Radio International - The Ultimate Eurovision Experience (2026-02-18): Melodifestivalen 2026 - Charlotte Perrelli & Maya Ivarsson, The Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2026 Interviews

Radio International - The Ultimate Eurovision Experience is broadcast from Malta's Radio 105FM on Tuesday evenings from 2100 - 0059 hours CET. The show is broadcast live on Wednesday evenings from 1900 - 2300 hours CET on the Eurovision Radio International Mixcloud Channel as well as on the Facebook Page of Eurovision Radio International with an interactive chatroom.

 

 

AT A GLANCE - ON THE SHOW THIS WEEK 

• Interview with Eurovision Winner Charlotte Perrelli (Nilsson) (Sweden 1999) - done at the Aftershow Party of Heat 2 of Melodifestivalen 2026 in Gothenburg
• Interview with Maja Ivarsson (Melodifestivalen 2025, Sweden) - done at the Aftershow Party  of Heat 1 of Melodifestivalen 2026 in Linköping
• Malta Eurovision Song Contest (MESC) 2026 - Review continue
• Interview with Kelsy Attard (MESC 2026, Semi Finalist)
• Interview with Kelsie Borg (MESC 2026, Number 11) 
• Interview with Liston (MESC 2026, Semi Finalist) 
• Eurovision Spotlight: Eurovision 2026 National Finals with Ross Bennett
• Eurovision News with Nick van Lith from www.escXtra.com 
• Eurovision Birthday File with David Mann
• Eurovision Cover Spot with David Mann
• Eurovision Calendar with Javier Leal 
• National Final Update for Eurovision Song Contest with Alain Forotti 
• New Music Releases by Eurovision Artists 
• Your music requests 

 

 

Melodfestivalen 2026:  Radio International continues with the coverage next week when JP will be in Malmö at Heat 4 of Melodifestivalen 2026. This week check out the Eurovision Spotlight with Ross for the qualifiers of Heat 3 from Kristiansta. 

The Heats are scheduled as follows:

Heat 1:  31 Jan 2026 - Linköping - Saab Arena

Heat 2:  07 Feb 2026 - Gothenburg - Skandinavium

Heat 3:  14 Feb 2026 - Kristianstad - Kristianstad Arena

Heat 4:  21 Feb 2026 - Malmö - Malmö Arena

Heat 5:  28 Feb 2026 - Sundsvall -  Gärdehov

Grand Final of Melodifestivalen 2026:  07 Mar 2026 - Stockholm - Strawberry Arena in Solna 

 

Charlotte Perrelli with JP  at the Aftershow Party of Heat 2 of Melodifestivalen

 

 

Interview with Charlotte Perrelli (Eurovision Winner 1999, Sweden):  At the aftershow party of Heat 2 of Melodifestivalen 2026 in Gothenburg in Sweden, Radio International's JP had the pleasure to meet Charlotte Perrelli who as Charlotte Nilsson won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1999 with the song "Take me to your heaven". Charlotte and Gina Dirawi (Host of Melodifestivalen 2026) performed an Interval Act in Heat 2. How this came about listen to the interview on the show today. 

 

 

Maja Ivarsson with JP

Interview with Maja Ivarsson (Melodifestivalen 2025, Sweden):  At the aftershow party of Heat 1 of Melodifestivalen 2026 in Linköping in Sweden, JP had the pleasure to meet again Maja Ivarsson after she had taken part in Melodifestivalen 2025 making it to the Grand Final with the song "Kamikaze Life". Maja performed an interval act at Heat 1 of Melodifestivalen 2026. 

 

 

 

 

The Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2026 (Part 3): The Malta Eurovision Song Contest is the National Final to select that song that will be representing the country at the Eurovision Song Contetest 2026 in Vienna, Austria in May. The Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2026 was hosted hosted by Keane Cutajar, Destiny Chukunyere (who won Junior Eurovision 2015 and represented Malta in Eurovision 2021) and Gaia Cauchi (who won Junior Eurovision 2013). The Semi Final with 18 artists took place on Thursday, 15 Jan 2026 followed by the Grand Final on Saturday, 17 Jan 2026 from MFCC (Malta Fairs and Convention Centre). 

Congratulations to Aidan who won the Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with the song "Bella" which will be in Semi Final 2 in the Second Half at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 on Thu 14 May 2026. 

 

 

Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2026 Scoreboard

 

Radio International already broadcast some of the interviews from Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in last week's edition. Listen to more interviews this week with:  Kelsie Borg (MESC 2026, Number 11), Kelsy Attard (MEC 2026, Semi Final) and the Liston (MEC 2026, Semi Final).

 

Kelsie Borg at Malta ESC 2026 ("Let a girl breathe")

 

 

Liston at Malta ESC 2026 ("Mela")

 

 

Kelsy Attard at Malta ESC 2026 ("Perfectly Broken")

You can watch all our Interviews with the Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2026 participants on this page - CLICK HERE

 

 

The Eurovision Spotlight - The Eurovision National Final Season:  The New Eurovision Year 2026 has started and with that also the National Final Season for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is in full swing with countries selecting their entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. JJ won Eurovision 2025 and with that Austria will host the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in the Wiener Stadthalle on 12 and 14 May 2026 for the two Semi Finals and the Grand Finale to take place on Saturday, 16 May 2026. Until the end of March 2026 the National Final Season for Eurovision 2026 is on and Radio International's team members will be highlighting the best picks of the national finals. Ross Bennett continues the series with taking a look at National Finals of the last seven days.

 

 

Eurovision News, New Song Releases, Birthday File, Coverspot, Eurovision Calendar: Also JP will be joined by David Mann for the Eurovision Birthday File and Eurovision Coverspot.  Javier stands in for Nick and will be presenting the Eurovision News courtesy of escXtra.com. There will be a lot of the great new releases of Eurovision artists on the show as well as great Eurovision Classics. Javier will be updating us on the upcoming Eurovision events in the Eurovision Calendar and Alain Forotti gives us already the updates of the National Finals to the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 and and....

 

 

 

Eurovision 2 Album: The Eurovision 2 Album is now available on powerworldmusic.bandcamp.com, and CDs are also available by messaging Tony Power on Facebook to order copies. 

https://powerworldmusic.bandcamp.com/album/eurovision-connects-2

For full details of this week's Show Content and Play List - click here