Bonus 04 - Melodifestivalen 2023

Ahead of this year’s final of Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s national final, Andy & Ryan give their take on this year’s finalists. They’re paying extra special attention as this year they’re actually going to be in the audience in Stockholm cheering and whooping from the tenth row. Until Heat 4 it was perhaps fair to say that this year’s Melfest might not be as strong as the last 2 years, but the long-awaited return of Loreen seems to have turned everything around. Either that or it’s just the fact that we can finally listen to them all on Spotify and play them continuously. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, let’s explain the format of the episode… We’re going to play and score 10 songs in total. The eight finalists and two semi-finalists. As we write the semi-final has yet to happen, but when this episode goes out, you will know which 4 acts progressed to the final. We only chose two - one each - as we hadn’t realised four acts would make it through from the semi-final, but, no matter, we’re confident that we chose the best ones anyway. If we’d known though we would have also reviewed Kiana and Nordman. We wonder if we picked the right four? Onto the songs. We start with Tone Sekelius who walked the Heat 1 voting and reminded us why we fell in love with her when she sang My Way last year. Then there’s perennial performer, Swedish-Sámi singer and jojkare, Jon Henrik Fjällgren with Arc North feat. Adam Woods with Where You Are which won Heat 1. Country duo Tennessee Tears won Andys’ heart in Heat 2 and are his pick of the semi-finalists, while Theoz’s pop sunshine track Mer av dig is Ryan’s favourite to progress from the semis. Football chant On My Way from Panetoz is next, followed by Ukrainian Maria Sur who blew everyone away with her confident performance a few weeks ago. Then we have Paul Rey with Royals, the lyrics of which Andy has probably looked into a little too deeply, and Norwegian duo Marcus & Martinus, winner of Heat 3, whom the Swedes seem to have really taken to despite their ill-fitting trousers. Linkin Park-meets-Evanesence band Smash Into Pieces rocked their way into the final, but were ultimately no match for the stupendous Loreen whose vocals and stage presence made her performance everyone’s highlight of Melfest 2023. Could she even be a contender for the Eurovision crown?! If you want to find out Andy & Ryans’s personal favourites from this year’s Meloldifestivalen and what scores they give them out of the traditional 12 points then tune in to this special episode of Eurovision Queens. Tack så mycket! Socials: Twitter: @EuroQueensPod Instagram: EurovisionQueens Email: EurovisionQueens@gmail.com Spotify playlist: shorturl.at/egvEP Songs & Artists Tone Sekelius - Rhythm of my Show Jon Henrik Fjällgren with Arc North feat. Adam Woods - Where You Are Tennessee Tears - Now I Know Theoz - Mer av dig Paul Rey - Royals Panetoz - On My Way Maria Sur - Never Give Up Marcus & Martinus - Air Smash Into Pieces - Six Feet Under Loreen - Tattoo