Baby, it's here, the arrival of love

The songs for 2008's Melodifestivalen have just been announced (except for the four wildcards), along with their composers. I'll edit this post with deeper thoughts when we actually have a list I can go back and look over again, but for now, I just have to get this out of my system.

Maybe the thing that jumped out the most? Alexander Bard has (along with some other writers, including Henrik Wikström and Bobby Ljunggren) an entry; it's called "Lay Your Love On Me." That's not necessarily the song I'm most excited about, though--if anything, that title probably goes to the songs by Fredrik Kempe and/or Henrik Wikström (and there's at least one written together); I think both had a really good year last year and have a pretty consistent record in the past. Other names that jumped out? Ingela "Pling" Forsman, of course, known for her lyrics and for schlager; Bobby Ljunggren; Tony Nilsson (one of the writers of "Love In Stereo" and who I'm hoping is the Tony Nilsson of "Natalie" and "S.O.S."; if it is, then there's a chance that Ola Svensson could be singing the song--though he could sing something else as well--and either way it's a song to look forward to); Aleena Gibson (I really liked "Anything But You" last year, but she's also given us "We're Unbreakable" and "This Woman" [performed by Anna Sahlene]; both those songs were co-written with Bobby Ljunggren, who co-wrote this year's "Empty Room" with her); and Tobias Lundgren and Tim Larsson (on the same song, along with at least one other writer whose name I missed, though I imagine there's a good chance it's Johan Fransson), who've been involved in far too much amazing stuff to even begin to get into.

Back in a bit with more thoughts! They'll be edited into this post.

The first of what will surely be many edits: Aftonbladet has confirmed that BWO are going to be in Melodifestivalen with that Alexander Bard-penned track.

And another edit: Aftonbladet also suggests that Charlotte Perrelli will be singing the Fredrik Kempe and Bobby Ljunggren song "Heroes" (which I thought I heard as "Hero," but maybe not) and quotes a source as saying the song is so good that she could win Eurovision again.

Edit: the full list of tracks and composers.

Edit: all via Aftonbladet, Bert Karlsson, in article complaining about some of the songs that were rejected (including Sara Löfgren's), mentions that currently Linda Bengtzing, Velvet, the Poodles, and Christer Sjögren all have a song, though that could change. Fredrik Kempe says that "Hero" is his favorite (out of the songs he's got in, I think).

Edit (again): it's definitely worth checking out the comments for this post--Alex has got a bunch of guesses, many based on songwriters I didn't pick up on or don't know--Pontus Hagberg's stage name, for example, is Evan, and given that "When You Need Me" has the exact same writing time as "Under Your Spell," it's a good guess that Evan will be performing it. Missed out on noticing Patrik Isaksson's name as well, though I think now I remember them announcing him at the end, maybe that he was definitely a performer or something? At any rate, "Under Mitt Tunna Skinn" is by him. The country-pop group Calaisa is credited as one of the writers for "If I Could" (didn't recognize their names individually), Martin Eriksson (E-Type) is one of the writers for "Line Of Fire," Frida (of "Dunka mig gul & blå," not of ABBA) is one of the writers of "Leva Livet--and, well, really, just check out his guesses.

Edit: tickets go on sale October 18.

Edit again: just got a chance to look over at Expressen--they're saying that Christer Sjögren will be doing "I Love Europe" and that the composers are hoping to get Helena Paparizou and Sanna Nielsen (in addition to Charlotte Perrelli) to participate. Lasse Lindh's ""Du behöver aldrig mer vara rädd" is described as being a midtempo love song that sounds a little like Snow Patrol and is typical of his sound. They do say E-Type is doing "Line Of Fire," but I'm not sure if that's certain or not, and they mention Linda Bengtzing, Velvet, and the Poodles again.

A very late edit: via QX, some more facts and speculation about the songs. "Den första svalan" is uptempo pop-rock and Alexander Schöld from Fame Factory sang the demo (though that doesn't mean he's doing the actual song). Mickey Husic sang the demo of "Never Fall In Love (Izdaje)," which is a ballad, and is interested in singing it in the actual contest, but nothing is set. "Kebabpizza, Slevovica" was written by Andra Generationen. "Deja Vu," probably for Velvet, is a "euroexplosion" and is compared to last year's "La Musica" by Verona in that it basically has everything that song lacked. The article points out--as Len did earlier in the comments--that the writers of "Hur svårt kan det vara?" did "Alla Flickor" and "Diamanter" for Linda Bengtzing. "Hur svårt kan det vara?" is said to be schlager, though there's also a reference to "Grace Kelly" thrown in. And I don't think I mentioned outside of the comments yet that Patrik Isaksson wrote "Under mitt tunna skinn"--he did the lovely ballad "Faller du så faller jag" in 2006, though I always think of "Hos dig är jag underbar" with him (which is good--it's got one of those half-blowout chorus thing), probably just because I really like that song. "Smiling In Love" is linked with girl group Caracola, though I'm not sure whether that's speculation or sure. "That's Where I'll Go" is linked to Sibel Redzep (another Idol 2005 contestant) and said to be a power ballad. Michael Michailoff from Fame Factory wrote "That's Love," which I think is compared to Andreas Johnson's work. Fronda's song "Nobody Feels So Good" is rap or hip hop-like.

And if you really want to know, Schlagerprofilna has some of the "almost made the cut" songs, though without composers.

(This is my first year paying attention to this part of the process and I'm still a newbie to Melodifestivalen, so I'm sure there are things I've not noticed that I should have!)