Stockholm, 12 March 2022
Heja Sverige!!! It is time! Time to wrap up this NF season! Time to get cracking on which entries may or may not qualify and which of the 40 participating countries will take home the Crystal Microphone in May.
But first, we wrap up Sweden.
Twenty-eight acts have battled each other for six weeks, vying the victory in the prestigious Melodifestivalen and for the right to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest.
For weeks we’ve seen them, and for weeks the playing field has been whittled down. Tonight, only twelve remained:
- Klara Hammarström – “Run to the hills”
- THEOZ – “Som du vill”
- Anna Bergendahl – “Higher power”
- John Lundvik – “Änglavakt”
- Tone Sekelius – “My way”
- Anders Bagge – “Bigger than the universe”
- Robin Bengtsson – “Innocent love”
- Faith Kakembo – “Freedom”
- LIAMOO – “Bluffin'”
- Cornelia Jakobs – “Hold me closer”
- Cazzi Opeia – “I can’t get enough”
- MEDINA – “In i dimman”
The show, presented by Oscar Zia and Farah Abadi, followed a whipcrack pace with every finalist busting out their songs before the time came for the international juries to enter the stage.
This year, juries from the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Israel, Finland, Ireland, Spain, Australia and Italy cast their votes. Cornelia and Liamoo pulled away from the others after a few votes and settled down as the distinct top two. Contest revelations Medina were a surprising third place.
After the juries cast their votes however, the televote REOPENED, allowing Swedes (and fans masquerading as 80 year old grannies) to influence these jury results. As expected, Sweden’s newfound darling Anders Bagge topped the televote with an impressive 90 points. However, Cornelia managed to retain her lead thanks to a substantial 70 televote points (implying she was top 3 in every vote), making her the Swedish representative for Turin!
Jakobs will be the first woman to represent Sweden in eight contests, with the last canonical female representative being 2014’s Sanna Nielsen. The male-only win streak Melfest had been on since had previously been broken by The Mamas in 2020.
Sweden is set to compete in the second half of the second semifinal. The other countries from Sweden’s pot competing in this semfinal are Estonia and Finland. The semifinal boasts a large amount of low-tempo songs and ballads, including the contributions from Poland, Montenegro and Belgium.
Do #YOU like Sweden’s choice? How well do #YOU think Cornelia will do? Let us know in the comments, on social media or on our forum HERE. Alternatively, join the discussion on our Discord HERE.
