Tonight the P4 Nästa round of Melodifestivalen took place in an empty concert hall in Västerås. This annual competition is held to help find an emerging artist to take place in the Swedish national final, with the winner automatically gaining the first slot in the next contest.

After over 1,100 initial entrants were submitted, the final eight singers and entrants tonight competing were as follows:

• Alicia Jern – Friendzone
• Sanna ft. Re: Bond – Aldrig det
• Amskøld – Standby
• Nina Bring – Nära
• Northlight – Equally different
• Hilde & Erik – Som det är
• Julia Alfrida – Dark Doom
• Agnes Rehn – Goodbye

The final was hosted by Josefin Johansson and Titti Schultz and the result was determined by a mix of a professional jury and a public vote. The act that Contest producer Karin Gunnarsson wanted to send to Melodifestivalen was then announced as Julia Alfrida, whose song ‘Dark Doom’ was written by Oliver Björkvall, Nadia Hjelt, Julia Alfrida Ridderdal and Josefin Sirén.

Although Julia now has a ticket to Melfest she will have to send a new entry, as the rules of the competition specifically prohibits sending a song that was published before the first semi final takes place. You can however listen to the winning entry ‘Dark Doom’ here, which Julia describes as

This song reflects on how I’ve been struggling with mental health a lot. It isn’t a straight line as you probably know, so take care of yourself & the people around you.

Julia started her career at the age of 7 when she entered Lilla Melodifestivalen. Last year she came out as LGBTQ on the Nyhetsmorgon TV show and then performed at both Stockholm and Copenhagen Pride, she also went on to release her debut EP this year. She describes her music as ‘Dark Pop’ with hints of trap in it and her favourite artist is Charli XCX.

Last year’s P4 Nãsta winner Amanda Aasa, whom Julia is a close friend of, competed in the 3rd Melodifestivalen semi final and finished 6th with her song ‘Late’:

Congratulations Julia and we’ll see you in 2021!