Melodifestivalen is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, 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 2012, the semi-finals averaged 3.3 million viewers, and over an estimated four million people in Sweden watched the final, almost half of the Swedish population.
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 and a Second Chance round in Stockholm. The final was broadcast on SVT1 and Sveriges Radio's P4 network. Carola Häggkvist was the clear favourite to win the final, with bookmakers making her the favourite and an Aftonbladet web poll showing her to have a clear margin over the other participants. The rehearsals sold out for the fourth year running; however, Carola was unable to perform in the final rehearsal due to throat problems. This led to speculation that the final would be closer than expected. Aftonbladet claimed in April 2006 that the televote may have been tampered with, as various sources reported unexplained voting on their telephone bills. It is clear that this would not have affected the result. Various finalists and semifinalists entered the Swedish Hitlistan chart after the competition. The second placed song, "Temple of Love", finished fourth in the Eurovision Madrid National Finals Song Contest.
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 semi-finals had taken place to select the ten songs for the final, in Jönköping, Gothenburg, Luleå, Sundsvall and a Second Chance round in Stockholm. The final was broadcast on SVT1 and Sveriges Radio's P4 network. The show was watched by 1,230,751 people.
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 Second Chance round in Stockholm. The final was broadcast on SVT1 and Sveriges Radio's P4 network. The winner was Lena Philipsson with "Det gör ont" who later that year came in 5th place in Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in Turkey with the English-language version It Hurts.
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. ABBA went on to win that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, Sweden's first Eurovision win.
Melodifestivalen 1975 was the selection for the 16th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 15th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 10 songwriters were selected by SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio.
Melodifestivalen 1988 was the selection for the 28th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 27th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 1,100 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV2 and was not broadcast on radio. The show was watched by 4,464,000 people.
Melodifestivalen 1977 was the selection for the 17th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. Sweden did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 due to demonstrations against commercial music. It was the 16th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 965 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio.
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. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio.
Melodifestivalen 1972 was the selection for the 13th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 12th time that this system of picking a song had been used. Approximately 1000 songs were submitted to Sveriges Radio for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio.
Melodifestivalen 1971 was the selection for the 12th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 11th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 1164 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. There were five semifinals during the Hylands hörna programme. Family Four, Tommy Körberg and Sylvia Vrethammar performed one song in each semifinal. Family Four won all five semifinals, so all five finalists were performed by them. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio.
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. The final was broadcast on Sveriges Radio TV but was not broadcast on radio.
Melodifestivalen 1967 was the selection for the ninth song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the eighth time that this system of picking a song had been used. Approximately 1800 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on Sveriges Radio TV but it was not broadcast on radio.
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. The final was broadcast on Sveriges Radio TV but was not broadcast on radio.
Melodifestivalen 1963 was the selection for the sixth song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the fifth time that this system of picking a song had been used. One singer performed the song with a large orchestra and one with a smaller orchestra. 816 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on Sveriges Radio TV but was not broadcast on radio. Monica Zetterlund performed "En gång i Stockholm" at Eurovision, and became the first and only artist to score "nul points" for Sweden.
Melodifestivalen is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959.
Sweden was in their second Eurovision Song Contest represented by Brita Borg with the song "Augustin". The winning song was elected in the Swedish national final: Melodifestivalen 1959. Eight semi-finals were held on the radio. During the semi-finals, Sveriges Radio decided that the winning song would represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959. The singer for Cannes had already been selected.
Sweden was represented by Inger Berggren, singing "Sol och vår", in the Eurovision Song Contest 1962. Berggren was selected by a national final called Eurovisionsschlagern, svensk final. Another singer, Lily Berglund, also sung the song there. The song was written and composed by Ulf Källkvist and Åke Gerhard.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany and selected their entry through the national final Melodifestivalen 2011, organised by Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT).
Sweden participated in and hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö after winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song Euphoria performed by Loreen. The Swedish entry was selected through Melodifestivalen 2013, a national final format that consisted of four semi-finals, a second chance round and a final, organised by Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT). Robin Stjernberg represented Sweden with the song "You", which scored 62 points in the grand final and finished in 14th place.
