Following discussions at Swedish broadcaster (SVT) it has been decided to disqualify the song So good. Stephen Simmonds had written the song and it had earlier been chosen for participation in Melodifestivalen 2006. This news comes only days before SVT is about to reveal the 28 first names of the artist that will participate in Melodifestivalen.

Stephen Simmonds is singing on the demo that was sent to the competition. But after consideration Stephen decided that he didn�t want to sing his own song at Melodifestivalen. According to the rules for the competition the artist singing on the demo must also be prepared to sing the song live at Melodifestivalen if asked to do so by SVT.

“It�s always sad to disqualify an already chosen song, but SVT must follow the rules that exist for Melodifestivalen and that�s why we had to disqualify 'So Good'. There is no one besides the composer in this particular case that could do this song justice. It was impossible to find a suitable replacement for Stephen Simmonds”, says Christer Björkman, responsible for the artists and the competition format in Melodifestivalen.

There are always a few songs chosen as reserves by the jury. This means that the song So Good now will be replaced by the song titled Naughty boy written by Martin Landh, Joacim Dubbleman and Sam McCarthy. Those were the people behind Carolina Wennergren�s entry in Melodifestivalen 2005, A different kind of love.

Stephen Simmonds is son of a Jamaican musician father and Swedish mother and was raised in the south of Stockholm, the United States and Israel. He is described as an alternative soul-recording artist. He has had a career in United Kingdom and the United States. Co-operated with people such as Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones and Prince amongst others. Lately he has also written some songs for the Dutch musician Martin Verdonks upcoming album. Earlier this year Stephen released his third full-length album called This Must Be Ground.

Back in 2003 Carola was disqualified in a similar way when she refused to participate in Melodifestivalen with the song När löven faller that she had sung on the demo sent to SVT. On Monday at 9:30 CET, SVT will hold a press conference about the preparations for Melodifestivalen 2006 so far and where the media will be introduced to all the artists competing, besides the four wildcards that will be made public later.