After last week’s announcement of the artists and songs competing in heats 1 and 2 of Melodifestivalen 2013, this morning it was the turn of heats 3 and 4.
We were in attendance at the press conference, and got to speak to the acts that we’re most interested in. Thos interviews will start appearing on here in the coming weeks, but until then, here’s a look at the line-up from this morning, plus a little bit of description about the artists and some of the songs.
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Heat 3: Skellefteå, February 16th
Eddie Razaz – Alibi (Peter Boström, Thomas G:son)
A Swedish Idol graduate and a former member of the pop duo REbound. But both of those eras seem to be in the quite distant past now, so Eddie is arriving to Melodifestivalen with a clean slate for this, his debut solo single. He’ll be competing with a song composed by the guys behind Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’. This morning, Eddie told us it was a dancepop track that’s on a very big scale, like ‘Euphoria’. And there’s also some middle eastern flavours in there too. Plus, he’ll be breaking out into some serious choreography for this one.
Amanda Fondell – Dumb (Freja Blomberg, Fredrik Samsson)
The most recent winner of Swedish Idol, Amanda recently debuted her single ‘Bastard‘, which is amazing. This one is called ‘Dumb’ (we’re seeing a trend here). And she described it to us today as being very catchy and a lot of fun. We’re looking forward to this one.
Ravaillacz (Tommy Körberg, Claes Malmberg, Johan Rabaeus, Mats Ronander) – En Riktig Jävla Schlager (Kjell Jennstig, Leif Goldkuhl, Henrik Dorsin)
We’ve had our fair share of treats over the years via old lady schlager. Now comes old man schlager. Not quite as exciting, if you ask us, but give us these chaps over the copious amount of other old codgers who have unfortunately made this year’s Melodifestivalen line-up. And besides – Tommy Körberg deserves respect! The songwriting team behind this have a background in comedy apparently. So this should at least be entertaining. The clue is in the title.
State of Drama – Falling (Göran Werner, Sebastian Hallifax, Emil Gullhamn, James Hallifax)
A newcomer rock group who won the Metro On Stage contest this year. We didn’t quite know what to make of them up until this afternoon when they premiered the video for a new single of theirs. And now we do know what to make of them – they sound pretty boring unfortunately.
Janet Leon – Heartstrings (Fredrik Kempe, Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad)
Former member of girlband Play, Janet released a solo album in 2009, which housed the fantastic ‘Heartache On The Dancefloor‘. ‘Heartstrings’, she tells us, is an up-tempo dance track with a big pop chorus. And quite a few other sources have been telling us that this is “the winning song” of Melodifestivalen 2013. Obviously a statement to be taken with a pinch of salt at this early stage, but one that at least promises that the song is probably gonna be amazing, right? Based on other things we’ve heard about it, anyone who had wanted Agnes to make a comeback to Melodifestivalen, should seek solace in ‘Heartstrings’.
Caroline af Ugglas – Hon Har Inte (Heinz Liljedahl, Caroline af Ugglas)
This lady will be one to watch – considering how close she came to winning the contest in 2009, and the amount of good favour she earned afterwards as a result. She’s never exactly been to our taste, but she’s capable of knocking out a good song, and the album which followed ‘Snälla Snälla’ actually turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Still though, we don’t think we want her taking a qualifying place away from the more Scandipop friendly acts in this heat. That does seem quite likely however.
Martin Rolinski – In And Out Of Love (Thomas G:son, Andreas Rickstrand)
We’re very pleased to see this chap’s name here. BWO’s former singer first launched his solo career last year with ‘Blame It On A Decent Matter’. An album was finished and ready to go but he withdrew it at the last minute for fears of it sounding a little too similar to what he’d done before with BWO. So ‘In And Out Of Love’ will very much be Martin Rolinski’s “proper” introduction as a solo artist. He tells us that it’s an electropop song that’s been tailored towards the setting of this contest.
Elin Petersson – Island (Elin Petersson)
This year’s variation on the webbjoker contestant. Please do us a favour Elin and be better than all the rest of them that have gone before.
Heat 4: Malmö, February 23rd
Ralf Gyllenhammar – Bed On Fire (Ralf Gyllenhammar, David Wilhelmsson)
Lead singer of hard rock group Mustasch. Even typing that sentence makes us want to give up.
Terese Fredenwall – Breaking The Silence (Terese Fredenwall, Simon Petrén)
The lady what won the Svensktoppen Nästa contest a few months back. Not the most exciting name on today’s list but let’s hope she proves us wrong with ‘Breaking The Silence’.
Behrang Miri – Jalla Dansa Salwa (Behrang Miri, Anderz Wrethov, Firas Razak Tuma, Tacfarinas Yamoun)
28 year old Swedish hip hop artist. He describes his song as up-tempo and club friendly. A hip hop track with influences from the south of Europe, the north of Africa, and the middle east. The chorus is performed in both French and Arabic. We met him today and he’s a lovely chap, he is!
Lucia Pinera – Must Be Love (Peter Kvint, Jonas Myrin)
We don’t know too much about this lady, other than the fact that she’s a graduate of TV talent show True Talent (it was like a knock off of The Voice, Danny Saucedo was a judge). On paper it’s fair to say that she looks like filler material in this heat, but with Peter Kvint at the helm of the song, who knows…..
Army of Lovers – Rockin’ The Ride (Alexander Bard, Henrik Wikström, Per QX, Andreas Öhrn, Jean-Pierre Barda)
The original line-up of the iconic Swedish pop band who were pretty massive in the 90s. The three of them were in fine form this morning, relishing being back together and looking forward to what’s ahead (which as well as ‘Rockin’ The Ride’, is a Greatest Hits compilation with two or three more new tracks). After seeing them around each other this morning, we don’t believe any of the rumours of a current riff between them, for a second. We asked them for a description of their song. Their response: “Swedish House Mafia meets ‘Gangnam Style’, takes a ton of crack, and jumps into the laundry machine“. Amazing. That’s a pretty impressive list of composers too. It’s really a great deal that Army of Lovers are back for this. They promise a fantastic show also. Of course they do.
Ulrik Munther – Tell The World I’m Here (Peter Boström, Thomas G:son, Ulrik Munther)
Finalist of last year’s Melodifestivalen, with the rather dull and forgettable ‘Soldiers’. With Boström and G:son on board however, we have much higher hopes for the young scamp this time around. We’re not exactly expecting him to go all dancepop on us (which is a shame!), but perhaps something on the borders of electro synth? Maybe? Either way, he’ll probably sail through to the final with ease, regardless of song quality.
Sylvia Vrethammar – Trivialitet (Thomas G:son, Calle Kindbom, Mats Tärnfors)
The lady with dozens of schlager hits to her name – many of them being celebrated in the most recent season of Så Mycket Bättre, which she’s currently a part of. We’re building our hopes up for a return to her schlager finest – and with those songwriters involved, it’s not too much of a stretch of the imagination.
Robin Stjernberg – You (Robin Stjernberg, Linnea Deb, Joy Deb, Joakim Harestad Haukaas)
Graduate of the most recent season of Swedish Idol – runner-up to heat 3’s Amanda Fondell in fact. Robin has already proven his pop worth with the release of two pretty damn good singles, ‘On My Mind‘ and ‘Scars‘. He promised us this morning that ‘You’ is the biggest and bestest of the lot. A Coldplay-esque stadium anthem that starts off as a ballad and turns into a massive pop number. And we like the sound of that.
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Lots of newcomers, aren’t there? Some more exciting than others, but there’s definitely enough for us to be excited about, based on their past output and form. Plus, there’s the return of some genuine legends.
This year’s Melodifestivalen line-up certainly seems to be a case of “out with the old and in with the new“, with even most of the better known artists still being debutantes to the contest. As a result, it’s a playing field which looks wide open, far more so than in recent years anyway. Forget predicting a winner in the final, we can’t even imagine how any of the heats are gonna go. And we kinda like it that way.
Yes, there are a lot of our favourite names of yesteryear that seem not just missing, but also probably won’t ever make a return to Melodifestivalen as it is and has become now. But kudos to SVT for turning out to be extremely capable at cherry picking some of the best of the fresh pop talent that Sweden has to offer right now.
