Mariette returned to Melodifestivalen for a third competitive run within a four-year time-span. Her song was the first entry she brought that she hadn't written on herself, but still held a style similar to her own artistry. The presentation was one that kept her alone on stage atop a pyramid with a platform. The song was pleasant enough and Mariette conveyed the emotional narrative of the song to the best of her ability, but it ultimately wasn't enough to take home the trophy.
Mariette is making her fourth Melodifestivalen appearance in a row, including her cameo in the Melodifestivalen medley in 2016. With her song "For You" she has evolved her style further in regards to both sound and visual presentation. Mariette's origins are more indie, as she often played guitar for other artists and is prone to using it when writing her own music. Now in following her three-time direct qualification she will embark on the Diggiloo tour across Sweden.
Zain Odelstål have entered Melodifestivalen 2018 following a victorious run in 2017 in which the entry that they designed won the whole contest (Robin Bengtsson's "I Can't Go On"). This year they have choreographed and styled entries for Benjamin Ingrosso ("Dance You Off"), Mariette ("For You"), Méndez ("Everyday"), Jessica Andersson ("Party Voice"), and Moncho ("Cuba Libre"). Odelstål has a background in dance and is largely responsible for developing the choreography of the entries he works on, while Brøchner has done extensive work as a drag queen in Sweden and contributes his styling skills. Together, they also design the creative concepts for the entries they work on alongside the artists and other team-members involved.
Watch our full interview with Zain Odelstål and Dennis Brøchner here:
Mariette is making her fourth Melodifestivalen appearance in a row following competitive runs in 2015 and 2017 and a participation in the 2016 medley during the finals. Having qualified direct to the finals with each entry makes her part of an elite few, but can she finally bring home the trophy and represent Sweden on a larger scale?
Once again her staging will be worked on by Zain Odelstål with a styling assistance from Dennis Brochner, who together have also designed this year's numbers for Benjamin Ingrosso, Mendez, Moncho, and Jessica Andersson. Her song "You" will see her standing along atop a pyramid, which clearly shows that her label is gunning for her to finally win. Mariette has often fared well with the juries in the finals but always seems to lose steam with the Swedish public's televotes upon reaching Friends Arena. Could Jörgen Elofsson's writing finally be the key to securing a victory? Only time will tell.
Mariette makes a surprising return to the contest, as it will mark her third participation in the last four years. Her song was written by famed Swedish composer Jörgen Elofsson and Mariette promises that her staging will be designed by the same choreographer that worked on her previous two entries. It will be a pop song with a great deal of expectations placed on it by fans and viewers but despite her desires to finally win the contest, she assures us that she doesn't feel the pressure from others to win.
Photo: Lizel Strömberg
Samir & Viktor make an exciting return to Melodifestivalen with a song called "Shuffla" that they co-wrote. The concept is about a 'shuffle' dance that many young kids have gotten into in Sweden through their use of the Musical.ly app. While professing love to the fans and viewers that have supported them over the years, Samir jokes about how they also love their haters who have made them go viral by posting death wishes towards them. Though humour is the go-to coping mechanism they've used over the years when dealing with the animosity hurled at them by trolls and 'professional' media alike, we hope that people will get over themselves and simply enjoy Samir & Viktor for all that they bring to the contest: fun, energy, and an emphasis on togetherness.
Photo: Lizel Strömberg
Margaret is a Polish pop powerhouse making her Melodifestivalen debut with a song "In My Cabana" that boasts writers that have worked on some of her most popular international hits including "Cool Me Down" and "What You Do". Margaret has gained traction in Sweden with these prior releases and now hopes to allow the Swedish audience to better connect her image to the songs that they have played on radio and streaming services. She shares that her song is "sexy" and though she still had to work on the design of her performance, she did tease on the idea of incorporating dancers to what seems to be one of the must-have bangers of this year's line-up.
Photo: Lizel Strömberg
Felix Sandman will now be stepping out from his long-standing gig as the 'F' in FO&O who were finalists in Melodifestivalen 2017 ("Gotta Thing About You"). He will be entering Melodifestivalen 2018 with a song he co-wrote in Los Angeles called "Every Single Day" in a style he describes as really personal and inspired by his deeper thoughts and feelings. Despite his reputation of being skilled at acrobatic tricks, he hopes to design a stage performance that will showcase the song's lyrics and allow the audience to better connect with them.
Photo: Lizel Strömberg
Benjamin Ingrosso makes a welcome return after winning over a wave of new fans and impressing the international juries to finish fifth overall in the 2017 contest with his song "Good Lovin'". Ingrosso consistently co-writes on the music he releases and excels in bringing an energetic charisma and showmanship to his performances. He has teased that "Dance You Off" is the best song of what he's released thus far and he has already shot a music video for it.
Photo: Lizel Strömberg
Mimi Werner previously competed in Melodifestivalen 2016 ("Ain't No Good") relatively unknown in a competitive Göteborg line-up and finished fifth overall much to the disappointment of all her new fans that were impressed with her lively performance and catchy, country-pop song. Now she returns to battle it out once again in a competitive Göteborg line-up. "Songburning" is another country-pop song Werner has co-written though it is said to be a more personal song.
Photo: Lizel Strömberg
Méndez is a Melodifestivalen veteran, having formerly competed in Melodifestivalen 2002 ("Adrenaline") and 2003 ("Carnaval") with the former finishing as the runner-up in the finals. His return to the contest is one that he has been pursuing for quite some time, having sent in songs for roughly the last four years straight. He was also one of the many acts tapped to appear in the large medley that unfolded during the Melodifestivalen 2016 finals. Originally from Chile, Méndez promises that "Everyday" will be another Spanglish party song that is true to his artistic style.
Photo: Lizel Strömberg
John Lundvik is best known to Melodifestivalen viewers for having written Anton Ewald's 2014 entry "Natural" that Lundvik himself declares is not the style of music he creates for himself. His Melodifestivalen entry "My Turn" is an honest, personal ballad that speaks to his own determination to pursue his solo career. Though he has not recorded a music video for it, he admits he would love to create one, though the final decision rests on his label, Warner Music Sweden.
Photo: Lizel Strömberg
Barbi Escobar is one multiple newcomers to this year's Melodifestivalen. Having co-written her song "Stark" with Costa Leon and Andreas "Stone" Johansson, Escobar shares that the song is personal and was written not long after her father passed away from cancer. Escobar is of a Chilean background and looks forward to bringing a soulful R&B musical style to the contest.
Watch our full interviews with the aforementioned Melodifestivalen 2018 artists here:
SVT held it's artists-announcement press conference and now the fan circles can begin speculating on who will rise to the top of this year's Melodifestivalen.
The line-up of artists, their songs, and composers are as follows:
Semi-final 1 (Karlstad)
Renaida"All the Feels" (Written by: Laurell Barker, Jon Hällgren, Peter Barringer, Lukas Hällgren)
Benjamin Ingrosso"Dance You Off" (Written by: Benjamin Ingrosso, MAG, Louis Schoorl, K Nita)
Edward Blom"Livet på en pinne" (Written by: Edward Blom, Thomas G:son, Stefan Brunzell, Kent Olsson)
John Lundvik"My Turn" (Written by: Anna-Klara Folin, John Lundvik, Jonas Thander)
Against the odds that bookmakers had published that either Wiktoria or Nano were the ones to look out for, Robin Bengtsson has won Melodifestivalen 2017. Though he came third in the public voting, the voting app has created an inflation on the value of the votes and so the overall point distributions from those figures meant that the international jury votes were of the utmost importance in determining who would walk away victorious. Ultimately, Robin was the clear jury-favourite after garnering 96 points from them in total as well as being the only act of the night to receive points from every country's jury. This bodes well for Robin in his next step - a run in Eurovision. This widespread appeal would suggest that the results will be favourable in May, particularly as Robin finds himself up against very few entries that are similar in style. "I Can't Go On" as a song is ready-made for radio and is a performance meticulously crafted for television.
Watch our full interview with Robin Bengtsson, and additional finalists FO&O, Ace Wilder, Mariette, Benjamin Ingrosso, Boris René, Lisa Ajax, and Jon Henrik Fjällgren feat. Aninia here:
Mariette has qualified direct to the finals for a second time with her folksy pop song "A Million Years" and has been spending much of the time off between the semi-final and final resting up and recovering, having caught a cold during the time. Despite the lack of substantial time to rehearse, she remains confident in the overall vision and presentation of the song, with the dancers flying through the air on bungee chords. She has found some symbolism to tie the visuals in with the song that she co-wrote herself.
"When we got to Malmö and I saw these bungee jump chords, I thought, this is the [symbolism] between the bungee jump chords and the message of the song, that we're all connected and those bonds between people. If there's just enough love, you will always come together."
Mariette began her musical journey at home by playing on her father's guitar and singing at family get-togethers. "I was standing behind a door, singing, cause I was so shy." She also wanted to turn the lights off so she could perform without being seen. This led to her starting some bands, one of them being with her brother in which they played Nirvana and Green Day songs. She went to a music school to play guitar and continued to play live shows, learning to mix and record music along the way. She even started her own record label in 2007 which she used to put out her first album and still has it despite being signed to Warner Music Sweden.
Mariette has been writing and recording plenty of music all throughout 2016 and aspires to accumulate enough content to eventually release an EP or full album. She takes a hands-on approach to putting together ideas for visuals to accompany the message of the songs that she writes.
Mariette first garnered attention from a wider international audience during her debut in the contest back in 2015 with her song "Don't Stop Believing". She even was tapped as one of the artists to appear in the large Melodifestivalen medley in the 2016 finals. But now she returns with a slightly more up-tempo, and significantly more cheerful entry called "A Million Years", complete with a visual shift from flowing black fabric in 2015 to all white outfits and bungee chords for her backup dancers in 2017.
"The first time, everything is new and it's such an intense week or four days, and it's a lot of preparations. You work for these three minutes on television for months. This time I feel a little more comfortable. I know what's gonna happen each day even though I'm constantly nervous."
After her 2015 participation, Mariette released a single entitled "My Revolution".
"'My Revolution' was the official song for Pride 2015 and [I'm] very honoured to have written it and I performed it at Stockholm Pride and that was amazing. It's about, everyone should do their revolution, whatever it is. If you're not happy with your job, just quit, or if you want to break up, you're not satisfied, just end it. Dare to be happy and do what you want. Do your own revolution."
Leading up to this latest competition, she released a new single called "Can't Kill My Vibe". As two years separate her entries, she has been able to evolve a new sound in "A Million Years" for her second time around. "It's a little bit different. The tempo is faster. It's a pop song but I love the melodies, I think they're really beautiful and it's catchy. The visual performance is gonna be so cool. I have a choreographer called Zain Odelstål and he's amazing. He was in the last time as well, 'Don't Stop Believing'. I was going, 'If I'm gonna do Melodifestivalen again, I want to have him as my choreographer. He had an idea of these bungee jumping [chords] and I was like, 'Yes!' Never seen that before. They've been working hard, rehearsing a lot in a big room, of course. It's much lighter than 'Don't Stop Believing'. It had a little mystical vibe over it, but powerful. This one is more, maybe direct in a way. The message is, 'A Million Years' is like the bond between people and the love between people, that the love is so strong that even if you're apart for any reason like someone hurting the other one, it's a relation, or your mom or dad or daughter, that love is so strong that you can never break the love. You will always find your way back to each other."
Despite having garnered international attention by participating in Melodifestivalen, Mariette has yet to push herself to be more active in appearing outside of Sweden. "I think I have to make myself a career and name here first in Sweden. Of course it's a dream to play in other countries out in Europe, meet all my fans out there. That's a dream and it's gonna happen."
When the subject is brought up, Mariette acknowledges the slow pace of the Swedish music industry. "I've been thinking about that. It takes a bit too long between every release. I've been writing songs, a lot of songs. It's just, you want to find the right way of doing it but I agree that we're pretty bad at keeping up with releases so I would want to be a lot better at that. If I listen to an artist, I want them to release songs."
Full disclosure here: semi-final 2 is the least competitive semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2017. The two clear front-runners (based on their past catalogue, hype, name recognition, and the way the voting app swayed the results, in 2016, favourably towards youth and contemporary pop) are Lisa Ajax and Benjamin Ingrosso. Though Oscar Zia's invented-loud backing track and incessantly choppy camera work plus SVT's sabotage of Lisa in the running order swayed things towards the former in the finals, it is important to remember that Lisa won her semi-final when up against Oscar in 2016. She's also a consistently strong artist in the calibre of her releases and getting content out in a timely manner. Benjamin Ingrosso has all the makings of a Dark Horse in this semi-final, and perhaps even in the overall contest. There's great potential in his past releases, "Crystal Clear" in particular, and he's also from the same label as Zara Larsson. Smells like we can dare to hope for some expensive staging with this entry...
Watch our full break-down of the Melodifestivalen 2017 semi-final 2 acts and their chances of qualifying here:
Hello, Museled readers! Previously on Melodifestivalen, our dear Molly Pettersson Hammar was scammed out of her rightful place in the finale because of a phone app malfunctioning. Sound ridiculous? Well that's because it is. The 3 acts to not advance were the first 3 of the running order so it's clear that it's not just a coincidence. Admittedly, we didn't lose any sleep over Daniel Gildenlöw's last place standing. Also jilted out of a spot in the finale or even Andra Chansen was Rickard Söderberg and Elize Ryd's "One By One," which delivered equal parts melodrama and solid vocals. Dolly Style were so bad we had to mute it, and then stop watching as our eyes started to ache watching the horrendous choreography, which they couldn't even execute well. (At least in Japan when we pump out manufactured pop groups, if they're supposed to dance then they will do so with precision and flair). Behrang Miri's "Det rår vi inte för" was entirely overshadowed by the introduction of it, in which song-composer Måns Zelmerlöw stole the whole show by wearing one just-snug-enough grey shirt that made us audibly react for a lengthy duration. Jessica Andersson sparkled, literally, with the underwhelming "Can't Hurt Me Now," but at least made the emotionality of the song believable. Then finally came Eric Saade with his highly anticipated Melodifestivalen comeback, "Sting." The song was an Ariana Grande "Problem" knockoff, and perhaps equally shocking was the fact that he didn't seem to be owning the choreography; the choreography was owning him. We also did a video review of the semi-final 1:
The hosts weren't as bad as last year, but still left much to be desired. They need to never have Robin Paulsson sing again, and if I never hear any and every version of "Undo" again, it still wouldn't be soon enough. There was also some bizarre correspondent, Filipa, that appeared to be doing some sort of bit but it was so cringe-inducing that we had to just glaze over and go to our mental happy place until it was over. Why is it so hard for SVT to find some people with charisma to do the hosting and corresponding?
But moving on to semi-final 2, the rehearsal snippets have been released, which means it's time for us to give our picks for "direkt till finalen"/"Andra Chansen." We were actually quite underwhelmed by these rehearsal snippets so we're hoping that more of these songs pack a bigger punch on Saturday, but here we go!
1) Linus Svenning - "Forever Starts Today"
We groaned when we first heard that Linus Svenning would be back, as his song last year was just so bleak and dreary. It was all wrong for Melodifestivalen. We're not against songs that are heavier in emotion, stemming from a deeply personal place, but if your song doesn't melodically and rhythmically energise us then we're disinclined to like it as a Melodifestivalen song. That being said, "Forever Starts Today" is a vast improvement over last year. The staging is also a wise choice. What we've seen from Linus has made him out to be a boring performer, so what better way to compensate for that than throwing a bunch of people on stage to hit some drums? It certainly won't out-do Ryan Dolan's "Only Love Survives" though in the gratuitous shirtlessness department, which is a shame.
2) Emelie Irewald - "Där och då med dig" (There and then with you)
Who even is this girl? This song is melodrama in all the wrong ways. "One By One" was good melodrama, because the song had movement, solid vocals, and took the viewers on a journey via wind machine, but this song just falls flat. Watching this just makes us think that Emelie Irewald should be off doing a gig in some run-down art house, or a local musical theatre production. If this gets higher than last place, she should consider that a victory.
3) Samir & Viktor - "Groupie"
As you'll have seen, this act has earned our spot for the featured photo of the post, which last week was a declaration of our favourite act. This time, we more so chose the "Groupie" photo because we can't stop cackling at this epic photoshop misfire. Also, since when is "Groupie" a word for selfies with multiple people? Last time I checked, a selfie was still a selfie regardless of how many people are in it. Stop trying to make "Groupie" happen, people.
As part of our research leading into this semi-final, we looked up Samir & Viktor beforehand and checked out their first and only single, "Success," and we actually quite enjoyed that. We even downloaded it onto our phone, and have greatly enjoyed bopping to it. "Success" is the type of song that you listen to and immediately inspires images of having a good time being in a club in Sweden because you're dancing the night away, but also because you're laughing at the wasted fjortis' stumbling all over the place trying to find someone to bring home to their flat. So we were hoping that "Groupie" would deliver that same type of clubby fun. Instead, it's coming across like a bad sequel doomed to flop at the box office. The "ojojoj"s might be back, but this rehearsal snippet hasn't shown us anything remotely catchy enough to warrant a spot on our phone. For now, we'll just stick to "Success."
4) Neverstore - "If I Was God For One Day"
We had to know we'd eventually have to sit through a mediocre rock number, as there's always at least one every year, but it doesn't irk us any less to finally have it upon us. Here's the thing about rock music, we actually enjoy the genre. The problem is that none of the rock songs that come up through Melodifestivalen are anything less than "meh." We didn't even know how much of a mess people could make of rock music until we started watching this contest every year. If you are an act that insists on entering with a rock song, make it epic! Make me feel like I can conquer the world if I just have your song playing in the background, a la Fall Out Boy's "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark." Get a groove going like virtually everything in Little Richard's catalogue! Get some entertaining lyrics going that tell a story, like "1985" or "Stacy's Mom." But above else, do not crank out a cheap knockoff of somebody else's work. Be original.
Oh and in case you couldn't tell already, we don't like this song. It does absolutely nothing for us.
5) Marie Bergman & Sanne Salomonsen - "Nonetheless"
Before we say anything, we want to make it clear that we truly admire and respect the way Melodifestivalen, and really the Swedish entertainment media in general, treats their celebrities as they get older. Unlike in Hollywood, we get the sense that these acts are given more respect instead of being tossed out like yesterday's garbage, and that is highly commendable. However, it seems quite clear that this act is here solely to appeal to the 45+ age demographic. Admittedly, it makes sense. It's smart business to cover all your bases, which is part of why Melodifestivalen is so successful. There's something for everyone. But much like most of this weeks line-up, we just don't care for this song. These ladies are able to stay in tune, which we're happy for, but this song is just so boring that we might not be able to stay awake for it. We've said it once and we'll say it again: if you don't excite us, we're not going to route for you in Melodifestivalen.
6) Magnus Carlsson - "Möt mig i Gamla Stan" (Meet me in Old Town)
This was supposed to be the number that gave us delicious Schlager that we love to indulge in, but sadly, this feels entirely dated in a bad way. After how hard Alcazar threw down on that stage last year with "Blame It On The Disco" (come on, people, their entrance was in a giant disco ball! A GIANT DISCO BALL!), it's not like we don't love the disco-infused dance pop. But that song had far better production. It was sleek, cheeky, and even the choreography had a good mixture of disco and modern movements. But this song needs a 21st century make-over to achieve that sort of balance.
7) Mariette - "Don't Stop Believing"
First of all, Mariette needs to read up on cultural appropriation, white privilege, and get a better understanding of the issues black people face with their hair. That rat's nest on her head makes me positively gag. The song itself isn't terrible and considering how much of a train wreck this line-up appears to be from these rehearsal snippets, it might be one of the better songs of the night. However, we're not a fan of this staging at all. From the mood lighting and flowing outfits, it's reading dangerously close to hitting 'Ctrl + C' ~ 'Ctrl + V' from Loreen's creative mind. But hey, stealing the artistic musings from a brilliant WOC?
Final tally: Roughly 4 of these songs might be good enough for Andra Chansen, but we're not thrilled at the thought of any of them going to the finals while Molly Pettersson Hammar is still left out in the cold. No but really, Molly, come inside. It's Sweden, you'll freeze to death, and that cannot be allowed to happen since we need you to save Swedish pop music.
Be sure to tune in at 20:00 Swedish time (11:00 am PST), February 14, on SVT's website to watch the second semi-final. You won't be able to vote unless you're actually in Sweden but you can watch from anywhere in the world! Also, tweet along with the #Melfest hashtag. To all the entries, break a leg!
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