And I don't wanna stop

Am I ever going to stop writing about Melodifestivalen? No, probably not.

In interviews with QX, the first eight artists announced gave us a little more information about their songs.

Alcazar talked about "Stay The Night," with Tess saying it sounds like a combination of songs Alcazar have done earlier, with Andreas saying that it reminded him a little bit of "Knock On Wood."

BWO say they noticed that modern dramatic ballads do well, so presumably that's what they think "You're Not Alone" is. Apparently it's a song that shows off Martin's singing and they say it's this year's "Empty Room" and "Believe" (great...).

Måns Zelmerlöw says "Hope & Glory" is an upgrade of "Cara Mia," big and grand. He also reveals that there was another song he worked on with Fredrik Kempe and considered sending, a megaballad in a French march tempo, but (and this is why you have to love Måns) he decided that he "had to get to dance" or he would be "boring" otherwise. He hasn't sent in songs he's written to any other country yet (a song he co-wrote was in Romania's nationa final this year), but he has enough that he can and (probably) will.

I haven't mentioned this in a blog post yet, but the fact that Markoolio is the first joker announced has been discussed in the comments. Markoolio's song, "Kärlekssång från mig," is described, as Melodiment pointed out, as a ballad with a twist (and funny lyrics) and is from the writers of not just some of Markoolio's own songs (like "Värsta Schlagern") but also of 2005's B-Boys International and Paul M's "One Step Closer" and 2007's Verona's "La Musica." Damian pointed out an article in which Markoolio says there will be strippers, with Markoolio lying on the ground and crawling around. Speaking of Markoolio, I want to take another opportunity to praise "Emma, Emma" from his last album. It may have kind of cringeworthy lyrics, but if "Värsta Schlagern" was Markoolio doing a parody of schlager but actually making a brilliant schlager song with a lot of help from a female singer, "Emma, Emma" is the techno/Eurodance equivalent of it. All three of my preferred tracks from that album involved Markoolio being smart enough to delegate a lot of the hook duties and actual good parts of the song to a female singer, so it'll be interesting to see if he does that at all with "Kärlekssång från mig." I'm not counting on it, though.

With three joker spots left, the names being mentioned again and again are Marie Serneholt (would love her to be back with any music period, so a big yes from me), Orup, Darin (love him, obviously, but I'm not sure that I want him in Melodifestivalen), EMD, and Lutricia McNeal.

As Schlager Queen and Gylleneskor (among others) both reported, dansband Lasse Stefanz have declined to sing "Den Första Kyssen;" as they're the demo artists, if they refuse to sing the song, SVT has an option to disqualify the song entirely if they don't feel they can find anyone else they want to sing it. If that happens, another song--one of the ones that just missed the cut--would be chosen to replace it. In 2007, Måns's "Cara Mia" and Lustans Lakejer's "Allt vi en gång trodde på" were replacements, so you could potentially get something good out of a disqualification...then again, the current song could be great. The lists of the finalists (the songs chosen and those that just missed out) and the top 116 are posted on SVT's site (as PDFs--the former is here and the latter is here). I love going through in the months afterward and trying to figure out what songs released were Melodifestivalen rejects (I've got some list somewhere I should go find and see if anyone can add onto), so, though it's a bit early to do that with these lists, they may provide some entertainment in the future.

It just goes on and on and on and on

I don't think I'd heard of Lutricia McNeal's songs before this one, but, if I can take Wikipedia's word for it, she's an American singer who's done a lot of recording in Sweden, first as the vocalist for some Rob'n'Raz early '90's dance songs and then moving on to a solo career still supported partially by Swedish songwriters.

What we're here to discuss, though, isn't any of the songs from her past, but rather the song that's been said to be the lead single for her latest album but has been in limbo for months.

Same Same Same--from what I YouTubed of Lutricia's music, I'd say this is a surprisingly poppy mid/up-tempo sound from her. The opening isn't the most auspicious thing in the world, but if the good verses or great bridge fail to totally win you over, I think the chorus just might do the trick--it's not a big declarative statement sort of song, but that chorus is really catchy, lovely and poppy at the same time. There's a little vocal processing going on at moments, in a way that kind of reminds me of Donna Summer's latest album, but it's not at the level that the song opening makes you think it's going to be; more just little tweaks in the answer-back part of the chorus to make the preceding and following multi-layered "You're the same same same"s seem even stronger. Maybe it makes sense that this song hasn't come out yet--in today's environment, I can't really imagine it getting loads of radio play in the UK or U.S. (though I don't think she'd even be targeting those markets--I get the feeling she's now one of those Japanese release sort of artists), but it's the sort of thing I definitely play a lot.

Since this single hasn't been released anywhere yet (to my knowledge), I can't recommend anywhere for you to buy it, but you can pick up Lutricia McNeal's greatest hits album here (physical).

Next up: maybe that Italian song, boy band song, or a Swedish song.