Last Saturday night, Sweden’s biggest TV show annually, Melodifestivalen, returned to our screens. In heat one of the contest, we had the following results:
Finalist: Where You Are (Sávežan) – Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods
Finalist: Rhythm Of My Show – Tone Sekelius
Semi-finalist: Diamonds – Victor Crone
Semi-finalist: Raggen Går – Elov & Beny
5th: Haunted – Rejhan
6th: Inga Sorger – Loulou LaMotte
7th: Länge Leve Livet – Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos
It’s heat two of four Melodifestivalen 2023 heats this Saturday night, and the next seven of 28 songs will be performed for the first time. After a viewer vote, two will progress to the final directly, and two will be voted through to the semi-final stage of the competition – one last chance to get a ticket to the final.
But what of the songs? And the artists?
Well, on Tuesday morning, we were given a preview listen to each of the seven songs, and we’ve penned down our initial thoughts on them below. Alongside them, you can find out a little bit more about all seven artists competing this week, so that you’re not going into Saturday night’s show totally blind.
The show is broadcast internationally on SVTPlay.se at 20:00 CET on Saturday. Also on SVTPlay, you get 60-second clips of the songs at 07:00 CET on Thursday, and 30-second clips of the rehearsals at 07:00 CET on the Friday.
Melodifestivalen Heat One: February 4th, Linköping
Wiktoria – All My Life (Where Have You Been)
(Herman Gardarfve, Melanie Wehbe, Patrik Jean, Wiktoria Johansson)
Arguably the darling of Melodifestvalen during the 2010s, despite never having won. She has, however, qualified directly to the final on all three occasions she’s competed previously. This is her first time participating since 2019, and her return is significant enough that these top-tier songwriters will have been more than happy to contribute some of their best work in their collaboration with her.
For Melodifestivalen 2023, Wiktoria is embracing a new sound that’s different to her past songs, both in and outside the context of Melfest. ‘All My Life’ is a thoroughly feel-good synthpop bop that screams from the rooftops about how in love it is. It has a genuine ’80s radio-pop sound. More unashamedly pop than the cooler electronica contemporaries inspired by that era, it doesn’t shy away from being as supremely catchy as it can be. And that’s just great to hear. It has a production that blossoms as the song progresses, resulting in a euphoric and climactic final chorus.
Eden – Comfortable
(Benjamin Rosenbohm, Eden Alm, Emil Adler Lei, Julie Aagaard)
What would Melodifestivalen 2023 be without an artist who has made a name for themselves on TikTok? Enter Eden – who has used the platform to share her own songs, and to great effect too. She now makes the move to the nowadays slightly less popular medium of television. But in the grandest way possible, of course – what a show to debut on!
A guitar-laden, string-backed mid-tempo ballad that exudes great warmth, and a whole lot of sadness. It pairs a lyric of heartbreak with a melody of hope, resulting in something that’s quite beautiful; unassumingly so, and without ever seeming like it’s trying to be. A simple composition that might end up being competitive simply by standing out as not outwardly attempting to be so!
Uje Brandelius – Grytan
(Uje Brandelius)
A singer with the band Doktor Kosmos, and a soloist who has seen an album of his go on to become a theatre production, a radio play and eventually an award-winning feature film. This will actually be his first musical release since that very album, so who knows how the fate of ‘Grytan’ will top that this week…
A song with a classic pop sound, Uje has gazed quite far back in his search for inspiration in composing ‘Grytan’ – as far back as the ’60s, in fact. It’s a sweet song with a sentimental, humourous lyric. It should trigger a lot of familiarity (and entertainment!) in the older voters, meaning that it might be in for some surprisingly high scores towards the end of the voting announcement on Saturday, as the hosts move up through the demographics.
Panetoz – On My Way
(Anders Wigelius, Daniel Nzinga, Jimmy Jansson, Nebeyu Baheru, Njol Badjie, Pa Modou Badjie, Robert Norberg)
Has it really been seven years since these adorable chaps last competed? Yes it has, and we’re happy to have them back – not least because we can always confidently place them in the ‘not a ballad’ territory.
Someone saw the huge impact that Medina made last year with ‘In i Dimman’, and thought: “I’m having some of that“. And rightfully so! ‘On My Way’ is a song that will go BIG in that arena, with a chant-along chorus to get lodged in your head. The song also incorporates some Eurovision-ready ethno influences into its production. This is probably the group’s best Melodifestivalen entry to date. And most certainly their biggest. Seven years of BANG have been saved up and crammed into ‘On My Way’.
Tennessee Tears – Now I Know
(Anderz Wrethov, Jonas Hermansson, Thomas Stengaard, Tilda Feuk)
A country-pop duo, the pair have teamed up with two of Melodifestivalen’s most relied-upon songwriters to hopefully bring us a big ol’, toe-tapping smash hit. It’s what we need. It’s what we crave. It’s what we expect.
And mercifully, it’s what we got! That rustle that’s inevitably gonna be heard from Sweden on Saturday night – that’s the sound of every Swedish radio playlister rushing to add this into heavy rotation. That is of course unless the song makes it to the final and isn’t released until the end of the month – which, in all honesty, is quite likely to happen. SVT weren’t able to tempt Smith & Thell into Melodifestivalen this time around, but they still ended up getting a song of their top-notch quality.
Maria Sur – Never Give Up
(Anderz Wrethov, Laurell Barker)
A recent refugee to Sweden, Maria was actually competing on The Voice Ukraine at the time when Russia invaded her country. Since fleeing to Sweden, she’s performed at a gala on Swedish TV to raise funds for aid in her home country, been signed by a record label, and released a single. The narrative of her competing at Melodifestivalen in a year when Ukraine are having to have another country host the Eurovision Song Contest will have a lot of poignancy on this Saturday night in February.
For her Melfest participation, they’ve given Maria Sur the ultimate blockbuster ballad. The lyrics assume you don’t already know her story, and they tell it with unflinching honesty: “I’m not gonna break… I don’t have surrender in my veins“. The song has been composed to be a show-stopper on the night, and it’s hard to see how it won’t be.
THEOZ – Mer Av Dig
(Axel Schylström, Jakob Redtzer, Peter Boström, Thomas G:son)
Another of Melodifestivalen 2022’s big hitters, we know we’re in safe hands with THEOZ – he can be relied upon to bring us the bops, as his EP from this summer proved.
And those hands have proven to be just as safe as we’d hoped. ‘Mer Av Dig’ is for all intents and purposes ‘Som Do Vill’ with its tempo turned even higher UP and its brassy production set to ‘carnival’. And let’s chuck a key change in there, too, why not?! These writers knew exactly what we all wanted – and they’ve given it to us in generous portions.
