The wait is over — Melodifestivalen 2018 is finally underway. The first semi final of Melfest takes place this Saturday in Karlstad. Of course, Sweden’s SVT are in full teasing mode ahead of the show, and today released 30-second rehearsal snippets along with one-minute studio samples. As they tease we can’t help but think Melodifestivalen 2018 is going to be very exciting!
Taking part in this week’s heat have we have Melfest veterans Kikki Danielsson and Benjamin Ingrosso, alongside newcomers such as Norwegian popstar Kamferdrops, former Idol contestant Renaida and professional dancer turned singer Sigrid Bernson.
Celebrity chef Edward Blom and singer-songwriter John Lundvik complete the line-up
Check out all seven rehearsal snippets by clicking the links below.
Melfest SF1 preview
MELODIFESTIVALEN 2018: DELTÄVLING 1 KARLSTAD
Reaction video coming soon
1. SIGRID BERNSON – “PATRICK SWAYZE”
2. JOHN LUNDVIK– “MY TURN”
3. RENAIDA – “ALL THE FEELS”
4. EDWARD BLOM – “LIVET PA EN PINNE”
5. KIKKI DANIELSSON – “OSBY TENNESSEE”
6. KAMFERDROPS – “SOLEN LEVER KVAR HOS DIG”
7. BENJAMIN INGROSSO – “DANCE YOU OFF”
What are your thoughts on each performance? Who do you think is in with a shot of making it direct to the final? Let us know in the comments below.
“Patrick Swayze: it reminds me of Ace Wilder’s song a year ago or two. It’s fun, up-beat and relies on the performance. “My turn” is probably my favourite song here. Great composition, beautiful voice and the staging seems to fit so well. “All the feels”: sassy and with attitude. Not my favourite though. Again, it relies on the live performance. “Livet pa en pinne”: I don’t like it. It’s like “ok let’s put that there for diversity” and that’s it. It’s fun though. “Osby Tennessee” is a country song, which makes it already from another decade. Nice composition, but it’s… Read more »
I must say that Benjamin has got the best staging of all the entries so far, and possibly the best in this competition: modern, slick and fits the song. He’ll sail through to the final, although the winner of MF 2018 will probably compete in the fourth or third semi-final I believe with both Marietta and Dotter looking like potential winners. My PREDICTION for tonight:
1) Benjamin Ingrosso (Final)
2) Kamferdrops (Final)
3) Renaida (AC)
4) John Lundvik (AC)
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5) Edward Blom
6) Sigrid Bernson
7) Kikki Danielson
as usual, performance over music. not realy learned anything from salvador’s tea.
benji’s song is meh and helped by the staging.
kamferdrops is a let down. trying to do bjork gaga realness but ending like a west end hipster. or ‘artist’
renieda and blom are the only one doing what they like and loving it
I think we can safely predict that there’s no winner of Melfest in this semi-final!
Onwards and upwards!!!
renaida’s song = dai laga
benjamin = every sleezy male ‘swaggy’ funk/dance song from last few years
Does Ingrosso have Bengtsson’s choreographer because he’s doing the same head bop he did
Indeed. The performance is created by Zain Odelstål.
I thought the same thing. That head bob just ruined it for me. Be original man! But the background does look great though. And I agree that the song is underwhelming. The entire SF1 is a snooze fest at a fast food restaurant if you know what I mean. The studio versions are all better. Kamferdrops is doing too much distracting stuff. Even though it is a ballad, the only two studio songs I like are kamferdrops and John Lundrik, and the Patrick Swayze chorus.
The 1 minute clip of Benjamin’s song really underwhelmed me, but his staging looks amazing.
Agreed. Don’t like his song and that jumper is horrendous…but that staging is pretty impressive.
Agreed. That staging is giving winner vibes.
Is there a way to watch melodifestivaled in the UK? is the svt site Geoblocked?
No geoblock – just go to svtplay.se on Saturday at 7pm and it should be right at the top.
thank you.
we dont need another i cant go on, you can keep benjamin
Looks like SVT doesn’t have large LEDs either this year. How come no one is not shouting about that like they did with RTP ?
Perhaps they did that so staging would be easily transferred to the Lisbon stage. Would be bad to have something that is spectacular, but not be able to recreate it in Lisbon.
Are we not allowed to have some fun? Even though I don’t understand what Edward Blom is doing there.. Eurovision fans have no sense of humor. Especially when it comes to Sweden. They only look for potential Eurovision-winners in our swedish selection. How sad. And I’m done. (Btw, I think we will do just fine in the end)
Man, that’s a massive drop in quality from last year’s first semi-final. If I was pressed to choose any songs, it’d be Renaida and John.
I’ll just want to point out that the name of the contest is MELODIfestivalen. Unfortunately, I can’t hear any remarkable or at least original melodies in these songs. Every entrant, maybe only with an exception of John’s “My turn”, is either bland or outdated. Also, who on earth does cheap magic tricks during the performance in 2018???
Are we still in Sweden? 😀
Does it make any difference to bash Sweden? Look at the scoreboard at ESC..
Oh how the mighty have fallen! What happened SVT?
Oh how people love to bash Sweden every single year!
Benjamin and Kamferdrops are AMAZING!
A good staging (and let’s not forget camera work, which sometimes is even more important than the lights and the props) can make an average song sounds better. In just 30 seconds, “Dance You Off” kinda proved that. It’s a song contest and we should always put music first, but it’s also a television show. I don’t like Benjamin’s voice, I don’t care about his song, but I can’t wait to see how the presentation will look on the semifinal.
If you want to see how camera work can fail a performance, watch Marcus Riva perform DYNAMITE last year at Supernova. Great song, horrible camera.
I haven’t found the video but I think I can imagine the kind of mistakes they did. Sometimes the artist is giving a great performance, but the angles don’t help at all. They can make who’s watching feel bored or confused. We have great camera work on Eurovision these days. Last year’s top 3, for example. One act couldn’t be more different than each other, but they all had great camera decisions behind them.
OMG Edward Blom is amazing I want him I WANT DANCING FRUIT
Benjamin’s number is perfect for Lisbon if there ain’t gonna be any LEDs.
Benjamin – again, performance over music. So Swedish. LOL
Well, they won once with a similar trick and a copy-pasted song *cough*Mans*cough*, so nothing new here.
change your email for the next time @Noah @MTD cof cof
because when the email is the same the avatar is also the same.
Gosh! If you wanna bash Sweden, at least change your email address first. Such a pathetic hater. Which country are you from?
Tajikistan.
Benjamin will easily win this heat, and I think Kamferdrops will qualify direct with him. Kikki probably has no chance and the other four will battle it out for the two remaining spots. Right now I’m thinking it’ll be Renaida and Sigrid, but I wouldn’t surprised if we screw up and pick Edward. Honestly though, Sigrid doesn’t deserve it she’s just embarrassing herself on stage.
It will be so fun if Benjamin wins and gets his neon lights in Lisbon. There will be 10000 articles by fans of every step taken to make it work on Lisbon’s stage, a stage we all know is LED-free. Hahah
Ahhh, the Swedish preselection or every ESC fan wet dream. LOL
Bar the hamburger music tho.
Omg! Benjamin is amazing!
I can already see him going to Eurovision! <3
I have to admit, that it’s not the best, but I like some of them John is boring, Edward obsolete and Kikki not interesting. Sigrid has an okay song, but it’s too messy and her voice isn’t the best Benjamin is good, I love the staging, not so much the song, it sounds recycled, but I can say he’s safe Renaida may slay it, I hope she will Kamferdrops is absolutely my favourite, it’s a little bit similar to Hey Mamma, but I like how she took the sweetness of Dolly Style and made it less annoying. Sweden will love… Read more »
sweden’s staging is always so innovative. and people claim that there is bias towards them nope they are just really at the forefront of modern music production and performance
WOW! Benjamin’s staging is astonishing!!! and his song is really good, I think he is a contender for sure.
Sweden can really make an good song stand out with the staging. Dance you off is by far the most memorable and catchy.
They’re all bad.
OK Benjamin got to my number 1. And Renaida to my 3rd place, so my top looks like this right now:
1. Benjamin, staging is too good
2. Kamferdrops, magic on the stage, not really my thing, but I love the song
3. Renaida, looks promising
4. Sigrid, it’s kind of catchy
5. Kikki, she is so sweet
6. John, boring still, good voice
7. Edward Blom, don’t like these kind of acts..
Omg Benjamin’s staging! I understand that “Dance you off” is a very current song, perhaps way too current for this competition or for my taste. But he deserves to go far. Just because!
Benjamin has got this in the bag. Not a winner, but deffo stands out in this really weak SF
”Dance you off” is the clear winner of this heat. Not only does it have a modern, funky and catchy vibe, but just look at the staging. It’s miles ahead of anything else in thes heat and way better then most stagings of the past 5 years. Confident that benjamin will top his 5th place from last year.
omfg bejamim ingrosso is so 80s
aesthetic honey
The staging for Dance You Off looks spectacular. The song feels very modern and current. Possible winner of MF 2018?