The race to Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool is on in Sweden, and the Melodifestivalen rumour mill is already churning. 

On Monday 17 October, sources at Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet revealed the names of three artists reportedly vying for the Melodifestivalen 2023 trophy. 

The reliable source claims Nordman, Wiktoria, and The Mamas’ Loulou Lamotte will compete for the Swedish Eurovision ticket.

Melodifestivalen lineup: Nordman, Wiktoria and Loulou Lamotte rumoured to compete

Aftonbladet has a good track record when it comes to Melodifestivalen predictions. In 2021, their sources correctly identified 27 out of 28 artists competing in Sweden’s Eurovision selection show. 

Now, they’re listing three superstar names as contenders for the Mello 2023 crown. 

The source reports Nordman are set to make their Mello comeback. The duo consisting of Håkan Hemlin, 53, and Mats Wester, 58, competed at the 2005 and 2008 competitions, making it to the final on both appearances. 

The tea-spiller said: “Nordman is there. They have a great song that was written together with Jimmy Jansson”. 

Wiktoria is also rumoured to make her Melodifestivalen return.

The 25-year-old Mello fan favourite competed at the Swedish national final in 2016, 2017 and 2019, advancing directly to the final on all three occasions. According to the source, she’ll be going for gold with her fourth attempt at taking the Swedish Eurovision crown.

The last name on the list is Loulou Lamotte.

Alongside The Mamas, Loulou helped bring John Lundvik Mello gold in 2019. The trio later went on to win the competition again in 2020 with their song “Move”.

Unfortunately, The Mamas never made it to Eurovision. Their participation was put on hold after Eurovision 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Mamas competed once more in 2021 with their song “In The Middle”, placing third in the final. 

According to the source, Loulou will compete with a self-penned track. 

None of the above named artists are confirmed to be competing in this Melodifestivalen 2023. The competing artists are put under strict orders to keep their participation under wraps. 

What do you think? Would you like to see these artists return to Melodifestivalen? Share your thoughts in the comments below. 

54 Comments
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Khwenk
Khwenk
1 year ago

Why is Wikitoria’s name spelt with a W instead of a V?

Anna
Anna
1 year ago

Hope Medina returns

Me Me
Me Me
1 year ago

Problem with Melodifestivalen is that they got same few songwriters writing 4 songs each for different contestants every year. That’s why it souds the same every time.

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Me Me

Perhaps that is a good point, bring in more songwriters to make the music more varied, but is this also an issue with other national finals? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but I’m sick of Sweden getting the heat for it if other countries do it too.

Erik
Erik
1 year ago
Reply to  Me Me

If you check the songwriters for this years Melfest, you will see that it was NOT the same people

L’oiseau
L’oiseau
1 year ago

I am really feeling sorry for all those returning artist. Have they nothing better to do? And if returning artists are the MF thing, why not have a MF only with Cornelia’s songs for the next 10 years? And least that would guarantee quality

Denis
Denis
1 year ago
Reply to  L’oiseau

And maybe San Remo should have only Mahmood and Diodato competing every year?

L’oiseau
L’oiseau
1 year ago
Reply to  Denis

Well, those two equal at least 100 Wiktorias and whatnot losers that go to MF

Denis
Denis
1 year ago
Reply to  L’oiseau

LOL, losers.

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  L’oiseau

Stop it, boys.

L'oiseau
L'oiseau
1 year ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

Ok 🙂

Patrick
Patrick
1 year ago

I still LOVE “As I lay me down”!!!

Stephanie
Stephanie
1 year ago

I would be very happy if Veronica Maggio, Myra Granberg and Molly Sanden would participate….but honestly I doubt that!

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Stephanie

You never know. Let’s see if we get any more rumors of upcoming participants.

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago
Reply to  Stephanie

That’d be great! Personally, I’d add Victor Leksell, A36, Tove Lo, Zara Larsson and Miriam Bryant to the mix too 😀

NickC
NickC
1 year ago

Wiktoria should have won in 2016. 2017 maybe 2019 definetely not

Alo
Alo
1 year ago
Reply to  NickC

True.
She was perfect as a performer in 2019 but the song was lyrically very bad.

Boozyfloozy69
Boozyfloozy69
1 year ago

Really hoping for Clara klingenström to come back! Another name I’d like to see give it another go is Renaida, All the feels was so good I reckon she has a lot more to give.

Joe
Joe
1 year ago
Reply to  Boozyfloozy69

I agree, Renaida was my absolute favourite in 2018 (I still think now she should’ve won Melfest that year) so I’d love to see her come back for another go. I still remember kind of coming out of nowhere and she had my favourite song from 2021, alongside Dotter.

tom
tom
1 year ago

So this will be 5th time for Loulou in Melo lol

Hoping for – Lancelot, Nicke Borg, Dinah Nah, Clara Klingerstom, Theoz and from newcomers – Victor Leksell, Myriam Bryant, Sabína Ddumba 🙂

Yeah
Yeah
1 year ago

Entries received: 2 824
Sweden’s population: 10,35 million

We will see familiar names as singers but also in the credits of those songs (several). Look, it’s all written and the songs qualifying from each deltävling are implied by the producers. If it would be all out of luck they’d draw these songs into their deltävlings live, like it’s done with Eurovision pots of which semifinal each country will participate.

Here’s how it goes:

Two songs that are preferred as finalists
Two that go to semifinal
One song that could replace either of the above
And two that are clearly out.

tom
tom
1 year ago
Reply to  Yeah

Not always 😉 every year there are surprises 😉

Jake
Jake
1 year ago

I always laugh when people complain Sweden brings back former entrants. Why would they not lean on experience? Would anyone care if it was 28 newcomers? People miss the boat that this is a popular tv show that requires a mix of artists that get the public interested.

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Jake

And they act like Sweden is the only country to have Recurring artists in their national final year after year. Lots of countries do this because many of them have small populations so that means a small pool of artists To choose from. Does anyone complain if Estonia has a lot of recurring artists at eesti laul year after year? Anyone? *crickets*. I didn’t think so.

DarkSideStan
DarkSideStan
1 year ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

True, Lithuania and Latvia has some reoccurring artists too (Ruta Loop, Markus Riva), Australia has Jaguar Jonze, Moldova has plenty of reoccurring artists, Croatia has Mia Negovic, Czech Republic has Elis Mraz and plenty of artists were reoccurring artists prior to winning their nfs (Uku, Stefan, Samanta)

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago

Melfest stop being so predictable challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)

Esc addict
Esc addict
1 year ago
Reply to  Benito Camelo

Same for San Remo unfortunately….

PuppetOnAString
1 year ago
Reply to  Benito Camelo

We can say about most of the national finals but since this is Sweden there is suddenly a problem with having returnees

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago

Because everyone knows Sweden could do better, that’s why

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Benito Camelo

Sweet has won Eurovision six times. How much better can they be?

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Benito Camelo

Sweden has won eurovision 6 times. How much “better” can they be?

Alex
Alex
1 year ago

Honestly for me, Wiktoria should’ve won in 2019, I loved her song and staging so much. I really hope she can pull out another amazing song. I do hope we see some amazing new artists too! While it is nice to see returning faces, new artists really do bring something special to the competition (ex. Cornelia)

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Alex

Cordelia Jakobs actually participated at melfest before as part of a girl group Called love generation I think. This year was her third go round but this time as a solo artist.

Yeah
Yeah
1 year ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

Cornelia Jakobs was indeed part of the group Love Generation which participated in Melodifestivalen twice:

2011 with Dance Alone
2012 with Just a Little Bit

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Yeah

I wasn’t sure if love generation was the correct name for the group, so I’m glad I got it right in my prior comment. And there have beens artist who finally got to Eurovision after so many tries. Stefan finally got to go to Eurovision on his fourth attempt. If it turns out true that Wiktoria will participate in melfest 2023, maybe the fourth time is the charm.

Erik
Erik
1 year ago
Reply to  Yeah

Yes, but how many people do you think remembered her in the past years? Not very many huh?

Yeah
Yeah
1 year ago
Reply to  Erik

It’s because a lot of these Melodifestivalen acts are just made for the television show, so a lot of one hit wonders will come along.

Very true that she was very unkown before, none of her songs really had charted.

Denis
Denis
1 year ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

Cornelia was very much seen as a newcomer since she was unknown to most people.

prinpoleon
prinpoleon
1 year ago
Reply to  Alex

yes, she should’ve won in 2019.

Karl
Karl
1 year ago

Why does Sweden always have the same artists for Melfest? Every year, their contestants get recycled from a pool of the same couple dozen artists. And the music style of the songs is the same year after year. This is why I stopped watching Melfest years ago. Not to mention that it’s always a song in English the one they end up picking. It’s so predictable. Don’t they get hundreds of submissions? Give new faces and new musical styles a chance. It would be nice to have a year where it’s new faces, different styles, and all songs in the… Read more »

Erik
Erik
1 year ago
Reply to  Karl

So you didn’t know there were 15 NEWCOMERS in this year’s Melfest?

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Erik

It’s the usual Sweden bashing, like it’s the only country that has recurring artists in their national finals year after year. Lots of countries do this, not just Sweden, and it’s likely because they have small populations so of course you’re gonna see familiar names year after year.

Jonas
Jonas
1 year ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

I don’t get it either. It’s a contest. Do people complain about the same tennis players turning up at Wimbledon every year?

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Jonas

Or other countries having recurring artists in their national finals year after year? But no, it’s always Sweden that gets the third degree for it. *eyes rolling*

Erik
Erik
1 year ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

Maybe you didnt understand what i just said? It was 15 NEW FACES in this years Melfest. Its that not enough?

Erik
Erik
1 year ago
Reply to  Karl

And wasn’t Cornelia Jakobs a new face to you?

Denis
Denis
1 year ago
Reply to  Karl

Why does Dora always have the same artists? Bernarda, Mia Negovitic? Or San Remo?

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Denis

I feel like a broken record at this point, but again, why is Sweden the one getting the heat for Recurring artists in their national final?

Erik
Erik
1 year ago
Reply to  Karl

Did you even read my comment to you? It was 15 NEW FACES in this years Melfest. Its that not enough for you?

Erik
Erik
1 year ago
Reply to  Erik

EDIT: Answer wrong person

PuppetOnAString
1 year ago
Reply to  Karl

Where is this energy with Sanremo, Eesti Laul, Dora, Beovizija and basically almost every national selection?

Erik
Erik
1 year ago

YES, Nordman. They were great in 2005 and 2008.

Vivian
Vivian
1 year ago

Hoping for Wiktoria to finally get a chance to win Melfest. In 2016, 2017 AND 2019 I liked her songs more than the ones that won those years (ironically they were all dudes)

It’ll depend on the song though. Knowing Sweden, most of the songs that will compete will be the same cookie-cutter stuff we’ve had to endure for years now

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Vivian

If Wiktoria wins, She could be another Disney dubber Going to Eurovision (she’s the Swedish voice of Moana or Vaiana).