Melodifestivalen

Melodifestivalen (translated as the "Melody Festival") is a Swedish annual music competition held to decide Sweden's song and performer at the Eurovision Song Contest. It is organised by Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR).

 History 
It has been staged under various formats almost every year since Sweden first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958. The first year, no TV or radio broadcasted event was held, but in 1959, the first public competition was held. The competition is the most popular television programme in Sweden, a title it has held since 2000, at times eclipsing even Eurovision itself. In 2007, an estimated four million Swedes—almost 44% of the country's population—watched the final, while the semifinals averaged around 3.1 million viewers.

The winner is chosen by a number of regional juries and a national televote. Until 2001 the competition was normally limited to between eight and twelve songs (in 1981, only five songs), but since the introduction of semifinals in 2002 that number has risen to thirty-two.

The Melodifestival has produced five Eurovision-winning songs and fifteen placings in the top five for Sweden at the Contest. The event is often seen as being dominated by light orchestrated pop songs, known locally as Schlager. music—so much so that it is sometimes referred to as "Schlagerfestivalen" (the "Schlager Festival") or "Schlager-SM" ("Swedish schlager championship") by the Swedish media but other styles of music such as rap, reggae and glam rock have made an appearance since the competition's expansion. 

The competition makes a significant impact on music charts in Sweden; twenty-three participants reached the domestic singles chart in 2006 and twenty-one in 2007. There would have been more people taking part, but Agnes Carlsson was disqualified because she discussed her song in an interview with the Aftonblad newspaper.

 Format 
Created in 1958, Melodifestivalen has been the competition which all but one of the Swedish Eurovision entries had to go through. There are typically four "heats" of around seven entries each. From each heat, the two most voted-for entries go through to the final while the 3rd and 4th placed entries from each heat go to the "Second Chance Round". From this round, four more finalists are chosen. 

In 2022, the second-chance round was replaced with a semi-final where the eight winners of the heats were taken down to four finalists. In 2024, the semi-final will be scrapped and a new fifth heat will be added.

 Winners 
There have been fifty-six winners of Melodifestivalen. 
YearArtistSongResult 
(in Eurovision)1959Siw Malmkvist"Augustin"9th (performed by Brita Borg)1960Östen Warnerbring & Inger Berggren"Alla andra får varann"10th (performed by Siw Malmkvist)1961Siw Malmkvist & Gunnar Wiklund"April, april"14th (performed by Lill-Babs)1962Inger Berggren & Lily Berglund"Sol och vår"7th1963Monica Zetterlund & Carli Tornehave"En gång i Stockholm"13th1966Lill Lindfors & Svante Thuresson"Nygammal vals"2nd1967Östen Warnerbring"Som en dröm"8th1968Claes-Göran Hederström"Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig"5th1969Tommy Körberg"Judy, min vän"9th1971Family Four"Vita vidder"6th1972"Härliga sommardag"13th1973Malta"Sommaren som aldrig säger nej"5th (as "You're Summer")1974ABBA"Waterloo"1st1975Lasse Berghagen"Jennie, Jennie"8th1977Forbes"Beatles"18th1978Björn Skifs"Det blir alltid värre framåt natten"14th1979Ted Gärdestad"Satellit"17th1980Tomas Ledin"Just nu!"10th1981Björn Skifs"Fångad i en dröm"10th1982Chips"Dag efter dag"8th1983Carola Häggkvist"Främling"3rd1984Herreys"Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley"1st1985Kikki Danielsson"Bra vibrationer"3rd1986Lasse Holm & Monica Törnell"E' de' det här du kallar kärlek?"5th1987Lotta Engberg"Fyra bugg och en Coca Cola"12th (as "Boogaloo")1988Tommy Körberg"Stad i ljus"12th1989Tommy Nilsson"En dag"4th1990Edin-Ådahl"Som en vind"16th1991Carola Häggkvist"Fångad av en stormvind"1st1992Christer Björkman"I morgon är en annan dag"22nd1993Arvingarna"Eloise"7th1994Roger Pontare & Marie Bergman"Stjärnorna"13th1995Jan Johansen"Se på mig"3rd1996One More Time"Den vilda"3rd1997Blond"Bara hon älskar mig"14th1998Jill Johnson"Kärleken är"10th1999Charlotte Nilsson"Tusen och en natt"1st (as "Take Me to Your Heaven")2000Roger Pontare"När vindarna viskar mitt namn"7th (as "When Spirits Are Calling My Name")2001Friends"Lyssna till ditt hjärta"5th (as "Listen To Your Heartbeat")2002Afro-Dite"Never Let It Go"8th2003Fame"Give Me Your Love"5th2004Lena Philipsson"Det gör ont"5th (as "It Hurts")2005Martin Stenmarck"Las Vegas"19th2006Carola"Evighet"5th (as "Invincible")2007The Ark"The Worrying Kind"18th2008Charlotte Perrelli"Hero"18th2009Malena Ernman"La Voix"21st2010Anna Bergendahl"This Is My Life"26th (eliminated in semi-finals)2011Eric Saade"Popular"3rd2012Loreen"Euphoria"1st2013Robin Stjernberg"You"14th2014Sanna Nielsen"Undo"3rd2015Måns Zelmerlöw"Heroes"1st2016Frans"If I Were Sorry"5th2017Robin Bengtsson"I Can't Go On"5th2018Benjamin Ingrosso"Dance You Off"7th2019John Lundvik"Too Late For Love"5th2020The Mamas"Move"Contest cancelled2021Tusse"Voices"14th2022Cornelia Jakobs"Hold Me Closer"4th2023Loreen"Tattoo"1st2024Marcus & Martinus"Unforgettable"9th2025KAJ"Bara bada bastu"4th

 Other websites 

Category:1958 establishments in Europe
Category:1950s establishments in Sweden
Category:Eurovision Song Contest selection events
Category:Music competitions
Category:Swedish music