Melodifestivalen
Melodifestivalen (translated as the "Melody Festival") is a Swedish annual music competition held to decide Sweden's song and performer at the Eurovision Song Contest. It is organised by Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR).
History
It has been staged under various formats almost every year since Sweden first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958. The first year, no TV or radio broadcasted event was held, but in 1959, the first public competition was held. The competition is the most popular television programme in Sweden, a title it has held since 2000, at times eclipsing even Eurovision itself. In 2007, an estimated four million Swedes—almost 44% of the country's population—watched the final, while the semifinals averaged around 3.1 million viewers.
The winner is chosen by a number of regional juries and a national televote. Until 2001 the competition was normally limited to between eight and twelve songs (in 1981, only five songs), but since the introduction of semifinals in 2002 that number has risen to thirty-two.
The Melodifestival has produced five Eurovision-winning songs and fifteen placings in the top five for Sweden at the Contest. The event is often seen as being dominated by light orchestrated pop songs, known locally as Schlager. music—so much so that it is sometimes referred to as "Schlagerfestivalen" (the "Schlager Festival") or "Schlager-SM" ("Swedish schlager championship") by the Swedish media but other styles of music such as rap, reggae and glam rock have made an appearance since the competition's expansion.
The competition makes a significant impact on music charts in Sweden; twenty-three participants reached the domestic singles chart in 2006 and twenty-one in 2007. There would have been more people taking part, but Agnes Carlsson was disqualified because she discussed her song in an interview with the Aftonblad newspaper.
Format
Created in 1958, Melodifestivalen has been the competition which all but one of the Swedish Eurovision entries had to go through. There are typically four "heats" of around seven entries each. From each heat, the two most voted-for entries go through to the final while the 3rd and 4th placed entries from each heat go to the "Second Chance Round". From this round, four more finalists are chosen.
In 2022, the second-chance round was replaced with a semi-final where the eight winners of the heats were taken down to four finalists. In 2024, the semi-final will be scrapped and a new fifth heat will be added.
Winners
There have been fifty-six winners of Melodifestivalen.
| Year | Artist | Song | Result in Eurovision |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Siw Malmkvist | "Augustin" | 9th (performed by Brita Borg) |
| 1960 | Östen Warnerbring & Inger Berggren | "Alla andra får varann" | 10th (performed by Siw Malmkvist) |
| 1961 | Siw Malmkvist & Gunnar Wiklund | "April, april" | 14th (performed by Lill-Babs) |
| 1962 | Inger Berggren & Lily Berglund | "Sol och vår" | 7th |
| 1963 | Monica Zetterlund & Carli Tornehave | "En gång i Stockholm" | 13th |
| 1966 | Lill Lindfors & Svante Thuresson | "Nygammal vals" | 2nd |
| 1967 | Östen Warnerbring | "Som en dröm" | 8th |
| 1968 | Claes-Göran Hederström | "Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig" | 5th |
| 1969 | Tommy Körberg | "Judy, min vän" | 9th |
| 1971 | Family Four | "Vita vidder" | 6th |
| 1972 | "Härliga sommardag" | 13th | |
| 1973 | Malta | "Sommaren som aldrig säger nej" | 5th (as "You're Summer") |
| 1974 | ABBA | "Waterloo" | 1st |
| 1975 | Lasse Berghagen | "Jennie, Jennie" | 8th |
| 1977 | Forbes | "Beatles" | 18th |
| 1978 | Björn Skifs | "Det blir alltid värre framåt natten" | 14th |
| 1979 | Ted Gärdestad | "Satellit" | 17th |
| 1980 | Tomas Ledin | "Just nu!" | 10th |
| 1981 | Björn Skifs | "Fångad i en dröm" | 10th |
| 1982 | Chips | "Dag efter dag" | 8th |
| 1983 | Carola Häggkvist | "Främling" | 3rd |
| 1984 | Herreys | "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" | 1st |
| 1985 | Kikki Danielsson | "Bra vibrationer" | 3rd |
| 1986 | Lasse Holm & Monica Törnell | "E' de' det här du kallar kärlek?" | 5th |
| 1987 | Lotta Engberg | "Fyra bugg och en Coca Cola" | 12th (as "Boogaloo") |
| 1988 | Tommy Körberg | "Stad i ljus" | 12th |
| 1989 | Tommy Nilsson | "En dag" | 4th |
| 1990 | Edin-Ådahl | "Som en vind" | 16th |
| 1991 | Carola Häggkvist | "Fångad av en stormvind" | 1st |
| 1992 | Christer Björkman | "I morgon är en annan dag" | 22nd |
| 1993 | Arvingarna | "Eloise" | 7th |
| 1994 | Roger Pontare & Marie Bergman | "Stjärnorna" | 13th |
| 1995 | Jan Johansen | "Se på mig" | 3rd |
| 1996 | One More Time | "Den vilda" | 3rd |
| 1997 | Blond | "Bara hon älskar mig" | 14th |
| 1998 | Jill Johnson | "Kärleken är" | 10th |
| 1999 | Charlotte Nilsson | "Tusen och en natt" | 1st (as "Take Me to Your Heaven") |
| 2000 | Roger Pontare | "När vindarna viskar mitt namn" | 7th (as "When Spirits Are Calling My Name") |
| 2001 | Friends | "Lyssna till ditt hjärta" | 5th (as "Listen To Your Heartbeat") |
| 2002 | Afro-Dite | "Never Let It Go" | 8th |
| 2003 | Fame | "Give Me Your Love" | 5th |
| 2004 | Lena Philipsson | "Det gör ont" | 5th (as "It Hurts") |
| 2005 | Martin Stenmarck | "Las Vegas" | 19th |
| 2006 | Carola | "Evighet" | 5th (as "Invincible") |
| 2007 | The Ark | "The Worrying Kind" | 18th |
| 2008 | Charlotte Perrelli | "Hero" | 18th |
| 2009 | Malena Ernman | "La Voix" | 21st |
| 2010 | Anna Bergendahl | "This Is My Life" | 26th (eliminated in semi-finals) |
| 2011 | Eric Saade | "Popular" | 3rd |
| 2012 | Loreen | "Euphoria" | 1st |
| 2013 | Robin Stjernberg | "You" | 14th |
| 2014 | Sanna Nielsen | "Undo" | 3rd |
| 2015 | Måns Zelmerlöw | "Heroes" | 1st |
| 2016 | Frans | "If I Were Sorry" | 5th |
| 2017 | Robin Bengtsson | "I Can't Go On" | 5th |
| 2018 | Benjamin Ingrosso | "Dance You Off" | 7th |
| 2019 | John Lundvik | "Too Late For Love" | 5th |
| 2020 | The Mamas | "Move" | Contest cancelled |
| 2021 | Tusse | "Voices" | 14th |
| 2022 | Cornelia Jakobs | "Hold Me Closer" | 4th |
| 2023 | Loreen | "Tattoo" | 1st |
| 2024 | TBA | TBA | TBA |
Melodifestivalen Media
Smash Into Pieces performing at the fourth heat of Melodifestivalen 2023
Avicii Arena hosted the first of its 12 Melodifestivalen finals in 1989.
SVT has eleven regional news districts, which have been represented by a jury in the final of Melodifestivalen in past editions.
Other websites
Media related to Melodifestivalen at Wikimedia Commons