The final will be held in Stockholm’s Globen on Saturday 18th March and the Swedish public will have the chance to vote for the act who will represent them at the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens in May.
Sunday night was the icing on a decidedly stressful cake of a weekend for Rednex. After just missing out on a direct route to the final on Friday night, the band – consisting of Matthews Green, Anders “Maverick” Lundström, Jens “Snake” Sylsjö, Annika “Marie Joe” Ljungberg – took their country ditty ‘Mama take me home’ to Gothenburg to slug it out again.
This time the telephone voters backed them, along with ‘the other half of Fame’, Magnus Bäcklund.
A calm Annika Ljungberg said that what mattered to the band was being seen in Sweden.
“We’re satisfied even if we stay in Sweden. We have broken the international market and now we want to conquer the home market. To be able to appear here is more important than winning in Globen and competing in the Eurovision Song Contest.”
That may be just as well, since the pundits’ favourite is veteran schlager queen Carola, who won through in Friday’s competition, along with actor and debutante crooner Björn Kjellman.
The full line-up for Saturday’s final is:
Linda Bengtzing – Jag ljuger så bra
Andreas Johnson – Sing for me
Magnus Carlsson – Lev livet
Kikki Danielsson – I dag & i morgon
BWO – Temple of Love
The Poodles – Nights of Passion
Björn Kjellnman – Älskar du livet
Carola – Evighet
Rednex – Mama take me home
Magnus Bäcklund – The name of love
The final will be shown on SVT.