Melodifestivalen (; ), also known as Mello, 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. The selection of the country's Eurovision entry is its primary focus, in contrast to some others such as Italy's Sanremo Music Festival. In the early 2000s, the competition was the most popular television program in Sweden;. Sweden.se (30 September 2005). Retrieved on 20 October 2006. it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. In 2012, the heats averaged 3.3 million viewers, and over an estimated four million people in Sweden watched the final, almost half of the Swedish population.
The festival has produced seven Eurovision winners and 26 top-five placings for . The winner of Melodifestivalen has been chosen by panels of jurors since its inception. Since 1999, the juries have been joined by a public telephone vote which has an equal influence over the outcome. The competition makes a considerable impact on the music charts in Sweden.
The introduction of heats in 2002 raised the potential number of contestants from around twelve to thirty-two. A children's version of the competition, , also began that year. Light orchestrated pop songs, known locally as schlager music, used to be so prevalent that the festival was sometimes referred to as ("the schlager festival") or ("schlager Swedish championship") by the Swedish media."Jag koncentrerar mig på schlagerfestivalen" ["I am concentrating on schlagerfestivalen"]. Aftonbladet.se (27 February 2002). Retrieved on 20 October 2006.Anders Foghagen (13 October 2006) Agnes diskad från Schlagerfestivalen ["Agnes disqualified from schlagerfestivalen"]. TV4.se. Retrieved on 20 October 2006. However, other styles of music, such as rap, reggae, and glam rock, have made an appearance since the event's expansion. The introduction of a final in Stockholm has attracted substantial tourism to the city.The Swedish Research Institute of Tourism (17–18 March 2006). Melodifestivalen 2006 . Retrieved on 23 January 2008.
Origins
With seven nations competing, the first Eurovision Song Contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland in May 1956. Sweden debuted in the third edition of the song competition in 1958. Without broadcasting a public selection, Sveriges Radio (SR) chose to send Alice Babs to the contest in Hilversum, Netherlands. The song selected was "" (), later renamed "" ().Leif Thorsson. Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"] (2006), p. 12. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. It finished fourth at Eurovision on 12 March 1958.
The first Melodifestivalen, incorporated into the radio series, took place on 29 January 1959 at Cirkus in Stockholm; eight songs participated. Four "expert" juries in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, and Luleå decided the winner.Thorsson, p. 19 The competition was won by Siw Malmkvist performing "Augustin", but SR decided that the winning song—regardless of its original performer—would be performed by Brita Borg at Eurovision. This policy of selecting the artist for Eurovision internally and having other artists perform potential Swedish entries at Melodifestivalen was stopped in 1961. The competition became a standalone television programme in 1960, known as the . In the event's early years, it was also broadcast in Norway and Denmark via the Nordvision network.Thorsson, p. 17. The competition adopted its current name, , in 1967.
Melodifestivalen has failed to be staged on three occasions. In 1964, the competition was cancelled due to an artist's strike; Sweden did not send a song to Eurovision that year.Thorsson, pp. 48–49. Sweden was absent at Eurovision for a second time in 1970 because of a Nordic boycott of the voting system, which had led to a four-way tie for first place at the 1969 contest.Thorsson, pp. 82–83. After SR staged the 1975 contest in Stockholm, left-wing groups argued that Sweden should not spend money to win and host Eurovision again. This led to mass demonstrations against commercial music and the organisation of an anti-commercial .Thorsson, pp. 118–119. Therefore, Sweden decided not to send a song to Eurovision 1976 but returned in 1977.
Participation
Hundreds of songs and performers have entered Melodifestivalen since its debut. Although songwriters living outside Sweden were once not allowed to enter Melodifestivalen, the 2012 contest marked the first time foreign songwriters could submit entries, provided that they collaborated with a Swedish songwriter. To be eligible, songwriters and performers must be at least sixteen years of age on the day of the first Eurovision semi-final.Melodifestivalen 2007—Tävlingsregler ["Melodifestivalen 2007—Competition rules"]. Sveriges Television AB (May 2006). Retrieved on 21 October 2006.
Until 2001, participation in the festival was limited to a single night. The number of contestants ranged from five to twelve. A two-round system was used intermittently between 1981 and 1998, in which all but five of the contestants were eliminated in the first round of voting. Failure to reach the second round under this system was seen as a major failure for a prominent artist; when Elisabeth Andreassen failed to qualify in 1984, it almost ended her music career.Thorsson, p. 171. The introduction of weekly heats in 2002 increased the number of contestants to thirty-two. At least ten of the contestants must perform in Swedish. A CD of each year's competing songs has been released since 2001, and a DVD of the heats and final since 2003. Due to the proliferation of digital download and streaming into the 2010s, DVDs have not been issued for Melodifestivalen in recent years.
Melodifestivalen has been the launch-pad for the success of popular local acts, such as ABBA, Tommy Körberg, and Lisa Nilsson. The competition has played host to performers from outside Sweden, including Baccara, Alannah Myles, Katrina Leskanich, Cornelis Vreeswijk, and Margaret. Melodifestivalen participants have also represented—and unsuccessfully tried to represent—other countries at Eurovision.Swedes abroad. ESC.info.se. Retrieved on 29 April 2007. While local success for Melodifestivalen winners is common, most contestants return to obscurity and few have major international success. The impact that the competition makes on the Swedish charts means an artist need not win the competition to earn significant domestic record sales. For example, the song which finished last at Melodifestivalen 1990, "" by Loa Falkman, topped Sverigetopplistan, the Swedish singles chart.Thorsson, p. 213. The most recent occurrence was 2024 with Fröken Snusk's song "Unga & fria". In 2007, twenty-one participants reached the Sverigetopplistan.Barry Viniker (16 March 2007) Melodifestivalen invades charts . ESCtoday.com. Retrieved on 20 April 2007. The week after the 2008 final, songs from the festival made up the entire top fifteen on the domestic singles chart.Total schlagerdominans på topplistan ["Total schlager dominance on Topplistan"]. Expressen.se (20 March 2008). Retrieved on 21 March 2008.
Selection of contestants The process of narrowing thousands of potential entries down to the competing songs lasts over seven months. SVT directly selects half of the entries from amongst public submissions, while the other half comes from special invitations made by SVT or other entries that SVT has selected from amongst the submissions. Between 2012 and 2021, the final entry was selected via the competition organised by Sveriges Radio P4. At least 10% of the competing songs are sung in Swedish. The entire process can begin as early as May of the previous year and is completed by January.
Songs
SVT begins looking for songs nine months before the start of the televised Melodifestivalen (within days of the previous year's Eurovision final).Sietse Bakker (26 May 2006). SVT announces Melodifestivalen 2007 . ESCtoday.com. Retrieved on 21 October 2006. The deadline for submission is in September and songs can be in any language. In the pre-selection, song length is limited to three minutes and twenty seconds; songs must be shortened to three minutes if they reach the final twenty-eight and qualifying songs may also be remixed.
The submission process is overseen by members of the Swedish Music Publishers Association (SMFF), whose task is to reduce the number of songs, which have numbered over 3,000 a year since 2002, to around 1,200. The 3,440 entries received in the preselection for Melodifestivalen 2009 was the most in the competition's history. The figure has since lowered to around 2,500 submissions every year. The SMFF's choices are then given to a sixteen-person jury of music professionals, SVT staff and other members of the public.Melodifestivalen 2006—selection . ESC.info.se. Retrieved on 21 October 2006. The jury ranges from teenagers to people in their fifties.Melodifestivalen 2007. ESC.info.se. Retrieved on 20 April 2007. The songs that qualify, along with their composers and lyricists, are announced at the end of September. This is often followed by fervent speculation over who will perform the songs. Songwriters that qualify must provide interviews to SVT, attend a press conference before the competition, and remain open to promotional appearances if their song reaches the final.
Artists and wildcards SVT selects performers for the entries. Artists who perform the demo of a song automatically enter the competition; they must perform their songs if suitable alternate performers cannot be found. The artists' songs risk disqualification if they refuse. In the past, this rule led to the disqualification of, among others, Carola's "" in 2003 and Stephen Simmonds' "So Good" in 2006.Sietse Bakker (17 December 2002). . ESCtoday.com. Retrieved on 22 October 2006.Alexander Borodin (25 November 2005). Stephen Simmonds disqualified from Melodifestivalen . ESCtoday.com. Retrieved on 22 October 2006. SVT may also give songs to other performers without considering the interests of the demo artist. This prevented the Brandsta City Släckers (in 2004) and Pernilla Wahlgren (in 2005) from performing the songs they had submitted.Daniel Ringby (25 October 2003). Brandsta City Släckers kicked out from Swedish preselection . Retrieved on 22 October 2006.Alexander Borodin (14 January 2005). Swedish artists criticise Melodifestivalen official . Retrieved on 22 October 2006. Replacements for disqualified songs fare unpredictably at the competition. In 2006, "Naughty Boy" by Hannah Graaf (the replacement for Simmonds' song) finished second to last in its heat. In 2002 and 2007, by contrast, the replacements performed by Jan Johansen and Måns Zelmerlöw reached the final ten. The contestants that will perform the twenty-eight qualifiers from the preselection are announced in late November. Singer-songwriters are common. As such, artists often confirm that they will participate before the official announcement.
The wildcard (joker) system was introduced in 2004 to diversify the music featured.Melodifestivalen 2007—FAQ in English . SVT.se. Retrieved on 1 May 2007. Four artists, one in each heat, were invited by SVT to enter a song of their choice into the competition, provided it does not breach the rules. The wildcard songs and artists were announced in January. Since the wildcards' introduction, three have won the competition. The wildcard system was discontinued in 2013.
Hosting