The Melodifestivalen enters the second half of the starting field when the third part of four competitions is decided in Lidköping’s large indoor bandy arena.
The presenter Farah Abadi opened the telecast by fulfilling her dream of performing on stage with Dolly Style, the group that competed three times in Melodifestivalen.
Marcus & Martinus are favorites in Lidköping.
Once the evening’s competition gets underway, according to the critics’ analyses, Marcus & Martinus and Nordman will go to the finals.
“Incredible Audience”
The Norwegian duo’s song “Air” received almost half of the votes in the Melodifestivalklubb’s poll of the audience at Friday night’s rehearsal and after being child stars for a decade, they have a big audience.
– It was amazing. The audience here was incredible, said Marcus Gunnarsen after the general rep.
Nordman has not competed in Melodifestivalen for 15 years, but got an offer they couldn’t refuse when schlager veterans Thomas G:son and Jimmy Jansson specially wrote a song for the duo.
Now they are competing for the third time and also have a certain favorite pressure on them.
The two favorite entries are mainly challenged by Paul Rey, who competes for the third time in four years in the competition. This time his contribution is called “Royals”.
18-year-old Ida-Lova debuts in Melodifestivalen.
A less seasoned contender is Ida-Lova, the 18-year-old singer from Stockholm, whose ballad “Let the whole town watch” is about the right to be yourself and not care what others think.
Svenne & Lotta are celebrated
In addition to the competition itself, the group Afro-dite will perform in the middle act with the song “Bang, en boomerang”, a tribute to the duo Svenne & Lotta, who were elected to Melodifestivalen’s Hall of fame, a few months after the death of singer Svenne Hedlund last year.
Afro-dite member Blossom Tainton Lindquist’s father Graham Tainton did the original choreography for Svenne & Lotta when it happened, in Melodifestivalen 1975.
In addition to Svenne & Lotta, Petra Mede will also be celebrated this evening – she too has been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Two places to the final in the Friends arena outside Stockholm on March 11 are up for grabs. Two more entries get a chance for revenge and the opportunity to take the detour via the semi-final which is decided a week earlier in Örnsköldsvik.