Aftonbladet has revealed that Margaret, Magnus Carlsson and Ann-Louise Hanson will likely be competing in Melodifestivalen 2019.
Swedish Newspaper Aftonbladet has revealed three more artists who according to their sources are highly likely to be competing in Melodifestivalen 2019. The paper states that Margaret, Magnus Carlosson and Ann-Louise Hanson are all likely to be returning to the Melodifestivalen stage once again.
For Ann-Louise Hanson this would be the fourteenth time that the singer has taken part in the competition. Ann holds the record for the most participations in Melodifestivalen without winning the competition, her best result is 4th which occurred in 1966, 1969 and 1973. Former Alcazar member Magnus Carlosson last participated in the competition in 2015 with “Möt mig i Gamla stan”. This would be his ninth Melodifestivalen appearance and fourth as a solo singer.
Margaret finished seventh in the final of Melodifestivalen 2018 with the song “In My Cabana”. The Polish singer was according to Aftonbladet a controversial choice in 2018 due to her not being well known within Sweden. However the paper reports that the decision on 2019 participation now lays with her and whether she feels it is the right thing for her career.
Earlier this month Aftonbladet reported that two-time finalist Wiktoria, fan favourite Nano, and former winners Arvingarna join the FO&O’s Oscar Enestad as hotly tipped names to be revealed in next year’s line up this November.
Melodifestivalen 2019
The Swedish national selection process for Eurovision will return on Saturday 2nd February 2019 in Gothenburg with the final, as usual, due to take place in Stockholm’s Friends Arena on Saturday 9th March 2019. The full schedule is as follows:
Deltävling 1 – Gothenburg – February 2nd
Deltävling 2 – Malmö – February 9th
Deltävling 3 – Leksand – February 16th
Deltävling 4 – Lidköping – February 23rd
Andra Chansen/Second chance – Nyköping- March 2nd
Final – Stockholm – March 9th
Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö are all regular stops on the annual Melodifestivalen tour. 2019 will be the fourth time that Leksand has hosted one of the shows, the third time for Nyköping and the second for Lidköping.
It is expected that the 28 competing artists for the competition will be unveiled in November. The Lovers of Valdaro have already been confirmed as the first act in the contest after they claimed a wildcard entry after winning P4 Nästa 2018, a show to find new musical artists in Sweden.
General submissions for the contest opened at the end of August. Artists wishing to compete in the contest had until 17th September to submit their entries to SVT.
It was recently confirmed that Swedish director, writer and Eurovision commentator, Edward af Sillén will return to Melodifestivalen in 2019 as a consultant. Af Sillén was responsible for the script of Eurovision 2016, hosted in Stockholm. His appointment follows a year in which the contest was criticised and suffered its lowest audiences since 2011.
Benjamin Ingrosso represented Sweden at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal. At the Grand Final, he placed 7th with 274 points. Sweden recorded their worst result in a televote for a decade finishing 23rd with the public and scoring just 21 points.
Source: Aftonbladet
Sweden debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 and has gone on to be one of the contest’s most successful countries. The country has won the contest six times, the most recent being in 2015. Sweden’s first victory came in 1974 when ABBA won the contest in Brighton with “Waterloo”. Since missing out on the final in 2010, Sweden has gone on to finish 3rd twice and has won the contest twice, only in 2013 did the country place outside of the top 10 in the final.
