forgotten. Like Saucedo, it’s bus loads of fun but we suspect it isn’t going to Eurovision and unlike Saucedo’s effort it would definitely have to switch to English for any chance of making it to the Eurovision final.’

2. Arwin This Dream Of Mine (Anderz Wrethov, Arwin Ismail, Jimmy ‘Joker’ Thörnfeldt, Julie ‘Kill J’ Aagaard, Peter Boström) PREDICTION: 6th

The 6th Thörnfeldt co-write in this year’s MF. Fragile vocals aren’t usually rewarded in MF and we fear this could go a similar way to AmenA last week.

3. Saga Ludvigsson Hate You So Much (Herman Gardarfve, Lisa Desmond, Saga Ludvigsson) PREDICTION: Final

We weren’t expecting country from Ludvigsson and country hasn’t done at all well in this year’s MF despite its current worldwide popularity. Co-writer of her entry, at the age of 18, she has participated in the talent show Talang, where she was a finalist, as well as in the Idol contest, finishing second.

LISTEN to the 60-second clips at SVT Play

4. Victoria Silvstedt Love It! (Jimmy Jansson, Thomas G:son) PREDICTION: 4th

We’ve been listening to Silvstedt’s 90s hits including Hello Hey!, a number 7 hit in Sweden, ever since she was announced as an MF contestant. The Swedish actress, singer, model, TV host was also crowned Miss World Sweden 1993. More understated than we were expecting and its result will very much depend on its live vocal.

5. Vilhelm Buchaus I’m Yours (Elias Edman, Jonatan Lahti, Simon Alexander Ward, Vilhelm Buchaus) PREDICTION: 5th

The 23-year-old singer is a musical theatre performer and we’re struggling to find much of excitement in the song.

6. Scarlet Sweet ‘n’ Psycho (Anderz Wrethov, Dino Medanhodzic, Jimmy ‘Joker’ Thörnfeldt, Scarlet Hunts, Thirsty) PREDICTION: Final

Only previous entry Circus X deserved better than crashing out in andra chansen last year and in 2025 the hard rock duo competes with a song co-written by Jimmy ‘Joker’ Thörnfeldt who is currently MF royalty having co-written 3 of Sweden’s last 4 MF winners. A step up from last year and we suspect this will be fighting for the same audience as Greczula in the final.

• Keep an eye on monstagigz.com during January as we’ll be previewing 2025’s 30 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 3 preview Heat 4 preview Heat 5 preview Heat 1 predictions Heat 2 predictions Heat 3 predictions Heat 4 predictions Heat 5 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 Basle at Eurovision.
• Picture via Facebook courtesy Mans Zelmerlow, 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