Melodifestivalen

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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[change | change source]

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[change | change source]

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[change | change source]

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

Other websites[change | change source]

Media related to Melodifestivalen at Wikimedia Commons