She has been tipped to make it to the final ever since it was announced that Sanna Nielsen would be participating with the entry “Waste your love” - written by veterans Thomas G:son, Peter Boström and Jimmy Jansson. But it looked uncertain for a long time when Little Al-Fadji was the first to be announced as a finalist.
This is the eighth time that Sanna Nielsen has participated in Melodifestivalen, and it is 25 years since she first took part - at the age of sixteen. Last year, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame and that also gave birth to the idea of participating again.
I enjoyed being on that stage and felt so at home in a way. When I got off I said to my manager, “Shouldn’t we do this one more time?”
Little Al-Fadji first to the final
After the rehearsal on Friday night, Little Al-Fadji was already number one with the audience in the Melodifestivalsklubben survey. Yet many were surprised that he charmed viewers so much.
Little Al-Fadji himself was noticeably shocked in the greenroom to be the first finalist to be called up.
The humorous character is performed by hip-hop artist Felipe Andres Leiva Wenger, better known as "Fille" in Ison & Fille. He co-wrote the song with Edward af Sillén and Daniel Réhn, who both wrote the script for last year's Melodifestivalen.
Little Al-Fadji's performance has some technical challenges, such as a spinning scene where the artist tripped twice during the dress rehearsal.
"I want to convey that life is a challenge for all of us. I'm pretty perfect otherwise, so I thought I had to become a little more relatable," he told TT.
Nessvold's song
The evening's semi-final began with Sarah Dawn Finer singing "Let freedom reign", which Hampus Nessvold submitted to Melodifestivalen as a sixteen-year-old. Gina Dirawi presented the song as "melody number zero".
Before the first finalist was announced, Nessvold finally made an entrance as her comedy character Terese, to the cheers of the audience, after doing other sketches during the first four weeks of this year's Melodifestival tour.
Caroline af Ugglas and the song "Snälla, snälla" were inducted into the Hall of Fame and af Ugglas also appeared on stage and performed the entry from 2009.
Final qualifiers await
At the very end of the evening, two more finalists will be voted on and they will advance from the final qualifying round after coming third in their respective competitions. The rules surrounding the final qualifying round, formerly known as Second Chance, have been criticized, but hopefully everything will be clarified during the last half hour of the broadcast.
Among those who can advance are Meira Omar, Robin Bengtsson and Alexa, who became a finalist in the Sundsvall qualifying competition with "Tongue tied".
Ann Edliden/TT
Facts: The result in Sundsvall
TT
To the finals:
Little Al-Fadji - "Delulu"
Sanna Nielsen - "Waste your love"
For the final qualifiers:
Alexa – "Tongue tied"
Eliminated:
Vilhelm Buchaus – "Hearts Don't Lie"
Juliett – “Far from everyone else”
Blade – “Who you are”
