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Melodifestivalen is the Swedish national preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest. It has been staged by Sveriges Radio/Sveriges Television since 1958.
Table of past winners
| Year | Song | Artist | Position in Eurovision Song Contest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Evighet | Carola | 5th (as "Invincible") |
| 2005 | Las Vegas | Martin Stenmarck | 19th |
| 2004 | Det gör ont | Lena Philipsson | 6th (as "It Hurts") |
| 2003 | Give Me Your Love | Fame | 5th |
| 2002 | Never Let It Go | Afro-Dite | 8th |
| 2001 | Lyssna till ditt hjärta | Friends | 5th (as "Listen To Your Heartbeat") |
| 2000 | När vindarna viskar mitt namn | Roger Pontare | 7th (as "When Spirits Are Calling My Name") |
| 1999 | Tusen och en natt | Charlotte Nilsson | 1st (as "Take Me To Your Heaven") |
| 1998 | Kärleken är | Jill Johnson | 10th |
| 1997 | Bara hon älskar mej | Blond | 14th |
| 1996 | Den vilda | One More Time | 3rd |
| 1995 | Se på mig | Jan Johansen | 3rd |
| 1994 | Stjärnorna | Roger Pontare & Marie Bergman | 13th |
| 1993 | Eloise | Arvingarna | 7th |
| 1992 | I morgan är en annan dag | Christer Björkman | 22nd |
| 1991 | Fångad av en stormvind | Carola Sörgaard | 1st |
| 1990 | Som en vind | Edin-Ådahl | 16th |
| 1989 | En dag | Tommy Nilsson | 4th |
| 1988 | Stad i ljus | Tommy Körberg | 12th |
| 1987 | Fyra bugg och en coca-colaa | Lotta Engberg | 12th |
| 1986 | E' de' det här du kallar kärlek?" | Lasse Holm & Monica Törnell | 5th |
| 1985 | Bra vibrationer | Kikki Danielsson | 3rd |
| 1984 | Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley | Herreys | 1st |
| 1983 | Främling | Carola Häggkvist | 3rd |
| 1982 | Dag efter dag | Chips | 8th |
| 1981 | Fångad i en dröm | Björn Skifs | 10th |
| 1980 | Just Nu | Thomas Ledin | 10th |
| 1979 | Satellit | Ted Gärdestad | 17th |
| 1978 | Det blir alltid värre framåt natten | Björn Skifs | 14th |
| 1977 | Beatles | Forbes | 18th |
| 1976b | |||
| 1975 | Jennie, Jennie | Lasse Berghagen | 8th |
| 1974 | Waterloo | ABBA | 1st |
| 1973 | You Are Summer | Nova and The Dolls | 5th |
| 1972 | Härliga sommardag | Family Four | 13th |
| 1971 | Vita vidder | Family Four | 6th |
| 1970c | |||
| 1969 | Judy min vän | Tommy Körberg | 9th |
| 1968 | Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej | Claes-Göran Hederström | 5th |
| 1967 | Som en dröm | Östen Warnerbring | 8th |
| 1966 | Nygammal vals (eller hip man svinaherde) | Lill Lindfors & Svante Thuresson | 2nd |
| 1965 | Absent Friend | Ingvar Wixell | 10th |
| 1964d | |||
| 1963 | En gång I Stockholm | Monica Zetterlund | 13th |
| 1962 | Sol och vår | Inger Berggren | 7th |
| 1961 | April, April | Siw Malmkviste | 14th |
| 1960 | Alla andra får varann | Östen Warnebringf | 10th |
| 1959 | Augustin | Siw Malmkvistg | 9th |
| 1958h | Lilla stjärna | Alice Babs | 4th |
Key to superscripts:
- a - this song was originally titled "Fyra bugg och en coca-cola", but had to have its title changed due to the use of a brand name.
- b - Sweden boycotted the Eurovision Song Contest in 1976 due to protests from left-wing activists against commercial music.
- c - Sweden boycotted the Eurovision Song Contest in 1970 as a protest against the voting system that had created a 4-way tie in 1969.
- d - Sweden did not enter the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964, due to an artists' strike.
- e - Performed by Lil-Babs at Eurovision.
- f - Performed by Siw Malmkvist at Eurovision.
- g - Performed by Brita Borg at Eurovision.
- h - This year, the song wasn't chosen in a competition but by a special jury, so actually the Melodifesitval began only a year later, 1959.
History
The competition was originally known as “Say It With Music: Great-Hit Songcontest”, and was called "Swedish Songfestival" from 1960 until 1966. It has been known as Melodifestival(en) since 1967.
Milestones
- 1959: The first competition is won by Brita Borg.
- 1970: No competition is held as a protest by SR (and the other Nordic broadcasters) against the Eurovision voting system which had led to a four-way tie the previous year.
- 1972: Family Four become the first and only act to win MF twice in a row.
- 1974: ABBA win with “Waterloo”. They go on to win that year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton and become one of the most successful pop groups ever.
- 1983: Carola wins with “Främling”. The song scores top marks from each jury and becomes the biggest selling single of all time in Sweden.
- 1984: Herreys win with “Diggi-loo diggi-lej”. The song goes on to win that year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Luxembourg.
- 1991: Carola wins again with “Fångad av en stormvind”. The song goes on to win the closest-ever Eurovision in Rome that year.
- 1993: Televoting is used as an experiment, but juries return the following year.
- 1999: Televoting is reintroduced indefinitely. Charlotte Nilsson wins with “Tusen och en natt”. The song, when performed in English as “Take me to your heaven” goes on to win that year’s Eurovision in Jerusalem.
- 2001: Friends win with “Lyssna till ditt hjärta”. They are the first reality TV act to win Melodifestivalen.
- 2002: The current semifinal system is introduced. Songs in any language are permitted for the first time. Christer Björkman becomes the executive producer of the competition.
- 2004: A charity poll chooses "Waterloo" by ABBA as the most popular song in Melodifestivalen's history.
- 2005: Martin Stenmarck wins with “Las Vegas”. For the first time ever, the most popular song with the juries is not the most popular with the televoters. Nanne Grönvall, with “Håll om mig” had achieved approximately a quarter of all the 1.6 million televotes, but was beaten by three points in the final rankings, causing disappointment among many Swedish music fans.
- 2006: Carola wins the Melodifestivalen for the third time.
Current Format and Rules
The songs for the competition are decided upon by an “expert” jury made up of people from the music industry, Swedish broadcasting and members of the public from all age groups. There is also a “joker” system whereby four songs/artists (one in each semifinal) are directly invited by SVT.Semi finals
Semi finals were reintroduced to Melodifestivalen in 2002, although they had been used previously in the 1960s and 1970s. In the current format, eight songs participate in each of four semifinals and the top two automatically qualify for the final. The third and fourth placed songs go forward to the “Andra Chansen” (second chance) where they try to win the final two places in the final show. There are no juries in the semifinals, which are held in different towns and cities around Sweden.Final
The final has traditionally been held at Globen, Stockholm, however SVT wish to hold the final in Gothenburg in the near future.The current voting format has been in use since 1999. Eleven juries based in eleven towns and cities around Sweden award 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points for their seven favourite songs, with televoting points from the Swedish public being given an equivalent weighting. Yet from 2006 SVT have decided that the televoting points will be awarded by virtue of the percentage of the total votes a song has received, in a response to the 2005 result.
See also
External links
- SVT's official site (in Swedish)
- Information site about Melodifestivalen
- ESCSweden.com (in Swedish)
- Interval act at Melodifestivalen 2000 - a tongue-in-cheek performance of a medley of past Melodifestivalen schlagers from various years performed by MF veterans, giving an overview of the variety of songs featured throughout the 20th century - part 1, part 2
Eurovision Song Contest selection events | Melodifestivalen | Swedish music | Swedish television series
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"Melodifestivalen"