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[LexC]

Good old Mello, getting us off to a totally safe and unsurprising start as always! So whilst Felix has the remainder of February to (hopefully) build up a head of steam into Andra Chansen, seven more new (in one case SUPER NEW) contestants descend on Sweden's second city ready to do battle for the next two spots in the final!


1. Klara Hammarstrom - Nobody

Fist up we've got somebody fresh and (relatively) untested. Klara is known more for her forays into reality television in Sweden than being a recording artist but being given the opening slot in this heat suggests that she's brought something to the table that at least warrants a fair bit of hype. She's promised that this one is an uptempo party song so that should at least be enough to get the party started.


2. Jan Johansen - Miraklernas Tid

So, DRAMA ALERT, the original singer of this track has been removed from the competition for some...improprieties shall we say, so you're spared my reminiscing about Mello 2012 in favour of Jan Johansen who you'll remember from last week (and fellow boomers will remember from a 3rd place in Eurovision 1995 and a smattering of Melfest appearances in the early 00s). This will no doubt raise speculation about what this sudden flash of press attention will do for this track that feels like it's been buried in this heat rather than allowed to flourish but we're at least going to pay attention to this one!


3. Dotter - Bulletproof

Redemption alert! So, remember how back in 2018 it had been a really slow start to Mello and Benjamin Ingrosso looked like he had one of the most disappointing runaway winners ever? Well, this bish had the speculators all a flutter with excitement that she had the song that was the surprise winner! And then she....came 6th in her heat. Partly because said song was a reheated version of 'Issues' and partly because whatever artistic director/choreographer was managing that performance thought it would be a good idea to pair a song about vulnerability and friendship with Dotter aggressively boppin' around like a gangster.

So, given that she's got a song with a broadly similar subject matter this time around (main refrain seems to be "I'm not bulletproof") you would hope that lessons have been learnt and that Dotter's ready to show what she's truly capable of. It's rare that people get invited back to Melfest after not even getting through into the Heat's top 5, rarer still is it for someone to come back after a 6th place and improve on their result so the deck is very much stacked against her.


4. Mendez feat. Alvaro Estrella - Vamos Amigos

Speaking of Heat 3 in Mello 2018, Mendez is back with - you guessed it - a latin inspired pop/dance number. Only this time we've got Alvaro Estrella, backing singer for a series of Eurovision entries for Sweden and Russia and performer of the legendary Melfest flop "Bedroom" joining him on stage in Sweden's best and/or worst DDLB coupling ever to appear on television. If there's any redemption arc to be found here it's probably Mendez learning to either improve his singing ability or get someone else on board to carry the chorus. This will no doubt be a bop but is the whole latin pop thing a bit done now for this to really rake in the votes?


5. Linda Bengtzing - Alla Mina Sorger

All Queers to be upstanding in the presence of royalty! Bengtzing is hoping to make like Saint Sanna and finally take the Melfest crown on her seventh attempt in the competition. After going what you'd call "a bit modern" with her 2014 entry "Ta Mig" and 2016's "Killer Girl" Linda is taking us back to her roots with a balls to the wall schlager pop anthem. And who knows, if Sonja can make 5th place in a heat in 2020, maybe there's enough elderly people and homosexuals in Sweden who just want something the sounds like the good old days to vote for?


6. Paul Rey - Talking In My Sleep

Oh no, the lone contemporary male soloist in the lineup...well lets hope it's something good because it'll (in all likelihood) be a direct qualifier. There's reason to believe that he could deliver but even so, make your peace with this knocking out your fave now while there's still time!


7. Anna Bergendahl - Kingdom Come

After last year's redemption storyline of her paying the penance of Oslo 2010, Anna Bergendahl is back to Melodifestivalen already with something that's been billed as being more of an uptempo pop song (Anna will be joined by no less than 6 dancers on stage this weekend) with the same Country/Americana vibe as "Ashes to Ashes". The question will be if she's genuinely got another top shelf quality track behind her or if she's just countrified one of the standard issue G:Son numbers and is chancing her arm before an album drop in the Spring? Only time will tell

-x-

So in conclusion, there's a lot of contestants hoping to get some of that redemption storyline but, ultimately, not everybody is going to get what they want!

Snippets will be out Thursday lunchtime as usual.