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[LexC]

Such is the weirdness of this Melfest season that usual bringer of chaos Heat 3 produced, for what must be the first time in a decade, the two big pre-heat favourites qualified directly to the final. So who knows what this heat is about to bring us other than the annual hype of the "chosen one" who may or may not turn out to actually be the chosen one. So, for the final time this year, your rambling and high camp commentary about what we should expect to see this weekend.


1. Frida Öhrn - We Are One

Frida has spent her career thusfar as a sort of, serial group member, most notably indie band Oh Laura who had a big hit in 2007 with "Release Me" and most recently the group "Cookies'N'Beans" whomst your humble narrator may have described as a "Mums mates Dixie Chicks tribute" in 2013. But now, Frida is striking out on her own with an entry that is very on trend with this year's MF as one of two "country influenced arena pop" songs in this heat along with Dr Bergendahl from Heat 2. The reports are that this is bringing some high tempo and energy which is probably what snagged her the opening spot in this heat. So far we've had two direct qualifiers from the opening slot and one who unluckily found herself in too strong a heat to make it past firth so Frida's in with a shout of at least equalling her previous Andra Chansen placing from 2013 - can she make it a third direct qualifier from slot 1?


2. William Stridh - Molnjus

After placing fifth on Swedish Idol (yep the "Idol" franchise is still the dominant talent series in Sweden) William has...waited until now to release a debut single. That and the fact he's being shoved on in second place suggest that this probably isn't anything to write home about but maybe I could be wrong?


3. Nanne Grönvall - Carpool Karaoke

When returning to the Melfest arena as a "legacy act" you have a number of options before you, there's the Sonja och Bengtzing option of just keep on delivering the same kind of material you've always been doing and hope that that's enough, the Perelli och Kikki option of transitioning your material to what in the UK would be the "Radio 2" market, the Jessica Anderson option of being the luckiest Schlager boiler on earth and timing your returns to precisely the times when people are in the mood for you or what we're now about to christen "The Nanne option" where one essentially goes "F the scoreboard, lets just go crazy, throw everything at the wall and see if it sticks" which is nothing if not admirable in its honesty.

Ms Grönvall isn't here to get the ticket to Rotterdam or even really to compete for said ticket but she's earned the right to do whatever the hell she wants and if that's sing a song about James Corden on Swedish TV (jeez this keeps getting weirder) then y'all better sit down and respect your elders!


4. Victor Crone - Troubled Waters

Picture it. Tallin 2002.

Estonia are tasked with being the first post-Communist country to host Eurovision. Their entrant from 2000 has declined to enter with a top shelf pop track and the management company put in a call to their sister company in Sweden to get a pop singer who wouldn't mind essentially a bit of a work experience placement for two weeks to represent their submission in Eurolaul (this was before we had Eesti Laul). Enter one Anna Sahlene who, to everyone's surprise, wins the right to go to Eurovision as the host entry...for a different country...which I guess is maybe the ultimate goal of the Federal European Superstate and nobody outside of Estonia or Sweden even knows about this as the contest rolls around.

The next year, buoyed from her top five finish in Talinn, Sahlene decides to use this opportunity to its fullest and enters Melodifestivalen 2003 to represent her own country ...only to fail to even make Andra Chansen. Such a fate would befall her again in 2006 and again in 2009.

So, you see where there might be one or two historical parallels here. Although Victor has the benefit of Estonia having spent the last eighteen years being Sweden's adoring little brother as well as that classic "not having a vagina" privilege. Reviews seem to suggest this song is strong enough to make the top four in some way but to what extent may depend on how much of a taboo "singing for another country" is in Melodifestivalen.


5. Ellen Benediktson & Simon Peyron - Surface

Melfest 2014: The Re-Up is here.

Featuring surprise direct qualifier as an adored balladess turned ill fated electro sex kitten Ellen Benedikton and Lead singer of Heavy Metal band Outrigger who managed to be beaten by both Ace Wilder and Helena Paparizou in the same year in what may well be recorded as the last victory for Gay culture over straight culture in Melodifestivalen we've got a right old case of the "chemistry-free duet" on our hands here (and no shade to anyone who agrees to one, a girls gotta eat and, hey, worked out alright for song seven this week). This has been described as "electro musical theatre" which fills my heart with complete joy but the biggest joy of all is not knowing where on the boundaries of good taste this will fall. Maybe this is the stealth showstopper that's going to leave us all searching for our wigs this Saturday?


6. Jakob Karlberg - Om Du Tror Att Jag Saknar Dig

Sources confirm this is not, in fact, Anna Bergendahl's identically born AFAB brother after 1 year on T. This is actually a pop-rock singer who had a pretty big summer hit five years ago but who's struggled to get anywhere near that level of success in the mainstream charts. We're promissed something with high energy that even if it's not your vibe will still hopefully be a vaguely fun pallet cleanser before this week's main course...


7. Hanna Ferm - Brave

And we wrap up with Hanna Ferm who secured her place in Slot 28 of 2020 purely on the power of WANTING IT in her performance with Liamoo in what would eventually be the bronze medalist of Melfest 2019 so we know we're in safe hands in the SANGING stakes. Plus, all the indications so far have seemed to be that she's the one to beat this year and follow on from Robin, Benjamin and John in the "winning the year immediately after their debut" stakes. The early reviews however, indicate that this is not at all your safe and predictable "designed by committee" sophmore Melfest entry, I've seen allusions to the likes of Marina and the Diamonds, Ava Max and Nicola Roberts and the word "quirky" has been thrown about a lot. So maybe this is the one song we need to break through the predictably mainstream finalists we have so far this year.

If she should drop the ball somehow, then I think we've got one of the most competitively interesting Melodifestivalen finals in a long time!

-x-

Snippets drop tomorrow, the Genrep poll will be here on Friday and then after the live show on Saturday finishes, the embargo is lifted and all the studio versions of this year's songs will be available via your favourite streaming service (give or take a day or two for some to be available outside Sweden. And then we can obsessively watch every single popularity metric to work out what the Swedish public have responded to the most for a whole fortnight, as is the annual tradition!