History of Melodifestivalen
Melodifestivalen (Swedish pronunciation: [mɛlʊˈdîːfɛstɪˌvɑːlɛn]; lit. 'the Melody Festival') 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.
Overview
Early experiments (1958–1969)
Following Sveriges Radio's internal selection of
The changes meant that the 1960s winning song, "Alla andra får varann", was performed by three artists:
The 1965 competition marked a change in attitude at SR, with less focus on performers and more focus on songwriters. The competition was now known as the Svensk sångfinal.
ABBA and Alternativfestivalen (1970–1982)
Due to a Nordic boycott of the voting system that led to a four-way tie for first place at the 1969 Contest, Sweden was absent at Eurovision for a second time in 1970.[6] In 1971, Melodifestivalen organised as part of the Hylands hörna television series. Five semi-finals broadcast; three acts—Tommy Körberg, Family Four and Sylvia Vrethammar—performed one song in each. Family Four received the most postcard votes in all of the semi-finals. Accordingly, all five songs in the final were performed by them (an accidental repeat of the 1965 scenario with Ingvar Wixell). The first act to win the competition twice running, Family Four won Melodifestivalen again in 1972 against nine competitors.
The 1974 winner,
Melodifestivalen returned in 1977 with almost exactly the same format used in 1975. The introduction of the voting system adopted by Eurovision in 1975 was the only major change. Sweden's success at Eurovision markedly worsened following the 1976 boycott. The country failed to break into the top ten between 1977 and 1981. The down time for Sweden became a period that witnessed the most tensely contested rivalries in the history of the competition, that of
New format, prolonged success (1983–1991)
Sweden's most successful period at Eurovision was between 1983 and 1991. The country achieved four top three finishes—two more than it had accumulated in the previous twenty-five years—with two victories among them. The voting system used at Melodifestivalen during most of this period was introduced in 1982. It remained in use intermittently until 1998, later becoming synonymous with the event and the basis for the modern semifinal format. The regional juries narrowed the contenders down to five, giving the contestants the opportunity to perform their songs again in a second round before the juries voted again to find a winner.[12]
Not reaching the final five under the new format was seen as a major failure for an artist. When
Sweden won Eurovision for the second time in 1984 with talent-show winners
Decline in popularity (1992–2001)
Sweden's Eurovision results generally remained consistent after Carola's win. However, the popularity of Melodifestivalen went into decline.[16] Christer Björkman won in 1992, but finished second last at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. Until host country Austria scored nil points in 2015, this was tied for the worst result for a host country in the Contest's history.
Televoting was introduced experimentally in the 1993 festival, but proved unsuccessful. The Swedish telephone network collapsed under the strain caused by the lack of success and later claims by the Swedish tabloid press that suggested the use of televoting had skewed the results. The evening newspapers released what they claimed to be the back-up juries' votes, which showed that the winner, Arvingarna's "Eloise", would have only finished fourth had the juries' votes counted. SVT never confirmed the accuracy of these claims.[17] The regional juries were reinstated in 1994, which was the same year that Marie Bergman became the first singer to win Melodifestivalen three times.[e]
Although the competition was only 36 years old, SVT chose to coincide Melodifestivalen's fortieth anniversary with the fortieth Eurovision Song Contest in 1995. A documentary about the competition's history was broadcast and hosted by
From one evening to six weeks (2002–present)
Svante Stockselius, head of SVT's entertainment division, became a driving force behind a revamp of Melodifestivalen.[21] Christer Björkman, winner of the 1992 festival, was appointed supervisor of the competition for 2002 and began a process of modernising the event. The competition was extended from one night to five weeks with an additional four heats and a smaller Second Chance round bringing the number of participants up 32, which is more than threefold the normal participant count. Songs in languages other than Swedish were allowed for the first time, thus opening an opportunity for 15 of that year's contestants.
Also during this period, the final moved to the 16,000-seater
A children's competition,
The 2004 competition introduced a wildcard system where four artists are invited to take part in the competition by SVT. Lena Philipsson, who had previously lost the competition three times in the 1980s, was one of the first wildcards and won in 2004. As in 1995, SVT chose to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the competition in 2005, the same year Eurovision reached a half-century of competitions, for which two commemorative DVDs were released. A gala was held at Cirkus to determine the most popular Melodifestivalen song ever, a title which was won by ABBA's "Waterloo".[7][24]
In 2005, the voting system caused controversy at the final after Martin Stenmarck won the competition by three points over Nanne Grönvall, despite Grönvall receiving over 150,000 more televotes.[25] The juries and televoters disagreed on the winner again in 2006, but the most popular act with the public, Carola, won the competition on this occasion. The Second Chance round was revamped into a full Saturday night show with a knock-out format for 2007.[26] While the competition's expansion had a huge impact in Sweden (over two million votes were cast in the 2007 final, against just under 360,000 in 2001),[27][28] Sweden's competitiveness at Eurovision was not improving in the same way until Eric Saade's third-place finish in 2011. The following year, in 2012, Loreen's "Euphoria" won Melodifestivalen with a record-breaking number of over 670,000 televotes. Loreen won Eurovision in Baku later that same year, Sweden's fifth victory at the Contest.
By year
1950s
1958: Schlagertävling — Sweden made its debut at Eurovision at the third contest, held in Hilversum. In order to select a participant, Sveriges Radio and SKAP, the Swedish Society of Popular Music Composers, came together to choose an entrant internally. Among the entrants was Stig Anderson, but the song selected to represent Sweden was "Lilla stjärna", performed by Alice Babs.
1960s
1964: No competition — No competition was held in 1964 due to a recording artists' strike.
1970s
1970: No competition — There was no Melodifestival in 1970 as a protest by the Nordic broadcasters over the voting system at the Eurovision Song Contest, which had produced a four-way tie between France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain the previous year.
", finishing third.
1976: No competition — Following the Eurovision Song Contest 1975, held in Stockholm, there are criticisms that the contest makes too much of an impact on SR's budget to be viable. This leads to protests against commercial music, and another Swedish Eurovision pull-out. This is Sweden's third and most recent boycott.
1980s
1990s
2000s
2002: Melodifestivalen — The current heat system is introduced. Song in languages other than Swedish are allowed in the competition for the first time. Afro-dite win with "Never Let it Go".
2003: Melodifestivalen — Fame win with "Give Me Your Love".
2004: Melodifestivalen — The wildcard system is introduced. Lena Philipsson wins with "Det gör ont", performed at Eurovision as "It Hurts".
2005: Melodifestivalen — Martin Stenmarck wins with "Las Vegas", despite finishing second in the televote to Nanne Grönvall.
2007: Melodifestivalen — An expanded Second Chance round takes place for the first time. The Ark win with "The Worrying Kind".
2008: Melodifestivalen — Charlotte Perrelli wins for the second time with "Hero".
2009: Melodifestivalen — Inclusion of duels in the heats, pre-recorded backing vocals, up to eight people on stage, and an international jury, who select an 11th finalist, and votes in the final as the 12th jury. Malena Ernman wins with "La Voix".
2010s
2010: Melodifestivalen — A web wildcard is included, featuring unsigned acts competing on the internet for the final place in Melodifestivalen – the winner is selected by SMS voting. Anna Bergendahl wins the competition with "This Is My Life", going on to become the only Swedish entry to date not to qualify for the Eurovision final.
2011: Melodifestivalen — Web wildcard competition expanded, television final in November – two acts selected for heats. Proportional representation introduced for televoting in final, each song given share of 473 points based on percentage of total televote. Foreign songwriters are allowed for the first time, provided the songs have at least one Swedish writer. Eric Saade wins, in his second consecutive participation, with "Popular".
2012: Melodifestivalen — Web wildcard competition downsized – one song selected for heats. Loreen wins with "Euphoria", going on to become Sweden's fifth Eurovision winner.
2013: Melodifestivalen — Web wildcard competition discontinued. Robin Stjernberg wins with "You" and becomes the first winner from the Second Chance round.
2014: Melodifestivalen — Sanna Nielsen wins with "Undo" in her seventh participation.
2015: Melodifestivalen — The total number of competing entries is reduced from 32 to 28. A new rule states that at least 50% of selected entries must be written or co-written by at least one female songwriter. Måns Zelmerlöw wins with "Heroes" in his third Melodifestivalen participation. He goes on to become Sweden's sixth Eurovision winner.
2016: Melodifestivalen – Frans wins the competition with "If I Were Sorry", in his first public appearance on the music scene since 2006.
2017: Melodifestivalen – Robin Bengtsson wins with "I Can't Go On" in his second consecutive participation.
2018: Melodifestivalen – Benjamin Ingrosso wins with "Dance You Off" in his second consecutive participation; he had previously won Lilla Melodifestivalen in 2006, and became the first Lilla Melodifestivalen winner to win its parent competition.
2019: Melodifestivalen – John Lundvik wins with "Too Late for Love" in his second consecutive participation.
2020s
2020: Melodifestivalen – The Mamas win with "Move" in their first participation, after previously providing backing vocals for John Lundvik in 2019. This marks the first time in history that the winner of Melodifestivalen did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, as the contest itself was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021: Melodifestivalen – Tusse wins with "Voices" in his first participation.
2022: Melodifestivalen – The Second Chance round is replaced by a semi-final, where the eight competing entries are divided into two groups, with the top two songs from each proceeding to the final.[29] Cornelia Jakobs wins with "Hold Me Closer" in her first participation as a solo artist, after previously participating as part of Love Generation in 2011 and 2012.
2023: Melodifestivalen – The eight entries in the semi-final compete in a single group, with the top four songs proceeding to the final. Loreen wins with "Tattoo" in her fourth Melodifestivalen participation. She goes on to become Sweden's seventh Eurovision winner, and the second performer as well as the first female artist to win Eurovision more than once.
2024: Melodifestivalen – The total number of competing entries is increased from 28 to 30. The semi-final is replaced by a 30-minute section of the newly introduced fifth heat, where the top two songs proceeding to the final. Marcus & Martinus win with "Unforgettable" in their second consecutive Melodifestivalen participation.
Venues
Final
City | Venues (years) | Total |
---|---|---|
Stockholm |
|
49 |
Gothenburg |
|
8 |
Malmö |
|
7 |
Venues (since 2002)
H = Heat, SC = Second Chance, SF = Semi-final, F = Final, ALL = All shows
See also
- Melodifestivalen winners
- Voting at Melodifestivalen
- Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
- Sveriges Television
- List of Melodifestivalen presenters
References
- ISBN 91-89136-29-2
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 17.
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 48–49.
- ^ Eurovision Song Contest 1965 Archived 2007-11-12 at the Wayback Machine. Eurovision.tv. Retrieved on 2 May 2007.
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 76–77.
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 82–83.
- ^ a b Alla tiders Melodifestival Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine (in Swedish). SVT.se (3 March 2005). Retrieved on 24 May 2007.
- ^ ABBA win 'Eurovision 50th' vote. BBC News (23 October 2005). Retrieved on 25 April 2007.
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 118–119.
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 130.
- ^ Melodifestivalen 1982 (in Swedish). Gylleneskor.se. Retrieved on 20 October 2006.
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 154
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 170.
- ^ Andreas Ekström (4 March 2005). Storskalig attack gör Bert Karlsson till vinnare Archived 2005-03-08 at the Wayback Machine (in Swedish). Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved on 16 May 2007.
- ^ Carola History. Carola.com. Retrieved on 21 October 2006.
- ^ a b c Melodifestivalen—Tittarsifror Archived 2007-12-08 at the Wayback Machine. ESC.info.se. Retrieved on 21 October 2006.
- ^ The tabloid's "winner" was Nick Borgen's "We are All the Winners". Thorsson, pg. 233
- ^ Björn Kjellman—Hela Sveriges Melodifestivalfan nummer 1 (in Swedish). Gylleneskor.se. Retrieved on 24 May 2007.
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 290.
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 282–283.
- ^ Melodifestivalen 2002 Archived 2005-05-14 at the Wayback Machine (in Swedish). Gylleneskor.se. Retrieved on 29 January 2007.
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 202.
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 294.
- ^ Roel Phillips (12 December 2004). Three Melodifestivalen DVDs to be released Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine. ESCtoday.com. Retrieved on 24 May 2007.
- ^ Stenmarck pips Grönvall Archived 2005-03-17 at the Wayback Machine. TheLocal.se (March 15, 2005). Retrieved on 22 October 2006.
- ^ Melodifestivalens cup Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine (in Swedish). SVT.se (11 August 2006). Retrieved on 28 April 2007.
- ^ The Ark triumph in Globen. TheLocal.se (10 March 2007). Retrieved on 25 April 2007.
- ^ Thorsson, pg. 291
- ^ Adams, William Lee (17 October 2021). "Melodifestivalen 2022: Andra Chansen will be replaced by Semi-Final 5". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
Further reading
- Thorsson, Leif (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna. Premium Publishing AB. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.