Just when the male-dominated rumoured acts for Melodifestivalen 2019 were starting to make the national final feel like a sausage fest, along comes a fierce lady. Former Alcazar singer Lina Hedlund is reported to be on the roster for 2019 — and she’ll be bringing her party voice.
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet is reporting that Lina has confirmed for the 2019 Swedish national final.
Fans of schlager will not be disappointed. Despite the occasional cries that schlager is dead, Aftonbladet’s source says that Lina will perform a modern schlager-pop song.
The source claims that while there aren’t many artists who deliver modern schlager bops, the radio success of Jessica Andersson’s Melfest 2018 song “Party Voice” shows there’s still an audience for the genre. So come February, we can expect to see Lina dance like a mother and give us her party voice.
Aftonbladet also says that Jessica’s song will be co-written by Johanna Jansson, otherwise known as Dotter. She competed in Mello 2018 with the song “Cry”. Despite being one of the most anticipated entries going into the competition, “Cry” placed a disappointing sixth in its semi-final.
This will be Lina Hedlund’s sixth appearance in the competition. She made her debut in 2002 along with sister Hanna. Their song “Big Time Party” placed ninth in the grand final. The following year she entered solo, but her song “Nothing Can Stop Me” didn’t make it out of the andra chansen round.
Lina’s next Melfest appearance was in 2009, after she had joined the nu disco group (and former Melfest rivals) Alcazar. In 2009 they placed sixth with “Stay the Night”, while the following year “Headlines” only made it as far as andra chansen.
Alcazar’s last Eurovision entry was in 2014, when they placed third with the bop “Blame it on the Disco”. The group split earlier this year after celebrating their 20th anniversary.
Lina might not be the only ex-Alcazar member in the Mello 2019 line-up. Magnus Carlsson was earlier reported to be in negotiations for the song contest, but is said to be searching for the right song.
Melodifestivalen 2019 roll call
Lina Hedlund joins Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Jan Malmsjö, Anton Hagman, Bishara Morad, Vlad Reiser, Ann-Louise Hanson, Wiktoria, Nano, Arvingarna, Oscar Enestad and P4 Nästa wildcard winners The Lovers of Valdaro.
Also rumoured are Magnus Carlsson, Margaret and John Lundvik, who are said to be looking for the right song.
Fans have noted that the low number of rumoured female artists, leading them to wonder if SVT is having trouble attracting female singers, following four years of male acts winning Melodifestivalen.
What do you think? Does Melodifestivalen need more schlager bangers? What sort of songs do you want to hear? Share your thoughts below!
I find your comments so pretentious, you claim you are all for diversity, yet at the same time you want several genres gone because they are “overused”. That’s not diversity. Diversity means having a little bit of everything 🙂
Schlager is what made Melodifestival a success, and sustained it for decades…it is not dead, just dormant.
He never said so, he can’t actually say so or he would risk his job.
All he said was that schlager was dead in MF. Which was the case in 2016 when he said it, after all traditional schlager songs flopped that year.
Instead of just Lina with a Dotter-written song, why not have Alcazar back as whole, and Dotter back as well?
Alcazar has spit up, as you may see in the article. Sad, but true. Loved them!
Except for Jon Henrik I’m not very excited about the rumoured artists so far. Darin and Agnes please!
Agreed. Hopefully this is his year!
For every schlager in the selection, an interesting song which gives diversity to the contest dies. The Benjamins televote haven’t taught a lesson to Bjorkman…
So wrong. And who told you to bash us already before you heard the songs?
We dont want a Melfest like Portugals selection with 20 songs who sound like in the 1950s or like Serbia who have mostly outdated songs. We are happy what we got so get used to it :).
A lot of songs in Melfest are dated as well. Kind of late 90’s or 2004/2005 trying too hard to be hits.
ofc but Melfest is still one of the best selections in my opinion. Norway is good to, Slovenia, Denmark can be good, Lithuania have their moments.
To quote a High School Musical song lyrics: “Stick to the status, stick to the status, stick to the status quoooooooooooo”. The organizers want a safe strategy like this because they preceive it as a way to win or have a high placing in the scoreboard in the end, no matter how old or new the song sounds like. And because of that, sacrifices are made and unwanted consequences will transpire if they would always cling onto this strategy.
And haven’t schlager in it is not diversity, you mean? I don’t exactly like schlager and her song won’t probably do well from a contest aspect but MF is more than just a contest
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Juries might wrong her anyway like the rest of the other favored unqualified artists in the past.
Think we have our first andra Chansen qualifier!
I want Dotter to return with a song that more suits her e.g. “Creatures of the Sun” or “Evolution”.
Slowly finding entries who Will fill the Andra chancen, anything that it’s isn’t radio friendly pop Sweden?
I guess no…
You know you dont have to follow Melfest right? Complaining about us here is kind of boring to read…..
Well no one blamed your country poor boy, relax. I am just stating my opinion which is that Sweden should send more original songs. Thats what the comments are for :*
i know. Many seem to say here they are not voting for Sweden anymore. Its kind of stupid before we have choosen a song
We will hear her Party Voice, cause she gets up in the morning, she does her hair and she puts her make-up on. Focussed, trying to hold on, trying to walk away from all that storm. No? Ok.
Oh my GOd, this is an amazing news, Lina with a song composed by Dotter…. totally love it