Melodifestivalen
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The logo for Melodifestivalen, which has been in use since 2002 |
Melodifestivalen is the
Swedish national preselection for the
Eurovision Song Contest. It has been staged by
Sveriges Radio/
Sveriges Television since
1958.
Key to superscripts:
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a - this song was originally titled "
Fyra bugg och en coca-cola", but had to have its title changed due to the use of a brand name.
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b - Sweden boycotted the Eurovision Song Contest in 1976 due to protests from left-wing activists against commercial music.
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c - Sweden boycotted the Eurovision Song Contest in 1970 as a protest against the voting system that had created a 4-way tie in 1969.
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d - Sweden did not enter the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964, due to an artists' strike.
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e - Performed by
Lil-Babs at Eurovision.
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f - Performed by
Siw Malmkvist at Eurovision.
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g - Performed by
Brita Borg at Eurovision.
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h - This year, the song wasn't chosen in a competition but by a special jury, so actually the Melodifesitval began only a year later, 1959.
The competition was originally known as "Say It With Music: Great-Hit Songcontest", and was called "Swedish Songfestival" from 1960 until 1966. It has been known as Melodifestival(en) since 1967.
Milestones
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1959: The first competition is won by
Brita Borg.
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1970: No competition is held as a protest by
SR (and the other Nordic broadcasters) against the
Eurovision voting system which had led to a
four-way tie the previous year.
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1972:
Family Four become the first and only act to win MF twice in a row.
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1974:
ABBA win with "Waterloo". They go on to win that year's Eurovision Song Contest in
Brighton and become one of the most successful pop groups ever.
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1983:
Carola wins with "Främling". The song scores top marks from each jury and becomes the biggest selling single of all time in Sweden.
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1984:
Herreys win with "Diggi-loo diggi-lej". The song goes on to win that year's Eurovision Song Contest in
Luxembourg.
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1991: Carola wins again with "Fångad av en stormvind". The song goes on to win the
closest-ever Eurovision in
Rome that year.
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1993: Televoting is used as an experiment, but juries return the following year.
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1999: Televoting is reintroduced indefinitely.
Charlotte Nilsson wins with "Tusen och en natt". The song, when performed in
English as "Take me to your heaven" goes on to win
that year's Eurovision in
Jerusalem.
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2001:
Friends win with "Lyssna till ditt hjärta". They are the first
reality TV act to win Melodifestivalen.
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2002: The current semifinal system is introduced. Songs in any language are permitted for the first time.
Christer Björkman becomes the executive producer of the competition.
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2004: A charity poll chooses "Waterloo" by ABBA as the most popular song in Melodifestivalen's history.
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2005:
Martin Stenmarck wins with "Las Vegas". For the first time ever, the most popular song with the juries is not the most popular with the televoters.
Nanne Grönvall, with "Håll om mig" had achieved approximately a quarter of all the 1.6 million televotes, but was beaten by three points in the final rankings, causing disappointment among many Swedish music fans.
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2006:
Carola wins the Melodifestivalen for the third time.
The songs for the competition are decided upon by an "expert" jury made up of people from the music industry,
Swedish broadcasting and members of the public from all age groups. There is also a "joker" system whereby four songs/artists (one in each semifinal) are directly invited by SVT.
Semi finals
Semi finals were reintroduced to Melodifestivalen in 2002, although they had been used previously in the 1960s and 1970s. In the current format, eight songs participate in each of four semifinals and the top two automatically qualify for the final. The third and fourth placed songs go forward to the "Andra Chansen" (second chance) where they try to win the final two places in the final show. There are no juries in the semifinals, which are held in different towns and cities around Sweden.
Final
The final has traditionally been held at
Globen,
Stockholm, however SVT wish to hold the final in
Gothenburg in the near future.
The current voting format has been in use since 1999. Eleven juries based in eleven towns and cities around Sweden award 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points for their seven favourite songs, with televoting points from the Swedish public being given an equivalent weighting.
SVT had decided that the televoting points for 2006 would be awarded by virtue of the percentage of the total votes a song has received, in a response to the 2005 result, but as no logical way of changing the voting could be decided upon, no changes were made.
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Media in Sweden*
Sveriges Television*
Sveriges Radio*
Schlager*
SVT's official site (in Swedish)
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Information site about Melodifestivalen*
ESCSweden.com (in Swedish)
*Interval act at Melodifestivalen 2000 - a tongue-in-cheek performance of a medley of past Melodifestivalen schlagers from various years performed by MF veterans, giving an overview of the variety of songs featured throughout the 20th century -
part 1,
part 2
