Melodifestivalen 2023 continues tonight and we are back with our weekly #LiveBlog – continuing with the Semi Final this evening. The eight Semi-Finalists take to the stage in Örnsköldsvik, with four progressing to the Grand Final next week.

So join me, Richard, from 19:00 GMT/20:00 CET, as we discover who will progress in Sweden. You know what to do by now, refresh regularly to see what we have to say in our #LiveBlog.

Refresh here from 19:00 GMT/20:00 CET

Nu kör vi!!! Here are tonight’s line-up of Acts! Jesper and Farah enter the stage wrapped up in their winter jackets, scarves and hats. The voting details are now been explained.

“Mer av dig” – THEOZ

THEOZ brings an upbeat start to the Semi Final. He looks more at home once he is joined by his backing dancers. While in sync with the dancers, THEOZ also provides some strong vocals. The end seems quite anthemic. Pyrotechnics appear to have been added since the Heat.

“One Day” –  Mariette

Mariette is back with the strong performance she gave us in her Heat. Vocals are excellent and she moves similar to the backing dancers – although for once this doesn’t need to be in sync. “One Day” is full of emotions and I could picture it in a musical soundtrack. Mariette really should of qualified direct to the final.

“Diamonds” – Victor Crone

Victor Crone is performing a strong and confident performance. While alone on stage, the light show helps him to fill the stage. Victor has proved what he can do at the Eurovision Song Contest for Estonia, but will Sweden give him another chance tonight?

“Now I Know” – Tennessee Tears

I’d forgotten how strong “Now I Know” is and it’s very rare you get a great country genre song at Melodifestivalen. They have been clever to keep the supporting band in the background for a lot of the song, therefore the audience are able to concentrate purely on Tennessee Tears. Like “One Day”, “Now I Know” is full of emotions and I could picture it in a musical soundtrack.

“Raggen går” –  Elov & Beny

I like Elov & Beny, along with “Raggen går”, however with such a strong field tonight, you also need to consider whether certain songs would be a serious contender at the Eurovision Song Contest. Sadly for Elov & Beny, this isn’t one of them. A fun number, which will get the crowd going in Stockholm next week, but they shouldn’t take the place of a more serious contender imo.

“For The Show” –  Melanie Wehbe

Melanie has the all important connection with the audience and camera from the very start. While alone on stage, Melanie moves around quite a bit, making the performance more of a production. Melanie is good at expressing her emotions both visibly and through her vocals.

“Släpp alla sorger” – Nordman

Nordman certainly provide a dark performance, using traditional sounds. Vocally good, I do question whether this is as strong as some others, but then on the other hand I think it is different enough to do well. The crowd like them. It would be good to see this Swedish-language song do well.

“Where Did You Go” – Kiana

Kiana only turned 16 last week, yet her vocals and performance capabilities would lead you to thinking she was older. You can tell Kiana has rehearsed more – the dancing is more fluid and definetly in-sync with her backing dancers. Hopefully this new found confidence will be reflected in the voting.

The first round of voting has started with the performance recap. The first round of voting has now closed.

It’s time for another Hall of Fame inductee. Tonight it’s the turn of Pernilla Wahlgren. Pernilla Wahlgren is remembered by most for “Piccadilly Circus”. Lucianoz is performing his 2023 version of this 1985 classic.

Farah has taken to the Green Room to chat to the Semi-Finalists. We are now looking at statistics on how the Semi-Finalists were voted for.

At this stage, Nordman, Kiana, THEOZ and Mariette currently lead the voting. The second round of voting is open with another recap of the songs. The second round of voting has closed.

We’ve now got a sketch looking back at a bloke’s (fake audience member) life. Club After Dark have taken the stage to perform “La Dolce Vita”.

The four final Finalists are:

• Nordman
• THEOZ
• Kiana
• Mariette

I’ll be covering rehearsals LIVE from Stockholm from Thursday. So please join me for our extensive coverage of the 2023 Melodifestivalen Grand Final. We will also have some features throughout the week.

Let us know what you think about Melodifestivalen 2023 – either in the comments below or on our FACEBOOK and TWITTER pages.

Author: Richard Taylor

Source: SVT