Melodifestivalen 2015: Heat Three - Preliminary Judgment

Oh, Melodifestivalen. You've fallen out of my favor this year, and I find that kind of depressing. Maybe that just means it'll come back much stronger in 2016. From the sounds of it, Heat Three seems to at least be an improvement from last week' dire selection.

(Listen to clips here)

1. Ellen Benediktson - Insomnia
This is certainly a 180 from her entry last year. I think I was hoping for something a little more uptempo. I like the sound of this, but I'm not a fan of these midtempo, plodding beats that are supposed to be anthemic but just end up sounding repetitive. 3/5

2. Kalle Johansson - För din skull (For Your Sake)
I like the sound of this quite a bit. It has that classic Swedish indie feel to it, but the beat sounds uplifting and the hooks seem to be there. I don't think it'll do very well tomorrow, but the clip has piqued my interest. 4/5

3. Andreas Weise - Bring Out The Fire
This has potential to be good, but also to be quite lame. I'm underwhelmed by the melody in the hook, but at least the whole package seems to sound slightly more Eurovision-esque than what we've been dealt so far. 3/5

4. Andreas Johnson - Living To Die
I've been an Andreas fan as long as I've been a MF fan, so I was happy to see his name. Again, though, I wish this was an uptempo and not some dreary rock ballad. From the clip, it certainly seems like a lesser entry in his catalog. 2.5/5

5. Isa - Don't Stop
This reminds me a bit of Linda Sundblad mixed with Ace Wilder. The live vocals sound a bit shaky, but there's potential. Still, I don't see it going anywhere when it comes to results. 3/5

6. Kristin Amparo - I See You
This girl's tipped to do really well tomorrow. I'm not a huge fan of ballads, but I can tell that this will at least be a decent one. I'm hoping that the song explodes even more as it goes on. Key change, maybe? 3.5/5

7. Jon Henrik Fjällgren - Jag är fri (Manne Liem Frije) (I Am Free)
What? Hmmm... this is not what I was expecting. I might end up loving it, because I'm a big fan of this sound in general, but from the clip it doesn't sound like there's an actual song here... just a lot of chanting. It's definitely the red herring on the heat. I hope it's awesome. 4/5

From these samples, I'm happy that there doesn't seem to be any clunkers. I'm not finding much to be inspired by either, but I have more hope going into tomorrow than I did this time last week!