At yesterday's press conference in broadcaster SVT's headquarters, the last songs for Melodifestivalen 2011 were introduced. Most of the songs were known in advance but some new ones were also presented. Due to the disqualification of Anders Fernette's Don't stop, one song is still missing to make the 32nd song and complete the line up.
Semifinal 3, Linköping, 19th February
Sara Lumholdt, former member of A-teens will perform Enemy, written by Anton Hård af Segerstad (from grou Le Kid performing in Semifinal 1) and Niclas Lundin. Niclas Lundin is participating in Melodifestivalen and has previously been working mostlyin Hong Kong and Finland.
Shirley's Angels, a newly formed girl band consisting of Melodifestivalen veteran Shirley Clamp, Jessica Marberg (previous member of Melodifestivalen's choir) and Vera Prada (head choreographer in Melodifestivalen for several years) will sing I thought it was forever. It's written by Robin Abrahamsson, Alexander Bard, Bobby Ljunggren and Henrik Wikström, all of them with several songs in Melodifestivalen and Eurovision Song Contest behind them.
Linda Sundblad, former singer of Lambretta will perform Lucky you, written by Johan Bobäck, Fredrik Thomander and Anders Wikström. Neither of these have ever participated earlier in Melodifestivalen.
Sebastian Karlsson finished 8th in 2007 when he competed for the first time in Melodifestivalen. Next year he'll perform No one else could, written by himself and Andreas Alfredsson Grube.
This year's third, Eric Saade is back, this time with his song Popular, written by Fredrik Kempe who also wrote Eric's song Manboy this year. Popular is the proper word for Eric who after Melodifestivalen 2010 have had a massive breakthrough in Sweden with sold out concerts and album sales. Fredrik Kempe, who wrote Melodifestivalen winners Hero in 2008, La voix 2009 and Norsk Melodi Grand Prix winner My heart is yours 2010 is well known to the Swedish music industry.
Sara Varga is a debutant to Melodifestivalen and is a singer/songwriter from Stockholm. The song Spring för livet is written by herself and Fredrik Boström who wrote Melodifestivalen finalist You're my world in 2010.
Last year's winner of Dansbandskampen, a competition in SVT were bands compete in traditional dance music, The Playtones will perform The king. Composers are Fredrik Kempe and Peter Kvint, who has earlier written songs to Andreas Johnson.
Fredrik Kempe has also written the last competing entry in Linköping. Tid att andas will be sung by top athlete and Mr Gay Sweden 2010 Simon Forsberg.
Semifinal 4, Malmö, 26th February
Linda Pritchard, one of 2010 fan favourites You're making me hot-hot-hot, is back to perform Alive written by Fredrik Kempe and Oscar Görres. Oscar wrote Baby goodbye for group EMD in 2009 and also produced Ola's Unstoppable in 2010.
Web joker winner Julia Alvgard will perform her Better or worse, written by Manne Hjelm, Joar Lenz and Ola Holstad, neither of which have any previous experience of Melodifestivalen.
E det fel på mig, written by Pontus Assarsson, Thomas G:son, Jörgen Ringqvist and Daniel Barkman will be sung by fan favourite Linda Bengtzing. She has competed three times before and have always reached the final so far.
Lasse Stefanz is Sweden's best album selling artists. As a band they have been playing for more than 40 years. One of their albums have sold an incredible ten times platinum, and besides that, they have recorded more than 40 gold, platinum and multi platinum albums in Sweden and Norway. Together with songwriters Alexander Bard, Ola Håkansson and Tim Norell who have written huge Swedish hits in the 80's, among others En dag that finished 4th for Sweden in 1989, they are now competing for the first time with the song En blick och nånting händer.
Nicke Borg will perform the song Leaving home, written by Jojo Borg Larsson, Fredrik Thomander, Anders Wikström and himself. All of them are debutants in Melodifestivalen but Nicke Borg has previously been playing the guitar in rock band Backyard Babies and as such have been touring the world together with great names such as AC/DC.
The hunter is the title of Melody Club's debut in Melodifestivalen. Melody Club have been in the Swedish charts for almost a decade in has been rumoured to participate several years before. The song is written by Kristofer Östergren, Erik Stenemo, Jon Axelsson and Nicklas Stenemo, all members of the group.
Girl band Love Generation is the creation of Nhadir Khayat, more commonly known as RedOne. The song is yet to be decided but it's clear that RedOne will be the composer. After composing world hits like Bad romance, Just dance and right now climbing the charts with Nicole Scherzinger's Poison, it is a welcome superstar in Melodifestivalen. The group Love Generation has so far only released one single which haven't had much success in the charts.
The starting order of the semifinals is not yet known, all lists are presented in alphabetical order.
Special thanks to Anders Ringqvist for submitting this article.
