Tomorrow, we’ll see back-to-back national finals: first in Sweden, then in Portugal. These are the last two national finals of this season!

Sweden – Melodiefestivalen

Sweden is known for hosting amazing televised song contests. Their annual Melodiefestivalen has six parts: 4 Heats (each with 7 competing artists and songs), followed by a Semi Final, and a Grand Final. All of that has culminated in this Saturday’s competition where the top 12 are vying for the chance to represent Sweden in May.

The song you will be hearing the most about is “Tattoo” by Loreen. This is because Loreen won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 with her song, “Euphoria.” There has been a lot of buzz about her song this year, with many people saying she will inevitably win Melodiefestivalen this year and represent Sweden at Eurovision. However, it’s worth mentioning that Loreen competed in 2017’s Melodiefestivalen and didn’t even make it to the final that year! We will just have to wait and see…

Of course, there are eleven other songs competing in Saturday’s final. Almost all of them are really phenomenal, so it’s bound to be an excellent show. But of course we have a few favorites.

Two artists this year, Theoz and Tone Sekelius, are returning to Melodiefestivalen after competing last year. AND both of them ALSO made it to the final last year. “Som du vill” and “My Way” respectively are bops that we loved last year and still listen to. This year, Theoz is performing his song “Mer av dig,” and Tone Sekelius is performing her song “Rhythm of My Show.”

And we have to mention “Six Feet Under” by Smash Into Pieces, because it is absolutely our favorite among the many songs inexplicably inspired by their late 2000’s emo phase that have been competing across Europe this year. (We aren’t sure why the emos are resurfacing, but we are here for it.)

You can find all twelve songs competing in Melodiefestivalen tomorrow in the playlist below:

To learn more about Melodiefestivalen, click here. And here is a direct link to watch the final on March 11 at 11am PST (VPN may be required)

Portugal – Festival da Canção

To be completely honest, we (U&C) have not been paying much attention to Portugal this year. Which is why it completely surprised us when we saw YouTube thumbnails like these from their semi-final performances this past week:

Several online polls have indicated that “Ai Coração” by Mimicat is the favorite to win, but Cláudia Pascoal has been a close second with “Nasci Maria.” (Claudia actually represented Portugal in Eurovision 2018 with O Jardim – a very very different song than the one she is performing this year.) We will just have to watch and see!

You can find all thirteen songs competing in Festival da Canção tomorrow in the playlist below:

To learn more about Festival da Canção, click here. And here is a direct link to watch Portuguese TV where the contest will be airing on March 11 at 1pm PST (VPN may be required)