Melodifestivalen (; ) 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, barring 1964 when no competition was held due to an artists' strike.
Overview Early experiments (1958–1969) Following Sveriges Radio's internal selection of Alice Babs as Sweden's representative for Eurovision 1958, the first Melodifestival, incorporated into the Säg det med musik radio series, took place on 29 January 1959 at Cirkus in Stockholm with four "expert" juries deciding the winner.Leif Thorsson. Melodifestivalen genom tiderna (1999, second edition 2006). Pg. 19. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. The competition was won by Siw Malmkvist performing "Augustin", but SR decided beforehand that the winning song—regardless of original performer—would be performed by Brita Borg at Eurovision. The policy of selecting the artist for Eurovision internally and having other artists perform contest entries at Melodifestival was adopted in 1960. In the early years of the event, it was broadcast to Norway and Denmark via the Nordvision network.Thorsson, pg. 17. The competition also became a stand-alone television event in 1960, as the Eurovisionschlagern, svensk final. A new format was imported from the Sanremo Music Festival, in which the participating songs were performed by two artists; one with a large orchestra and another with a smaller jazz quartet.
The changes meant that the 1960s winning song, "Alla andra får varann", was performed by three artists: Östen Warnerbring and Inger Berggren at Melodifestivalen, and Siw Malmkvist at Eurovision in London. This name and format was retained until 1963, when Sweden scored their first and only Eurovision "nul points" with "En gång i Stockholm" performed by Monica Zetterlund. The 1960 and 1963 competitions both included an informal semi-final, where a panel of judges would listen to the participating performers and select songs to go through to the televised final. Sweden did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964 due to an artists' strike, so no competition was held that year.Thorsson, pg. 48–49.
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. Ingvar Wixell performed all six songs in contention, a format that was dropped the following year. Wixell performed the winning song "Annorstädes vals" in English at the Eurovision Song Contest as "Absent Friends", making Sweden the first country to perform entirely in a non-native language at the Contest.Eurovision Song Contest 1965 . Eurovision.tv. Retrieved on 2 May 2007. Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson won the 1966 competition and finished second at Eurovision, which remained the best outcome in the Contest for Sweden until 1974. The competition adopted its current name, Melodifestivalen, in 1967. Demonstrations outside Cirkus marred the festival in 1969—that year's Eurovision was to be held in Madrid, capital of Francoist Spain, which led protesters to believe that Sweden should stage a boycott.Thorsson, pg. 76–77.
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.Thorsson, pg. 82–83. 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, "Waterloo" by ABBA, is considered the most popular Melodifestivalen and Eurovision song of all time, and earned Sweden their first Eurovision win. "Waterloo" was voted the most popular Eurovision song at a fiftieth anniversary concert in late 2005.Alla tiders Melodifestival . 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. ABBA was not new to performing at the festival. Anni-Frid Lyngstad performed solo in 1969, and the group 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 co-written by ABBA's manager, Stikkan Andersson. After SR staged the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, it was argued by left-wing groups that Sweden could not afford to win and host the Contest again. This led to mass demonstrations against commercial music and the organisation of an anti-commercial Alternativfestivalen.Thorsson, pg. 118–119. Sweden therefore could not send a song to Eurovision 1976, the third and most recent time the country abstained from participating.
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 Björn Skifs and the pairing of Lasse Holm and Kikki Danielsson. In the 1978 final, following a tie break, Skifs' song won victory over Danielsson and Holm (performing with Wizex).Thorsson, pg. 130. The two competed against each other again in 1981 when Skifs' song beat Chips—a band featuring Danielsson with a song written by Holm—by two points. When Chips won in 1982 with "Dag efter dag", Danielsson joked that they won that year because Björn Skifs did not take part.Melodifestivalen 1982 . Gylleneskor.se. Retrieved on 20 October 2006.
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.Thorsson, pg. 154
Not reaching the final five under the new format was seen as a major failure for an artist. When Elisabeth Andreassen failed to qualify in 1984, it almost ended her career.Thorsson, pg. 170. The same format can also make a success of an artist. Melodifestivalen 1983 was Carola Häggkvist's breakthrough as a singer. A 16-year-old singer from Norsborg, she won with "Främling" by earning the maximum eight points from all eleven juries. Häggkvist was one of a long list of Melodifestivalen winners managed by Bert Karlsson's Mariann Grammofon label.Andreas Ekström (4 March 2005). Storskalig attack gör Bert Karlsson till vinnare . Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved on 16 May 2007. "Främling" finished third at Eurovision 1983, and the single sold one million copies.Carola History. Carola.com. Retrieved on 21 October 2006.
Sweden won Eurovision for the second time in 1984 with talent-show winners Herreys—brothers Per, Louis and Richard Herrey—singing "Diggi-loo diggi-ley". In 1982 and between 1984 and 1987, the voting juries were sorted by age rather than locality. Audience viewing reached record numbers for Melodifestivalen in 1990 (over five million viewers saw Edin-Ådahl beat Carola Häggkvist to win the competition).Melodifestivalen—Tittarsifror . ESC.info.se. Retrieved on 21 October 2006. Häggkvist—now performing as simply Carola—took part for a third time in 1991 with "Fångad av en stormvind", which won with 78 of a possible 88 points. In a tie-break with the French song, she won Eurovision in Rome later that same year. The win was Sweden's third victory of thirty-one attempts at the Contest.
Decline in popularity (1992–2001) Sweden's Eurovision results generally remained consistent after Carola's win. However, the popularity of Melodifestivalen went into decline. 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.The tabloid's "winner" was Nick Borgen's "We are All the Winners". Thorsson, pg. 233 The regional juries were reinstated in 1994, which was the same year that Marie Bergman became the first singer to win Melodifestivalen three times.
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 Björn Kjellman.Björn Kjellman—Hela Sveriges Melodifestivalfan nummer 1 . Gylleneskor.se. Retrieved on 24 May 2007. The 1998 Contest was the last time in which jury votes alone decided the winner. In 1999, televoting was reintroduced permanently. However, unlike in 1993, the juries were retained and their votes counted for 50% of the final marks. Charlotte Nilsson's "Tusen och en natt" was the most popular song judged by both juries and televoters. The song went on to win the 1999 Eurovision in Jerusalem (Sweden's fourth Eurovision win). The win boosted the popularity of Melodifestivalen. The 2000 competition of the following year attracted the most viewers since 1993. That year was the final year in which a live orchestra performed.Thorsson, pg. 290. Melodifestivalen 2001 was won by Friends with "Lyssna till ditt hjärta". The win was the first time a reality TV music act won the competition.Thorsson, pg. 282–283.
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.Melodifestivalen 2002 . Gylleneskor.se. Retrieved on 29 January 2007. 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.