We’re inching closer to national finals season. And on Tuesday morning Sweden’s SVT turned up the volume by revealing the names of 14 of the 28 artists that will compete in Melodifestivalen 2023.
The 14 remaining entries will be revealed on Wednesday morning at 08:00 Sweden time.
HEAT 1 — Gothenburg
“Diamonds”
Victor Crone
Songwriters: David Lindgren Zacharias, Peter Kvint, Victor Crone
“Haunted”
Rejhan
Songwriters: Albin Johnsén, Mattias Andréasson, Pontus Söderman, Tilde RONIA Wrigsell
“Inga sorger” (No Sorrows)
Loulou LaMotte
Songwriters: Jonas Thander, Loulou LaMotte
“Länge leve livet” (Long Live Life)
Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos
Songwriters: Emil Vaker, Henric Pierroff, Kalle Rydberg
“Raggen går”
Elov & Beny
Songwriters: Johan Werner, Kristian Wejshag, Mattias Elovsson, Oscar Kilenius, Tim Larsson
“Rythm Of My Show”
Tone Sekelius
Songwriters: Anderz Wrethov, Dino Medanhodzic, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Tone Sekelius
“Where You Are (Sávečan)”
Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods
Songwriters: Arc North, Calle Hellberg, Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Joy Deb, Oliver Belvelin, Richard Lästh, Tobias Lundgren, William Segerdahl
HEAT 2 — LINKÖPING
“All My Life (Where Have You Been)”
Wiktoria
Songwriters: Herman Gardarfve, Melanie Wehbe, Patrik Jean, Wiktoria Johansson
“Comfortable”
Eden
Songwriters: Benjamin Rosenbohm, Eden Alm, Emil Adler Lei, Julie Aagaard
“Grytan”
Uje Brandelius
Songwriters: Uje Brandelius
“Mer av dig” (More of You)
THEOZ
Songwriters: Axel Schylström, Jakob Redtzer, Peter Boström, Thomas G:son
“Never Give Up”
Maria Sur
Songwriters: Anderz Wrethov, Laurell Barker
“Now I Know”
Tennessee Tears
Songwriters: Anderz Wrethov, Jonas Hermansson, Thomas Stengaard, Tilda Feuk
“On My Way”
Panetoz
Songwriters: Anders Wigelius, Daniel Nzinga, Jimmy Jansson, Nebeyu Baheru, Njol Badjie, Pa Modou Badjie, Robert Norberg
Melodifestivalen 2023 tour dates
February 4: Heat 1 – Göteborg
February 11: Heat 2 – Linköping
February 18: Heat 3 – Lidköping
February 25: Heat 4 – Malmö
March 4: Semi-final – Örnsköldsvik
March 11: Final – Stockholm
Second part of the participants is revealed, and it includes Loreen, Paul Rey, Axel Schylstrom, and Laurell Barker. I’m gonna *love* this ywar’s Melfest, aren’t I? 🙂
Heat 4 seems like a bloodbath.
Time for Sweden to pick Jon Henrik!
Looking forward to hearing Jon Henrik’s entry. Sounds like something epic.
Plus, excited to see Ewa and Eva again. They were fun this year. 🙂
SVT misspelled the Sami word in Jon Henrik’s song.
The correct word is “Sávežan” not “Sáve?an”.
Sáve is his daughter. “Sávežan” means “Little Sáve”.
John Henrik is the one I’m most looking forward to. Don’t care too mucho about the other names revealed. Hope Loreen is in.
Looks like they might be keeping Loreen for the 4th heat, in which case it might be true that she’ll be tipped to win it all. Well, if she does appear in the final lineup, I believe her qualification for the final will translate into secured international jury victory at least
The last time, Lauren competed in melfest, she was placed in the fourth heap in the last slot, but she didn’t make it straight to the final. She only got to Andrea’s chansen, where she was eliminated so that’s not always a guarantee. It’s gonna be a tall order to have a song that can rival euphoria.
yeah she is always tipped to win and gets nothing
You assume she will qualify for final…
Unless it is better than Euphoria she might not.
The rumor goes Laurell Barker will compete in melodifestivalen this year and im really excited for that!
We will find out tomorrow.
She’s already there as a songwriter. She drops the “Barker” as performer.
Well if she doesn’t win, she can sell it on to Malta or San Marino
In my view it is super concerning that out of over 2500 entries they are still selecting 5 Jimmy Joker/Thomas Gson songs, I bet they don’t event listen to these songs but just select writers instead. This is very bad especially that Sweden has so many talented songwriters they can benefit from. I know it’s a TV show so it has to be a balance but this years seems to be all about generic blandness…
We have not heard the songs yet, so it is a bit unfair to talk about “generic blandness”… but I do agree with you, we usually have several entries by the same author out of hundreds… it’s hard to believe there are not other good songs from other writers to choose from.
Good to see that Melfest is always big on recycling…
The artists in Melfest are usually people without a “real” carrier. Swedish succesfull artist dont need Melfest. Thats why we have to deal with this kind of recycling / A Swede
As if Sweden is the only nation that reuses artists in their national final year after year. A lot of countries do this, especially if they have a small population to begin with, but somehow Sweden always gets the heat for it.
That’s because Sweden could be doing much better, nobody expects anything from a country like Malta, for example. Estonia is much smaller and they’ve had plenty of entries that put Melfest to shame over the past decade, they just almost never pick them.
curious to hear what entries of Estonia have been putting Sweden to shame the past decade lmfao
Sure, this is mostly based on the studio versions:
2012 – Tenfold Rabbit, Ott Lepland
2014 – Sandra Nurmsalu, Super Hot Cosmos Blues
2015 – Elina and Stig, Elephants from Neptune
2016 – Mick Pedaja, Wurffel, Go Away Bird, I Wear* Experiment
2018 – Frankie Animal, Iiris
2019 – Lumevarv
2021 – Uku Haasma, Juri Pootsmann again
2022 – Ott Lepland again, Maian
Think that might be enough.
Bla bla bla parole parole
Blah blah blah. Same thing every year. We get it. ” Sweden always the same”. Always generic/ bland/ pop. ” Every country is always more original/ fresh. ” No other country has the same artists every year”
Dont you get tired of recycling every year?
You were good this year so I’m not ruling you out completely. Your public still wanted to send Bagge tho.
bla bla bla who cares? We all know what your opinion about Sweden is.You repeat it every year, like a parrot
Ari, how come all of your comments keep disappearing? Do you do it yourself?
Just wondering, because I don’t even know how to do that here.
I actually am most excited for Tennessee Tears! They have no chance making it through but they will get exposure which is more than enough. Plus we need more country/ folk in the contest, seeing how huge of a genre it is..
They played at my local pub once and I loved every minute of it!
No chance???? We havent heard the song yet
It’s easy to speculate at the stage, but I’m gonna wait until the songs are released to really assess if this is a great crop or a poor crop. I know there are some names that are exciting people, but that’s mainly because of their past entries, not their current ones. I am keeping things close to the chest because the last thing I want is to anticipate something that turns out to be disappointing.
No but do they have a fanbase? Are they well-known? Have they taken part previously?
Knowing newcomers rarely do well I do not hope for much..
Cornelia Jakobs wasnt well-known either
They played in Smögen and Marstrand too i think – it was rly nice
I think releasing only half the names means Loreen still hasn’t decided.
Or she Is in the other half but we’ll see tomorrow
I suppose it would be unfair to leave it this late, it would mean somebody else waiting to know if they’re in or out. Okay, she’s probably decided. She’s in.
That was Loreen’s position the last time she participated in 2017, but that didn’t help her to get her to the final. In fact, she never even made it out of andra chansen Where she got sent last time.
First heat seems like a tuff competition lol I did some research and in last 10 years: From position 1 – 27songs Q and 13DNQ Position 2 – 7 songs Q and 33 DNQ Position 3- 20Q and 20 DNQ Position 4 – same like position 3 Position 5 – 23Q and 16 DNQ Position 6 – 24Q and 16 DNQ Position 7 – 34Q and 6 DNQ I am pretty sure that John Henrik Victor Crone Tone Eva’s will qualify in some way Maybe Loulou could challenge ? Second heat – Wiltoria, Panetoz, Theoz and maybe Uje actually (Maria… Read more »
Thanks for dislikes, lol – idk why 😀
The first semi seems a little stacked with familiar names compared to the second. It’ll be interesting. I thought Maria Sur would have a Sarah Dawn Finer song but instead will have a typical “I shall overcome” anthem from two songwriters who churn out many many songs every Eurovision season across countries. It’ll be Eurovision by numbers and I’m sure Swedish public will eat it up like they did Tone last year—who had same songwriter and a song that was reworked after being entered year after year into Melfest.
Wow… how time flies! It feels like it was just yesterday that Cornelia won Melfest. Anyway, so excited to see Wiktoria, Tone, Jon Henrik and Panetoz back. And the new names seem very interesting too. Must do some research on them.
I’m happy to see Wiktoria back again! She was robbed of a Melfest victory three times in the past. Maybe this time she’ll finally get the result she should’ve gotten several times before. (How “If I Were Sorry” beat “Save Me” in 2016 is still beyond me)
Also fun to see the two Rena Rama Ding Dong grannies again!
I’m thinking that maybe Sweden is getting an inspiration from the fact that their most recent entry is easily their best in years, and Cornelia actually fully deserved her very high placement. Maybe this route of blending creative with mainstream is what they are going for, and if so, I’m all for it.
Yessss tone, panetoz, wiktoria, Jon Henrik !! I’m so looking for that !!
Jon Henrik Fjällgren!!!!
I’m happy Tone is back!
I hope she has a greater song than last year.
he*
Bigot.
Yeahhhhh ! John Henrik Fjallgren, Wictoria and Theoz are back !
I’m so excited about Tennessee Tears and Loulou Lamotte also !
Let’s go !!!!
excited for tone sekelius, victor crone, wiktoria and eva&ewa, since i liked their previous entries, as well as the newcomers.
Same 🙂
Did not expect Uje Brandelius to be here. for those of you who don’t know, he’s a member of the socialist pop band Doktor Kosmos. The band is very political with lyrics like “You don’t need a dollar smile to be a bourgeois swine”. Will be interesting to see him make nonpolitical lyrics.
So far, 11 of the names featured here have been correctly predicted by the Swedish tabloid (Sorry, I can’t remember how it spelled but I think You know what I’m talking about). The only names that weren’t put up were Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods, Eden and Uje Brandelius.
Yeah Uje and Eden was not predicted but Aftonbladed – the name of the swedish tabloid were thinking that JHFjallgreen will take a part in Melo (but they had 6 tips) but they were thinking he will be solo and not in trio, anyway they predicted as a MAYBE artists – the winner of mask singer, the TEN label artists – Ingrosso/Enestad/ Felix, also Anton Hagman was there and Cazzi Opeia tooo
Since there is probably 1 more name as a surprise, it might be one of those names that i have mentioned 🙂
Out of these 14 acts over half of them have songs made by people who’ve been involved in previous years songs as well, no surprises as this line up is the usual. SVT should stop those announcements about the so called 2,8k entries received.
Maybe not all of them (songs) are good 😉 It doesnt mean that all 2880 songs are amazing and winners – Italy doing the same so stop being jealous – if u dont like it, dont watch it and MOVE on 😉
Looking forward to hearing Jon Henrik’s song!
I totally missed that Jon Henrik is in the mix too. Another name I am REALLY looking forward to!
? loved all his past Melfest entries! I am a great fan of the Sami elements he incorporates to his songs. If the song is as powerful as his 2019 entry he will certainly have my support!
I *really* liked his MF entries 2015-onwards (those I’ve heard). Preliminary, this year’s MF has several artists whose music I generally really like. It gives me hopes for a great show!
Well it will probably sound ooooheeyaoooheyaaouououe or something like that
Still better and narural that all songs from Ukraine at Eurovision 😉
Deltävling 1 qualifiers: Victor Crone – Diamonds Rejhan – Haunted Tone Sekelius – Rhythm of My Show Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods – Where You Are (Sáve?an) One act being possibly knocked out by Eva & Ewa Deltävling 2 qualifiers: Wiktoria – All My Life (Where Have You Been) Maria Sur – Never Give Up Tennessee Tears – Now I Know Panetoz – On My Way One (most likely Maria) being knocked out by THEOZ or Eden This is all written and decided so there’s not “too many” good song for one night, two good ones, three… Read more »
I say it’s hard to make predictions of who go forward or not when the songs are not out yet. The four artists you predict per heat might have weaker songs and could be surprisingly knocked out but we don’t know at this point.
It’s pretty clear if you know how the system goes here, I’ll be commenting here anyway as the Deltävlings have been done and dusted so we’ll be able to talk about these then, as we have the results to confirm all of this.
Jon Henrik with a EDM banger? Panetoz back? Wictoria back as well? Wow what a great Lineup!
Hopefully a swedish song wins, I want us to have at least one swedish song in eurovision in my lifetime lol. Hopefully 2023 is the year 🙂
I take it you mean you hope for a song in Swedish to win.
Last time we heard Swedish in Eurovision was in 2012, and that came from Finland where it’s an official language alongside Finnish.
Sweden’s last Swedish entry is from 1998, all the songs after that year have been sung in English – even the songs that were originally sung in Swedish at Melodifestivalen.
I would not bet money on that
Victor Crone, Wiktoria, and Panetoz have all been in my top 2 Melfest entries at least once, Eva & Ewa brought be so much joy last time they were competing, and I consider Tone and Theoz to be talented emerging artists. This line-up certainly looks promsing, and I hope that Melfest can be amazing this year. Good luck, Sweden!
Damn, if the Ukrainian girl wins the diaspora votes will be split in the Eurovision final, Sweden doing everything possible to get another victory lmao
So you predict another Tusse situation?
She won’t. She is not Swedish citizen so she will not win..
This sounds very racist. Just cause she is not a citizen she can’t win??
Well yes. Why would Swedes want to be represented by someone who technically is not Swedish?
And before you start, let me remind you that Sweden three years in a row let black artist win Melodifestivalen. With that honour, might I add…
Also not forget Sweden back in 2002 let three women of colour represent them. Also with a great song..
Weren’t the Mamas originally from the USA?
Only one of them. Loulou is from Malmö. Ashley s from Washington D.C. The other one is also from Sweden
Dinah. Paris was also American, but she left after Tel Aviv.
If you have not missed it, Swedes are very racist, she will have advantage though that she is white and from ukraine rather than a syrian refugee…
A Syrian refugee (Bishara Morad) came 2nd in Melodifestivalen 2019, though. The international juries gave him a lot lower score than the Swedish televoters.
lol funny you..
Did you forgot Tusse?