According to the national Swedish bookmaker list presented by broadcaster SVT, there are two clear favourites to win the Swedish national final Melodifestivalen 2003 which will be broadcast from 20:00 CET tonight; Fame with Give me your Love and the duo Jan Johansen & Pernilla Wahlgren with Let your Spirit fly. Two major news paper polls confirm these two acts to be the absolute favourites.

In the online poll by Aftonbladet, where more than 37,000 readers have voted, the duo Fame, composed by the two former Fame Factory participants Magnus Bäcklund (the winner) and Jessica Andersson, has a comfortable lead after grabbing 26% of the votes. Next on the list are Johansen/Wahlgren with 19% and Alcazar with 14%. In the online poll by Expressen, there is no clear leader after more than 30,000 votes. Fame and Jan & Pernilla have both picked up 22% of the votes cast, while Alcazar follows close behind with 20%. Swedish betters have been more than eager to put their money on one of the ten acts. At the moment (16:00 CET) money corresponding to about 62,000 euro have been spend through the national bookmaker company. These are the current odds…

01. Fame; Give me your Love; 2.73 -> 1
02. Johansen/Wahlgren; Let your Spirit fly; 2.96 -> 1
03. Alcazar; Not a Sinner, nor a Saint; 6.79 -> 1
04. Jill Johnson; Crazy in love; 7.82 -> 1
05. Sanna Nielsen; Hela värden för mig; 9.35 -> 1
06. Sarek; Genom eld och vatten; 9.72 -> 1
07. Afro-Dite; Aqua Playa; 14.74 -> 1
08. Barbados; Bye bye; 15.31 -> 1
09. Östen med resten; María; 17.85 -> 1
10. Bubbles; T.K.O. (knock you out); 20.14 -> 1

Jessica Andersson & Magnus Bäcklund; together making up Fame, top favourite tonight

Tonight's long expected final of Melodifestivalen 2003 will see three former Eurovision participants for Sweden entering the stage in Globen, Stockholm; Jan Johansen (1995), Jill Johnson (1998) and most recently Afro-Dite (2002). The rules have changed slightly from last year's national final. The juries will still count for 50% of the final outcome, but the televoting procedure has changed a bit. By letting the televoters call in their votes during the period while the eleven regional juries are giving their points from one to twelve, the televoters are said to get a greater impact on the final results. The show will go on for 130 minutes, and esctoday.com will publish the name of the winning act and song just minutes after 22:10 CET, when the programme ends.

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