It's gonna be the one

Ooh, I'm feeling just a little bit nervous (but excited of course) about the long-awaited return of Mr Z tonight :))

So "Hope and Glory", the little bit I've heard, may not have the greatness of "Cara Mia" (what does?) but I still think - FOOLISH PREDICTION ALERT! - that Måns Zelmerlöw will sail through to Globen in his James Bond suit.

The other song that will go there with him....well I really don't know? It could be Jennifer Brown with her ballad with its old fashioned melody; that Duffy-style seems to be in fashion at the moment.

Or it could be Markoolio, whose popularity continues to be a mystery to me. It sounded to me like Magnus Uggla in "The Lion King" - many other reviewers have made this comparison too. I can see where they are coming from. His reputation is probably enough to propel him to Globen or Andra Chansen but reputations don't always count any more; just ask Shirley Clamp.

As for Amy Diamond, she could struggle - it's not much of a song. I don't like her kiddie-pop style but I have to admit that "Thank You" was quite a good pop song (choke) however this just goes nowhere.

You can't go wrong with a bit of good old-fashioned hair metal, even if MF isn't really the right place for it, but H.E.A.T. deliver it rather nicely, with a little side of schlager to it. Makes up for the absence of the Poodles this year I guess. This could go either way, but if it's a night of 'reputation-qualifiers' then they're out.

Lasse Lindh is trying for the 2nd year in a row with a Pulp-ish power-indie song which I think may grow on me eventually but it'll just be there to make up the numbers tonight.

I think comeback stars Lili & Susie could be in with a real chance tonight as their song stuck in my memory after I played the one-minute clips (the only one last week to do that was Alcazar). It's like they've never been away.

Swedish-Dixie-Chicks Cookies N Beans are probably the 'dark horses' tonight and may be different enough to get noticed, in the same way that Caroline af Ugglas did last week.

So...prediction time. (I just know I'm going to get it wrong this week).

To Globen: Måns Zelmerlöw and Jennifer Brown
To Andra Chansen: Lili & Susie and Cookies N Beans
International Jury vote: Cookies N Beans

Only two hours to go until the next instalment of the Melodifestivalen 2009 saga. Now, fingers crossed that the SVT stream works properly this week :)