She’s the three-time Melodifestivalen winner who also won Eurovision 1991. Earlier this month Carola Häggkvist denied reports suggesting she would be competing at Melodifestivalen 2020. But the Mello queen has recently tweeted news of a meeting with Swedish broadcaster SVT.
Yesterday Carola shared an intriguing post to her Instagram story. She was standing outside the Stockholm headquarters of Sveriges Television (SVT). The photo includes a caption which approximately translates to “Private SVT meeting behind closed doors completed. Thanks, now everything old is importantly cleansed.”
The meeting suggests that Carola may have been meeting with SVT to discuss her reasons for not wanting to compete in Melodifestivalen. Of course, at the moment we have to take Carola’s word for it that there was a meeting.
The “Fångad av en stormvind” singer earlier denied she would be competing in Melodifestivalen 2020. In a long social media post last month, Carola explained that she was not prepared to do a show like Melodifestivalen or Let’s Dance due to the “media circus”.
She wrote that “as long as the level of work ethic exists between the [tabloid press] and SVT, I would be very naive if I would once again allow myself to be a victim of it. Carola confidently noted that “I’m actually smarter than that — than to say yes”.
But could SVT have offered their assurances to Carola that she won’t be caught up in a media circus this time?
Previous reports suggested that Melodifestivalen boss Christer Björkman had offered Carola the opportunity to perform “a tribute to her Christian faith” and her love of Jesus.
Dansband Drängarna reported for Melodifestivalen
While Carola’s Melfest participation is still up in the air, things are looking more certain for dansband Drängarna (The Farmhands).
Aftonbladet reports that the popular dansband will make their Mello debut in 2020, the same year they will celebrate their 25th anniversary. Drängarna follows dansband and 1993 Eurovision act Arvingarna, who earned a comfortable seventh place in the grand final earlier this year.
Drängarna will be joined at Melodifestivalen 2020 by Linda Bengtzing, Frida Öhrn, Paul Rey, Albin, Suzi P, The Mamas, Victor Crone, Hanna Ferm, Jakob Karlberg and P4 Nästa wildcard winner Amanda Aasa. Eric Saade and Carola are two acts still being chased by the broadcaster.
SVT is expected to reveal the lucky 28 competing acts of Melodifestivalen 2020 sometime later this month.
What do you think? Are you ready for more schlager diva realness? Should Carola say yes to Melfest? Who else would you like to see in the 2020 lineup? Tell us your thoughts below!
Even Carola does not want participant in this boring, old-fashioned and musically irrelevant festival. She has just got up in my credit.
I hope Drängarna represent Sweden, it would be something different. Not everything Sweden sends has to be radio friendly pop, it may have worked with cases like Euphoria or Heroes but it can be seen as repetitive.
yuh they should try radio-friendly urban music like italy did since swedish type of pop isn’t in demand anymore
My wishlist: Ace Wilder (we need a bop), Lisa Ajax (still believe that “My Heart Wants Me Dead” was her best attempt so far, but also really like “Torn”), Mariette (“A Million Years” was cool), Malou Prytz (it was actually really modern last year) and Mimi Werner (a bit country-pop-vibes). Oh wow, as you can see I would love a female with an English popsong with attitude to represent Sweden 😀
YES to all those! Would especially love to see Ace and Mimi make another comeback at Melo!!
I am exited only for Hanna, Victor, Suzy, The Mamas and Paul .
Hoping for Eric ….
And i wish to have Kerli, Dinah Nah, De Vet Du, Dotter, Danny Saucedo, Panetoz, Ace Wilder, Linus Svenning, Moly Sanden, Malou Prytz, Timoteij, Zaena, and Sanna Nielsen in the competition as well …
All great suggestions!! I feel like Dotter needs another chance with a different song! I feel like she deserves the final!
Yes Lolek Dotter was robbed back in 2018 …She needs to came ….And Thanks
Kerli is estonian though, or did you mean she would do like a margaret?
Kerli has already participated in MF in 2003
She needs come back …
Yes she is Estonian but I think we will see her soon in ESC or some national selection, she was in touch with Kate from Australia (2019) recently so u never know…And yes she was in Mello before and as u can see every year we have someone from abroad in Mello….(Margatet, Danny Sausedo- he is polish and swedish or has got a polish roots …) some finnish artiist and norwegian people, and many more ….this year there was Mohombi who has got huge carrer so maybe Arash (he has got some hits in sweden aand he wrote -In my… Read more »
Thinking of Carola singing gospel made me think of something worse:
Trisha Paytas
A meeting is a broad term. It can mean anything, not necessarily a participation in MF. Sometimes it’s just a meeting.
Besides I dont think MF is the right place for a Christian hymn, it’s not a church..
Carola, plz stay at home honey!!! 🙂
Amm really dissappointed with the line up so far, only Hanna Ferm excites me tbh..? and maybe Paul Rey
Rumored line-up. We don’t know anything for sure yet, do we?
Nope, but usually Aftonbladet is quite right
You can always change the channel or watch some other selection. Cant you :)? It would be nice if you did 🙂
They need to have a meeting on how not to send a generic radio song that only juries will love
That is why 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 all finsihed top 10 with the Televote
It’s different to be in the top3 of juries every year rather than being 8th or 24th 😉
I like your positive vibes:) I hope you have a nice day 🙂 You are always so positive 🙂
I didn’t ask your opinion tbh
i just want to remind you that you are ALWAYS negative 🙂
Can we get Jesus’ side of the story, too?
“I try not to get involved, man. Tried helping Germany out a while back, but it didn’t go so hot. That Icelandic lady called me up a while back, but there was no helping her.”
joesus has spilleth the tea whew
Doesn’t want “media circus”, shares a post that literally creates it.. I mean
Is anyone clamoring for Carola to make a comeback? I’m not, and neither is she.
I like Carola 🙂
I like her fine as a figure from Eurovision’s past. Her style fit the eras she competed in. But Sweden have kinda moved on from that cheesy schlager sound and it would feel out-of-place now. Plus her song would probably be very pious and preachy. (And let’s be real: she was a fine winner, and Invincible was good, but it was all downhill after Framling.)
Carola’s voice can not go out of style. I would be more than happy to see her back. There’s 28 acts, I don’t understand why you would begrudge her one of those places – Melodifestivalen is all about including everybody. She’s recorded plenty of faith-based songs, in different styles, and none of them have been pious. I disagree that it was all downhill after 1983 too. How familiar are you with her stuff? There have been plenty of highlights.
I’ll admit, I mostly know her Eurovision entries and attempts. Not really my thing. I will say it was cool to see her sing Kan in Hebrew with fellow 1991 competitors Duo Datz. Good sportsmanship, that.
If you’re interested in hearing another side of her musical output, listen to two of my favorites…Ditt ord består, from 2004 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0ajNVFehqY – and almost-Melodifestivalen-entry, När Löven Faller from 2003 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMAQgYPXDto . The first of those is from a religious-themed album…perhaps not what you had been imagining.
To be fair, she’ still 25-30 years younger than some of the acts they have on the programme. She’s got a long career ahead of her!