Sweden: Melodifestivalen 2021 line up completed with the last 10 acts
The Swedish national broadcaster, SVT, completed earlier today the final line up of the 2021 edition of Melodifestivalen, revealing the last 10 competing acts.
Apart from the P4 Nästa artist Julia Alfrida, which had already been confirmed, SVT revealed nine more acts that will take part in the Melodifestivalen 2021, the last set of acts completing the line up for next year’s national selection which will see 28 acts competing for the ticket to Eurovision 2021. Today’s release comes after two sets of nine acts the previous two days.
These are the rest 10 acts :
1. Eric Saade – ‘Every Minute’
Eric Khaled Saade born October 29, 1990), is a Swedish singer. He spent two years with the boy band What’s Up!, leaving the band in February 2009 to pursue a solo career.
In February 2010 Saade sang “Manboy”, written by Fredrik Kempe and Peter Boström, at the second semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2010. He won the semifinal, finishing third overall. Saade released his first solo album, Masquerade, in May 2010. The album reached #2 in Sweden, and went gold.
In February 2011, Saade entered the Melodifestivalen for a second time. This time he made the final, winning with “Popular” (written by Fredrik Kempe and produced by Peter Boström).Saade competed in the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, advancing to the final. He finished third in the competition, Sweden’s best placing since Charlotte Perrelli won in 1999 with “Take Me to Your Heaven”.During the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden, Saade was co-host in the “green room” .
In November 2011 Saade released the single “Hotter Than Fire”, a duet with Dev co-written with Jason Gill and J-Son. Saade participated in Melodifestivalen 2015 with the song “Sting” in a bid to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. In the final Saade placed fifth. On May 27, 2016, Eric released the track “Wide Awake” featuring Gustaf Norén which topped the charts in several European countries. In 2018 Saade co-hosted all six shows of Melodifestivalen 2019 alongside Sarah Dawn Finer, Marika Carlsson and Kodjo Akolor. Saade was Swedish spokesperson for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.
2.Klara Hammarström – ‘Beat Of Broken Hearts’
Klara Lovisa Hammarström was born 20 April 2000 in Stockholm. She has along with her family appeared in the SVT series Familjen Hammarström. She has been a competitive horse rider. She competed in Melodifestivalen 2020 with the song “Nobody”.a ballad signed by Fredrik Kempe, Andreas Wijk and David Kreuger. In May 2020, she collaborates on the title The One with Mohombi. Her debut single “You Should Know Me Better” topped the Swedish radio list last winter.
3. Alvaro Estrella – ‘Baila Baila’
Alvaro Raul Estrella Zapata (born 14 August 1980) is a Swedish singer and dancer with Chilean origin who has participated twice in Melodifestivalen.In 2014 he competed with the song “Bedroom” written by Jakke Erixson, Jon Bordon, Loren Francis, Kristofer Östergren. He sang in the first semi-final in Malmö but he didn’t pass to the final, taking the 6th place. Estrella has also appeared as dancer for many years in the Melodifestivalen contest including for singer Danny Saucedo in Saucedo’s song “Amazing” in 2012.
He participated in Melodifestivalen 2020 with the song “Vamos Amigos” along with Mendez. The song reached the final through the Second Chance round and ended up in eleventh place, scoring a total of 40 points.
4. Julia Alfrida – ‘Rich’
25 year old Julia Alfrida is an artist from Stockholm, Sweden who we see have a lot coming her way in the future. Julia is the first artist that was announced as a participant of Melodifestivalen 2021 after her participation in P4 Nästa 2020.
Her career kicked off real good as she released her first single ”HER” summer 2019, that then led to her doing a guest appearance on Swedish national television to talk about the LGBTQIA+ message of the song. This then led to her performing live at Sthlm Pride, Copenhagen Pride among other great locations. On February 7th she released her debut EP ”EPISODE23”, with even more honest and raw material that hit us all close to home.
“Rich” was written by Julia Alfrida, Jimmy Jansson, Melanie Wehbe.
5. Tusse – ‘Voices’
Tousin “Tusse” Chiza (born 1 January 2002) is a Congolese-Swedish singer. He was a finalist in Swedish Idol 2019, broadcast on TV4, alongside Freddie Liljegren, and was ultimately declared the winner in the final.
Chiza was born in Congo-Kinshasa. As of 4 May 2020, he has released three singles, two of them from his participation in Idol: a cover of “How Will I Know” on 22 November 2019 as a Top 12 contestant and, as a finalist, his version of the season’s winning song, “Rain”, on 3 December 2019. As a result of his victory, he got to release his debut single as a CD single as well as on the iTunes Store. His third single is called “Innan du går”.
His Melfest song is written by written by Joy and Linnea Deb, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt and Anders Wrethov.
6. Efraim Leo – ‘Best Of Me’
The 22 year-oldStockholm native Efraim Leo was born into a family of music-lovers. He started out on a heady diet of jazz and Bob Dylan. “My whole family is musical” he explains. Efraim started to teach himself to play the guitar at the age of 13, before starting to write songs at 15.
Efraim featured on a dance track by Swedish superstar DJ MARC in 2016. ‘Show You The Light’ climbed high on the Billboard Dance Chart. This sooner led to the release of his debut single ‘You Got Me Wrong’ that made a splash and received native radio play. In 2018 Efraim took his music where it mattered the most – on the road. An ‘unofficial’ busking tour was organised, following The Vamps around the UK.
The experience sparked a deep-rooted love of live performance, and last summer Efraim took to the stage again in Sweden, playing some huge shows including Lollapalooza, Stockholm Pride and Summerburst Festival.This year he has released the self-written EP “Timing”.
“Best Of Me” has been penned by Efraim Leo, Cornelia Jakobsdotter, Amanda Björkegren, Herman Gardarfve.
7. Clara Klingenström – ‘Behöver inte dig idag’
Clara Klingenström is an 25 year-old artist and songwriter who grew up on Gotland. She has received attention for writing honest and naked lyrics with a strong recognition factor and released in the spring of 2019 her debut single “Ensam i en stad” (Alone in a City). In 2020, she released the radio favorite “Sommarminnen”.
“Behöver inte dig idag” has beeb written by Clara Klingenström, Bobby Ljunggren, David Lindgren Zacharias.
8. Sannex – ‘All Inclusive’
The band was formed as a school project in 1977. In the mid –1980s , it was a six-man band, which invested in a professional career. In 1987 , Sannex became the backing band for Ann-Louise Hanson and in November that year it became a full-time dance band, after working with Ann-Louise for five weeks at Restaurang Cabaret in Stockholm . In 2013, the singer Andreas Olsson took over the band and they have since won, among other things, four Guldklavar in three years, a Grammi , participated in several TV programs, for example Allsång på Skansen 2017 and 2018.
‘All Inclusive’ has been written by Greta Svensson and Hans Thorstensson.
9. Jessica Andersson – ‘Horizon’
Jessica Elisabeth Andersson (born Jessica Arvidsson on 27 October 1973) is a Swedish singer. She was part of the Swedish duo Fame with Magnus Bäcklund between 2002 and 2006 after they met at the reality television show Fame Factory. As Fame, she represented Sweden in Eurovision Song Contest 2003 held in Riga, Latvia with “Give Me Your Love” finishing fifth.
After the breakup of the band, she developed a solo singing career, releasing four studio albums, and has appeared solo five times in Melodifestivalen competitions in 2006, 2007, 2010, 2015, and in 2018 with the song “Party Voice” finishing in 11th place in the final.
Horizon is written by David Kreuger, Fredrik Kempe, Marcus Lindén, Christian Holmström.
10. The Mamas – ‘In The Middle’
The group consists of Ashley Haynes (born 19 January 1987 in Washington, D.C.), Loulou Lamotte (born 16 April 1981 in Malmö) and Dinah Yonas Manna (born 5 September 1981 in Stockholm). Founding member Paris Renita left the group in 2019.[3]
As a four-piece, the group provided backing vocals for John Lundvik’s Melodifestivalen 2019 entry “Too Late for Love”. Lundvik went on to win the competition and got to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 held in Tel Aviv, Israel, with the Mamas continuing to provide backing vocals The song finished 5th in the grand final on 18 May 2019.
In late 2019, it was announced that the Mamas (without Paris Renita) would take part in Melodifestivalen in 2020, this time in their own right with their entry “Move”.They performed in the first heat on 1 February 2020 in Linköping, and qualified directly for the final that took place on 7 March 2020 in the Friends Arena in Stockholm.The Mamas went on to win Melodifestivalen 2020 with a total of 137 points.
A total of 28 acts will battle for the trophy over six shows that are set to all take place in Stockholm, marking a break from the Melfest Tour where the six shows took place across the country’s cities and towns. This edition will see only one venue, which hasn’t been determined yet, and with out the attendance of audience due to the covid-19 restrictions.
Melodifestivalen live shows will kick of on March 6 while the grand final is set for March 13, 2020. Check out the Melfest 2021 will unwind below:
- 06/02/2021- Semifinal 1
- 13/02/2021- Semifinal 2
- 20/02/2021- Semifinal 3
- 27/02/2021- Semifinal 4
- 06/03/2021- Second Chance (Andra Chansen)
- 13/03/2021- Grand Final
