About one month remains until the competing acts of Melodifestivalen 2021 are expected to be announced. But until then, we now have the great guessing game that is Melfest rumours season. The first acts reported for 2021 are Idol 2019 winner Tusse Chiza, dansband Sannex, and rappers Sam-E & Wahl.
The news has come from the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. Report Tobbe Ek works his sources and keeps close track of the speculation each year.
Tusse Chiza
Tusse Chiza is best known to Swedish audiences from having won last year’s series of Swedish Idol. During his time on the show, he caught the attention of guest judge and Melfest boss Christer Björkman, who told Tusse that he is “welcome to Melodifestivalen whenever you want.”
Aftonbladet reports that over the summer, Tusse has been involved in several songwriting camps, working on potential Mello entries. As well, Melodifetivalen producers have been asking songwriters for songs specifically with Tusse as the intended artist.
Tusse follows Idol alums Loreen and Måns Zelmerlöw to Melodfestivalen.
Sannex
The dansband Sannex is also said to be part of Melfest 2021. The group formed in the late 1970s but has been evolving ever since with an ever-changing line-up.
In 2017, the group received the Swedish Grammis award for Dansband of the Year. They also won the Guldklavar award honouring Sweden’s top dance band in both 2014 and 2015.
The inclusion of dansbands at Melodifestivalen is a reminder that Melfest is more than just Sweden’s national final for Eurovision. It also serves as a celebration of all aspects of contemporary popular Swedish music.
Sam-E & Wahl
The third rumoured act are two rapper previously known for each being part of a duo. Sami “Sam-E” Rekik is was previously part of the hip hop duo Medina. They had a number of hits over a decade, including the No.2 single “Miss Decibel”.
For his Melfest appearance, Sam-E will be teaming up with the rapper Christopher “Wahl” Vahlberg. He was previously part of the duo SödraSidan and has recently gone solo.
Aftonbladet’s source says the new duo will be most likely to perform an urban pop song at Melodifestivalen.
Melodifestivalen 2021: What we know so far
Due to Covid concerns, the traditional Melodifestivalen tour won’t be used for the 2021 shows. Instead all the live shows will be filmed at a studio in Stockholm. As well, the show will not have a live audience.
The dates for Melodifestivalen 2021 have been confirmed, taking place in the usual six-week period in February and early March.
The hosts for Melfest 2021 have not been confirmed, but product manager Annette Helenius has hinted that each show may use different hosts.
Tusse Chiza, Sannex and Sam-E & Wahl will be joined by P4 Nästa wildcard winner Julia Alfrid.
The confirmed line-up of Melodifestivalen 2021 is expected to be announced in late November.
What do you think? Which acts would you like to see in the Melfest 2021 lineup? Tell us your suggestions below!
What about molly sanden? She would do well to take advantage of the buzz of the eurovision movie.
Want to see Danny Saucedo, Oscar Zia, Liamoo, Sanna Nielsen, Molly, Eric Saade , Dinah nah, Linus Svening, Lisa Ajax, Alice, Isa
Its sad that Anna Bergendahl, Mohombi, Hanna Ferm or Malou can’t participate in Melo 21
I want Danny Saucedo back.
All I hope is that there’s a lot of variety! And let’s take another year off from boring white guys.
racism is double sided, stop those statements
For me, The Mamas were welcome relief from five years in a row of solo male singers…and then they didn’t even make it to Rotterdam!
Agreed. I would’ve been happy with either of the top two because in either case we’d be getting something other than a solo male.
Plot twist: Christer cancelled ESC because he didn’t want Sweden to have a female act, and he didn’t want to respect the results of a MelFest where the top 4 were all women (this is a joke!)
It’s not racist. Taking offense at that is classic white fragility. Let me know when white men are being systemically oppressed globally and then we’ll talk.
Racism concerns systemic prejudice, by its very nature it can’t be double sided. White people in Sweden don’t suffer racism. However, within the last decade, Sweden have sent two Arab artists (Eric and Loreen) and one black artist (John) so even in recent years there is some racial diversity to Sweden’s Eurovision picks, even if it still a sausage fest.
You’re acting like it’s a correlation. They aren’t boring because they are white are they? Because that makes it racist.
They are boring, and they are white.
…
Feel free to look through the history of the Swedish contest. You’d be surprised to find a lot of male entries. So many that they even push to get more female acts. So it’s actually legitimate to ask for other stuff than male entries. Female black groups, well there’s Afrodite and the Mamas, not much more. So you need to consider this before speaking about discriminating against certain kinds of groups of people.
Thank you!
Yeah because John Lundvik is white… and a win three 5th places and a 7th place is very boring… grow up.
Talk results all you want. Doesn’t mean I have to find them all interesting.
Not saying you do… but you could at least show them some respect and not be rude.
Honestly why does it matter what gender or colour a performer is? If people like their song that’s all that should matter. People liked Mans’ Frans’ Robin’s Benjamin’s and John’s songs… if you don’t like them then that’s fine… but that’s a you problem, it’s not Sweden or any country’s job to cater to your personal taste.
It’s insane how these people don’t understand that you can’t be racist to white people. You can be prejudiced against white people, but not racist, since white people have not been systematically oppressed like the way so many POC around the world have been. The same way that you can’t be heterophobic.
Precisely! Glad somebody’s talking sense around here. I refuse to feel sorry for cis straight White people, and moreover, I think it’s mad hypocritical for people to get up in arms about this but ask what the issue is with underrepresented minorities at major events like Eurovision. People have their priorities screwed up.
Here’s my 2 cents on this issue: The textbook definition of racism: ”Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to physical appearance and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against other people because they are of a different race or ethnicity.” Nowhere it says against which race or group of people. Prejudice, on the other hand, is defined as: ”An affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived, usually unfavorable, evaluation of another person based on… Read more »
Seeing who seems to appear more on Swedish tv at the moment I would say we could expect following:
Loreen, Benjamin Ingrosso, Ana Diaz, Oscar Zia… this is just loosely based on appearences and guessing from my part. But since many artists doesn’t have much income from cancelled tours i suspect more surprising names will be added to the list.
Probably more ex Idol contestants, would love seeing Chris Kläfford but that won’t happen…but maybe Danny might appear now that Molly dumped him and all
Quite frankly I don’t see either Loreen or Benjamin returning.
I could see Benjamin returning to MF but just to promote his new music, but Loreen is most likely not returning…but a thought came to me that Darin might take a chance, now when he is Out and about…hehe
Ana Diaz has spoken a lot about her social anxiety, Even small concerts are super exhausting for her. I frankly believe this would be a too big audience for her.
Loreen has showed many times now how she wants something else than pop music. More artistic and more niche. I don’t think a song competition will be the right place for her. Just look at statements.
Why no mentioning of Loreen 🙂 It’s reported that she will come back with a song called „DNA“
I would like to see Mariette back
I would love to see Wiktoria and Jon Henrik Fjallgren back, even though I’ve lost hope they’d win unless the jury system shifts balance towards the public vote and I don’t see that happening. I’d like to see Dolly Style again as well, but since they’ve changed members, they’ve changed style as well. Their last Melfest entry was somewhat stale and safe compared to the guilty pleasure nonsense I was hoping for. Also, a former winner, like Loreen, Mans or Charlotte would be a pleasure to see participating again.
I think Fjällgren is something only international fans would want to see, no one here in Sweden actually think he could win. He never got enough votes to actually win the public vote. And I think he is pretty much done with the whole thing, he wants new things. Beside already back in 2000 Sweden sent a Sami with a better song..
I just recently saw 2000 contest and Sweden easily made my top 5. Sure, the overall quality wasn’t that high, but I do think that it’s quite a good song. Still, I think it has more in common with Danish Higher Ground or this year’s MGP finalist, One Last Time, than it does with any of Fjallgren’s Melfest songs. What I find interesting is that it was one of the rare occasions (alongside Perrelli’s 2008 comeback) in which Sweden broke the mold a bit in the 2000s and I liked it. I wouldn’t be against something of the sort again.… Read more »
That was twenty years ago…when will you allow them another turn?
Eh ok? When Swedish audience gives him enough support to win, then he will win. But every year since 2015 he gets less and less televotes
WTF are you saying? Fjällgren is really good. Sami people are part of Sweden and they are surely welcome in the contest. For me, his best pice of music so far is “Daniels joik”, a pice without vocals that he wrote himself. I prefer this over some bland singing he is sometimes given. His vocals should really shine. Then he can win
I think Wiktoria will eventually win. She’s always qualified DTF in the Deltavings and I think of the younger regulars she’s in the running to be the next Sanna, i.e. the woman who is always the bridesmaid, sometimes the maid of honour, but when she finally becomes the bride she’ll have acquired such a ESC fanbase that she’ll be a contender to win ESC itself.
Hopefully Dotter will come back!
If she is then we know who’s getting spot 7 in Deltaving 4 (unless her song is closer to Cry than to Bulletproof)
Well, if the Loreen rumors are true, I think Christer would give the spot 7 to Loreen
If both Loreen’s and Dotter’s rumors are true, I doubt that Christer would put them in the same Deltaving. That might happen only if the list is stacked with A-listers. In that case, I would assume Dotter might open and Loreen close the evening.
I have a feeling Dotter won’t participate in 2021, 2022 seems more likely. Taking a year out did her a lot of favours (although Cry was never going to succeed in the way that Bulletproof did).
I don’t know if Loreen would participate, she lost her AC duel in 2017 even though she had the best song of the 28 participants…I would understand if she felt disheartened, especially since Statements was the MelFest song she probably felt most invested in.
If I’m not mistaken, following artists are those we definitely won’t be seeing in Melfest 2021:
I’ve heard that Melfest has a rule that same person cannot compete three years in a row. I’m not 100% sure is that true, but nobody does, so…
I heard the same,the max is 2 in a row
The rumours started last week with Loreen – see the Scandipop article and tweets etc etc
I don’t know, Loreen’s music is kind of outdated unfortunately so she does not really have a chance if she comes back with same type of song that she have had before…Don’t want to be rude or anything but as Heidi Klum says “one day you’re in and the next day you’re out”
Well, but she is in Så mycket bättre so there definitivly is relevance there.
I don’t think her music is outdated at all (even today Euphoria has a timeless quality and overall her discography sounds very contemporary) but I do think it has niche appeal in Sweden. For her the struggle is making it to the final in Sweden, but juries and international voters seem receptive to her music.