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Last Saturday famous Swedish popstar won the first heat in Melodifestivalen with his In the Club. The song written by Fredrik Boström, Peter Boström and Danny Saucedo strongly resembles a song we got pointed out on Youtube: En en club, by Myla Vox, from 2010. Listen to the song down below and tell us if you think Danny's song should be disqualified.

Speculation abound as 12points.tv looks deeper into today's reveal of the Melodifestivalen 2012 song entries.

Now it seems the true Eurovision 2012 season has been kicked off when SVT, Sweden's state network, announces more tantalizing information about next year's Melodifestivalen competition.  Yours truly usually watches in anguish as the Swedes vote for the most anondyne boring songs to go to the final and the most fabulous ones to go home... but nevertheless the anticipation is fun and now we can sit and analyze what today's announcement could bring forth.  Here are a few things to ponder over.

SVT has announced the rest of the artists participating in this year's Melodifestivalen. Quite some familiar names again.

After two previous successfull attempts, Charlotte Perrelli is going to be participating in the 2012 edition of Melodifestivalen again. Like in 2008 with a song written by Fredrik Kempe. She is not the only name we recognise from earlier editions of the contest that is so popular in Sweden and among Eurovision fans in the rest of Europe.

Melodifestivalen had a handful of WTF moments this week, with one major WTF sent to the Stockholm finale....

It's Week 3 of 4 of the Meldodifestivalen semi-finals and there was a little bit of everything, but not much to get sweaty about. The standard Melodifestivalen tricks were all there - questionable clothes, even more questionable vocals, candles and an appearance of the Carola-trademarked wind machine. Some curious new things appeared this week, namely a song where there was barely any singing, a boyband where all five members looked gay (instead of the typical single closeted homosexual), and someone with a very deep fake tan.

Charlotte, Danny, Christer and Lotta. A very exciting Melodifestivalen semi-final approaches.

Tonight, 12points.tv was in attendance at a press conference held by SVT in a posh Malmö hotel. All 8 songs for Saturday's Melodifestivalen were played in their entirety for a room full of journalists. It was like a set up out of a science fiction movie - 3 rows of tables filled with people all staring at a giant portable stereo placed on a table on stage. But everyone was there for the same thing - to get a preview of this weekend's contestants. The songs for the most part did not disappoint.

Usually my own schlager/ESC opinion differs from how Swedes like their songs, so I had a look around the room to see what the journalist's reactions were, so you can get a varied opinion. The strongest songs came from Charlotte Perrelli, Christer Sjögren and Lotta Engmark, and Danny Saucedo, but most songs are at least intriguin. Here are our thoughts.

This week's Melodifestivalen songs had their first run through, and 12points.tv were at the arena to check it out.

The press were allowed into Malmö Arena today to watch a run through of Saturday's songs. Below are our initial impressions.

GLAMOUR. Charlotte Perrelli's song is, as you would expect, incredibly slick and sincere. If you thought the arm-ography for "Hero" was good, wait until you see what "The Girl" has in store for you. There's lots happening in under 3 minutes - screens dropping, catwalk action, wind machines turned on, lots of hair tossing, religious iconography and a great musical hook. To top it all off, for the rehearsal, Charlotte was wearing a shirt saying "I Will Always Love You" with a giant picture of a young Whitney Houston on the front. How fab. The current betting odds in the press room place Charlotte at 3,80 to 1, with 3 songs ahead of her. Does that mean being relegated to the second chance round? Don't be idiots, texting Swedes. Go here to see a one minute clip of Charlotte's rehearsal today.

CHARM. Greek-influenced group OPA! may not stand a chance, if typical Swedish voting is anything to go by. But that is a great shame because the song is totally charming and their mandolin player is quite a looker.

HILARITY. Christer Sjögren and Lotta Engberg's song "Don't Let Me Down" has the funniest lyrics I think I've ever heard in Melodifestivalen. They are so over the top that I laughed each time they ran through the song. If you're expecting another "I Love Europe", you won't find it here. There are a ton of string players and a lot of meandering back and forth. The press around me say this is their favourite.

GLOW IN THE DARK. We all knew that the last song at the last semi final was going to be something special, and Danny Saucedo brings out the unexpected with his song "Amazing". Danny and his backing dancers are wearing space-age costumes with lights that change colour and pulsate. It's likely you've never seen anything like this before. Danny is a super talent and has a very flexible tenor that suits an arena. Gimmicks aside, it's obvious this will go straight through to final. I know I will be in a minority here, but Loreen's song had no gimmicks or tricks and it worked better.

Other notes from today's rehearsal.

• Axel Algmark wore jeans so tight during his rehearsal, you can rule out thinking he may be a Muslim or a Jew.
• Hanna Lindblad needs a great song to match her talent. She is brilliant live but her song isn't doing much in the arena.
• Dynazty is not the usual kind of music most 12points.tv readers will go for, but their vocalist sang very well and unlike most contestants, without any playback.
• Lots of fabric in Lisa Miskovsky's song. Fans and fabric. But I don't discount it, it could be a sleeper hit.

++ Greek videos online ++  Yet another 12points party coming up ++ Finally Christer Björkman managed to get Paparizou to MF! ++ ..

One of the traditions in Melodifestivalen is, that a new version of the previous year's winning song will be performed by another artist. Expressen, a Swedish newspaper revealed today, that Popular will be sung by no one less than ESC 2005 winner Helena Paparizou.

We are at Malmö Arena for the rehearsals today - some songs improved, some songs crashed.

++ Loreen was amazing, Danny not too euphoric ++  Greece selecting tonight ++ Moldovan Pasha to Baku ++ ..

After a long weekend in sunny Stockholm, we're flying back to reality today. Melodifestivalen was amazing, Stockholm was amazing and even Danny was. With 500,000 televotes he did better than Eric Saade last year. But not good enough, because Loreen got almost 700,000 which is twice the amount Eric got last year. She was the one being truly amazing! Danny was less euphoric about it, if we may believe the popular press. He didn't attend the afterparty, and expressed some feelings of dissatisfaction. We understand, Danny, but we're so happy Loreen won! See you next year, Stockholm, in March, but maybe in May too!

Melodifestivalen is about to start but here are some pictures to whet your appetite.