All of the big names were correctly rumoured but looks like a great line-up. Excited for Sanna, A*Dults, Jacqline, FELICIA (although thinking it will be less folky than Unga & Fria looking at the writers and her recent music!!), Medina, Meira Omar and AleXa, the only winner of the American Song Contest (with a song also co-written by Cazzi Opeia, the only person to co-write winners for that and Eurovision as she also co-wrote Tattoo).

I'd be pretty surprised to see Sanna win again, and doubt she's doing it for that, more to raise her profile around her 30th anniversary gigs. A*Teens also pretty unlikely to go all the way I'd imagine despite their past success internationally. Medina is a good shout, or even AleXa really depending on the song - K-pop is riding the crest of a wave currently and she has quite a back story. Also any of Meira, Jacqline, Greczula or Saga Ludvigsson could be back with a more competitive song (although Effortless WAS competitive but robbed grr) and Brandsta City Släckers could easily win the Swedish public over again. Intriguing year!

So nothing interesting, if don't count Sanna.

Most excited by the look of the opening heat based on names - Jacqline and A*Teens both with songs written by Dino/Jimmy Jansson/Cazzi/G:son Plus Greczula I really enjoyed this year, and there's a Laurell Barker co-write in the heat.

Smash Into Pieces appear to be top of the initial odds, but I don't see it unless they've changed things up a bit (though I didn't expect the lazy re-write to manage another 3rd for them in 2024). My money would be on Greczula to come through with the "act who gets a good result on debut, then comes back the following year and wins" formula, but maybe we're in for another KAJ and the winning song is with the act we'd least expect.

23 hours ago, gooddelta said:

All of the big names were correctly rumoured but looks like a great line-up. Excited for Sanna, A*Dults, Jacqline, FELICIA (although thinking it will be less folky than Unga & Fria looking at the writers and her recent music!!), Medina, Meira Omar and AleXa, the only winner of the American Song Contest (with a song also co-written by Cazzi Opeia, the only person to co-write winners for that and Eurovision as she also co-wrote Tattoo).

I'd be pretty surprised to see Sanna win again, and doubt she's doing it for that, more to raise her profile around her 30th anniversary gigs. A*Teens also pretty unlikely to go all the way I'd imagine despite their past success internationally. Medina is a good shout, or even AleXa really depending on the song - K-pop is riding the crest of a wave currently and she has quite a back story. Also any of Meira, Jacqline, Greczula or Saga Ludvigsson could be back with a more competitive song (although Effortless WAS competitive but robbed grr) and Brandsta City Släckers could easily win the Swedish public over again. Intriguing year!

Interesting you mention Brandsta City Slackers "winning over the Swedish public again", as I see this song is written by almost all of the same people as Bara Bada Bastu.

Without hearing anything at all, my money would be on AleXa, as she has a good narrative, strong songwriters, a slot in the final heat, and sounds like it could be jury bait as well as app vote friendly.

Medina and Greczula are good shouts too, the former couldn't quite get all the way in 2024 but I believe had the biggest domestic hit of the year from the competition. Now a Swedish song has been a provable hit with KAJ then the public might take more of a punt on them. Definitely not ruling out those firemen but doubt we'd get a second 'novelty' entry in a row.

I really can't see Smash Into Pieces doing it unless somebody has heard the song and knows something we don't.

DollyStyle should try again

The first six songs are out:

Greczula - Half Of Me

I really like this song a lot, more than last year too. It's like ABBA meets Queen meets Elton John, with some early 00s Melodifestivalen winner influence (Friends/Fame).

Jacqline - Woman

This is great and will definitely grow on me too, I immediately love the production on it. I don't get the feeling it's as good as Effortless, my overall favourite song of the 2024 competition, or will do as well as that, but then that was completely robbed in the end in the final so who knows.

noll2 - Berusade ord

I can't remember much about this after just listening to it, so it probably doesn't bode that well. Fairly pleasant I think.

Junior Lerin - Copacabana Boy

Oh dear, it's like Sean Banan doing Alors On Danse, and not in a good way. It worries me a bit that the younger kids will go for this though.

Indra - Beautiful Lie

Very good production, atmospheric with shades of being a Bond theme or a track by Billie Eilish. Her voice on the studio version is a bit like Adele with more of a husk, I'm looking forward to seeing the performance.

A*Teens - Iconic

Oh this is a comeback! I can completely see how this fits with their older music while giving it a modern touch but appealing to older voters too. The piano gives me Eiffel 65 vibes and the chorus is impactful pop.

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The bigger artists definitely delivered for me in this heat, Half Of Me, Woman and Iconic are all going straight onto my playlist ❤️ Hope they all make it further, along with Indra.

Edited Friday at 10:141 day by gooddelta

Predictable results in heat 1 but not mad at any of them! Jacqline and A*Teens had my favourite songs for sure so I'm glad they're both through in some capacity, and I can totally see the appeal of the Greczula song, think it made more of an instant impression on me than his last song.

I didn't really like Indra's vocal that much, but the melody of her song was lovely and I'd have eaten it up performed by someone different. noll2's song was decent enough. Copacabana Boy was giving X Factor joke act Wagner would have killed for the chance to perform that x

Very happy for A*Teens! Fantastic performance.

I had a feeling Greczula was going to do really well too... not 100% sold on the song, yet it has something about it.

Jacqline was my second favourite, hopefully she does well in Final Qualification.

So happy for A*Teens one of my favourite groups.

Loved the performance of Iconic, glad it got to the final and they seemed so happy with the reaction from the public. Nice that both DTF songs were somewhat schlager-esque! I did like the Greczula song, and relieved Jacqline has another chance too, it's more of a grower than Effortless but is still great. I don't think I'll return to the other three songs (the awful Copacabana definitely not).