It’s one of the most anticipated national finals of the season. Now Swedish broadcaster SVT has revealed the running order of the four semi-finals in Melodifestivalen 2018.
The announcement was made today in a live stream on SVT’s Facebook page. Mello boss Christer Björkman revealed the positions to an eager online audience.
The first act we’ll see on stage in Karlstad will be Let’s Dance star, Sigrid Bernson. That first semi-final will be closed by Melfest 2017 veteran, Benjamin Ingrosso.
Samir & Viktor return as the opening act of the second semi-final, with LIAMOO closing. We’re sure to get a lively end to the third semi-final too, with Mendez taking the final spot.
And the last act to take to the Melfest stage will be Mariette. She closes the fourth semi-final in Örnsköldsvik with her song, “For You”.
It’s generally thought that the opening and closing positions in each semi are given to two of the strongest songs, so today’s reveal can offer clues to the songs likely to make the grand final or andra chansen.
While fans have various theories about the power and potential of performing last, it is no guarantee of going direkt till final. Last year only Nano and Benjamin Ingrosso qualified for the final after performing in the last slot in their semis. FO&O and Loreen made it to andra chansen, but only the boy band won a place in the final.
Much effort goes into determining the order of the songs. Each show contains songs in a mix of genres and languages, and thought is given to ensuring the overall song order creates an entertaining television show.
Melodifestivalen 2018 running order
Semi-final 1:Karlstad (3 February)
- Sigrid Bernson – “Patrick Swayze”
- John Lundvik – “My Turn”
- Renaida – “All the Feels”
- Edward Blom – “Livet på en pinne”
- Kikki Danielsson – “Osby Tennessee”
- Kamferdrops – “Solen lever kvar hos dig”
- Benjamin Ingrosso – “Dance You Off”
Semi-final 2: Gothenburg (10 February)
- Samir & Viktor – “Shuffla”
- Ida Redig – “Allting som vi sa”
- Jonas Gardell – “Det finns en väg”
- Margaret – “In My Cabana”
- Stiko Per Larsson – “Titta vi flyger”
- Mimi Werner – “Songburning”
- LIAMOO – “Last Breath”
Semi-final 3: Malmö (17 February)
- Martin Almgren – “A Bitter Lullaby”
- Barbi Escobar – “Stark”
- Moncho – “Cuba Libre”
- Jessica Andersson – “Party Voice”
- Kalle Moraeus & Orsa Spelmän – “Min dröm”
- Dotter – “Cry”
- Méndez – “Everyday”
Semi-final 4: Örnsköldsvik (24 February 2018)
- Emmi Christensson – “Icarus”
- Elias Abbas – “Mitt paradis”
- Felicia Olsson – “Break That Chain”
- Rolandz – “Fuldans”
- Olivia Eliasson – “Never Learn”
- Felix Sandman – “Every Single Day”
- Mariette – “For You”
What do you think of the Melfest 2018 running order? Are you surprised by any of the placings? Share your thoughts below!
Maybe 12 in the final but I think the semis are more random.
As a fan of Mariette, unfortunately I’ll have to wait until the last song of the last semi final. Also, I think it’s a good sign, because usually the last song (or songs) are the good ones. (more or less like ESC).
Looking forward to Melodifestivalen as always!
Let’s see the “pattern” acoording to the years:
:The first and last songs in each heat are usually the strongest in each heat and the finalists. Potential winners come from that bunch.
: Song 2,3 and 5 are the ones that get eliminated. The songs that are there to fill out.
: Song 4 and 6 is the “andra chansen” songs. Meaning they aren’t immediate as Björkman calls it.
Of course there are exceptions, like how Loreen started last and got eliminated twice. And of course Frans who started at 6, I Believe.
Any guesses:)
Looking at the artists again, it appears to be a much more wide open contest than in other years. They’re really not any big names as we’ve seen in the past (unless you consider Mariette or Benjamin Ingrosso to be?). So, we could be looking at a very hard to predict contest, making it more exciting and competitive!
In past we had first and last song in semi finals are uptempo song 1 and 7 earlier 1 and 8 , and only sometimes position 7 earlier 8 got in last 4 semi, some big names in swedish music, who are potenical favorite to won with powerfull ballad, exaple Peter Joback with Hollow in 2010, Loreen with Staments last year
Okay I really tried hard to crack the color codes, but I don’ think I can. Here’s some of thoughts on how the color codes can be interpreted though:
Bright yellow – Schlager (As Björkman said there will be four songs in this genre)
Green-yellow: This could actually also be the schlager one (Kiki, Rolandz etc.)
Green – I wanna say ballads, but would Elias Abbas such a song? (Felix Sandman etc.)
Pink – Uptempo
Light-green (Liamoo etc.) – No idea
See my reply to Branko.
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Does anybody know what the different colours and signs on the little papers in the photo mean? Could someone explain it, please? Maybe Wiwibloogs Blogger anyone?
These are genres of the songs, I believe.
Thank you for helping! Would be so interesting to understand all these colour codes and little signs on those papers. All I see is green, yellow and pink papers and sometimes a little v or little coloured stars on them. I was just wondering if it is a special Melodifestivalen code invented by Christer Björkman or sth. like that. Also Univ. and Warner could be music labels, right?
The codes are as follows
Pink: Female singer
Green: Male singer
Bright pink/green: Up tempo/energy
Yellow: Novelty/flavour (folk, country, opera, etc.)
Green star: Swedish lyrics (there’s a 30% quota)
Red star: Female songwriter (there’s a 50% quota)
Checkmark: Final version recieved
And, as you said, record labels.
It’s Björkman’s own system which he uses at Melfest and Eurovision.
This is what it says on the svt blog
Pink = female
Strong pink = female, but with more uptempo/energy
Green = male
Yellow = Differ radically from the other entrants
Greenyellow = Slow, and different genre (Rolandz has that color, but that’s an error as they were missing more yellow post it notes)
There are also quotes from Christer B about the different songs.
Here are some:
Mimi Werner: Modern country pop
Liamoo: Very modern pop
Jessica: Something totally different for her. Uptempo. She actually sings in a different way
Dotter: Incredibly modern. A pop ballad. Difficult to describe, you need to listen to it.
Felix: Sincere and emotional ballad
Mariette: Some similarities with what she did last year. Very modern pop.
Keep an eye on Dotter. She will suprise us all.
Any ideas on when we’ll be able to hear the songs?
Thank you 🙂 I already forgot that we can only hear the snippets.
Also, if it goes to the contest, add Patrick Swayze to the list of real people profiles in Eurovision songs (alongside Charlie Chaplin, Socrates, and, of course, Genghis Khan).
Yay! My first Melfest! I’m ready for this. I’m just wondering: how well do songs actually performed in Swedish do? I mean, Sweden haven’t sent a song in their native tongue since the language rule was lifted (and immediately won, even if the song was originally in Swedish). Is it that they think English-language songs do better? Or could Salvador’s win change their minds a bit?
Well, Swedish songs didn’t win Melodifestivalen but in 2015 “Jag ar fri” finished 2nd and in 2017 “En varld full av strider” finished 3rd, so we can’t say they’re underrated as well 😀
Much of the time the Swedish language songs are novelty, joke, schlager acts, expect in the case of JH Fjallgren, etc. Accordingly, they often don’t fare well in international jury voting, putting them at a disadvantage. This is kind of shame because I love hearing Swedish in songs! Not sure that’ll change this year, but time will tell! 🙂
I m feeling that Mariette will be this year Loreen . One of TOP 3 on betting odds, huge support by eurovision fans, media, and then we maybe see that she will stay in second chance like Loreen last year.
The public has never been here for her, neither commercially nor in the voting, so you might be right if her song isn’t THE banger.
I mean eurovision fans from other countries. We saw in past that she and also Ace Wilder got more points from international juries (in some juries we had eurovision fan ) than televote in own country.
“Bangers” usually suck. I’d like something with real depth. She is better than a eurotrash song.
Melfest is so cheap this year.
B i g y a w n !
Im curious. Liamoo’s last name is cacatian. Cacatian looks like an armenian last name has he armenian roots?!
Hes actually Filipino
He’s Swedish, norwegian, Finnish and filipino I believe
I mean with 7 songs does the running order run that much? Maybe 12 in the final but I think the semis are more random.
Also I have a feeling Margaret’s song is gonna sound exactly like Havana by Camila Cabello. “Cabana oh na na… half of my heart’s in my cabana oh na na” is COMING.
Tea… Havana isn’t even that much of a bop idk why you’d want to copy it. Cool Me Down was a bop the first few times but then it got boring and this will probably the same sadly.
Havana isn’t that much of a bop?
Ehm, it’s one of the most successful entries of 2017. It already has about 500.000.000 streams, altough it was just released in August.
YouTube views aren’t exactly that hard nowadays…
Those are Spotify streams.
Spotify streams the same rule applies. It’s not hard nowadays to get streams/views.
Y’all running order means NOTHING when it’s just seven songs… let’s not panic if your fave isn’t last. We know the producers tend to keep the songs they want in the final the most for last, but this didn’t help FLO&P and Loreen last year and it won’t help some of these either.
Margaret in the middle.
If Margaret doesn’t go direkt till final I’ll join Westboro Baptist Church.
You’d better picket that show.
SF1: Surprised at Benjamin closing his semi since he closed his last year. This could either go two ways: his song IS actually good this year or the acts in SF1 aren’t all that good. I’m intrigued to see this “Patrick Swayze” song as well as Kamferdrops. The rest don’t really excite me. SF2: Liamoo was expected to close this one for me, I think he’s probably going to win but who knows. Margaret I could see pulling a Wiktoria, does well in the televote but crashes in the jury, but again we don’t know her song. Also intrigued to… Read more »
Liam for the win!
Here’s the rundown of the artists who’ve had the honor of closing out Semi 4 (and their results): 2002: Fredrik Wännman (5th in semi) 2003: Afro-dite (7th) 2004: Andrés Esteche (9th) 2005: Katarina & The Nameless (2nd chance) 2006: Carola (Won) 2007: Andreas Johnson (2nd) 2008: Charlotte Perrelli (Won) 2009: Malena Ernman (Won) 2010: Peter Jöback (9th) 2011: Love Generation (2nd chance) 2012: Danny Saucedo (2nd) 2013: Ulrik Munther (3rd) 2014: Anton Ewald (10th) 2015: Måns Zelmerlöw (Won) 2016: Molly Sandén (6th) 2017: Loreen (2nd chance) Most choices make sense. 2009 is a bit of an odd one since Ernman… Read more »
Usually the last slot goes to a big production and a “name” and a “name” is always in contention of winning. Ernman was “a name”. She was the premiere opera singer from Sweden singing a Kempe song. Paparizou was more of a veteran in ESC fandom than a “name” in Sweden while Ewald was the hot new thing in pop music in 14. This position always leaves high expectations for the song which often is hard to overcome like with Molly and Loreen. I hope Mariette doesn’t suffer same fate.
Actually, i’ve heared in several interviews that the 2009 jury ignored la voix, Where Christer Said to them: ”are you serious? This is the Winner?” And therefore later on decided to make Malena and la voix one of the four wildcards. So you are wrong in your statement about that 😉
LOL I couldn’t have been more wrong then. ^^ Thanks for the anecdote. Amazing intuition on Björkman’s part.
great semifinals but seriously a song called”“Patrick Swayze”?
Your comment just made me realize that next year will mark Patrick Swayze’s TENTH death anniversary.
Holy cow, time goes by so quickly.