PREDICTIONS: Melodifestivalen 2021 finalen starring Dotter, Charlotte Perrelli, Danny Saucedo & Eric Saade

WHEN?: Saturday 13 March 2021

WHERE?: Annexet, Stockholm

HOW TO WATCH?: SVTPlay

We’ve enjoyed this Melodifestivalen more than we have for many years which may in part be due to the extra time lockdown has afforded us to obsess about it.

  • Read on for reasons including how we think this year’s finalists would fare at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest

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THEATRE REVIEW: Gatsby – a musical starring Jodie Steele, Ross William Wild, Emma Williams & Blake Patrick Anderson

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHERE?: Cadogan Hall, central London

RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 10-minute interval)

WHEN?: 28/2/21

The Great Gatsby is a 1925 book by F.Scott Fitzgerald about the insubstantiality of the American Dream that has been made into a film four times starring most recently both Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio in the titular role.

  • Read on for reasons including how this musical reimagines the story through the eyes of the object of Gatsby’s affection
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SONG OF THE WEEK: Still Young by Charlotte Perrelli (week beginning 2/3/2021)

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

OUT: now

Team monstagigz is celebrating a birthday today and so it seems fitting that our newly-crowned song of the week is by this 2021 Melodifestivalen finalist who was also crucially the last Eurovision winner of the 20th Century.

  • Read on for reasons including to watch La Perrelli’s 2021 Melodifestivalen performance
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PREDICTIONS: Melodifestivalen Andra Chansen 2021

WHERE?: Annexet, Stockholm

WHEN?: Saturday 6 March 2021

WHERE DO I WATCH?: SVTPlay

One of the genius ideas that makes Melodifestivalen the greatest show on earth is that the quality of the songs is so good that eight of those which narrowly missed out on the finalen deserve a second shot at four places in that final.

  • Read on for reasons including which writer of a 2021 final song is the only artist to have won Melodifestivalen after qualifying through Andra Chansen and our duel predictions
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SONG OF THE WEEK: Good Life by Tess Merkel (week beginning 28/2/2021)

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

OUT: 27 February 2021

Heat 4 of Melodifestivalen didn’t disappoint in the quality of its songs but we would have loved for our favourite – the debut solo single by a third of Alcazar – to have done better than 5th.

  • Read on for reasons including who is our favourite of the 28 Melodifestivalen entries this year
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ALBUM OF THE MONTH: Choices by Lucy Spraggan (February 2021)

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

OUT: 26/2/21

TRACKLIST: Flowers; Roots; Sober; Run To The Hills; Heartbreak Suites; If I Had A God; I Spent A Night In The Desert; You’ve Let Yourself Down; Animal; Wild; Run; Choices (Don’t Be Afraid); Why Don’t We Start From Here?

If you’re familiar with singer/songwriter Spraggan it may well be thanks to her song Tea And Toast which was a top 20 hit before she’d even appeared on TV’s The X Factor live finals in 2012.

  • Read on for reasons including a link to details of live shows Spraggan is playing this year
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9 reasons why we can’t wait for March 2021 starring Daði Freyr

  1. Daði Freyr Eurovision entry drops

2020 was the Eurovision-that-never-was and Freyr’s Think About Things was judged by many to be the song most likely to have won if Covid-19 hadn’t caused its cancellation. Like many other competitors Freyr has been selected to compete in 2021 and his song 10 Years drops 13/3/21. Freyr’s last single Feel The Love was a song of the month for us in January.

  • Read on for reasons including Treason, new Zara Larsson album and the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix
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PREDICTIONS: Heat 4 Melodifestivalen 2021 starring The Mamas, Eric Saade & Tess Merkel

WHEN?: Saturday 13 February 2021

WHERE?: Annexet, Stockholm

Can The Mamas make it 3 wins in a row after backing John Lundvik on Too Late For Love in 2019 and singing Move themselves the following year?

  • Read on for reasons including who we think will go direkt til finalen and who will make Andra Chansen

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PREDICTIONS: Dansk Melodi Grand Prix starring Cosmic Twins, Fyr & Flamme & Chief 1 & Thomas Buttenschøn

WHEN?: 7pm UK time Saturday 6 March 2021

WHERE?: DR Studio 5, Copenhagen

HOW TO WATCH?: via DR

We haven’t properly loved a Danish Eurovision entry since we were in Copenhagen to hear the audience raise the roof off the Parken in response to Rollo and King’s Never Ever Let You Go in 2001 which came so close to retaining the crown.

  • Read on for reasons including who we think will win and how each song would do at Eurovision
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SONG OF THE WEEK: Let’s Go Home Together by Ella Henderson feat Tom Grennan (week beginning 21/2/2021)

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

OUT: now

Henderson co-wrote this with James Arthur, the eventual winner of the 2012 series of The X Factor on which they both appeared, and at the time of writing it is at number 1 on the iTunes charts.

  • Read on for reasons including why Henderson is so good live
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