Melodifestivalen continues with it’s third heat on Saturday, February 18th. In this article we take a closer look at the performers.

Song nr. 1: Youngblood – Youngblood

Youngblood is a band formed by Fredrik Kempe who is the composer of several Eurovision entries, amongst them last years swedish entry Popular. The five young band members are Christer Sjølie af Geijerstam, Henric Flodin, Marcus Sjöstrand, Oskar Kongshöj and Simon Johansson.

The song is written by Fredrik Kempe and David Kreuger

Song nr. 2: Maria BenHajji – I mina drömmar

Maria BenHaji is the winner of the Webbjoker competiton that was held in the autumn of 2011, a competition that was open for songwriters who had no previously published music works. Maria has been doing backing vocals to Robyn and Sonja Aldén. Since 2011 she is also part of the choir in the very popular swedish TV program Allsång på Skansen. In 2006 she was backing vocalist to Laila Adèle and her song Don´t Try To Stop Me. This is her debut as a solo singer.

The song is written by Nanna Sveinsdóttir and Thomas Cars.

Song nr. 3: Mattias Andréasson – Förlåt mig

Mattias Andréasson is a former participant of swedish Idol 2007. After Idol he joined forces with former Idol participants Danny Saucedo and Erik Segerstedt and formed the group E.M.D. They took part in Melodifestivalen 2009 and finished in
3rd place in the final with the song Baby goodbye. Mattias won the 2010 edition of Let’s Dance (swedish version of Strictly Come Dancing). The song is written by Mattias himself and the inspiration is taken from a real life event – when the relationship with his current partner ended.

The song is written by Mattias Andréasson

Song nr. 4: Love Generation – Just A Little Bit

Love Generation consists of the three members Cornelia Jakobsdotter Samuelsson, Martina Braun Wolgast and Melanie Taylor. The members of the group were picked through an audition in 2010 with over 500 contestants in it. In 2011 the group
took part in Melodifestivalen as one of the pre-contest favourites with the song Dance alone. They got to andra chansen but there they were defeated in the second duel by Sara Varga. The group originally had five members –  Roshanna Hoss left the group in november 2010 and in september 2011 Mikaela Urbom choosed to leave the group. One of the songwriters is the successful producer RedOne who also wrote Love Generations song from last year and was involved with the russian Eurovison entry from 2011 Get you with Alex Sparrow.

The song is written by Nadir Khayat (RedOne), John Mamann, Jean-Claude Sindres, Teddy Sky, Yohanne Simon and Bilal "The Chef" Hajji

Song nr. 5: Carolina Wallin Pérez – Sanningen

Carolina Wallin Pérez is a 29 year old pop- and jazz singer. She released her debut
album Pärlor och svin in 2009 and her own version of the swedish group Kents Utan dina andetag recahed more than 350 000 hits on Youtube. Despite this Carolina is a relatively unknown name to the swedish audience. Her second album is due to be released in late april 2012.

The song is written by Michael Clauss, Martin Bjelke, Carolina Wallin Pérez, F Dread

Song nr. 6: Andreas Johnson – Lovelight

Despite not winning (yet) Andreas Johnson has a successful record in
Melodifestivalen. In his first apperance in 2006 with the song Sing for me he had only
Carola ahead of him in the final. In 2007 we saw another 2nd place for Andreas, this time with the song A little bit of love. In 2008 he and Carola became a "superduo" and sang the song One Love. Despite being one of the favourites the song only reached andra chansen and was there beaten in the first duel by the group Nordman. The duel still holds the record numbers of voters for a duel – 518 471 voters.
In 2010 Andreas returned and reached a 6th place in the final. Andreas also is known for his big hit from 1999 – Glorious, a song which also was played outside Sweden.

The song is written by Andreas Johnson and Peter Kvint

Song nr. 7: Molly Sandén – Why Am I Crying

Molly Sandén was born in 1992. She She came third in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song Det finaste någon kan få. In 2007 and 2008 she participated in the Diggiloo tour in Sweden with famous names like Charlotte Perrelli, Måns Zelmerlöw, Linda Bengtzing, Nanne Grönvall, Lotta Engberg, Jan Johansen and Lasse Holm. She took
part in Melodifestivalen 2009 where she reached the final but there finished in last place. Molly is the ex-girlfriend
of the MF 2011 winner Eric Saade.

The song is written by Molly Sandén, Aleena Gibson and Windy Wagner

Song nr. 8: Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li – Mirakel

Many where those who raised their eyebrows when it was announced that the heavily debated author and lecturer Björn Ranelid would take part in Melodifestivalen. Björn was born in 1949. He has written several novels since his debut in 1983 and in 1994 he won Augustpriset. In recent years Björn appeared in tv-shows like Let’s Dance (swedish
version of Strictly Come Dancing) and the reality show Stjärnorna på slottet. He also has made the headlines of the leading swedish newspapers after being in conflict with other authors. By his side on stage he will have Sara Li who is a former member of the group Caracola who participated in Melodifestivalen 2008.

The song is written by Fredrik Andersson and Björn Ranelid

The show will start at 20:00 CET on Saturday the 18th of February and can
been seen by visiting the Swedish national broadcasters site www.SVT.se.