Melodifestivalen - My honest review
From joke entries and predictable composers to a winner that finally brought hope back to the competition.
Melodifestivalen is now over, and after 3 long years, we got a winner that is actually competitive and again, saved the entire competition. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t necessarily a bad edition this year, BUT, the quality is still not even close to how it used to be 10 years ago.
This year, Mello was flooded with joke entries; some flopped, and some even made it to the Grand Final. I’m personally not a fan of joke entries, but I understand the need of entertainment in these dark times that we are living, I guess.
This year was my 4th Mello Live experience, from an iconic Semifinal in Gothenburg back in 2020 to seeing Felicia win the whole thing and defeat overrated singers such as Gregzula and Medina.
It was fun; I enjoyed the whole show, even though I got a serious cold right after the final ended, and then a nasty kidney surgery one week later. (I’m alive though, hihi). Will I do it again next year? Probably not, or at least I’m not sure.
Judging by participation patterns, if Gregzula is making a comeback next year (and I’m sure he will), he will definitely win the competition. Notoriety is very strong in Sweden, but thankfully, it doesn’t always win (2026 and 2023 <3).
This year, there were many issues with Mello, from trying to announce the last qualifier in each semi online (they changed after SVT received thousands of complaints) to the lack of creativity in some songs that led to an NQ result.
Mello can be saved, but it requires a bit more courage and diversity. We are all tired of the typical Swedish songs (I think they deserve their own genre tbh, they are also known as mello rejects if they end up in other national selections). We are also tired of seeing the same composers over and over, and then we wonder why Medina sounds like a copy of their previous song.
SVT should allow new composers to enter this competition. I’m sure there are better talents than the tiring Dino Medanhodžić, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Thomas G:son, and Anderz Wrethov (even though I love Anderz a lot).
I guess we need to wait and see what the future will bring. Until then, I’m leaving you guys with some nice photos of Stockholm, the city of my heart. It’s always a pleasure to be there.
