Today there are several stories on the wildcard issue for next years Melodifestival. According to Expressen the four wildcards are Magnus Uggla, The Ark, Uno Svenningson feat. Irma Shultz and Sebastian Karlsson. both escsweden.com and esctoday.com have attempted unsuccessfully to get confimation, and an announcement is expected on the 26th or 27th of December. esctoday.com are expecting the first three acts to be confirmed, but we think that there's a surprise in store instead of Sebastian!
The three artists that has already signed with SVT according to Expressenare Magnus Uggla who last participated inMelodifestivalen 1979 with the song Johnny the Rocker and came last. Heis one the most popular artists in Sweden and would he be one of the artists he needs to be concidered a clear favorite for winning next years festival.
TheArkis the other name in this endless ongoing speculations on who are going to take part and who arenot. The Ark is a big name if they take part and a big success for SVT to get them todo it. According to Expressentheir manager said that "sometime we need to do the song contest and why not this year".
Uno Svenningsson's career startad in the 1980s as a member of the popgroup Freda where he was the leadsinger. Freda was one of the biggest and most popular bands in sweden then and sold over 400 000 records. After the band split up he went solo with hits like Under ytan, Nära sanningen and Tro på varann and his five solo albums sold almost as many copies as Freda did. His latest album, Ett andetag från dig, was released in 2004 and went straight in to No 1 on the album charts. He is working with Irma Schultz on a Christmas tour together this year in december. Their tour is called Sånger för december (Songs For December).
Irma Schultz has had hits including Precis som du, Stureplan and Decembersnö. She has also released 5 solo albums the first in 1989 and the last came in 2003 and was called Imma på glas. She has made two movies during her career and is well known in Sweden. In 1990 she stared in S.M.A.S.H and in 2003 she stard in the action movie Rånarna as well as SVT Soap Opera, Rederiet.
Thefourth name is Sebastian Karlsson, one of last yearswho came second in last years Idol competition onTV4. But as always Sony BMG denies all rumours about their Idol artists are taking part in Melodifestivalen. Expressen has also mentioned the group Sunblock as possible wildcard.
Another artist that esctoday.com believes to have a good chance of a wild-card spot is Peter Jöback. Jöback is one of the biggest male singers in Swedish history. All his records has sold platinum. He has done several big leading rolls in London West End as well as Kristina Från Duvemåla by Benny & Björn of Abba. He released a single from that musical called När guldet blev till sand and that stormed into the charts atnumber one for 36 weeks and stayed in the charts for 110 weeks which is Something no one else has ever achieved in Sweden. He has a fantastic live voice and must be considered one of our top artists if not the best of them all, although in his 1990 Melodifestivalen appearance, he only managed 9th place with En sensation.
Aftonbladet says that the planned "Diva act" in Melodifestivalen was going to be either Charlotte Pirelli or HelenaPapriziou and the they both have been in negotiations with SVT during the last week. According to the press, who carry Melodifestivalen stories daily because they are popular with readers and increase sales, Charlotte Pirelli has at last decided to say 'thank you but no thank you'. SVTstill awaits the final decision from Helena Papariziou according to Aftonbladet. esctoday.com has all along said that both artists would not accept a wildcard nomination this year and with so many solo female artists already selected, it is unlikely that another would be added as a wildcard.
Check out Peter Jöback's promotional video to his single Under my skin by clicking the play icon below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLUAOU0FSwo
