Melodifestivalen
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
public broadcasters Sveriges Television
Sveriges Television
Sveriges Television AB , Sweden's Television, is a national television broadcaster based in Sweden, funded by a compulsory fee to be paid by all television owners...
(SVT) and Sveriges Radio
Sveriges Radio
Sveriges Radio AB – Swedish Radio Ltd – is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. The Swedish public-broadcasting system is in many respects modelled after the one used in the United Kingdom, and Sveriges Radio - like Sveriges Television - shares many characteristics with...
(SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
, and has been staged almost every year since 1959. Since 2000, the competition has been the most popular television programme in Sweden; it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. In 2007, the semifinals averaged 3.1 million viewers, and an estimated four million Swedes watched the final.
The festival has produced four Eurovision winners
Eurovision Song Contest winners
Fifty-nine songs have won the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual competition organised by member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. The Contest, which has been broadcast every year since its debut in 1956, is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world...
and sixteen top-five placings for Sweden at the contest
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
Sweden has participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 51 times since their debut in 1958. Since 1959, the Swedish representative has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. Three times – 1964, 1970, and 1976 – Sweden didn't participate...
. The winner of the Melodifestival has been chosen by panels of jurors since its inception. Since 1999, the juries have been joined by a public telephone vote
Televoting
Televoting, telephone voting or phone voting is a method of decision making and opinion polling conducted by telephone. Televoting can also extend to voting by SMS text message via a mobile cell phone.- Broadcast contest televoting :...
which has an equal influence over the final outcome. The competition makes a considerable impact on music charts in Sweden.
The introduction of semifinals in 2002 raised the potential number of contestants from around twelve to thirty-two. A children's version of the competition, Lilla Melodifestivalen
Lilla Melodifestivalen
Lilla Melodifestivalen is the Swedish national final that selects the entry to represent Sweden in the annual Melodi Grand Prix Nordic junior singing competition. Between 2002 and 2005, Sweden sent its winners to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, when MPG Nordic wasn't active...
, also began that year. Light orchestrated pop songs, known locally as schlager
Schlager
Schlager music is a style of popular music prevalent in Central and Northern Europe and the Balkans and also in France and Poland. In Portugal, it was adapted and became pimba music...
music, are so prevalent that the festival is sometimes referred to as Schlagerfestivalen ("The schlager festival") by the Swedish media
Media in Sweden
Swedish media has a long tradition going back to the 1776 law enacting freedom of the press.The press is subsidized by the government and is owned by many actors, the dominant owner being Bonnier AB. Swedish TV and Radio was until the mid 1980s a government monopoly, which slowly has been eroded...
. However, other styles of music such as rap, reggae, and glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
have made an appearance since the event's expansion. The introduction of a grand final in Stockholm has attracted substantial tourism to the city.
Origins
With seven nations competing, the first Eurovision Song Contest took place in LuganoLugano
Lugano is a city of inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in May 1956. Sweden's first contest was the third, in 1958. Without broadcasting a selection, Sveriges Radio (SR) chose to send Alice Babs
Alice Babs
Alice Babs is a singer and actor from Kalmar in Sweden. While she has worked in a wide number of genres - e.g. Swedish folklore, Elizabethan songs and opera - she is best known internationally as a jazz singer...
to the contest in Hilversum. The song selected was "Samma stjärna lyser för oss två", later renamed "Lilla stjärna". It finished fourth at Eurovision on 12 March 1958.
The first Melodifestival, incorporated into the Säg det med musik radio series, took place on 29 January 1959 at Cirkus
Cirkus (Stockholm)
Cirkus is an arena in Djurgården, Stockholm, that holds 1,650 people. It was built in 1892 and originally used as a circus , but is today mostly used for concerts and musical shows.-External links:*...
in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
; eight songs participated. Four "expert" juries in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
, and Luleå
Luleå
- Transportation :Local buses are run by .A passenger train service is available from Luleå Centralstation on Sweden's national SJ railway service northbound to Narvik on the Norwegian coast, or southbound to Stockholm. See Rail transport in Sweden....
decided the winner. The competition was won by Siw Malmkvist
Siw Malmkvist
Siw "Siwan" Gunnel Margareta Malmkvist is a Swedish singer who is popular in Scandinavia and Germany...
performing "Augustin", but SR decided that the winning song—regardless of its original performer—would be performed by Brita Borg
Brita Borg
Brita Borg, full name Brita Kerstin Gunvor Borg was a Swedish singer, actress, and variety show artist. Her variety show career spanned from 1943 into the 1970s, while her singing career trailed away at the end of the 1960s. However, she was still an active actress in the 1980s...
at Eurovision. This policy, of selecting the artist for Eurovision internally and having other artists perform potential Swedish entries at Melodifestivalen, was stopped in 1961. The competition became a stand-alone television programme in 1960, known as the Eurovisionschlagern, svensk final. In the event's early years, it was broadcast to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
through the Nordvision
Nordvision
Nordvision is a cooperative venture between five Nordic public service broadcasters: Denmark's DR, Sweden's SVT, Norway's NRK, Finland's YLE and Iceland's RÚV. Greenland's KNR, Sweden's Utbildingsradio and the Faroe Islands' Kringvarp Føroya are associate members. The cooperation was established in...
network. The competition adopted its current name, Melodifestivalen, in 1967.
The Melodifestival has failed to be staged on three occasions. In 1964, the competition was cancelled due to an artist's strike; Sweden did not send a song to Eurovision that year. Sweden was absent at Eurovision for a second time in 1970 because of a Nordic boycott of the voting system, which had led to a four-way tie for first place at the 1969 contest. After SR staged the 1975 contest in Stockholm, left-wing groups argued that Sweden could not afford to win and host Eurovision again. This led to mass demonstrations against commercial music and the organisation of an anti-commercial Alternativfestivalen. Therefore, Sweden could not send a song to Eurovision 1976.
Participation
Until 2001, participation in the festival was limited to a single night. The number of contestants ranged from five to twelve. A two-round system was used intermittently between 1981 and 1998, in which all but five of the contestants were eliminated in a first round of voting. Failure to reach the second round under this system was seen as a major failure for a prominent artist; when Elisabeth Andreassen
Elisabeth Andreassen
Elisabeth Gunilla Andreassen - also known as just "Bettan" - is a Swedish-Norwegian singer who has finished both first and second in the Eurovision Song Contest....
failed to qualify in 1984, it almost ended her career. The introduction of weekly semifinals in 2002 increased the number of contestants to thirty-two. At least ten of the contestants must perform in Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
. A CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
of each year's competing songs has been released since 2001, and a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
of the semifinals and final since 2003.
Melodifestivalen has been the launch-pad for the success of popular local acts, such as ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
, Tommy Körberg
Tommy Körberg
Bert Gustav Tommy Körberg is a Swedish singer, actor, and musician. In 1969, he won Swedish Recording Industry Award Grammis in a category Best Debut Performance. English-speaking audiences know him best for his role in the Benny Andersson–Björn Ulvaeus–Tim Rice musical Chess...
, and Lisa Nilsson
Lisa Nilsson
Lisa Nilsson is a Swedish singer. She was discovered by the legendary producer William Butt and she is perhaps best known in Sweden for her 1992 hit, Himlen runt hörnet, witten by Mauro Scocco and Johan Ekelund. It was released in English in 1995, titled Ticket to Heaven...
. The competition has played host to performers from outside Sweden, including Baccara
Baccara
Baccara was a female vocal duo formed in 1977 by Spanish artists Mayte Mateos and María Mendiola . The pair rapidly achieved international success with their debut single "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie", which reached number one across much of Europe...
, Alannah Myles
Alannah Myles
Alannah Myles is a Canadian singer-songwriter, the daughter of Canadian broadcast pioneer William Douglas Byles. In 1989, she released her eponymous debut album...
, and Cornelis Vreeswijk
Cornelis Vreeswijk
Cornelis Vreeswijk , was a singer-songwriter, poet and actor born in IJmuiden in the Netherlands.He emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to become a journalist, but became increasingly involved in music, performing at...
. Melodifestivalen participants have also represented—and unsuccessfully tried to represent—other countries at Eurovision. While local success for Melodifestivalen winners is common, most contestants return to obscurity and few have major international success. The impact that the competition makes on the Swedish charts means an artist need not win the competition to earn significant domestic record sales. For example, the song which finished last at Melodifestivalen 1990, "Symfonin" by Loa Falkman
Loa Falkman
Carl-Johan Falkman is a Swedish baritone singer and actor.After studying music, Falkman made his first major performance on the Royal Swedish Opera in 1973....
, topped the Swedish singles chart. In 2007, twenty-one participants reached Sverigetopplistan
Sverigetopplistan
Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....
. The week after the 2008 final, songs from the festival made up the entire top fifteen on the domestic singles chart.
Selection of contestants
The process of narrowing thousands of potential entries down to thirty-two lasts over seven months. SVT directly selects sixteen entries from amongst the submissions from the public at large. Fifteen additional entries come from special invitations made by SVT or other entries that SVT has selected from amongst the submissions. Finally, the thirty-second entry is selected via the online "Webbjoker" competition, open to artists whose music has not available for sale in Sweden prior to the deadline. The entire process can begin as early as May of the previous year and is finished by January.Songs
SVT begins looking for songs nine months before the start of the televised Melodifestival (within days of the previous year's Eurovision final). The deadline for submission is in September and songs can be in any language. In the pre-selection, song length is limited to three minutes and twenty seconds; songs must be shortened to three minutes if they reach the final twenty-eight and qualifying songs may also be remixed.The submission process is overseen by members of the Swedish Music Publishers Association (SMFF), whose task is to reduce the number of songs, which have numbered over 3,000 a year since 2002, to around 1,200. The 3,440 entries received in the preselection for Melodifestivalen 2009 is the most in the competition's history. The SMFF's choices are then given to a sixteen-person jury of music professionals, SVT staff and other members of the public. The jury ranges from teenagers to people in their fifties. The songs that qualify, along with their composers and lyricists, are announced at the end of September. This is often followed by fervent speculation over who will perform the songs. Songwriters that qualify must provide interviews to SVT, attend a press conference before the competition, and remain open to promotional appearances if their song reaches the final.
Artists and wildcards
SVT selects performers for the entries. Artists who perform the demo of a song automatically enter the competition; they must perform their songs if suitable alternate performers cannot be found. The artists' songs risk disqualification if they refuse. In the past, this rule led to the disqualification of, among others, Carola's "När löven faller" in 2003 and Stephen SimmondsStephen Simmonds
Stephen Simmonds is a Swedish recording artist. He was raised in Sweden, the United States, and Israel. After recording a demo with Swedish producer Peter Cartriers, Simmonds signed a record deal with label Parlophone/EMI in the UK as well as with Priority Records in the US...
's "So Good" in 2006. SVT may also give songs to other performers without considering the interests of the demo artist. This prevented the Brandsta City Släckers
Brandsta City Släckers
Brandsta City Släckers is a Swedish band with some firefighters that became very popular in Sweden.The band sang "Kom och ta mig" in Melodifestivalen 2002 and they also performed in Melodifestivalen 2003 with "15 minuter"....
(in 2004) and Pernilla Wahlgren
Pernilla Wahlgren
Pernilla Nina Elisabeth Wahlgren is a Swedish singer, actress and presenter. In 2004, she received the Ulla Billquist award.-Family:...
(in 2005) from performing the songs they had submitted. Replacements for disqualified songs fare unpredictably at the competition. In 2006, "Naughty Boy" by Hannah Graaf
Hannah Graaf
Hannah Rakel Serafia Graaf Karyd is a Swedish glamour model and singer. Graaf along with her model sister, Magdalena, formed a musical duo called The Graaf Sisters.- Early years :...
(the replacement for Simmonds' song) finished second to last in its semifinal. In 2002 and 2007, by contrast, the replacements performed by Jan Johansen and Måns Zelmerlöw
Måns Zelmerlöw
Måns Petter Albert Sahlén Zelmerlöw is a Swedish pop singer. He is probably best known for his 2007 song "Cara Mia," which was his entry in that year's Melodifestivalen...
reached the final ten. The contestants that will perform the twenty-eight qualifiers from the preselection are announced in late November. Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
s are common. As such, artists often confirm that they will participate before the official announcement.
The wildcard (joker) system was introduced in 2004 to diversify the music featured. Four artists, one in each semifinal, are invited by SVT to enter a song of their choice into the competition, provided it does not breach the rules. The wildcard songs and artists are announced in January. Since the wildcards' introduction, three have won the competition. Today in 2011 there are 15 wildcards.
Hosting
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, has hosted every final since semifinals were introduced. The Scandinavium
Scandinavium
Scandinavium is the primary indoor sports and event arena in Gothenburg, Sweden. Construction on Scandinavium began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, the arena was built in time for the 350th year anniversary celebration of the City of Gothenburg and was inaugurated on May 18, 1971.Scandinavium...
in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
was offered the 2005 final, but turned it down as it clashed with a Frölunda
Frölunda HC
Frölunda Hockey Club, also known as the Frölunda Indians, are a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Gothenburg. They are currently playing in the highest Swedish league, Elitserien, where they have played the majority of the seasons during its existence. The last time they played in the...
ice hockey match.
The event spent its early years at one venue: Cirkus
Cirkus (Stockholm)
Cirkus is an arena in Djurgården, Stockholm, that holds 1,650 people. It was built in 1892 and originally used as a circus , but is today mostly used for concerts and musical shows.-External links:*...
in Stockholm, which hosted the first ten competitions. It has hosted the final of Melodifestivalen seventeen times in total. The Stockholm Globe Arena has hosted seven finals, and SVT's headquarters in Stockholm has staged five. The competition first took place outside Stockholm in 1975 as part of a decentralisation
Décentralisation
Décentralisation is a french word for both a policy concept in French politics from 1968-1990, and a term employed to describe the results of observations of the evolution of spatial economic and institutional organization of France....
policy at SR. Stockholm has hosted thirty-one finals in total, including the first fourteen. Gothenburg has hosted eight, and Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
seven. The competition’s final has never been held outside these cities. Before the expansion, the host of the previous year's Melodifestival would host the Eurovision Song Contest in the event of a Swedish victory. Hence, the 1985 Eurovision was held in Gothenburg, and the 1992 contest in Malmö. Since 2002, the only venue that has hosted more than two semifinals is Gothenburg's Scandinavium, which has hosted one every year since 2003. In 2008, a heat was held in Kiruna
Kiruna
Kiruna is the northernmost city in Sweden, situated in Lapland province, with 18,154 inhabitants in 2005. It is the seat of Kiruna Municipality Kiruna (Northern Sami: Giron, Finnish: Kiiruna) is the northernmost city in Sweden, situated in Lapland province, with 18,154 inhabitants in 2005. It is...
, north of the Arctic Circle
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....
.
Televised rounds
The televised Melodifestival lasts five weeks and consists of six live shows: four semifinals, in which eight songs compete; a Second Chance round featuring songs which narrowly missed out on qualification from the semifinals; and a grand final. Ten songs comprise the final: two automatic qualifiers from each of the semifinals, and the two most popular songs in the Second Chance round.Semi-finals and Second Chance
Prior to the introduction of the current format of semifinals (deltävlingar) in 2002, the competition was usually a single live show. Under the current system, four semifinals are broadcast at 20:00 CETCentral European Time
Central European Time , used in most parts of the European Union, is a standard time that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time . The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00...
on consecutive Saturday nights. The semifinals begin in early February, and eight songs compete in each show.
Unlike in the final, no juries are used; televoting decides the results. The songs are performed live with telephone lines open for the first round of voting; the song receiving the most votes in the first round automatically qualifying to the final, skipping the second round. The remaining top 4 battled again for a place in the final and Andra Chansen round - the 2nd placed song qualifying to the final, and the 3rd and 4th placed songs progressing to Andra Chansen.
Both finalists reprise their entries at the end of the broadcast. The organisation of a semifinal system for Melodifestivalen popularised televised heats at national Eurovision selections. A similar system was adopted by the Eurovision itself in 2004.
The Second Chance round (andra chansen) is the fifth heat in which the ninth and tenth places in the final are decided. The third- and fourth-placed songs from each semifinal (eight songs in total) compete in the event. The first Second Chance round in 2002 had a panel of former winners decide the two finalists. Between 2003 and 2006, the semifinal performances were re-broadcast, and a round of voting narrowed the songs to three or four. Another round then determined the two finalists. The programme was broadcast on the Sunday afternoon after the fourth semifinal. It was held in a smaller venue than those that would have hosted the semifinals—such as Berns Salonger
Berns Salonger
Berns Salonger is a restaurant and entertainment venue, in Berzelii Park, in central Stockholm, Sweden. The building was constructed from 1862–63, by H.R. Berns. The building was extended in 1886. Berns often holds concerts and other shows and has a capacity of 1,200.Berns is the setting for the...
in Stockholm, which hosted the Second Chance round in 2005.
In 2007, the Second Chance round became a full semifinal, taking place in a venue comparable in size to those hosting the others. The expanded Second Chance takes place on a Saturday night, adding an extra week to the event's timetable. The format of voting also changed with the introduction of a knock-out system. The system pairs the eight songs off against each other, then narrows them down to four before pairing them off again. The winners of the two second round pairings go through to the final. The two finalists do not reprise their songs at the end of the programme.
Final
The final takes place at 20:00 CET on a Saturday in mid-March. Ten songs (11 songs in 2009) participate: two from each semifinal, two from the Second Chance round, and, only in 2009, the international jury's choice. A running order is decided by the competition's supervisors the week before to ensure that similar songs and artists are kept apart in the final. Dress rehearsals for the final are held on the prior Friday, and tickets sell out almost as quickly as those for the final itself. The final attracts much tourism to its host city; a survey in 2006 showed that 54% of spectators had travelled from outside the host city, Stockholm. Of these, 6% had come from outside Sweden.As at Eurovision, a broadcast of the EBU logo introduces and closes the television coverage, accompanied by the prelude to Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, , was a French composer of the Baroque era.Exceptionally prolific and versatile, he produced compositions of the highest quality in several genres...
's setting of "Te Deum
Te Deum (Charpentier)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier composed his grand polyphonic motet Te Deum in D major probably between 1688 and 1698, during his stay at the Jesuit Church of Saint-Louis in Paris, where he held the position of musical director...
". Video "postcards" introduce the entries. The final includes interval performances, which are performed while the juries deliberate and before the televote closes. Former Melodifestivalen contestants have performed as interval acts in the past, including Lena Philipsson in 2005 and the multi-artist medley of former entries in 2000.
The winner receives a trophy, Den stora Sångfågeln (The Great Songbird), from the previous year's winner. The trophy, designed by Ernst Billgren, was unveiled in 2005 and awarded to all previous Melodifestivalen winners at the Alla tiders Melodifestival
Alla tiders Melodifestival
Alla tiders Melodifestival was a gala organised to celebrate fifty years of the Eurovision Song Contest and the Swedish selection for it, Melodifestivalen. It was filmed at Cirkus in Stockholm on 21 March and broadcast on SVT1 on 8 April 2005...
gala in March of that year. The winner of the competition reprises their song at the end of the event.
Voting
Arvingarna
Arvingarna is a Swedish dansband, which was formed in 1989 and which competed in the Swedish Melodifestivalen in 1993, 1995, 1999 and 2002. In 1993 they won with the song '"Eloise" and represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993, where the song finished 7th.The band's name refers to...
's "Eloise
Eloise (Arvingarna song)
"Eloise" is a song in Swedish, written by Gert Lengstrand and Lasse Holm, and performed by Swedish "dansband" Arvingarna when it won the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1993 and finished 7th in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. Sweden was one of the favourites to win. Curt-Eric Holmquist was the conductor...
", would have finished fourth had the juries' votes counted. SVT never confirmed the accuracy of these claims.
The current voting format is a positional voting system
Positional voting system
A positional voting system is a ranked voting method in which the options receive points based on their position on each ballot, and the option with the most points wins....
similar to that used at the Eurovision Song Contest
Voting at the Eurovision Song Contest
There have been many varied voting systems at the Eurovision Song Contest. Currently, the winner of the Contest is selected by means of a positional voting system. Each country ranks all the entries and assigns twelve points to their favourite entry, ten points to their second favourite entry, and...
. 11 international juries each award 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 points to their top seven songs, the eleven juries account for 50 % of the total score. Televotes account for the remaining 50 %; The value of the votes was 2 x 473 points, which meant that tele-votes and jury-votes represent 50/50 each. If an entry is getting 10% of the tele-votes it will be equivalent to 10% of 473 points. The song with the highest number of points at the end of the voting is the winner.
The votes of the juries are announced by spokespeople who are not members of the juries. The votes are read in ascending order, beginning with one point and finishing with twelve. When read, they are repeated by the host, for example:
Spokesperson: "Ett poäng till melodi nummer två." (One point to melody number two.)
Presenter: "Melodi nummer två får ett poäng." (Melody number two gets one point.)
As the votes are announced, they are collated on a graphic scoreboard. SVT varies the way the jury votes are announced from year to year. For example, the finalists of Expedition: Robinson acted as spokespeople in 2004, and in 2006 Fredrik Lindström
Fredrik Lindström
Fredrik Lindström is a Swedish linguist, comedian, film director and presenter.In the 2000s, Lindström has become a household name in Sweden through his documentary series Värsta språket about the Swedish language on Sveriges Television...
announced jury tallies using the dialects
Swedish dialects
Swedish dialects can be categorized into Traditional Dialects and Modern Dialects .-Traditional dialects:...
of each region. The televoting results are announced by the hosts in ascending order. The final of Melodifestivalen has broken Nordic voting records on several occasions; in 2007, voting figures exceeded two million for the first time.
If there is a tie, the song that has received more votes from the public receives the higher position. There have been two ties for first place in the history of the contest. In 1969, Tommy Körberg
Tommy Körberg
Bert Gustav Tommy Körberg is a Swedish singer, actor, and musician. In 1969, he won Swedish Recording Industry Award Grammis in a category Best Debut Performance. English-speaking audiences know him best for his role in the Benny Andersson–Björn Ulvaeus–Tim Rice musical Chess...
tied for first place with Jan Malmsjö
Jan Malmsjö
Jan Wilhelm Malmsjö is a Swedish stage and actor, musical star and singer. He is married to Marie Göranzon and father to Jonas Malmsjö.-Biography:...
. The juries them voted for their favourite out the two, leading to Tommy Körberg
Tommy Körberg
Bert Gustav Tommy Körberg is a Swedish singer, actor, and musician. In 1969, he won Swedish Recording Industry Award Grammis in a category Best Debut Performance. English-speaking audiences know him best for his role in the Benny Andersson–Björn Ulvaeus–Tim Rice musical Chess...
winning. In 1978, Björn Skifs tied for first place with Lasse Holm, Kikki Danielsson and Wizex (performing together); a similar tie-break process resulting in Skifs winning.
Winners
Forty-seven of Sweden's forty-eight Eurovision representatives have come from Melodifestivalen. Sweden has won the Eurovision Song Contest four times: in 1974, 1984, 1991 and 1999. And by doing so, equalling the NetherlandsNetherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest
The Netherlands was one of the seven countries competing in the very first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. It has missed only four contests so far...
in winning entries. Only Ireland, the United Kingdom, France
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
France is one of the most successful countries in the Eurovision Song Contest and has entered the competition fifty-four times since their debut at the very first contest in 1956. France is one of only seven countries to be present at the very first contest, and has only been absent from two...
, and Luxembourg
Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest
Luxembourg was one of the countries to participate in the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956.From their debut to 1993 Luxembourg competed frequently in the Contest, being absent from the contest once during this period...
have won the contest more often. The 1974 Eurovision winner, ABBA's "Waterloo", was voted the most popular Melodifestivalen song of all time at the Alla tiders Melodifestival
Alla tiders Melodifestival
Alla tiders Melodifestival was a gala organised to celebrate fifty years of the Eurovision Song Contest and the Swedish selection for it, Melodifestivalen. It was filmed at Cirkus in Stockholm on 21 March and broadcast on SVT1 on 8 April 2005...
gala in March 2005. Later that year, it was voted most popular Eurovision song of the contest's first fifty years at a gala
Congratulations (Eurovision)
Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest was a television programme organised by the European Broadcasting Union to commemorate the Eurovision Song Contest's fiftieth anniversary and to determine the Contest's most popular entrant of its fifty years. It took place at Forum,...
in Copenhagen. The following table lists those entries which finished fifth or higher at Eurovision:
| Year | Song | Artist | Position in Eurovision Song Contest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 Melodifestivalen 1966 Melodifestivalen 1966 was the selection for the eighth song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the seventh time that this system of picking a song had been used. 898 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition... |
Nygammal vals Nygammal vals "Nygammal vals" was the Swedish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg. It was sung in Swedish by Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson, composed by Bengt Arne Wallin and written by Björn Lindroth... |
Lill Lindfors Lill Lindfors Lillemor "Lill" Lindfors is a Finland-Swedish/Swedish singer. Born in Helsinki, Finland she has been performing in Scandinavia with minor and major success since the 1960s. She debuted as a revue actress in Uddevalla in 1960 and the following year as a recording artist... & Svante Thuresson Svante Thuresson Svante Thuresson is a Swedish jazz music musician and singer. He started his career as a drummer, before joining the band Gals and Pals in 1963... |
2nd Eurovision Song Contest 1966 The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the 11th edition and was held on 5 March 1966 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg. The rule stating that a country could only sing in any of its national languages was originally created in this year. This was possibly created due to the 1965 Swedish entry, "Absent... |
| 1968 Melodifestivalen 1968 Melodifestivalen 1968 was the selection for the 10th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the ninth time that this system of picking a song had been used. 2233 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition... |
Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej | Claes-Göran Hederström Claes-Göran Hederström Claes-Göran Hederström is a Swedish singer. He made his musical debut on Swedish television in 1967. In 1968 he represented Sweden in the Eurovision song contest with Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej placing 5th... |
5th Eurovision Song Contest 1968 The Eurovision Song Contest 1968 was the 13th Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was won by the Spanish song "La, la, la", performed by Massiel.... |
| 1973 Melodifestivalen 1973 Melodifestivalen 1973 was the selection for the 14th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 13th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 10 songwriters were selected by SVT for the competition... |
Sommaren som aldrig säger nej You're Summer "You're Summer" was the Swedish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973, performed in English by Claes af Geijerstam and Göran Fristorp as Nova.... |
Malta Malta (band) Malta was a Swedish band. It was a duo consisting of Claes af Geijerstam and Göran Fristorp. In 1973, they had to change their band name to Nova in order to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest 1973 to perform the song "You're Summer" in Luxembourg, which would put them in 5th place.... |
5th Eurovision Song Contest 1973 The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the eighteenth Eurovision Song Contest and was held in Luxembourg. The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their national languages was dropped, so performers from some countries sang in English.... (as "You're Summer You're Summer "You're Summer" was the Swedish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973, performed in English by Claes af Geijerstam and Göran Fristorp as Nova.... ") |
| 1974 Melodifestivalen 1974 Melodifestivalen 1974 was the selection for the 15th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 14th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 10 songwriters were selected by SR for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio... |
Waterloo | ABBA ABBA ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog... |
1st Eurovision Song Contest 1974 The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in the seaside resort of Brighton on the south coast of the United Kingdom... |
| 1983 Melodifestivalen 1983 Melodifestivalen 1983 was the selection for the 23rd song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 22nd time that this system of picking a song had been used. 90 songs were submitted to Sveriges Television for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not... |
Främling Främling (song) "Främling" , written by Lasse Holm and Monica Forsberg and arranged by Lennart Sjöholm, was the song performed by the 16-year-old Carola Häggkvist which won the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1983.... |
Carola Häggkvist Carola Häggkvist Carola Maria Häggkvist , better known as simply Carola, is a Swedish singer and occasional songwriter. She has been among Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s, and has released albums ranging from pop and disco to hymns and folk music... |
3rd Eurovision Song Contest 1983 The Eurovision Song Contest 1983, the 28th in the series, was held in Munich, then West Germany, on 23 April 1983. The presenter was Marlene Charell. Corinne Hermes was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, "Si la vie est cadeau". This was Luxembourg's fifth victory in the contest which... |
| 1984 Melodifestivalen 1984 Melodifestivalen 1984 was the selection for the 24th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 23rd time that this system of picking a song had been used. 90 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio... |
Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 1984 performed in Swedish by a trio of brothers named Herrey's. Lyrics were written by Britt Lindeborg, and the tune by Torgny Söderberg... |
Herreys Herreys Herreys, or Herrey's, is a Swedish pop group, consisting of the three Mormon brothers Per Herrey , Richard Herrey and Louis Herrey . They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1984 with the song "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley". In 1985, they won the Sopot International Song Festival with "Sommarparty på Stranden"... |
1st Eurovision Song Contest 1984 The Eurovision Song Contest 1984 was the 29th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 5 May 1984 in Luxembourg. The presenter was Désirée Nosbusch. Nosbusch, only 19 years old at the time, hosted the show in a lax manner, which was quite unusual for this show back then... |
| 1985 Melodifestivalen 1985 Melodifestivalen 1985 was the selection for the 25th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 24th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 90 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio. The... |
Bra vibrationer Bra vibrationer (song) "Bra vibrationer" , written by Ingela Forsman and composed by Lasse Holm, was the Swedish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1985, performed by Kikki Danielsson.-History:... |
Kikki Danielsson Kikki Danielsson Ann-Kristin "Kikki" Danielsson is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she also plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She is also famous for yodeling in some songs. Kikki Danielsson gained her largest popularity in the Nordic region from the late 1970s until... |
3rd Eurovision Song Contest 1985 The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was the 30th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 4 May 1985 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The presenter was Lill Lindfors, and Norwegian duo Bobbysocks! was the winner of this Eurovision with the song "La det swinge".... |
| 1986 Melodifestivalen 1986 Melodifestivalen 1986 was the selection for the 26th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 25th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 90 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 and was not broadcast on radio. No... |
E' de' det här du kallar kärlek? E' de' det här du kallar kärlek? "E' de' det här du kallar kärlek?" is a Swedish language song by Monica Törnell and Lasse Holm that won the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen 1986.... |
Lasse Holm Lasse Holm Lars-Eric Gustav "Lasse" Holm, born 9 December 1943 in Stockholm, Sweden, is known as a composer, lyricist and singer.Since childhood, he was interested in music and was a member of a lot of pop music and rock music groups in the 1960s: Doug and the Millsmen, The Spacemen and The Moonlighters... & Monica Törnell Monica Törnell Monica Kristina Ingeborg Törnell, is a Swedish singer and songwriter. After being discovered by Cornelis Vreeswijk 1971, she was a prominent singer in several genres, mainly folk and rock music, for over two decades. Together with Lasse Holm, she represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest... |
5th Eurovision Song Contest 1986 The Eurovision Song Contest 1986 was the 31st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 3 May 1986 in the Grieg Hall in Bergen, Norway. It was the first occasion on which Norway played host to the contest... |
| 1989 Melodifestivalen 1989 Melodifestivalen 1989 was the selection for the 29th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 28th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 1223 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The hostess, Yvonne Ryding, was the 1984 Miss Universe... |
En dag En dag "En dag" is a ballad, which was the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1989 winning song and entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1989, where it finished 4th... |
Tommy Nilsson Tommy Nilsson Erik Tommy Nilsson is a Swedish rock singer and composer. Swedish critics state that he has one of the best voices of Sweden.... |
4th Eurovision Song Contest 1989 The Eurovision Song Contest 1989 was the 34th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 6 May 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Switzerland gained the hosting rights after Celine Dion's victory in Dublin the previous year. The presenters were Lolita Morena and Jacques Deschenaux. Riva was the winner of... |
| 1991 Melodifestivalen 1991 Melodifestivalen 1991 was the selection for the 31st song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 30th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 1323 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV2 and Sveriges Radio's P3 network... |
Fångad av en stormvind Fångad av en stormvind "Fångad av en stormvind" is a 1991 single by Swedish pop singer Carola which was the winning Swedish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1991 in Rome, with the smallest margin of victory since 1969.... |
Carola Häggkvist Carola Häggkvist Carola Maria Häggkvist , better known as simply Carola, is a Swedish singer and occasional songwriter. She has been among Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s, and has released albums ranging from pop and disco to hymns and folk music... |
1st Eurovision Song Contest 1991 The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 was the 36th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 4 May 1991 in Rome. Due to the Gulf War and mounting tensions in Yugoslavia, RAI decided to move the contest from Sanremo to Rome, which was perceived to be more secure.... |
| 1995 Melodifestivalen 1995 Melodifestivalen 1995 was the selection for the 35th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 34th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 986 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition... |
Se på mej Se På Mej "Se på mig" is a song by Swedish singer Jan Johansen. It represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 1995 in Dublin, Ireland.... |
Jan Johansen | 3rd Eurovision Song Contest 1995 The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 13 May 1995 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. The presenter was Mary Kennedy. This contest broke the chain of victories that Ireland enjoyed in 1992, 1993, and 1994... |
| 1996 Melodifestivalen 1996 Melodifestivalen 1996 was the selection for the 36th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 35th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 1323 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition... |
Den vilda Den vilda "Den vilda" is a winter-related song by Swedish band One More Time. It won the Melodifestivalen 1996 contest and hence became the Swedish entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 in Oslo, Norway.The song was performed as the 23rd and last in the Eurovision Song Contest of 1996... |
One More Time One More Time (band) One More Time is a Swedish pop group. Members are Peter Grönvall, his wife Nanne Grönvall and Maria Rådsten. A forth member, Thérèse Löf, left the group shortly after the first album was released. In 1992 they began their international career with the release of the single and album Highland... |
3rd Eurovision Song Contest 1996 The Eurovision Song Contest 1996 was the 41st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 18 May 1996 in Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway. The presenters were Ingvild Bryn and Morten Harket. Harket, lead singer of a-ha, opened the show with a performance of his single "Heaven's Not For Saints". Eimear... |
| 1999 Melodifestivalen 1999 Melodifestivalen 1999 was the selection for the 39th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 38th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 1315 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on SVT2 and Sveriges Radio's P4 network... |
Tusen och en natt Take Me to Your Heaven (song) "Take Me to Your Heaven" was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 performed in English by Charlotte Nilsson representing Sweden... |
Charlotte Nilsson Charlotte Perrelli Charlotte Perrelli is a Swedish singer and occasional television host, perhaps most famous for winning the 1999 Melodifestivalen and subsequently that year's Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven."Since then she has released six singles and five albums... |
1st Eurovision Song Contest 1999 The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 was the 44th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 29 May 1999 in Jerusalem, Israel after Dana International won the contest the previous year in the United Kingdom. The venue for the contest was the International Convention Center... (as "Take Me to Your Heaven" Take Me to Your Heaven (song) "Take Me to Your Heaven" was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 performed in English by Charlotte Nilsson representing Sweden... ) |
| 2001 Melodifestivalen 2001 Melodifestivalen 2001 was the selection for the 41st song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 42nd time that this system of picking a song had been used. 1567 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition... |
Lyssna till ditt hjärta | Friends Friends (group) Friends were a Swedish dansband or pop group formed in 1999 and made up of Stefan Brunzell, Tony Haglund, Kristian Hermanson, Nina Inhammar, Kim Kärnfalk and Peter Strandberg. They were put together from auditions on the reality television show Friends på turne , made by Bert Karlsson for TV4... |
5th Eurovision Song Contest 2001 The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 was the 46th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 12 May 2001 in the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was the first time in 36 years that Denmark hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, thanks to the Olsen Brothers' win the previous year in Stockholm... (as "Listen To Your Heartbeat") |
| 2003 Melodifestivalen 2003 Melodifestivalen 2003 was the selection for the 43rd song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 42nd time that this system of picking a song had been used. Five semifinals had taken place to select the ten songs for the final, in Jönköping, Gothenburg, Luleå, Sundsvall and... |
Give Me Your Love Give Me Your Love "Give Me Your Love" was the Swedish entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. The song was performed by Jessica Andersson and Magnus Bäcklund as 'Fame' and was composed by Carl Lösnitz and Calle Kindbom.... |
Fame Fame (duo) Fame is a Swedish duo consisting of Jessica Andersson and Magnus Bäcklund . They met each other at the televised arts school and contest Fame Factory, which aired in autumn 2002. Bäcklund was the overall winner, while Andersson dropped out to give birth to her son Liam... |
5th Eurovision Song Contest 2003 The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the forty-eighth Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Skonto Hall in Riga, Latvia on 24 May 2003. The hosts were Marie N and Renārs Kaupers. Sertab Erener, the Turkish entrant, won the contest with "Everyway That I Can", scoring 167 points. The winning... |
| 2004 Melodifestivalen 2004 Melodifestivalen 2004 was the selection for the 44th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 43rd time that this system of picking a song had been used. Five semifinals had taken place to select the ten songs for the final, in Karlstad, Gothenburg, Umeå, Malmö and a... |
Det gör ont Det gör ont "Det gör ont" , written by Orup and produced by Anders Hansson, was performed in Swedish by Lena Philipsson at the Swedish Melodifestivalen 2004. The song won and became the Swedish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 where it was performed in English as "It Hurts" and finished 5th... |
Lena Philipsson Lena Philipsson Maria Magdalena "Lena" Philipsson is a Swedish singer and media personality.-Career:... |
5th Eurovision Song Contest 2004 The Eurovision Song Contest 2004, was the 49th Contest and it was held in the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. This was the first occasion in which the contest was held in Turkey after they had won the competition in 2003 with Sertab Erener singing "Everyway That I Can"... (as "It Hurts") |
| 2006 Melodifestivalen 2006 Melodifestivalen 2006 was the selection for the 46th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 45th time that this system of picking a song had been used. Five semifinals had taken place to select the ten songs for the final, in Leksand, Karlstad, Karlskrona, Gothenburg... |
Evighet | Carola Häggkvist Carola Häggkvist Carola Maria Häggkvist , better known as simply Carola, is a Swedish singer and occasional songwriter. She has been among Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s, and has released albums ranging from pop and disco to hymns and folk music... |
5th Eurovision Song Contest 2006 The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, Greece on 18 May and 20 May 2006 . The hosting national broadcaster of the contest was Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi . The Finnish band Lordi won the contest with the song "Hard Rock... (as "Invincible Invincible (Eurovision song) "Invincible" is the name of the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest entry from Sweden, sung by Carola Häggkvist. Being one of the favourites to win, it ended up finishing 5th out of 24.... ") |
| 2011 | Popular Popular (Eric Saade song) "Popular" is an English language song written by Fredrik Kempe in 2008 and performed by Swedish singer Eric Saade. It was an entry by Saade in the Melodifestivalen 2011 contest, in a bid to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany. On 12 May, the song qualified... |
Eric Saade Eric Saade Eric Saade born 29 October 1990) is a Swedish pop singer and children's television presenter. After two years with the boyband What's Up!, he left in February 2009 to pursue a solo career. Eric Saade represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Germany after winning the national... |
3rd Eurovision Song Contest 2011 The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th annual Eurovision Song Contest and was won by Eldar & Nigar performing "Running Scared" for Azerbaijan. The event took place in the Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf, Germany, following Germany's win in the previous year... |
Rules
Most of Melodifestivalen's rules are dictated by those of the Eurovision Song ContestRules of the Eurovision Song Contest
The official rules of the Eurovision Song Contest are long, technical, and ever-changing. Many of the rules cover technical aspects of the television broadcast itself. However, a few of the more important rules affecting the conduct and outcome of the Contest follow.-Number of songs:Each country in...
. However, regulations have been introduced by the Swedish broadcasters. The competition's official rules are released by SVT early in preparation for each year's Melodifestival, to ensure any changes are noted by songwriters and performers.
There was a limit of six people on stage for each performance. This included the Melodifestivalen choir (huskören, literally "the house choir"), a five-person group of flexible backing singers used by most participants. Artists could use some or all of the back-up singers, or use their own group. All vocals had to be completely live; human voices were not allowed on backing tracks. However, from 2009, the number of performers allowed on stage will be eight, and voices will be allowed on backing tracks. A live orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
was used every year from the event's debut to 2000, except 1985 and 1986. Two orchestras were used between 1960 and 1963, a large orchestra and Göte Wilhelmsons kvartett, a jazz quartet. Since 2001, participants have performed to backing track
Backing track
A backing track is an audio or MIDI recording that musicians play or sing along to in order to add parts to their music which would be impractical to perform live.-Uses:...
s.
Entries cannot be publicly broadcast until the semifinals are previewed on radio. Entries eliminated in the semifinals may be broadcast as soon as the semifinal has finished. An embargo is placed on songs that qualify for the later rounds until the previews for the Second Chance are broadcast. After this, restrictions on the broadcast of contestant songs are lifted.
Broadcasters sometimes make sweeping changes to winning songs before they go to Eurovision. For example, at Melodifestivalen 1961, Siw Malmkvist won with "April, April". Performing after her victory, she stumbled on the lyrics of the song and laughed out loud. The press criticised this as childish. SR replaced her with Lill-Babs
Lill-Babs
Lill-Babs is a Swedish singer and actress.-Biography:Lill-Babs was born in Järvsö, Gävleborg County, as the first daughter of Britta and Ragnar Svensson...
for the Eurovision Song Contest. The 1987 winner "Fyra bugg och en Coca Cola
Boogaloo (song)
"Fyra bugg och en Coca Cola" , also called "Fyra bugg", is a Swedish language song, written by Mikael Wendt and Christer Lundh. Swedish dansband and pop singer Lotta Engberg won the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1987 in Sweden with this song. The lyrics are about summer...
", performed by Lotta Engberg
Lotta Engberg
-External links:* *...
, is another example; the song's title was changed to "Boogaloo" for Eurovision, as use of a brand name was against the Contest's rules. This name was chosen as Sweden's two previous Eurovision winners had also included the suffix "-loo".
Until 2001, competing songs were only permitted in Swedish. This did not stop most winning entries recording English (and other language) versions of their songs. In 1965, 1973, 1974, and 1975, the winning song was performed in English at Eurovision. Since the abolition of Eurovision's language restrictions in 1999, regardless of the performance language at Melodifestivalen, every Swedish entry has been in English. Spanish, French, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
are among the other languages to have featured. Cameron Cartio
Cameron Cartio
Kamran Sabahi better known by his stage name Cameron Cartio , born on 9 April 1978) is an Iranian-born Swedish pop singer and songwriter....
's entry in Melodifestivalen 2005 was performed in a constructed language
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
.
Media coverage
Melodifestivalen is broadcast on television, radio and the internet. It is broadcast on SVT1SVT1
SVT1 is the primary television station of the Swedish public service broadcaster Sveriges Television in Sweden.-History:The channel began broadcasting in 1956 and was known as Radiotjänst TV, A year later, it was renamed Sveriges Radio TV. In 1969, the second television station TV2 was launched and...
with international coverage on SVT World. Until 1987, the competition was broadcast on Sveriges Radio TV, later known as TV1. Between 1988 and 1999, the event was broadcast on different channels depending on where it was held. Finals in Stockholm were broadcast on Kanal 1 (formerly TV1) while finals in Gothenburg or Malmö were broadcast on TV2
SVT2
SVT2, until 1996 TV2, is one of two television channels broadcast by Sveriges Television in Sweden. It was started by Sveriges Radio in 1969. SVT2 is generally more specialist, compared to SVT1.-History:...
. Sveriges Radio has broadcast the event on P1, P3 and P4, where is currently broadcast.
Although the final is traditionally held on a Saturday, in 1990 it was held on a Friday. TV2 suggested this would attract more viewers. In 1991, it was held on Easter Sunday
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
for the same reason. The 2002 final was delayed by a week for coverage of the Salt Lake City Olympics
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout...
.
The competition has had an official website since 1999. Webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
s have been provided since 2005. Since 2006, between February and the Eurovision final in May, SR has webcast a radio station dedicated to the competition called P4 Melodifest. On P4, the public previews semifinalists every Friday. Broadcast the night after the final, a dagen efter ("the day after") television programme acts as an epilogue
Epilogue
An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
to the event. It gauges the reactions of the finalists after the competition's climax. No commentary is given for the event on television. Carolina Norén is commentator on the event for Sveriges Radio
Sveriges Radio
Sveriges Radio AB – Swedish Radio Ltd – is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. The Swedish public-broadcasting system is in many respects modelled after the one used in the United Kingdom, and Sveriges Radio - like Sveriges Television - shares many characteristics with...
. The festival has been broadcast in widescreen since 2002 and Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
since 2004.
The competition's viewing figures have been rising since 2002. In 2007, approximately 4.1 million Swedes—almost 44% of the country's population—watched the final, and between 2.9 million and 3.2 million viewers watched each of the semifinals. The viewing figures for the 2007 festival are nearly two million short of the highest recorded viewing figures from 1990. Melodifestivalen is given heavy coverage in the Swedish press. A study by the Economic Science and Communication Department at Karlstad University
Karlstad University
Karlstad University is a state university in Karlstad, Sweden. The university, being a former university college was granted university status in 1999 by the Government of Sweden. Originally it was a branch of the University of Gothenburg...
concluded that coverage from the press may have influenced the results of the 2007 festival.
Musical styles and presentation
Melodifestivalen's image has evolved throughout its existence, but one word has defined the competition's music: schlagerSchlager
Schlager music is a style of popular music prevalent in Central and Northern Europe and the Balkans and also in France and Poland. In Portugal, it was adapted and became pimba music...
. In Sweden, schlager (a German word literally meaning a "hit") represents any song associated with the competition, from the jazz music featured heavily in the 1960s to entries such as Linda Bengtzing
Linda Bengtzing
Linda Birgitta Bengtzing is a Swedish pop singer, famous for her participation in the fourth season of Fame Factory in Sweden and for her entries at Melodifestivalen 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2011- Biography :...
's in 2006. Christine Demsteader of The Local
The Local
The Local is an English-language online news portal localised for Sweden, Germany, France and Switzerland. Each site, while alike in appearance, has separate editorial teams, each focused on its respective market....
described Swedish schlager as "typically characterized by an annoyingly repetitive melody and trivial lyrics of little or no meaning".
Jazz artists such as Monica Zetterlund
Monica Zetterlund
Eva Monica Zetterlund was a Swedish singer and actress.-Biography:Zetterlund was a singer particularly noted for her jazz work. She began by learning the classic jazz songs from radio and records, initially not knowing the language and what they sang about in English...
and Östen Warnerbring
Östen Warnerbring
Östen Warnerbring was a Swedish singer, musician, composer and lyrics writer who mastered several musical genres. He started out as a jazz musician but over the years, he had huge successes both in the area of popular music and as a singer of Swedish poetry, put into music by himself...
won the event in the 1960s. ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
, who won Eurovision in 1974, went on to be Sweden's most successful music export. The group influenced not only Melodifestivalen, but the entire Swedish commercial music scene. In the 1980s, Bert Karlsson
Bert Karlsson
Bert Willis Karlsson is a Swedish record company manager, entrepreneur, former politician and front figure of the New Democracy party....
's Mariann Grammofon record label was responsible for the prevalence of "easy, memorable tunes". The early twenty-first century has seen more variety in the competition, such as The Ark's "retro glam rock" effort and Afro-dite
Afro-dite
Afro-dite is a Swedish pop group made up of three pop singers. The group consists of Blossom Tainton-Lindquist, Gladys del Pilar and Kayo Shekoni. The name is a play on words implying they are beautiful as Greek goddess Aphrodite and being...
's disco winner.
On-stage gimmick
Gimmick
In marketing language, a gimmick is a unique or quirky special feature that makes something "stand out" from its contemporaries. However, the special feature is typically thought to be of little relevance or use. Thus, a gimmick is a special feature for the sake of having a special feature...
s have long been a part of performances at the competition. Lena Philipsson
Lena Philipsson
Maria Magdalena "Lena" Philipsson is a Swedish singer and media personality.-Career:...
's use of a microphone stand in her performance of "Det gör ont
Det gör ont
"Det gör ont" , written by Orup and produced by Anders Hansson, was performed in Swedish by Lena Philipsson at the Swedish Melodifestivalen 2004. The song won and became the Swedish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 where it was performed in English as "It Hurts" and finished 5th...
" at the 2004 competition is an example. When Philipsson hosted Melodifestivalen in 2006, four tongue-in-cheek short films were broadcast during the semifinals to show what had happened to the microphone stand in the years since her win. Pyrotechnics
Pyrotechnics
Pyrotechnics is the science of using materials capable of undergoing self-contained and self-sustained exothermic chemical reactions for the production of heat, light, gas, smoke and/or sound...
are another common gimmick in Melodifestivalen performances. After the 2007 event, Karolina Lassbo of Dagens Media criticised the festival's musical content and production, arguing that the 1988 competition was "the time when Melodifestivalen was still a schlager competition" and the event had become "a cross between [reality series] Fame Factory and [inter-city game show] Stadskampen".
See also
- Lilla MelodifestivalenLilla MelodifestivalenLilla Melodifestivalen is the Swedish national final that selects the entry to represent Sweden in the annual Melodi Grand Prix Nordic junior singing competition. Between 2002 and 2005, Sweden sent its winners to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, when MPG Nordic wasn't active...
- Melodi Grand PrixMelodi Grand PrixMelodi Grand Prix is an annual music competition organised by Norwegian public broadcaster Norsk Rikskringkasting . It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1960.The festival has produced three Eurovision winners and...
- Dansk Melodi Grand Prix
- Sweden in the Eurovision Song ContestSweden in the Eurovision Song ContestSweden has participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 51 times since their debut in 1958. Since 1959, the Swedish representative has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. Three times – 1964, 1970, and 1976 – Sweden didn't participate...
- Marcel Bezençon AwardsMarcel Bezençon AwardsThe Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia honoringthe best competing songs in the final...
- Melodifestivalen Winners section