Here’s a quick round up of small news bits that we’ve learned over the last week in Stockholm, meeting the Melodifestivalen artists.
- Jessica Andersson will be wearing a different dress for tomorrow’s final. She showed it to us last night on her iPhone, it’s a long salmon pink dress with a black belt and huge diamante gem. She feels great to be in the final and is feeling very confident. Her rehearsal yesterday was stunningly good, she sounds flawless now.
- Ola told us that he’s going to be touring Sweden this summer. Dates will be announced in the next few weeks. And he aims to have his new album out in the first week of September. His rehearsal yesterday was also good, he sounds fine and looks fine.
- Eric Saade is busy recording his album which he hopes will be out in May. He’s been working with a handful of respected Melodifestivalen songwriters and told us that it will definitely be pop, but with his own twist.
- Pernilla Wahlgren thanked us for congratulating her on keeping schlager music alive in Melodifestivalen this year. She (obviously) agreed that it would be great if she finished top 5, as it would prove that Sweden still wants schlager!
- Erik Gronwall will release a new single next month, and the album will follow in June. We met him, the most recent winner of Swedish Idol, on a random night, where coincidentally…………
- the previous winner of Swedish Idol, Kevin Borg, was also hanging out! He told us that new music would be released ”very soon”.
- Timoteij came across as really confident in their rehearsal yesterday – which is a relief, as when we saw them perform to a small crowd of around 100 people on Wednesday evening, they looked absolutely terrified!
- Nanne is performing at Paradise on Saturday night, along with Neo and Linda Pritchard.
- Darin is enjoying his first Melodifestivalen experience. His new album should be out before the end of the year, and will feature a lot of songs composed by Tony Nilsson, the guy who wrote ‘You’re Out Of My Life’
- Charlotte Perrelli thinks that either Anna Bergendahl or Salem Al Fakir will win tomorrow.