By Aline Mahrud

WHERE? Malmö Arena, Malmö WHEN? Saturday 21 February 2026 WHERE TO WATCH? SVT

Omar made it out of last year’s Andra Chansen to finish 10th with Hush Hush, an attempt to bring the Bollywood to Melodifestivalen.

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

We said of it: ‘Omar was a contestant on the 1st season of Love Is Blind: Sweden. Inspired attempt to create something magical as if from a Bollywood film. This for us is the surprise package which we can’t see Sweden picking but would do really well at Eurovision because it’s something completely different but really entertaining.

Meira Omar Dooset Daram (I Love You)  (Anderz Wrethov, Jimmy ‘Joker’ Thörnfeldt, Laurell Barker, Meira Omar)

‘Fingers crossed the people behind the cameras can stay on their feet for it!’

Omar has a co-write once more for this year’s entry which has a similar stellar songwriting team as last year.

Smash Into Pieces Hollow (Benjamin Jennebo, Chris Adam Hedman Sörbye, Per Bergquist, Philip Strand)

Rock is a music genre that consistently does well at Melodifestivalen without often winning.

This rock Swedish 4-piece from Örebro came 3rd in both 2023 with Six Feet Under and in 2024 with Heroes Are Calling. After a break, could 2026 be their year?

Cimberley Eternity (Cimberly-Malaika Wanyonyi, David Lindgren Zacharias, Dino Medanhodzic, Melanie Wehbe)

Kenyan/Finnish singer who won the 19th season of Idols Sweden in 2023.

Timo Räisänen Ingenting är efter oss (Nothing is after us) (Andreas ‘Giri’ Lindbergh, Jimmy ‘Joker’ Thörnfeldt, Joy Deb, Lina Räisänen, Linnea Deb, Timo Räisänen)

Swedish rock/indie musician who has been part of Håkan Hellström’s group and has also played in the band Her Majesty.

Erika Jonsson Från landet (From the country) (Amir Aly, Erika Jonsson, Mikael Karlsson)

A country artist with over 25 million Spotify streams.

Felix Manu Hatar att jag älskar dig (Hate that I love you) (Axel Schylström, Felix Manu, Fernand MP, Karl Flyckt)

An up and coming Stockholm-based singer/rapper/producer. His music is described as a blend of R&B influences, smooth hip-hop melodies, and Afrobeat rhythms.

• 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 1 preview Heat 2 preview Heat 3 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