Hej, Sverige! This week Melodifestivalen 2018 travels to the historical city of Gothenburg and with it comes seven new songs that will hopefully grab your attention (and votes).
The wait is over for Eurovision fans as Polish fan-favourite Margaret makes her Melfest debut.
However, she is not the only big name for Melodifestivalen followers. The “Cool Me Down” popstress will be joined by returning artists Samir & Viktor and Mimi Werner, Goteborg’s own Ida Redig, and experienced acts Jonas Gardell and Stiko Per Larsson. Arguably, the most anticipated name among the newcomers is Idol winner LIAMOO.
Expect glitter and fabulousness! Don’t believe us? Well, SVT have got us covered. At 19:00 CET tonight, you’ll be able to watch snippets from each act’s rehearsals. And until then, you can read our reviews from inside the arena.
For now though, SVT has released a minute of each song for you to judge.
You can listen to all the semi-final 1 snippets by clicking the links below:
MELODIFESTIVALEN 2018: DELTÄVLING 2 GOTEBORG
1. SAMIR & VIKTOR – “SHUFFLA”
2. IDA REDIG– “ALTTING SOM VI SA”
3. JONAS GARDELL – “DET FINNS EN VAG”
4. MARGARET– “IN MY CABANA”
5. STIKO PER LARSSON – “TITTA VI FLYGER”
6. MIMI WERNER – “SONGBURNING”
7. LIAMOO – “LAST BREATH”
What are your thoughts on each song? Who do you think is in with a shot of making it direct to the final? Let us know in the comments below.
I like Samir&Viktor. Am I missing something about ”In my cabana”, don’t like it, it’s annoying to me..
I thought this semi would be the strongest one, oh boy was I wrong…
LIAMOO is my biggest disappointment. I love and listen to his music regularly (even tho there isn’t much), but man is his melo song meh.
I kinnda like Shuffla…
The other 5 songs aren’t even worth mentioning…
The quality in this SF is slighly higher than in SF, but there isn’t a winner alert yet. Maybe there is one in the remaining two SFs. About SF 2, there are some surprises, both good and bad. “Shuffla” sounds cool, I was dancing to it almost unconsciously, even I didn’t like Samir&Victor previous attempts. “In My Cabana” is dissapointing. I wasn’t expecting anything from Margaret, but this song is weak. I suppose it’s the only way, she can pull a song live. “Last Breath” sounds good, but I’m not into rap. Anyway, I think “Last Breath” and “Shuffla” are… Read more »
SAMIR & VIKTOR: fun and full of energy as always for the duo. It’s good.
IDA REDIG: Nothing special here.
JONAS GARDELL: Good voice but it sounds dated.
MARGARET: That’s a let down. It’s up-beat, but it doesn’t have a peak and it’s not strong enough.
STIKO PER LARSSON: Nice vibes. Nothing special though.
MIMI WERNER: That’s nice. Srtrong chorus, I hope it’s good live.
LIAMOO: Oh, I don’t like rap. Nice chorus though.
Nothing impresses me in the 2nd semi. The 1st one was better.
Shuffla and Last Breath are the only good ones, though I cringed at Shuffla first because it’s a typical swedish song. Margaret is overrated, the song obviously tries to follow Camila Cabelo’s Havana. That’s why I don’t like it. The rest are mediocre at bast, though Songburning would be good if it was sung by someone else.
Liamoo is the only song I actually want to hear more of…not that it is good but the best in this group….
Samir & Viktor and Margaret are my standouts.
I dont get why Liamoo is favourite with that …..
Samir&Viktor and Mimi Verner are the standouts for me. The hype around Liamoo and Margaret aren’t really justified…but you know that HE’LL go through thanks to the teen girl vote alone. ? The rest are OK to forgettable.
Oh, and Sweden’s top position in betting odds is now at risk after hearing these acts…Bulgaria and Estonia closing in….
Shuffla is the only song i would download after listening to.these snippets. Please Sweden, give these guys a chance!
For me it will be two swedish songs at the topp.
Ida, and Samir och Viktor
After that Liamo and Margaret.
Är det bara jag som svensk som är positivt överraskad av Samir och Viktor. Trodde ALDRIG att jag skulle tycka de var näst bäst. Men besviken på Liamo. Väntat bättre. Ida tokgillade jag. Lite Hellström. Jag struntar att det ska vara på engelska, det gjorde ju Portugal ?
Easy, Samir and Viktor should qualify direkt till final this time. I am certain their performance will be engaging as always.
Again people don’t seem to get MF. Like every year the potential winners wont come until heat 3 and 4. We know a winner wont come from this heat. Well maybe Liamoo.
We know this so we are voting with our hearts rather than our minds. We are in it for the fun.
Haven’t you been watching MF these years? They always start weak and end up strong. Nothing strange this year
Blir nog Ida på topp för mig. Struntar om det passar ESC : )
Hm Liamo blev en besvikelse.
Ida Redig and obviously Liamoo sound really promising
said it before and i will say it again the winner is not from sweden
Have you heard all of songs? Tell me about them!
You can’t possibly have heard all the songs — and if you have, you would most likely be contractually obliged to not discuss it here.
It’s unkind to others but also weakens the credibility of your own arguments if you come to such quick and irrational judgments.
Keep an open mind. I’m sure you’d want people to have an open mind about you.
I haven’t thought that this day is needed to come… Samir & Victor have the best song. So disappointed about Liamoo and Margaret.
Very weak songs. A shame.
Whats going on? Another bad semi final from Sweden, not looking promising
Liamoo, how dare you copy See You Again. I hope Paul Walker spooks you at night, man.
LOL at these songs.
Bye Sweden! Stay in Semi.
Shuffla – not as atrocious as their other songs, apart from that horrid breakdown. Allting som vi sa – this is basically Sergels torg by Veronica Maggio… I guess if we can’t get Europe to hear the original one, a copy will do! Det finns en vag – eh, I guess old folks can get their lives from this. In My Cabana – this is exactly what I would’ve expected from her: a harmless, generic bop that takes no risks but that is enjoyable by everyone. Not quite the anthem Cool Me Down was, but nevertheless still dignitiful. Mess at… Read more »
– Det finns en väg is the typical “special snowflake not mainstream” song, that tries to stand out, but ends up forgotten. Maybe it won’t be, but it probably will – Titta vi flyger is like if Stiko sang and put his voice on Sims soundtrack. A mess with a voice here and there – Last Breath. It’s something, I guess – Allting som vi sa for some reason sound cool to me – Margaret isn’t exactly what I hoped for. She surely will get some votes from us, but I don’t think, that it’s the song we’ve been waiting… Read more »
I’m really surprised, but ”Shuffla” is my favourite out of these! I expected a bit more from Margaret after ”Cool me down”, which was really amazing. It’s not bad though… Liamoo is kinda meh. Nothing special in my opinion. I’m getting the Feeling that melodifestivalen had all their good Songs last year and now there’s not much left :DD So, Shuffla is my favourite from all of the songs that are released already since ”Dance you off” isn’t really that good either.
I’m pretty sure Liamoo’s snippet is the final minute. The rap verse is the bridge, similar to his other recent single. 🙂
The rap is in the verses. That’s what I’ve read about the song.
I think Liamoo’s full song is going to be really good and no doubt he will deliver a good performance. I really like Samir and Viktor’s song. Very entertaining! It’s much better than last week. Jeez… all this complaining..
I say, Liamoo and Samir and Viktor to the final. And Margaret and Mimi to AC.
Totally agree with your predictions. Liamoo has potential 🙂
It’s looking a very male final and 4th year in a row that Sweden will send a male artist xD
Liamoo is basic rap/r’n’b from the 2000’s, sorry not convinced.
I couldn’t agree more with your prediction – Samir & Viktor are bringing a stronger song than ever before and shouldn’t have a problem at all sailing direkt till final. LIAMOO is modern and a shoe-in too, I believe. Andra chansen… Mimi’s song is great, and now that she’s a known entity in Sweden, should go on. I’m not in Sweden, so don’t know for sure – but I don’t know whether Margaret is well known enough in Sweden to make it through on name recognition, and her live performance skills are questionable (see last year’s Polish National Final). I… Read more »
Neither Margaret nor Mimi are that well known. Margaret was played on the radio but that’s that. She is till struggling for recognition. The song was a minor radio hit. Majority of Swedes wouldn’t probably recognize her on name alone. Nor on song.
As for Mimi, her uncle used to be married to Jill Johnson, so that’s her claim to fame. She is still not big enough on her own.
Last Breath has some potential but the rest are not great.
I’m all for Liamoo! Rap music needs to be at Eurovision. He has the cool factor like Frans and Nano so I expect Swedes will push hard for him
And another Bop from Samir&Viktor 🙂 They will smash Swedish Spotify as always 🙂
You should do a video on the EMA 2018 snippets, the last 4 snippets were released today.
You can listen to them here:
https://val202.rtvslo.si/2018/02/predstavitev-skladb-eme-2018/
Cabananana.
Approved! Caribic sound, catchy chorus.
Sounds strangely familiar though? I can’t tell what song In My Cabana reminds me of.
To me, it sounds rather similar to Ivi Adamou’s song “La La Love” from 2012.
Better than last week. But still not good.
The more I listen to Margaret’s song, the more I like “In My Cabana”. It sounds like “Side to Side” by Ariana Grande with na na na from “Havana”, but I fell in love with this sunny vibes. Firstly I was quite dissapointed, but I was dissapointed too, when I heard “Cool Me Down” for the first before polish national final. I hope she will be in final two, because – next to Liamoo – she is the best!
If the level of quality we’ve witnessed so far continues with the following two semi-finals, I think we can look forward to Sweden’s second ever non-qualification.
“Shuffla”, “Last Breath”, “Atting Som Vi Sa” and “Titta Vi Flyger” are the better songs in this selection.
Songs from slovenian national selection are out! They are / must be in slovene language in semi final, but they will be in english in final. Listen to them and show us some love! 😀
The best ones are from Nika Zorjan, Lara Kadis
Where is Nika’s snippet? It’s not on YouTube.
Lol, In my caba is such a disappointment. Expected something better from Margaret and especially Arash.
The national final songs this year are not good enough, and I hope that some of the internal selected artists will deliver something good, cause till now the 2018 season doesn’t seem to be a strong year.
I think this year is quite strong actually, just not the mefest for now. Every year we say that the current year is weak.
Exactly, every year the same old story with every year the same esc fans saying the same old thing. This looks like the most interesting esc in 6 years up till now.
“Shuffla” and “Last Breath” are the better songs in this selection.
A whole lot of mediocre songs. That’s exactly what Sweden deserves after rejecting Loreen, Jon Henrik and Wiktoria last year.
Love this semi. For me, Mimi and Liamoo to go direkt but I really hope Ida qualifies, I don’t speak Swedish but I love her song already.
I dont get the hype around Liamoo, ok he is easy on the eyes, but I really doubt that a rap song is suited for ESC.
Rap music is listened everywhere. Young people love it 🙂
Young idiots like that.
That’s a ridiculous generalisation. A lot of young people hate rap, just like any other age group.
Every genre can be done on esc except for maybe hardstyle.
Did Margaret think it would be a good idea for her chorus to be “In my Cabana ooh nah nah”? Blatantly copying one of the biggest hits of last year? I’m not saying it’s plagiarism, just that she copied the fun factor of a hit song.It’s not a bad song but oh my god did I cringe every time i heard that line.
I think Mimis was the best one of the bunch.
Welcome to the Swedish music industry.
@Mattias – indeed.
Not bad but I’m quite disappointed with Liamoo and Margaret, expected much more :(( Maybe the live versions may make me change my mind, but by now this is soooo discouraging.
For the first time actually really liking Samir and Viktor’s song, loving the 1920s vibe and the chorus. Margaret’s song is only ok, I don’t think she’s aiming to win anyway. It could have been better with a better beat for the chorus and if it was less reptitive. Liamoo’s song is the best lyrically but it feels like I’ve heard the song before. The same applies to Mimi’s song. The others don’t capture my attention.
My early prediction:
Final:
Liamoo, Samir & Viktor
Andra Chansen:
Mimi Werner, Margaret
Out:
Ida Redig, Jonas Gardell, Stiko per Larsson
OMG. I totally agree with you! Same prediction too.
Yeah, I can see that happening as well
Let’s go ape in my cabana!
Literally going ape right now.
Margaret can’t sing live
Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. What happened with Melodifestivalen? I expected SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much more. All my hopes for the queen, Mariette! Come and save us with ur BOP
All my hopes for the queen, Dotter*
who
TOO STRONG