The Swedish Melodifestivalen has inspired people at the BBC. According to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the British broadcaster is negotiating with the world famous Swedish group Alcazar in order to let them be one of the contestants in Making your mind up, the British selection for a representative at the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest.

According to Aftonbladet, people at BBC have spent some time watching recordings of previous Swedish Melodifestivalen shows and noticed Alcazar's 2003 entry Not a sinner nor a saint. They got so inspired by the group�s performance that BBC now is very eager to invite Alcazar to participate at Making your mind up, the competition for finding the British representative for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005.

�It's really funny that they want us. But we will need a good song of course�, says band member Andreas to Aftonbladet. Daniel Breiholtz of Alcazar�s record company BMG Sweden confirmed to esctoday.com that the negotiations are fully under way. �BBC has to find us a song written by a British composer that we at BMG and the band members find suitable and good enough� says Breiholtz. The rules points out that songs participating in Making your mind up must have composers and lyricists that are British citizens.

Alcazar participated in the Swedish selections for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 and have scored international disco hits such as This is the world we live in, Physcial and Crying at the discoteque. Details about the British selection for 2005 have not yet been made public. Esctoday.com has contacted BBC for further information.