Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 59 times since making its debut in 1958, missing only three contests since then. Since 1959, the Swedish entry has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. At the 1997 contest, Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt televoting. Sweden is the only country to have hosted the event in five different decades, three times in Stockholm, twice in Malmö and once in Gothenburg (1985).
Sweden has participated at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 11 times since its inception in 2003. Two broadcasters have been responsible for Sweden's entries at Junior Eurovision - from 2003 to 2005 Sveriges Television (SVT) was responsible, before withdrawing with other Nordic broadcasters. From 2006 to 2009, commercial broadcaster TV4 was responsible for Sweden's entry at the Junior Eurovision.
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. Herreys went on to win that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Luxembourg; Sweden's second Eurovision win.
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 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 presenter, Eva Andersson, was the 1980 Miss Sweden. No orchestra was used, as all songs were performed to backing track. There have been claims that this was because SVT could not afford to hire the orchestra for two shows, as they were hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in 1985.
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. The final was broadcast on TV2 and Sveriges Radio's P3 and P4 networks. The show was watched by 3,646,000 people.
Melodifestivalen 1998 was the selection for the 38th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 37th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 1,141 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on SVT2 and Sveriges Radio's P4 network. The show was watched by 2,881,000 people.
Melodifestivalen 1997 was the selection for the 37th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 36th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 1,229 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on SVT2 and Sveriges Radio's P3 network. The winner was the boyband Blond who later that year represented Sweden in Eurovision Song Contest 1997. The show was watched by 2,965,000 people.
Melodifestivalen 1990 was the contest for selection of the 30th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 29th time that this method of picking a song had been used. 1,223 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV2 but not on radio. The show was watched by 5,964,000 people, the biggest recorded audience for the competition.
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. 1,223 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The hostess, Yvonne Ryding, was the 1984 Miss Universe. The final was broadcast on SVT1 and was surprisingly not broadcast on radio. The show was watched by 5,328,000 people.
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 1987 was the selection for the 27th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 26th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 1502 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 and was not broadcast on radio. The winning song's title was changed to "Boogaloo" for the Eurovision Song Contest as it contained chewing gum brand Bugg as well drinks company Coca-Cola in the title.
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 orchestra was used, and instead the ten songs were broadcast as music videos. The five songs that qualified for the second round were performed live to backing track.
Melodifestivalen 1981 was the selection for the 21st song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 20th 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. It was the second time that Lasse Holm and Kikki Danielsson had been beaten into second place by Björn Skifs, after 1978.
Melodifestivalen 1980 was the selection for the 20th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 19th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 120 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio.
Melodifestivalen 1978 was the selection for the 18th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 17th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 58 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio. The songs were not performed live, instead the performances were recorded the afternoon before, and inter-mingled with live pieces from the venue. There was a tie in the voting, and each regional jury was asked to award one point to their favourite song of "Det blir alltid värre framåt natten" and "Miss Decibel". The former won by eight votes to three.
Melodifestivalen 1979 was the selection for the 19th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 18th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 452 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio.
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 the potential expenses if Sweden had won the contest again and 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.
Sweden will compete in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2010, with Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) returning to organise the Swedish entry for the first time since 2006, after TV4 withdrew from the contest. An internal selection was used to select the 7th Swedish entry in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, with Josefine Ridell being selected to sing "Allt jag vill ha" at the contest in Minsk, Belarus.
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.
