Sweden was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Dance You Off", written by Marco Borrero, Louis Schoorl, K Nita, and Benjamin Ingrosso, and performed by Ingrosso himself. The Swedish participating broadcaster, Sveriges Television (SVT), organised the national final Melodifestivalen 2018 in order to select its entry for the contest. After a six-week-long competition consisting of four heats, a Second Chance round and a final, "Dance You Off" performed by Benjamin Ingrosso emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from eleven international jury groups and a public vote.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, SVT organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Since 1959, SR first and SVT later have organised the annual competition Melodifestivalen in order to select their entries for the contest.
Melodifestivalen 2018 was the Swedish music competition that would select Sweden's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.[2] 28 songs competed in a six-week-long process which consisted of four heats on 3, 10, 17 and 24 February 2018, a second chance round on 3 March 2018, and a final on 10 March 2018. The six shows were hosted by David Lindgren.[3] Seven songs competed in each heat—the top two qualified directly to the final, while the third and fourth placed songs qualified to the second chance round. The bottom three songs in each heat were eliminated from the competition.
The fourth heat took place on 24 February 2018 at the Fjällräven Center in Örnsköldsvik. "For You" performed by Mariette and "Fuldans" performed by Rolandz qualified directly to the final, while "Every Single Day" performed by Felix Sandman and "Never Learn" performed by Olivia Eliasson advanced to the Second Chance round. "Icarus" performed by Emmi Christensson, "Mitt paradis" performed by Elias Abbas, and "Break That Chain" performed by Felicia Olsson were eliminated from the contest.
The final took place on 10 March 2018 at the Friends Arena in Solna, Stockholm. Twelve songs competed—two qualifiers from each of the four preceding heats and four qualifiers from the Second Chance round. The combination of points from a viewer vote and eleven international jury groups determined the winner, Benjamin Ingrosso with the song "Dance You Off".[4] The viewers and the juries each had a total of 638 points to award. The nations that comprised the international jury were Albania, Armenia, Australia, Cyprus, France, Georgia, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom.[5]
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Sweden was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[6]
Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Sweden was set to perform in position 15, following the entry from Latvia and preceding the entry from Montenegro.[7]
Voting
Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.
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