By Aline Mahrud

WHERE? Gärdehov, Sundsvall WHEN? Saturday 28 February 2026 WHERE TO WATCH? SVT

Nielsen is the 2nd former Melodifestivalen winner competing in its 66th year and finished 3rd in Copenhagen in 2014 singing the gorgeous Undo.

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

She’s no stranger to MF and has competed a fabulous 7 times previously with our favourites being the joyous disco stormer I’m In Love (4th in 2011) and haunting ballad Empty Room (3rd in 2008)

Sanna Nielsen  Waste Your Love (Jimmy Jansson, Peter Boström, Thomas G:son)

There are Eurovision winners in Nielsen’s writing team this year and hopes are high for a competitive song although the title is curious.

Nielsen 1st competed in 2001 with I går, i dag (Yesterday, Today) finishing 3rd. Hela världen för mig (The whole world to me) followed 2 years later finishing 5th.

The schlagertastic Du och jag mot världen (You and me against the world), a duet with MF royalty Fredrik Kempe, made 8th in 2005.

And the only entry we’ve not yet mentioned is glorious stomper Vågar du, vågar jag (If you dare, I dare too) which made 7th in 2007.

Bladë Who You Are (Isa Tengblad, Josefina Carlbom)

Co-writer Tengblad has competed as a performer twice in MF before, finishing 7th in 2015 with Don’t Stop and failing to progress from the Andra Chansen in 2016 with I Will Wait. She co-wrote Malou Prytz’s I Do Me which finished 12th in 2019.

AleXa Tongue Tied (Alexaundra Christine Schneiderman, Ellen Berg, Jonatan Gusmark, Ludvig Evers, Moa ‘Cazzi Opeia’ Carlebecker)

This American K-pop singer based in South Korea won the American Song Contest for Oklahoma in 2022 with Wonderland. Opeia and Berg have credits on her winning song.

Vilhelm Buchaus Hearts Don’t Lie (David Zandén, Isa Molin, Vilhelm Buchaus)

Buchaus competed last year with I’m Yours but just missed out on a final spot. Co-writer Molin wrote the maginificent Hold Me Closer with Cornelia Jakobs which finished 4th in Turin in 2022.

Juliett Långt från alla andra (Far from everyone else) (David Själin, Elias Kask, Herman Gardarfve, Ludvig Alamanos, Romeo Er-Melin, Valter Wigren)

5-strong boy band performing an uptempo song about love, desire and grabbing the moment.

Lilla Al-Fadji Delulu (Daniel Réhn, Edward af Sillén, Lilla Al-Fadji, Fredrik Sonefors, Melanie Wehbe, Mikaela Samuelsson)

Likely novelty song from a fictional Swedish comedy character.

• 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 4 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 Sanna Nielsen, 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