VoR
Take it or leave it
With last weekend's show turning out to be more Addis Black Widow than Alcazar, the stakes are high this Saturday to turn this Melfest ship around. Who will join Jon Henrik & friends + Tone Sekelius in the finals? These are your contenders...
1. Wiktoria - All My Life (Where Have You Been)
Herman Gardarfve, Patrik Jean, Wiktoria Johansson och Melanie Wehbe.
The Shirley Clamp of Melfest's millennial set, Sticky Wicky clocked up three finalists in four years from 2016-2019, although victory has thus far eluded her. She has the songwriting team behind Move on board for this fourth stab at the big prize, and the buzz is that she's gone for a midtempo, Carly Rae Jepsen-esque sound. Her quality control is generally high, though live she does have an unfortunate tendency to bellow her entries like a banshee entering a wind tunnel.
Obviously one of the bigger names in this semi, but she doesn't seem to have much of a chart presence beyond her Melfest hits, so it remains to be seen how much pulling power she'll be able to wield against some of the fresher acts...
2. Eden - Comfortable
Benjamin Rosenbohm, Eden Alm, Emil Adler Lei och Julie Aagaard.
Making their Melfest debut, Eden is, inevitably, big on the TikToks and also appaarently the very first contestant to go by They/Them pronouns. Last week's obligatory influencer entry wound up shitting a brick live onstage, so we'll be hoping that Eden's song title bears out in terms of their performance credentials.
3. Uje Brandelius - Grytan
Uje Brandelius
Where's Wally had a tough lockdown.
One for the dads, here. Uje Brandelius is a well respected singer-songwriter formerly of the band Doktor Kosmos. His last solo record was a concept album that spun out into a stage show and an award-winning film, so it's possible he's just entered Mello to get a few bums on seats for the next one. He describes the song as being about 'cooking, mood swings and conflict management' - who said rock 'n' roll was dead?
4. Panetoz - On My Way
Njol Badjie, Pa Modou Badjie, Nebeyu Baheru, Jimmy Jansson, Robert Norberg, Daniel Nzinga och Anders Wigelius.
Purveyors of the most uncomfortable-looking white man in Sweden, Panetoz are back for the first time in seven years, having previously reached the finals in 2014 and 2016, both times via Andra Chansen. They're generally good for an uptempo party tune, and there's no indication that we shouldn't expect more of the same this time around. They're a bit long in the tooth at this point, and it's been a while since they last had a hit, so this is probably more of an effort to revitalise their careers locally than a major contender for Liverpool.
5. Tennessee Tears - Now I Know
Tilda Feuk, Jonas Hermansson, Thomas Stengaard och Anderz Wrethov
A curious quirk of the Swedish cultural psyche is that despite their chilly Nordic demeanours, they occasionally love nothing more than to strap on a stetson and live out their Honky Tonk fantasy. Mentored by Jill Johnson, who is pretty much the patron saint of this intriguing subculture, their biggest claim to fame so far is that they've recorded in Nashville with somebody who was briefly a member of Fleetwood Mac. They're probably aiming squarely at Swedish radio here, but we have seen entries like this do the business in the past, so don't count them out just yet.
6. Maria Sur - Never Give Up
Laurell Barker och Anderz Wrethov
One of the big 'story' entries this year, Maria Sur is an 18 year old Ukrainian refugee who was discovered and mentored by Sarah Dawn Finer after participating on a Swedish talent show. Being a country full of bleeding heart liberals (aside from that pesky far-right government they recently voted in
), the Swedes are likely to take Maria's plight to heart and extend a lot of goodwill towards this. The song is described as personal and autobiographical, which along with the title and Laurell Barker's involvement may sadly mean 'painfully on the nose'.
On the more hopeful side, her recent release 'I Like It' is a winsome Hailee Steinfeld-esque bop, so maybe there's still hope that this won't be a total buzzkill.
7. THEOZ - Mer av dig
A surprise highlight of last year's Contest, THEOZ single-handedly that not all TikTok twinks should be banned from gay-friendly music festivals until such time as they grow up and evolve into meth-addled bears. His time on the Diggeeloo circuit obviously served him well, as he brought such old-school notions as 'basic competence' and 'entertainment value'. Hopefully this closing slot suggests he's delivering more of the same on his crucial second tilt at the wheel. Mildly surprising to see him sticking to Swedish, suggesting he's not going big guns for the win, but another slab of likable uptempo filler will more than suffice.
1. Wiktoria - All My Life (Where Have You Been)
Herman Gardarfve, Patrik Jean, Wiktoria Johansson och Melanie Wehbe.
The Shirley Clamp of Melfest's millennial set, Sticky Wicky clocked up three finalists in four years from 2016-2019, although victory has thus far eluded her. She has the songwriting team behind Move on board for this fourth stab at the big prize, and the buzz is that she's gone for a midtempo, Carly Rae Jepsen-esque sound. Her quality control is generally high, though live she does have an unfortunate tendency to bellow her entries like a banshee entering a wind tunnel.
Obviously one of the bigger names in this semi, but she doesn't seem to have much of a chart presence beyond her Melfest hits, so it remains to be seen how much pulling power she'll be able to wield against some of the fresher acts...
2. Eden - Comfortable
Benjamin Rosenbohm, Eden Alm, Emil Adler Lei och Julie Aagaard.
Making their Melfest debut, Eden is, inevitably, big on the TikToks and also appaarently the very first contestant to go by They/Them pronouns. Last week's obligatory influencer entry wound up shitting a brick live onstage, so we'll be hoping that Eden's song title bears out in terms of their performance credentials.
3. Uje Brandelius - Grytan
Uje Brandelius
Where's Wally had a tough lockdown.
One for the dads, here. Uje Brandelius is a well respected singer-songwriter formerly of the band Doktor Kosmos. His last solo record was a concept album that spun out into a stage show and an award-winning film, so it's possible he's just entered Mello to get a few bums on seats for the next one. He describes the song as being about 'cooking, mood swings and conflict management' - who said rock 'n' roll was dead?
4. Panetoz - On My Way
Njol Badjie, Pa Modou Badjie, Nebeyu Baheru, Jimmy Jansson, Robert Norberg, Daniel Nzinga och Anders Wigelius.
Purveyors of the most uncomfortable-looking white man in Sweden, Panetoz are back for the first time in seven years, having previously reached the finals in 2014 and 2016, both times via Andra Chansen. They're generally good for an uptempo party tune, and there's no indication that we shouldn't expect more of the same this time around. They're a bit long in the tooth at this point, and it's been a while since they last had a hit, so this is probably more of an effort to revitalise their careers locally than a major contender for Liverpool.
5. Tennessee Tears - Now I Know
Tilda Feuk, Jonas Hermansson, Thomas Stengaard och Anderz Wrethov
A curious quirk of the Swedish cultural psyche is that despite their chilly Nordic demeanours, they occasionally love nothing more than to strap on a stetson and live out their Honky Tonk fantasy. Mentored by Jill Johnson, who is pretty much the patron saint of this intriguing subculture, their biggest claim to fame so far is that they've recorded in Nashville with somebody who was briefly a member of Fleetwood Mac. They're probably aiming squarely at Swedish radio here, but we have seen entries like this do the business in the past, so don't count them out just yet.
6. Maria Sur - Never Give Up
Laurell Barker och Anderz Wrethov
One of the big 'story' entries this year, Maria Sur is an 18 year old Ukrainian refugee who was discovered and mentored by Sarah Dawn Finer after participating on a Swedish talent show. Being a country full of bleeding heart liberals (aside from that pesky far-right government they recently voted in
), the Swedes are likely to take Maria's plight to heart and extend a lot of goodwill towards this. The song is described as personal and autobiographical, which along with the title and Laurell Barker's involvement may sadly mean 'painfully on the nose'.On the more hopeful side, her recent release 'I Like It' is a winsome Hailee Steinfeld-esque bop, so maybe there's still hope that this won't be a total buzzkill.
7. THEOZ - Mer av dig
A surprise highlight of last year's Contest, THEOZ single-handedly that not all TikTok twinks should be banned from gay-friendly music festivals until such time as they grow up and evolve into meth-addled bears. His time on the Diggeeloo circuit obviously served him well, as he brought such old-school notions as 'basic competence' and 'entertainment value'. Hopefully this closing slot suggests he's delivering more of the same on his crucial second tilt at the wheel. Mildly surprising to see him sticking to Swedish, suggesting he's not going big guns for the win, but another slab of likable uptempo filler will more than suffice.
)
not that I have anything against that, you can't blame people for being human and having feelings, fair enough.
