Last spring they both made it to the grand final of Melodifestivalen by singing through the Second Chance round. And now it would seem that Klara Hammarström and Alvaro Estrella are returning to Melfest in 2022.
That’s the tea coming out of Stockholm courtesy of Aftonbladet‘s Mello insider Torbjörn Ek.
The appearances will mark the third consecutive run for the trophy for both 21-year-old Klara and 41-year-old Alvaro.
Klara Hammarström returning to Melodifestivalen in 2022
A former competitive horse rider, Klara first entered Melfest in 2020 with the song “Nobody,” which was eliminated during Semi-Final 2. It came fifth behind winners Anna Bergendahl (“Kingdom Come”) and Dotter (“Bulletproof”).
She returned in 2021 with “Beat of Broken Hearts”.
“It’s a song that a lot of people can relate to with a lovely message, and I would say that it’s a very beautiful song that could almost have been taken out of a Disney movie,” she said at the time. The upbeat pop number was about how can you find the motivation to keep going even after you face something as upsetting as heartbreak. “The beat of broken hearts / Gonna gonna make it through / Gonna find a way for you / And heal our broken parts / Never ever fall apart.”
The stage performance featured dazzling lights and Klara wore a sexy bustier that would give Cercei from Game of Thrones all the feels.
She defeated Efraim Leo (“Best of Me”) in Andra Chansen to reach the final, where she placed 6th ahead of Melfest legends like Danny Saucedo and Charlotte Perrelli.
Alvaro Estrella returns to Melfest with Latin pop?
When the sun goes down he keeps baila baila! And now Alvaro is ready to dance on the Melfest stage once more.
Alvaro — who has danced for artists including Danny Saucedo and Eric Saade — made his first Melfest turn in 2014. His song “Bedroom” finished sixth in the first semi-final. He returned as a singer in 2020 with the song “Vamos Amigos” alongside DJ Mendez, making the final after beating Drängarna in Andra Chansen. The pair finished next to last, beating only Mohombi (“Winners”).
This past spring he stood on his own with the upbeat song “Baila Baila”. In Andra Chansen he beat Lillasyster before achieving tenth place in the final.
It’s long been said that artists need to take a break from Mello after competing two years in a row. Naturally it’s raising some eyebrows that these two artists will break the tacit if unofficial rule.
“Surely it is a little special that both are participating for the third year in a row?” asks one of Aftonbladet‘s sources. “But at the same time, it has gone well for both of them, and the Mello audience really seems to like Latino pop, which Alvaro does very well.”
Angelino Markenhorn to make Melfest debut
Aftonbladet is also reporting that Angelino Markenhorn — who goes by his first name alone — will compete.
The 23-year-old has impressed people with his covers on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and over the summer participated in a songwriting camp arranged for Melodifestivalen.
He’ll reportedly sing a song from Danish songwriter Thomas Stengaard. Thomas, you’ll remember, wrote “Only Teardrops” — Emmelie de Forest’s song that won Eurovision 2013 — and more recently songs including Elena Tsagrinou’s “El Diablo” and Laurell chart-topper “Habit”.
Are you excited about these artists? Do you want more Spanish-language songs in Melfest? Let us know what you’re thinking down below!
So literally almost only returnees…. Such a predictable Swedish selection.
Do you not see that so far ONE newcomer has been revealed? Angelino has not competed before
Did you not see i wrote ‘almost only’?
Agree it is very predictable, even I am tired of it by now, will skip MF next year to be honest…
Klara’s songs are generic but I do enjoy them a lot. Can’t say the same about Alvaro. I did like “Vamos amigos” with Mendez but not his solo efforts. “Baila Baila” was simply uninspired.
Can wait for Alvaro’s new song: ”Beautiful amor bello”! Here are the leaked lyrics:
”Oh, senorita, my love, mi amorcita,
Give me your amor, mi amor, your corazon!
(oh oh oh oh oh oh)
Beautiful amor bello, my corazon, your passion!
Yeah, yeah, yeah! Love me, amorcita!”
In all fairness, Alvaro is very charismatic, and I wish him all the best. Perhaps I would totally fall in love with his next song. Good luck. 🙂
Honestly hate his songs..it is like sitting through Spanish class for beginners or something…the lyrics are so cringeworthy and even more surprising is that it is a man in his 40s singing it….
Knowing Spanish is definitely a downside when it comes to Alvaro’s songs… The lyrics are *so simple*, and not even grammatically correct. Cringeworthy is the right word for them. At least the melodies are catchy. 🙂
While Alvaro is of Chilean descent, a lot of these Latin-themed songs are about as authentic as Taco Bell.
That doesn’t make him any less Sámi, or his joiking any less real. It’s not the same.
I couldn’t agree more! There is no similarity between them other than looks…
Even though I am a huge fan of Swedish music in general l feel that this contest is vastly overrated. When you have endless hours of competition and a final that is stretched out to it’s absolute limit and you still get a bland soulless ballad like this year that wins then there is an argument that this contest still chooses real dross.
So we will have another version of the Macarena.
I would love to see new artists, 3x in a row its a bit much i would say …
Angelino is new.
Yes, there will be new artists for sure. But of the three highlighted in this article, 2 are returning. There’s no guarantee of how many will be new, but this is a 2:1 ratio of returning artists.
I would love to see a Melodifestivalen of newcomers outnumbering returners, but of course the best songs of the submission process might be from a lot of potential returning acts.
There is never going to be more newcomers than veterans. That is not the Melodifestivalen. It needs veterans and names. Not only because you can not fill arenas with only newcomers but because that would make the entire show niche and limited instead of broad. You think families and elder people would watch a show with only newcomers?
Álvaro Estrella is just boring. Why are they letting him in again?
Alvaro beat my top 1’s in Andra Chansen twice in a row (salty? Yes!),
So naturally I’m a bit worried to see him back in the contest XD.
Hopefully the new version of AC will prevent that this time.
I feel artists should select carefully when compete and come back. Over-exposition might not work well for the big audience. There’s no surprise or fresh factor neiher.
What about Clara Klingenström? Does anyone know if she will participate? I loved her song last year ??
It was mentioned, even on here, that she will not take part next year due to her health
There was an Article a couple months ago that stated That Clara was not going to submit something for Melfest 2022.
She has already said that she does not want to compete next year but maybe another year if she gets a good song
Excited for Klara once again. Alvaro as well always brings some exciting latin flavour. And equally looking forward to Angelino, I like his voice and he certainly has a good team behind him. Lycka till!
Does anyone know if Petra Marklund has ever thrown her name in the hat?
It seems to me like it’s mainly the same artists over the couple of years and certainly same composers and lyricists.
Okay, you can cook different meals with the same ingredients, but after a while you get sick of it and need a high fibre muesli just to flush it all out…
She sang a Lill-Babs song as an interval in 2018, but that’s it. I loved it.
She should definitely give it a try. 🙂
I hope the new guy will do well. He has a great songwriter behind him.
That artists can not compete three years in a row was never a rule. Only a rumour, assumption that SVT do not like same artists over and over. But who knows, maybe the new boss wants to change and put her
mark on the contest?
Also Angelino sounds very promising..
Also the unofficial rule was about the same constellation. For example Felix Sandman competed two years in a row right after competing as a part of the fo&o’s.
So Alvaro has done both solo and a collab. So that does not really count.
Klara on the other hand might actually break that if she competes.
Yes, in the style of San Remo we want both veterans and rising stars. Klara is neither of them.
But hopefully the new executive will change it to the better.
Felix competed as a solo artist in 2018 and 2020, so not two years in a row. He sat out in 2019.
Actually a lot of people have done this already:
Barbados (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003)
Nick Borgen (1993, 1994, 1995)
Lena Philipsson (1986, 1987, 1988)
Tomas Ledin (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980)
Ann-Louise Hansson (1973, 1974, 1975)
Lasse Berghagen (1973, 1974, 1975)
Svante Thuresson (1966, 1967, 1968, 1969)
People making a 3 year since Björkman took over are:
The mamas (2019 backing Lundvik, 2020, 2021)
Andreas Jonsson (2006, 2007, 2008 Johnsson & Häggkvist)
Magnus Carlsson (2005 Alcazar, 2006, 2007)
Only act I could find not changing between solo and group is:
Shirley Clamp (2003, 2004, 2005)
Yaaaasss Miss Klara come thruuuuuuuuu
hurray for alvaro’s upcoming mid-00s spanish holiday resort sounding song and for klara’s flavorless song and uncharismatic performance i guess
Man I don’t know if I can deal with yet another latin cliché song courtesy of Alvaro
U dont need to watch Melodifestivalen 😉
For me their songs from 2021 were just OK, So it’s not so promising in my opinion. But maybe they will surprise.
I didn’t expect to see them back so soon (again)… But both of them seem lovely, and if they’re coming with great songs why shouldn’t they compete after all 🙂 ?
Although if we’re talking Latin pop I’d rather see a comeback from Omar Rudberg whose song was unfairly eliminated in 2019 and whose career is starting to blow up after he starred in a Netflix series.
I thought there was a rule , if you participated two times in a row you can’t participate the next one , you can participate after that?
That’s not a real rule. It’s more like a rule of thumb.
oh thanks for explanation
Christer Björkman said they (as a production team) recommended artists not to participate in MelFest 3 times in a row. I find that as a good idea, since it might be tiring to see 3 times in a row the same artist instead of fresh faces
I think it’s definitely a good rule thumb as well, because you don’t exhaust yourself trying to create songs year of the year and it does give room for new were fresh faces or even some returning faces after break. It’s good to switch things up
Now it seems like we don’t have more artists than the one in melfest every year lmao.
I hope Klara gets to represent us one day, if it’s 2022 then cool! Also, the three-in-a-row rule seems to have been Christer Björkmans thing
Or might be a rumor that doesn’t pan out in the end. We’ll have to see when the artists are actually announced later on.
Tobbe Ek is pretty reliable so I trust this source
How good are his predictions?
26/28 last year
Impressive. Either he’s got very sharp instincts or he had an inside track.
Second one. It’s impossible to guess as many artists as he did.
And the 2 he didn’t predict were Clara Klingenström who nobody knew and moustache
Ek is not a reliable source. It was only Björkmans thing to make the competing artists a fake-secret. He wants the journalists to write about who will compete. It’s been written about the process to match songs with artists on a public place like a hotel where the journalists knows they will be.
Aftonbladet is not a reliable source in general, but a tabloid magazine. Ek was also the one on the press conference in the latest ESC who started asking questions about drugs just after Måneskin had won.
I know Aftonbladet is a tabloid, but I don’t understand why it’s used as a source for eurovision news.
I assume that the more prestigious newspapers like Dagens Nyheter aren’t covering MelFest speculation. They’d probably be more focused on what the Riksdag is doing.