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 2005 was the selection for the 45th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 44th 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 Gothenburg, Linköping, Skellefteå, Växjö and a Second Chance round in Stockholm. The final was broadcast on SVT1 and Sveriges Radio's P4 network. Nanne Grönvall's defeat was met with consternation by many people, who felt that a gap of over 150,000 votes should be enough for victory. There were even calls for SVT to scrap the jury system altogether and simply let the televotes decide the winner. For a comparison, it was noted that Grönvall had received more votes than Lena Philipsson, the popular 2004 winner. However, SVT said that there was nothing they could do about the result. Four finalists topped the Swedish charts. Alcazar and Alcastar got to number one the week before the final, Jimmy Jansson got to the number one some weeks after that with Vi kan gunga, Martin Stenmarck's winner Las Vegas hit the top spot the week after that, while Nanne Grönvall and Håll om mig topped the charts the week after that.
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 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 1969 was the selection for the 11th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 10th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 2402 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio. This was the first time a tie occurred for first place in the competition.
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 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 chose its entry for Eurovision Song Contest 1960 by the national final, Melodifestivalen 1960. The winning song, "Alla andra får varann" was performed once by Östen Warnerbring and once by Ingrid Berggren. However Sveriges Radio decided that Siw Malmkvist would represent Sweden, as she had been denied that the previous year.
Sweden chose their entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 through Melodifestivalen 1961. The song "April, april", performed once with Siw Malmkvist, once with Gunnar Wiklund, won. However, none of them was considered acceptable for singing in ESC, so Lill-Babs was chosen as representative instead. In the contest, once more held in Cannes, she finished in 14th place.
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.
After Carola Häggkvist's win in the 1991 contest, Sweden was the host of the Eurovision Song Contest 1992, held in Malmö. Sveriges Television, the Swedish broadcaster, continued to use the Melodifestivalen format to select their entry.
Sweden selected its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 by holding an extending national selection, namely Melodifestivalen 2008. A record of 3 489 entries were submitted to the broadcaster SVT, and 28 were chosen to compete. They were completed with 4 wildcards in the end of December. Melodifestivalen was also this year held on Saturdays, starting with the first of the four semi-finals on 9 February and ending with a final on 15 March. It was the last of the year's national selections, as the official ESC draw was held on 17 March. Four songs progressed from each semi, two to the final and two to the second chance round, where the songs were competing in a knock-out round to gain the last two places in the final.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, held in Oslo, Norway, sending their 50th entry to the contest since their debut in 1958.
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.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Swedish entry was selected through Melodifestivalen 2014, a national final format that consisted of four semi-finals, a second chance round and a final, organised by Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT). Sanna Nielsen represented Sweden with the song "Undo", which qualified from the first semi-final and placed 3rd in the final, scoring 218 points.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "If I Were Sorry" written by Oscar Fogelström, Michael Saxell, Fredrik Andersson and Frans Jeppsson-Wall. The song was performed by Frans. In addition to participating in the contest, the Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest after winning the competition in 2015 with the song "Heroes" performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. SVT organised the national final Melodifestivalen 2016 in order to select the Swedish entry for the 2016 contest in Stockholm. After a six-week-long competition consisting of four semi-finals, a Second Chance round and a final, "If I Were Sorry" performed by Frans emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from eleven international jury groups and a public vote.
