She’s the Swedish star who rose to fame at Junior Eurovision before become a stalwart of Melodifestivalen. Molly Sandén participated at Melfest three times, most notably finishing fifth in 2012. She last tried in 2016, coming sixth.
The song “Youniverse” was written by Danny Saucedo, another familiar Mello name. It was majorly hyped in the lead-up to Melodifestivalen 2016, which was one of the most notable editions in recent years. It also had the distinction of being the host country’s national selection.
However, despite everything seeming to be all-well on the surface, a recent P3 music documentary reveals that was not the case at all.
Molly Sandén on Melodifestivalen and “Youniverse”
Molly Sandén – Längtar efter nästa steg is a documentary by Mathilda von Essen. It tells, amongst other things, the journey Molly took up to, during, and after Melodifestivalen 2016.
It reveals that Danny, whom Sandén had been dating for three years, believed that the song would definitely win. Although Molly’s gut feeling told her that he was wrong, she entered anyway.
After spending her childhood in the spotlight, Molly was used to trusting others and ignoring her own opinion. However, the hype surrounding her and the sheer amount of viewers watching her made the project much harder for her.
Molly Sandén at Melodifestivalen 2016
Molly performed in the final position of the fourth semifinal. As we recently mentioned, that slot is usually reserved for the most hotly anticipated song of the year. When the betting odds were released, Molly was the initial firm favourite, with fellow Mello legend Ace Wilder just behind.
As she said, “It was ‘now we will win Melodifestivalen. I think it became more noticeable and more embarrassing. You suddenly had something to lose”.
As the shows wore on, Molly’s victory was much less certain. Frans and Wiktoria climbed the betting odds while Molly’s odds lengthened. Our own Wiwi jury ranked “Youniverse” fifth in the twelve-strong grand final field. The song was described as an “anorexic Euphoria”.
In the end, the song landed in sixth place with both the juries and the televote, finishing sixth overall. It was a very disappointing result, and despite her brave face in post-show interviews, it sent her into a state of despair.
Molly Sandén after Melodifestivalen 2016
Molly’s friend and fellow Swedish popstar Miriam Bryant described it as a “super mega crash”. Sandén struggled to leave home and suffered greatly from paranoia, fearing everyone was laughing at her.
“I looked down on myself, I felt that I had passed on my own principles and had lost myself. I backed down in development, and then I did the same thing again. I was so disappointed in myself.”
This is in stark contrast to her appearance after Melodifestivalen at the time. At the jury rehearsal, she described herself being in “euphoric happiness”. Even after the show, she claimed to be “calm and harmonic” and said that she was “in a good place right now”.
She committed to a summer tour, visited her fans outside Sweden, and promised to keep writing songs. Danny even proposed to her after the show and she accepted. It just goes to show that being in the spotlight since she was very young, Molly became very accustomed to putting on the happy face. Which makes the story all the more sad.
In the months after, Molly deleted all her Instagram photos, cut and dyed her hair. She rebuilt her music career writing in Swedish about her relationship, loneliness and career, without telling Danny.
Two years after Melodifestivalen, she released the critically acclaimed album Större. It was followed up last year with Det bästa kanske inte hänt än, and she was the most played Swedish female artist on Spotify in 2019. She also ended her relationship with Danny last spring.
At least the story has a happy ending. Despite the bad experience, we would love her to come back to Melodifestivalen stronger than ever and gain her rightful place representing Sweden on the Eurovision stage.
Are you enjoying Molly’s new career path? Do you hope to see her back at Melodifestivalen? Let us know below!
She’s doing great in Spotify for her last two albums, very good albums and constantly releasing new songs. While some of Melfest winner have a struggling career. So she’s winning in the end
“Sand” and “Större” are two of my favorite songs from her. Keep doing you Molly!
Molly was my top most played artist on Spotify last year. Her last two albums are very good.
Once again every contestant should stop reading any press about them. She of course read all the hype and believed it herself. Especially how the song “was a masterpiece” and a “perfect host entry song”.
But as she said it herself, it wasn’t that special of a song. It was a decent modern radio pop entry, nothing more. It was to reminiscent of “Euphoria” and we already won with that one.
Time put everything into the right place. I think that flop was good for her and really helped her career. It was a turning point. She started to sing in Swedish and felt more authentic and more local for the Swedish people and less generic. Her latest songs did really well with the Swedish charts and audience without needing Melodifestivalen. So seeing that with perspective it was good I think. Winning a contest is not everything
Her entry was cute and definitely finalist worthy, but 2016 was a strong year even though Frans was not my favourite. I doubt she’ll return sadly.
I am very sorry to hear about everything she went through. I liked Youniverse a lot and thought she would have been (with all due to respect to the winner) a better entry than Frans.
She could have been great im 2016, instead of the horrible Franz song
That’s basically a ripoff of other song on top of that
btw Czech finalists are out –
Olga Lounová
Barbora Mochowa
Ben Cristovao
Pam Rabbit
Karelll
Elis Mraz & Cis T
We All Poop
Barbora mochowa!! Yesss
We all Poop. We certainly do. 😛
Another reason why people shouldn’t put value into betting odds from makers and keepers of books.
I loved the song and would’ve been fine with it winning but it wasn’t so much better than other songs that she should be disappointed with how it placed. MPH had an even better song and didn’t make the final. What about Isa who didn’t even make the final? She finished ahead of Lisa Ajax and David Lindgren who both had songs I loved. 2016 was excellent and her entry was one of the reasons why.
But hey, if that disappointment led to her breaking up with Danny Sauce-do, maybe it was for the best…
What has Danny Saucedo did wrong? Enough is enough!I’m tired of the first world problems, mental health here, mental health there.
Me too!! Life’s so easy now and many people think up their problems and take everyrhing personally. It’s just sad and pathetic to look at them…
Plus some people just want attention.
Wow! You surely had those psychologists and psychiatrists and put them out of jobs.
Please, don’t blame me, I mean no wrong, but it seems to me that people in the North are so fragile. Everything is mental health problems. You would not survive in Italy, not even one day.
ah yes. Italy. The mythical land where mental illness doesn’t exist.
You are snowflakes. Italy would not take you seriously just for that. Never.
Even though northern/western country’s don’t have nearly as huge problems as other countrys who are struggling with war and economy, it does not mean that everything is perfect. Humans are still humans, and they’re allowed to feel down and empty at times. Instead of using you’re energy on dragging others down, maybe you could use it on lifting others up? Anyhow, I love my girl Molly, and hopefully she’s in a better state of mind now<3
You should really find something nice to live for.
Oh , my dog
Why can’t I ever see such scenes in my country 🙁
don’t u live in india? u see cows roaming freely who are just as beautiful as doggos
we have other problems to think of in italy that the nordics don’t face
The amount of dislikes pretty much proves your point here lol
No need to take everything personally.
In Sweden many can feel depressed yes, Its a big problem for them at the time. Ofc there are people with worse but you dont care about them if you dont feel good. We have BIG problems here to. Shooting/killing crimes have gone up a lot since immigration from Syria/Afghanistan started. Many swedes dont feel safe going out alone at the evening anymore. Its not Sweden. Its Swedistan now a days. Thats a problem that is a BIG problem
Rasmus, you have sunk to a new low.
i know the truth hurts. I dont go outside alone anymore. Do you? I did before all the killings and shootings. You must be living under a rock in Malmö
It is called lack of Vitamin D. Google it
Wow! You surely had those psychologists and psychiatrists and put them out of jobs.
There is lot more stories like this among ESC or almost-ESC participants… (Wiwibloggs -you could give us more of that 😉 )
We focus on the event, judge, love or hate but it’s that kind of backstage stories that actually build artist’s experience with ESC that may be different and more rich from what we see on stage…
#Loreen (her story before and after ESC is a movie-worth drama, but barely anyone knows about it)
I don’t understand why doing so well would make you that disappointed…….. she went direct to the final, and came 6th, and was loads of people’s personal favourite (including mine). It’s a hard contest to win!
Perhaps putting so much store in “winning” is not a good idea, because there are different measures of success. Just think of how bad it Could have been – like crashing out in the semi final.
I think maybe she was a bit insecure generally.
the perception you get from reading about her in Sweden is that she is a very insecure person