Melodifestivalen

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The logo for Melodifestivalen, which has been in use since 2002.

Melodifestivalen (IPA: [mɛlʊˈdiːfɛstɪˌvɑːlɛn]) is an annual music competition organised by Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio to determine the song and artist that will represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It has been staged under various formats every year since 1959, with the exceptions of 1964^[1], 1970^[2] and 1976^[3]. The competition is broadcast live on television and radio, with considerable popularity, being the most popular television programme in Sweden every year since 2000^[4]. In 2006, an estimated 4.2 million people — which is almost 47% of Sweden's population — watched the finals, while the semifinals had considerably lower numbers^[5]. The winner is chosen by a number of juries and a national televote. Until 2001 the competition was usually limited to between eight and twelve songs, but since the introduction of semifinals in 2002 that number has risen to 32. The competition is usually seen as being dominated by schlager and dansband music, so much so that the competition is sometimes referred to as Schlagerfestivalen^[6][7] by the Swedish media, but other styles of music such as rap, reggae and glam metal have made an appearance in recent years, with varying degrees of success. The competition's impact on the Swedish music charts is enormous, with 18 participanting songs making the Hitlistan chart in 2005^[8] and 23 in 2006^[9]. The most recent Melodifestivalen, Melodifestivalen 2007, was won by The Ark with "The Worrying Kind".

[edit] History

[edit] 1959–1969

Mona Grain performing "Alexander" at Melodifestivalen 1960. This is the oldest footage of Melodifestivalen remaining in SVT's archives.

Following Sveriges Radio's^[10] internal selection of Alice Babs as their Eurovision Song Contest 1958 representative, the first Melodifestivalen proper (at the time known as Säg det med musik: stora schlagertävlingen) took place on 29 January, 1959 at Cirkus in Stockholm with an "expert" jury deciding the winner. The competition was won by Siw Malmkvist performing "Augustin", but SVT had decided beforehand that the winning song (whichever song that may have been) would be performed by Brita Borg at the Eurovision Song Contest. This policy of internally selecting the artist and only having a televised selection for the song continued until 1961. The competition’s name changed again in 1960, becoming the Eurovisionschlagern, svensk final. This name was retained until 1963, when Sweden achieved their first and only "nul points" at the Eurovision Song Contest with Monica Zetterlund performing "En gång i Stockholm". Between 1960 and 1963, the participating songs were performed by two artists in the national final, one with a large orchestra and another with a smaller one. This meant that in 1960 and 1961 two artists could have performed a song at Melodifestivalen, with a third singer singing the song at Eurovision. The 1960 and 1963 competitions also included a semifinal of sorts, where a jury would listen to the participating songs and select a number to go through to the final. Sweden did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 due to an artists' strike, so no competition was held.

The 1965 competition marked a change in attitude at SR, with less focus on performers and more on songwriters. The competition was now known as the Svensk sångfinal. Ingvar Wixell performed all of the songs in the final, an idea which the broadcasters never deliberately repeated. Wixell also performed the winning song "Annostädes vals" in English at the Eurovision Song Contest as "Absent Friends". No major changes to the format of Melodifestivalen were made for 1966, apart from allowing multiple artists to take part. Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson won the 1966 competition and finished second at the Eurovision Song Contest, which remained Sweden's best result until 1974. The competition adopted its current name Melodifestivalen in 1967.

[edit] 1970–1982

Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog of ABBA performing "Waterloo" at Melodifestivalen 1974.

Sweden's second Eurovision abstention was in 1970, this time as a result of a Nordic-led boycott of the Contest, due to the voting system which had led to a four-way tie at the 1969 contest. Melodifestivalen 1971 was organised as part of the Hylands hörna television series. Five semifinals were held and three acts participated in each; Tommy Körberg, Family Four and Sylvia Vrethammar. Family Four received the most postcard votes in each semifinal, so each song in the final was performed by them, an accidental repeat of the 1965 situation with Ingvar Wixell. Family Four won Melodifestivalen again in 1972, this time with ten different artists competing. No other artist has won the competition twice running. The 1974 winner, "Waterloo" by ABBA is widely considered the most popular Melodifestivalen^[11] and Eurovision^[12] song of all-time, and earned Sweden their first win at the Eurovision Song Contest 1974. ABBA were not first-time Melodifestivalen entrants, in fact they had participated in the 1973 competition as "Agnetha, Anni-Frid, Björn & Benny" singing "Ring Ring". Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson wrote four Melodifestivalen songs in total, three of which were also written by ABBA’s manager, Stikkan Andersson. Following SR’s hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm in 1975, it was argued by some left-wing groups that Sweden could not afford to win and host the contest again, which led to mass demonstrations against commercial music, and the organisation of an anti-commercial Alternativfestivalen. Sweden therefore could not participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, the third and last time the country has abstained from participating.

Melodifestivalen returned in 1977, with exactly the same format as had been used in 1975. Sweden's results at Eurovision markedly worsened during this period, with the country not finishing higher than tenth between 1977 and 1981. This period played host to one of the most tensely contested rivalries in the history of the competition, that of Björn Skifs and the pairing of Lasse Holm and Kikki Danielsson. In the 1978 final, Skifs' song "Det blir alltid värre framåt natten" and Danielsson and Holm's song "Miss Decibel" finished equal first on the same number of points, but Skifs' song was victorious following a tie-break vote from the regional juries. The two competed against each other again in 1981, with Skifs' song beating Chips (a band featuring Kikki Danielsson with a song written by Lasse Holm) again, this time by two points. When Danielsson and Holm finally did win in 1982 with "Dag efter dag", Danielsson claimed that they won because Björn Skifs was not taking part^[13].

[edit] 1983–1991

Style performing "Dover-Calais" at Melodifestivalen 1986. This year, music videos were used to illustrate the competing songs.

This was Sweden's most successful period at the Eurovision Song Contest, with two wins and two third place finishes. Melodifestivalen 1983 was the breakthrough of Carola Häggkvist, a 16-year-old singer from Stockholm. She won with "Främling", earning the full eight points from each of the eleven regional juries. The single sold one million copies^[14], becoming the most successful single in Sweden ever, and Carola became the first of a long line of Melodifestivalen winners to be managed by Bert Karlsson. "Främling" finished third at the Eurovision Song Contest. Sweden won Eurovision for the second time in 1984, with Herreys singing "Diggi-loo diggi-ley". Kikki Danielsson won Melodifestivalen again in 1985, this time as a soloist with "Bra vibrationer". In 1986, music videos of the songs were played and the juries narrowed the songs down to five finalists, which were performed to backing track. Melodifestivalen 1987 was won by Lotta Engberg, by one point over Arja Saijonmaa, the closest competition of this period. Viewing figures for Melodifestivalen peaked in 1990, with over five million viewers^[15]. Carola Häggkvist returned to the competition in 1990 with "Mitt i ett äventyr", which finished second after the broadcast was mysteriously interrupted during her act. (It is still debated between enthusiasts whether this was an intential coup or not.) She took part for a third time in 1991 with "Fångad av en stormvind", which won with 78 of a possible 88 points. She went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest in Rome that year, after a tie with France, Sweden's third Eurovision win.

[edit] 1992–present

Sweden's Eurovision results remained for the most part consistent after Carola Häggkvist's win, but the popularity of Melodifestivalen went into decline. Christer Björkman won in 1992, but finished second last at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. Televoting was introduced in 1993, but proved too cumbersome as it was possible for record companies to rig the vote. The regional juries were re-instated in 1994. 1998 was the last year that juries solely decided the winner. In 1999, televoting was re-introduced, this time permanently. Both the juries and televoters picked Charlotte Nilsson's "Tusen och en natt" as their favourite. She won the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 in Jerusalem, Sweden's fourth (and as of 2006 most recent) Eurovision win. This boosted the popularity of Melodifestivalen, and the 2000 competition was the most watched since 1993^[15]. Despite the upsurge in popularity, SVT made virtually no changes to the format of the competition. Melodifestivalen 2001 was won by Friends with "Lyssna till ditt hjärta", the first time a reality TV music act had won the competition.

Fame performing "Give Me Your Love" at Melodifestivalen 2003. They won and finished fifth at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Svante Stockselius, at the time head of Sveriges Television's entertainment division, was a driving force behind a major revamp of Melodifestivalen^[16]. Christer Björkman, winner of Melodifestivalen 1992, was appointed supervisor of the competition for 2002, and began a process of modernising the event.

The orchestra was scrapped, four semifinals and a Second Chance round were introduced and songs in languages other than Swedish were allowed. The final moved to the 12,000-seater Stockholm Globe Arena, where it has been ever since. The semifinals were held in different towns and cities across Sweden, the first time the competition had moved outside of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. A children's competition was started, called Lilla Melodifestivalen, which serves as the Swedish selection for the Melodi Grand Prix Nordic, and until 2005 selected the Swedish entry for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. While the expansion of the competition has had a huge impact in Sweden (nearly two million people voted in the 2006 final^[17], against just under 360,000 in 2001), Sweden’s Eurovision results have not improved significantly, with Fame and Carola Häggkvist’s fifth place finishes in 2003 and 2006 respectively being Sweden’s best Eurovision results since 2002. The 2004 competition saw the introduction of the wildcard system whereby four artists are selected by SVT and invited to take part in the competition. Lena Philipsson (one of the first wildcards) won in 2004, having lost out three times in the 1980s. The 2005 competition was hit with controversy, after Martin Stenmarck won the competition by three points over Nanne Grönvall, despite Grönvall receiving over 150,000 more televotes^[18]. The Second Chance round was revamped for 2007, becoming a full Saturday-night show in an arena, rather than a Sunday-afternoon programme from a television studio.

[edit] Table of past winners

[edit] Format

[edit] Preselection

[edit] Selection of songs

SVT usually begin looking for songs for Melodifestivalen nine months before the competition takes place^[22], within days of the previous year's Eurovision Song Contest finishing. The deadline for songs to be submitted is in September. Songs can be in any language, but songwriters must be Swedish residents over the age of sixteen. In the preselection, song length is limited to three minutes and twenty seconds^[23], but songs must be shortened to three minutes if they make the final 28. The songs are submitted as demos, and can be remixed or reproduced if they qualify. The preselection process for culling thousands of entries to just 28 is overseen by members of the Swedish Music Publishers Association^[24](SMFF), many of which compete as songwriters in the Melodifestival, a tradition that makes compositions by non-members rare in the finals. The selection of the SMFF are then are given to by a special sixteen-person jury^[25] made up of music professionals, people inside SVT and other members of the public. The jury ranges in age from teenagers to people in their fifties. The songs that qualify, along with their composers, are announced at the end of September, and this is usually followed by fervent speculation as to who will perform the songs.

[edit] Selection of artists

SVT themselves take on the task of selecting performers for the entries. The artist who performs a song on the demo automatically enters themselves into the running to perform in the competition, and must perform their song if a suitable alternative cannot be found, with the risk of disqualification if they refuse^[23]. This has happened in the past, with Carola Häggkvist in 2003^[26], and Stephen Simmonds in 2006^[27]. It is also possible that SVT could ignore the demo performer and give the song to another artist against the demo performer's wishes, as happened with the Brandsta City Släckers in 2004^[28] and Pernilla Wahlgren in 2005^[29]. The age limit of sixteen applies here also—but artists need not be Swedish. The Eurovision limit of six people on stage applies also. The artists that will perform the 28 songs from the traditional selection are announced in late November.

[edit] Wildcards

The wildcard (joker in Swedish) system was introduced in 2004, to give high-profile artists that would otherwise not participate the chance to enter. Four artists (one in each semifinal) are specially invited by SVT to enter a song of their choice into the competition. The wildcard songs and artists are announced in December or January. Melodifestivalen 2004 was won by a wildcard, Lena Philipsson, and the 2005 and 2006 competitions both featured wildcards in second place—Nanne Grönvall in 2005 and BWO in 2006.

[edit] Semifinals

Lena Philipsson announcing Kikki Danielsson's qualification from the Karlstad semifinal of Melodifestivalen 2006.

There are four semifinals each year, taking place on Saturday nights over four weeks in four towns and cities around Sweden. They usually begin in mid-February. Eight songs compete in each semifinal, seven from the traditional preselection and one of the wildcards. No juries are used, although a five-person jury was introduced for the first two semifinals in 2005, but was discontinued. The top five songs in the first round of televoting go through to the second voting round. Votes from the first voting round are not carried over the second. Out of the five remaining songs, the top two go through automatically to the final, and the third and fourth placed entries go through to the second chance round. A semifinal system was also used in the 1960s and 1971.

[edit] Second Chance

The Second Chance round (andra chansen in Swedish) is the round in which the final two places in the final are decided upon. The third and fourth placed songs from each semifinal (eight songs in total) qualify for the event. Until 2006, the songs were re-broadcast as recordings from the semifinals and a vote took place to narrow the number of songs down to three or four. Then another voting round took place to determine the two winners who get the final places. The programme was broadcast on a Sunday afternoon. From 2007, the Second Chance round will be a semifinal in itself, taking place in a full-size venue on a Saturday night, and the songs will be performed live. The format of voting has been changed as well; from 2007 a knock-out system was introduced, with the eight participating songs being paired off against each other and narrowed down to four, before being paired off again. The winners of the two final pairings go through to the final.

[edit] Final

The trophy for Melodifestivalen, designed by Ernst Billgren, was unveiled in 2005, and has been awarded to every winner since. It is called "Den stora sångfågeln" or "The Great Songbird".

The final takes place on the Saturday after the semifinals have finished, usually in mid-March. Ten songs participate, with the running order decided by a draw during the week beforehand. Every final since 2002 has taken place at the Stockholm Globe Arena. Final rehearsals for the final take place on the Friday, and in recent years tickets for it have sold out almost as quickly as the final itself^[30].

[edit] Voting

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. Televotes are given an equivalent weighting, with 11, 22, 44, 66, 88, 110 and 132 points being awarded. Two televoting numbers are used, one cheaper number from which profits go to phone companies and SVT, and one more expensive one from which profits go to SVT's Världens barn charity. SVT had decided that the televoting points for 2006 would be awarded by virtue of the percentage of the total votes a song has received, in a response to the 2005 result, but as no logical way of changing the voting could be decided upon, no changes were made.

[edit] Records and statistics

[edit] Participations and victories

The person with the most Melodifestivalen entries since the competition began is lyricist and one-time composer^[31] Ingela "Pling" Forsman, with 30 participations, most recently with Nanne Grönvall’s "Jag måste kyssa dig" in 2007. Her first entry was with "Men natten är vår" performed at Melodifestivalen 1981 by Kicki Moberg. Second place is Bobby Ljunggren with 26, most recently with his three entries in Melodifestivalen 2007; performed by Svante Thuresson & Anne-Lie Rydé, Sonja Aldén and Sanna Nielsen. Close behind are Thomas G:son with 21, Lasse Holm with 17 and Peter Himmelstrand with 15. Lasse Holm has the most Melodifestivalen wins, with five; once as a singer and four times as a songwriter. Songwriter Åke Gerhard has four victories, and Bobby Ljunggren, Carola Häggkvist, Ingela "Pling" Forsman and Marie Bergman have three wins each.

[edit] Venues

The Stockholm Globe Arena hosted its first Melodifestival in 1989, and has hosted six finals since then.

Melodifestivalen’s early years were spent at one single venue: Cirkus in Stockholm, which hosted the first ten competitions, between 1959 and 1969. In total, Cirkus hosted the Melodifestivalen final seventeen times, a record which stands to this day. The Stockholm Globe Arena has hosted seven finals (including the 2007 final), as has SVT’s "TV-Huset" headquarters. Stockholm has hosted 33 finals in total, including the first nineteen of the event’s history, while Gothenburg has hosted seven, and Malmö six. The competition’s final has never left these three cities. Since the introduction of semifinals in 2002, the only city which has hosted a significant number of semifinals is Gothenburg — the Scandinavium has hosted a semifinal in every year since 2003. Växjö (2002 and 2005), Jönköping (2003 and 2007), Sundsvall (2002 and 2003) and Karlstad (2004 and 2006) have staged two semifinals each.

The ten largest venues to have hosted semifinals are listed below in descending order of size:

[edit] See also

• Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Melodi Grand Prix
• Danish Melodi Grand Prix

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• (Swedish) SVT's official site
• (Swedish) ESCSweden.com
• (Swedish) Gylleneskor
• (English) ESC.info.se
• (English) esctoday.com