On Saturday night just gone, Melodifestivalen delivered its first heat of 2018. You can read how it all went down right here.
This Saturday night sees heat 2 taking place in Gothenburg. Taking part, we have an Idol winner, a P4 Radio contest winner, an Indie darling, a Polish pop princess, a massive Swedish media personality, a lady who crashed out in her semi last time around, and a pair of lovable chaps who aren’t strangers to making the Melodifestivalen final and having huge hits off the back of it!
Today saw the release of the 60 second audio clips (which you can listen to right here), and the 30 second rehearsal clips (which you can watch right here).
And ahead of Saturday, here’s your guide to the seven artists, what they’ve done before, and what they say their songs are like;
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HEAT 2: Göteborg (Feb 10th)
Samir & Viktor – Shuffla
(Andreas ”Stone” Johansson, Denniz Jamm, Costa Leon, Samir Badran, Viktor Frisk)
Say what you will about these two boys, but they’ve managed to clock up over 100 million streams across eight absolutely banging hits. They ALWAYS deliver. And Melodifestivalen 2018 ain’t gonna be any exception. The duo have said that their song is energetic and will make you wanna dance, but that you shouldn’t expect ‘Bada Nakna’ part two. They say they’ve upped their game. We say Bring. It. On.
Ida Redig – Allting Som Vi Sa
(Yvonne Dahlbom, Jesper Welander, Ida Redig)
It’s a bit of a coup for SVT to have landed this Swedish darling of the indie scene. We’ve not featured her on these pages since 2015’s ‘Ghost‘, as she kind of stopped appealing to our (admittedly quite narrow at times) tastes. But we’d be surprised if she doesn’t pull something big out of the bag for her Melodifestivalen debut. Well, you just would, wouldn’t you? The lady herself isn’t holding back on her thoughts about the song. She says it’s Swedish pop at its very best. A track that is up-tempo and something to clap along to. A song that makes you wanna dance. And a song that she herself cannot stop listening to.
Jonas Gardell – Det Finns En Väg
(Calle Kindbom, Jonas Gardell, Mats Tärnfors)
Writer, director, and once-upon-a-time Melodifestivalen host is now an artist. In fairness, he’s earned his right to do whatever he wants at the contest, thanks to his phenomenal year-2000 film Livet Är En Schlager (which is all about – Melodifestivalen, as it happens). But what exactly he’s going to do – we’re not so sure. What we do know is that we’re not very impressed with his attitude so far. He’s said that he probably won’t make the final as he’s too old, and that Melodifestivalen is all about younger artists these days. He’s also said that his song isn’t for everyone. And he had the absolute audacity to reveal in an interview that he’s so confident he won’t be progressing from his heat, that he’s already booked a holiday away on dates that he would be needed, were his song to qualify to the next round. An appalling approach to take to the whole thing, and a massive two-fingers up to all of the artists responsible for the 2,800 songs that were submitted to Melodifestivalen 2018, but that got rejected in favour of Jonas. They would have given this opportunity their absolute best shot. Jonas it seems, has already given up before even arriving in Gothenburg.
Margaret – In My Cabana
(Anderz Wrethov, Linnea Deb, Arash Labaf, Robert Uhlman)
Polish superstar Margaret has reunited with the same team behind ‘Cool Me Down‘ and most recent single ‘What You Do‘ – both of which took off really well in Sweden (what with all the Swedish songwriters behind them and that). In a way it makes sense that she’s in Melodifestivalen, because she’s guaranteed another hit single in Sweden as a result. But is she really in it to win it? For a country that isn’t her native Poland? We can’t imagine that going down so well in the country where she’s got her career based in for the most part. But back to this – Margaret promises her song will stick out, as it’s not a traditional song. Though still produced in a way to make it very radio-friendly.
Stiko Per Larsson – Titta Vi Flyger
(Stiko Per Larsson, Emil Rotsjö)
The winner of the P4 Nästa – the contest to earn a place in this line-up. His sound is acoustic rock mixed with folk. Our expectations are therefore low in terms of it appealing to us much. But the Swedes proved over the weekend that they absolutely love the story of an underdog!
Mimi Werner – Songburning
(Göran Werner, Mimi Werner, Niki Niki, Carl Varga, Johan Åsgärde, Oliver Lundström)
Despite crashing out in its heat, Mimi Werner’s ‘Ain’t No Good‘ ended up being one of the more endearing and enduring songs of Melodifestivalen 2016. We’re very pleased to have her back, and hope she hasn’t changed her country-pop sound one little bit while she’s been away. Mimi’s confirmed that the song will be in the same genre AND tempo as the last time she took to the stage. So we’re fully prepared for another banger to see us through until the end of the year.
Liamoo – Last Breath
(Liam Cacatian Thomassen, Morten Thorhauge, Peter Bjørnskov, Lene Dissing)
Since winning Swedish Idol in 2016, Liam Cacatian Thomassen has released three superb pop tracks in ‘Playing With Fire‘, ‘Burn‘, and ‘It Ain’t Easy‘. It’s fair to say that the most recent two haven’t lit up the Spotify play counts in the way that we thought they would, and in the way they deserved to. So it’s no surprise that he’s been put forward for Melodifestivalen by his label. We just hope that it’s with a killer song. The Swedish voting public fell in love with this guy not so long ago. Time for a big-stage reminder of just why.
