Nanne Gronvall, Sonya Alden, Jimmy Jansson, Fredie Kempe, Andreas Lundstedt and Andreas Johnson all return to Melodifestivalen as songwriters this year, and are almost certain to be singing in the Swedish national selections for a place at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest
Although no announcements have yet been made about who will sing the 28 songs selected, it ishighly likely that songs writen by established singers will be sung by them at the competition. The official annoucements of the singers will be made next month, so fans of artists such as Anna Book will have to wait until then to see if their favourites will be participating. What we know so far is…
Nanne Gronvall, who won the public vote in the 2005 Melodifestivalen final, only to lose to Martin Stenmarck by 3 points because of the jury votes. She returns withthe songJag måste kyssa dig, co-written with husband Peter and Ingela Pling Forsman. She has been recovering from breast cancer and will shortly be returning to the Stockholm stage for a second run in the musical 'Sweet Charity'. Melodifestivalen looks set to mark her return to the national limelight after making a full recovery. She will undoubtedly be one of the favourites to return to the Eurovision Song Contest, having finished in 3rd place as part of the group One More Time with the song Den Vilda.
Jimmy Jansson also competed in the 2005 final with the song Vi kan gunga, as did Andreas Lundstedt as part of internationally acclaimed band, Alcazar with Alcastar. They return with the songs Amandaand Move respectively.
Andreas Lundstedt performed as part of the Swiss 2006 Eurovision Song contest entry, Six 4 One.He has participated in Melodifestivalen twice with Alcazar and is now set to return once again as a solartist. Andreas Johnsson is based in New York, USA, but returned to his native Sweden to compete in Melodifestivalen this year, finishing in third place behind winner, Carola, and Bodies Without Organs last time. It is likely that he will sing his song again, A little bit of love, cowritten withPeter Kvint, this time.
A return for 1989 Swedish Eurovision Song Contest performer, Tommy Nielsen, is also on the cards after his song Jag tror på människan (I belive in humans). He finished 4th in Lausanne with the song En Dag.
Sonya Alden made her debut as a lead singer atMelodifestivalenearlier this year, finishing in 5th place in her semifinal with Etymon, but finishing 4th in the Final as lyricist on The Poodles' Night of Passion. She has two songs in the final 28.
Agnes Carlsson, Sweden's Pop Idol show winner, has submitted her own song and is almost certain to be performing it as her Melodifestivalen debut.
Freddie Kempe, also a finalist at the 2005 Melodifestivalen as co-writer of Du och jag mot hela världen. He performed the song as a duet with Sanna Nielsen.
Bobby Ljungren, composer of last year's winning Melodifestivalen entry, Evighet/Invincible has four songs in the final 28 for the second year running! He told esctoday immediately after the announcements: "I'm so unbelievably happy for so many reasons right now".
Henrik Wikström, whoproducedEvighet/Invincible has three songs in the 2007 competition: Vågar du vågar jag, with Kempe, A, när ni tar saken i egna händer withKent Olsson, and What's your name? with Olsson and Niklas Edberger. He told esctoday.com "I'm thrilled, it's fantastic to be in it again, I actually didn't expect this. It's gone verywell. The three songs are all verydifferent to each other"
Thomas G;son the third co-writer of Evighet/Invincible returns to Melodifestivalen with two entries, one solo effort, Samba sambero, and one with Jimmy Jansson, Amanda.
Also of note is the appearance of Lasse Andersson as a composer. He is the son of Stikkan Andersson, the man responsible for the creation of Eurovision Song Contest winning super-group, Abba! That is of course not to fuel yet more rumours of an Abba return – that is almost certainly impossible, but one of the Abba members to return to Melodifestivalen? If we hear anything, we'll of course keep you posted!
