Sami aspires to be Sweden’s Eurovision representative – grandfather Heikki, 99, encourages

Timo Räisänen competes in Melodifestivalen. All Over Press

Swedish public broadcasting company SVT has announced the 2026 Melodifestivalen contestants. The winner of Melodifestivalen, or “Mellos”, will represent Sweden in next spring’s Eurovision Song Contest.

One of next year’s competitors is Gothenburg-born musician Timo Räisänen. Räisänen will compete in the Malmö competition on February 21 with his song Ingenting is Apter osswhich he has also been doing himself.

Despite his Finnish name, Räisänen is Swedish, but he does have Finnish roots.

Iltalehti reported Timo Räisänen’s background in more detail last Christmas. Räisänen has told Sveriges Radio Vår flerspråkiga vardag – program five years ago, that his father was born in Finland to Finnish parents, but grew up in Brazil. Räisänen’s mother, on the other hand, was born in India and grew up in Lebanon.

The parents met each other in Sweden, where Räisänen’s mother’s father was born. At Räisänen’s home, English is spoken among the family.

– I can’t speak Finnish, but being Finnish is an important part of my identity, Timo Räisänen said in an interview five years ago.

Today, 46-year-old Räisänen has also given his own son a Finnish name. The boy’s name is Arvo Sakari Pertti Vesa Räisänen.

Räisänen is not the only competitor of Finnish background in next year’s Melloi. There is also competition in Malmö competitions Cimberly-Malaika Wanyonyi20. The mother of Wanyonyi, who won Swedish Idol in 2023, is Finnish.

Wanyonyi has told for SVTthat he can’t speak Finnish, but has nevertheless sung a lot in Finnish. Wanyonyi also performed in Finnish in the Idol final. Wanyonyi mentions SVT as one of his favorite Finnish songs Bird– song.

Wanyonyi, who performs under the stage name Cimberly, competes in Melodifestivalen with her song Eternity.

In the Kristianstad competition, on the other hand, the hip hop duo Medina competes, whose other side Sami Reki too mother is Finnish. Born in Stockholm, Rekiki also has Tunisian roots. Rekik competes in Melloi for the fourth time now.

of SVT in the interview, Rekik says that he dedicates his Mello performance to the 99-year-old Weak– to his grandfather. The sick grandfather is in the hospital and Rekik hopes that the grandfather will have time to see the duo’s performance at Melodifestivalen.

– He really wants to see us, Rekik says to SVT.

Medina aims for Eurovision with his song Viva l’Amor. The other side of the duo is also of Tunisian background Ali Jammali.

A record 3,888 applications were sent to the competition this year. Other contestants in next year’s Melodifestivalen include the third place in this year’s Melodifestivalen Greczulathe pop band A-Teens, the rock band Smash into Pieces and Sanna Nielsen, who has represented Sweden in the past.

Finnish blood was also seen at Melodifestivalen last year. The band KAJ from Ostrobothnia won the competition and finished fourth in Eurovision. KAJ is made up of Finno-Swedes Axel Åhman, Jakob Norrgard and Kevin Holmstrom.

Sweden’s next Eurovision representative will be chosen at the Melodifestivalen final in Stockholm on March 7.