By Aline Mahrud

WHERE? Saab Arena, Linköping WHEN? Saturday 31 January 2026 WHERE TO WATCH? SVT

A-Teens had UK hits with Upside Down and Halfway Around The World as well as 2 ABBA covers a quarter of a century ago and mark their reformation in Melodifestivalen’s 66th year.

• Read on for reasons including more detail about this opening show’s 6 acts

We hope the change seeing all entries released to streaming platforms on the Friday ahead of their Saturday semi continues meaning we no longer have to wait for the top 2 songs in each heat to drop to fans once all heats have taken place.

Each of the 2 heat winners progress to the final with only the 3rd placed song going forward to a run-off for 2 additional final places at the end of heat 5.

A-Teens Iconic (Dino Medanhodzic, Jimmy Jansson, Lina Hansson, Moa ”Cazzi Opeia” Carlebecker, Thomas G:son)

Stockholm-based A-Teens will remind of 90s contemporaries Alcazar and Steps and disbanded in 2004 after 10 top 10 hits in their native Sweden.

They foreshadowed their MF return with a performance as a 2024 interval act (watch above) and have since played gigs including London’s Mighty Hoopla.

Iconic is co-written by some of our favourite MF writers and we’re hopeful for an upbeat pop treat.

Greczula Half Of Me (Andreas Werling, Karl Ivert, Kian Sang, Greczula)

Kristofer Greczula finished 3rd last year and started as a vocalist in the rock group Damn Delicious. Last year’s co-write sounded very Queen. There’s no point in reminding people of Freddie Mercury without a bold performance and that’s what we received when it won Heat 3. We believed that piece of glam rock nostalgia would actually earn Sweden its best result in Eurovision 2025 of all its MF choices and that it was exactly the sort of entry the UK should be sending. But it was not to be. He has different co-writers this year.

Jacqline Woman (Dino Medanhodzic, Jimmy Jansson, Moa ”Cazzi Opeia” Carlebecker, Thomas G:son)

Effortless reminded of Donna Summer’s majestic I Feel Love from its opening and was Dotter squeeze’s Medanhodzic’s 2nd song in the finalen and also Opeia’s 2nd. We love the ‘Call the police!’ hook and there’s a stellar team once again assembled for this follow up including both aforementioned writers.

Indra Beautiful Lie (Anderz Wrethov, Indra, Kristofer Strandberg, Laurell Barker, Robert Skowronski)

1 of 3 newcomers in this opening heat. Co-writer Wrethov has written 44 MF entries, the 3rd highest. He’s also had 3 victories – in 2019, 2021 and 2025. Co-writer Skowronski also helped Wrethov with KAJ’s Bara Bada Bastu.

Noll2 Berusade ord (Drunk words) (Fredrik Andersson, Jakob Westerlund, Wilmer Öberg)

Noll2 is a Swedish pop duo.

Junior Lerin Copacabana Boy (Fredrik Andersson)

Manuel ‘Junior’ Marques Lerin is singing what is expected to be an uptempo potentially Latin song.

• Keep an eye on monstagigz.com during January as we’ll be previewing 2026’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 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 Vienna at Eurovision.
• Picture via Facebook courtesy A-Teens, 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