Format
Melodifestivalen 2017, organised by Sveriges Television (SVT), was the sixteenth consecutive edition of the contest in which the competition took place in different cities across Sweden. [1] The four heats were held at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg (4 February), the Malmö Arena in Malmö (11 February), the Vida Arena in Växjö (18 February) and the Skellefteå Kraft Arena in Skellefteå (25 February). [2] The Second Chance round took place at the Saab Arena in Linköping on 4 March while the final was held at the Friends Arena in Solna on 11 March. An initial 28 entries competed in the heats, with seven entries taking part in each show. The top two entries from each heat advanced directly to the final, while the third and fourth placed entries advanced to the Second Chance round. The bottom three entries in each heat were eliminated. An additional four entries qualified for the final from the Second Chance round, bringing the total number of competing entries in the final to 12.
Christer Björkman was announced as the executive producer of the competition, while Annette Helenius was assigned as the project manager for a second consecutive year. [3] [4]
| Competition Schedule | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Show | Date | City | Venue |
| Heat 1 | 4 February | Gothenburg | Scandinavium |
| Heat 2 | 11 February | Malmö | Malmö Arena |
| Heat 3 | 18 February | Växjö | Vida Arena |
| Heat 4 | 25 February | Skellefteå | Skellefteå Kraft Arena |
| Second Chance round | 4 March | Linköping | Saab Arena |
| Final | 11 March | Stockholm | Friends Arena |
Entry selection
Entries for the 2017 competition were selected through three methods: [1]
- 14 entries were chosen by a selection panel from submissions received by SVT through an open call for songs.
- 13 entries were selected by SVT via special invitations to artists and songwriters.
- 1 entry was provided by the selected artist from the competition Svensktoppen nästa organised by Sveriges Radio P4.
SVT opened two submission contests that accepted entries between 1 and 19 September 2016 for interested artists and songwriters to submit their proposals for the competition. The Regular contest was open for entries that had at least one songwriter that already had a musical work published, while the Public contest accepted entries from songwriters without previously published musical work. [1] Entries submitted for the competition were required to be new compositions which had never been published, between 2–3 minutes in length and with at least one songwriter that holds Swedish citizenship. The choice of language was free, however, SVT aims to have 30% of the contest's places reserved for entries sung mainly in Swedish. SVT also aims to reserve at least 50% of the contest's places for entries written by female composers and lyricists either in a solo or collaborative capacity. [1]
Following the conclusion of the submission periods, SVT received 2,478 entries—an increase of 28 entries from the previous year. 2,116 of the entries were entered into the Regular contest, while 362 entries were entered into the Public contest. [5] SVT created a shortlist of entries from the received submissions and formed a selection panel that was tasked to select fourteen entries for the competition. Only five entries from the Public contest were under consideration with no guarantee that one would be selected to compete in Melodifestivalen. [1]
Presenters
At a press conference on 30 September 2016, Clara Henry, David Lindgren and Hasse Andersson were announced as the hosts for all six shows of Melodifestivalen 2017. [6] Henry previously appeared in comedic skits and hosted pre and post shows during Melodifestivalen 2014. Lindgren and Andersson previously competed as artists in the competition; Lindgren took part in 2012, 2013 and 2016, while Andersson took part in 2015.[ citation needed ]
