Melodifestivalen 2016 was the 56th edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen, which selected Sweden's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The competition was organised by (SVT) and took place over the six-week period between 6 February and 12 March 2016.
For the 15th consecutive year, the format of the competition consisted of six shows: four heat rounds, a second-chance round and a final. The 28 competing entries were divided into four heats, with seven compositions in each. From each heat, the songs that earned first and second place qualified directly to the final, while the songs that placed third and fourth proceeded to the Second Chance round. The bottom three songs in each heat were eliminated from the competition. An additional four entries qualified from the Second Chance round to the final, bringing the total number of competing entries in the final to 12. All six shows were hosted by Gina Dirawi, who was joined by guest co-hosts during each show: Petra Mede (heat 1), Henrik Schyffert (heat 3), Sarah Dawn Finer (heat 4), Peter Jöback and Ola Salo (Second Chance round) and William Spetz (final); Charlotte Perrelli was originally announced as the guest co-host for the second heat, however, her role was changed to guest performer due to a conflict of interest stemming from her endorsement deal with Swedish mobile brand Comviq.
An initial 28 entries were selected for the competition through three methods: an open call for song submissions, direct invitations to specific artists and songwriters and a wildcard given to one of the artists that participated in the Svensktoppen nästa competition organised by Sveriges Radio P4. Twenty-seven entries ultimately competed as one of the selected songs, "Himmel för två" to have been performed by Anna Book, was disqualified prior to the start of heats as it had competed in the 2014 Moldovan Eurovision Song Contest national selection, thus violating the rules of the competition.
"If I Were Sorry" performed by Frans was selected as the winner of the 2016 competition after scoring the highest number of points following the combination of votes from 11 international jury groups and a public vote consisting of telephone, SMS and app voting. The song represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, which took place in the Stockholm Globe Arena in Stockholm on 10, 12 and 14 May 2016. "If I Were Sorry" competed directly in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 on 14 May due to Sweden being the host nation for the contest following the victory of Måns Zelmerlöw and the song "Heroes" in . At the contest, Sweden placed fifth out of the 26 competing nations in the final, scoring 261 points.
Format Melodifestivalen 2016, organised by (SVT), was the fifteenth consecutive edition of the contest in which the competition took place in different cities across Sweden. The four heats were held at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg (6 February), the Malmö Arena in Malmö (13 February), the Himmelstalundshallen in Norrköping (20 February) and the Gavlerinken Arena in Gävle (27 February). The Second Chance round took place at the Halmstad Arena in Halmstad on 5 March while the final was held at the Friends Arena in Solna on 12 March. An initial twenty-eight entries were intended to compete in the heats, with seven entries taking part in each show. The first heat only featured six entries after one of the competing songs was disqualified. The top two entries from each heat advanced directly to the final, while the third and fourth placed entries advanced to the Second Chance round. The bottom three entries in each heat were eliminated. An additional four entries qualified to the final from the Second Chance round, bringing the total number of competing entries in the final to twelve.
Christer Björkman was announced as the executive producer and Annette Helenius as project manager of the competition, replacing Maria Ilstedt and Christel Tholse Willers, respectively, from the previous year.
+ Competition Schedule Show Date City Venue Hosts Heat 1 6 February Gothenburg Scandinavium Gina Dirawi Petra Mede Heat 2 13 February Malmö Malmö Arena Charlotte Perrelli (Guest performer) Heat 3 20 February Norrköping Himmelstalundshallen Henrik Schyffert Heat 4 27 February Gävle Gavlerinken Arena Sarah Dawn Finer Second Chance round 5 March Halmstad Halmstad Arena Peter Jöback and Ola Salo Final 12 March Solna Friends Arena William Spetz
Entry selection Entries for the 2016 competition were selected through three methods: 14 entries were chosen by a selection panel from submissions received by SVT through an open call for songs. 13 entries were selected by SVT via special invitations to artists and songwriters. 1 entry was provided by the selected artist from the competition Svensktoppen nästa organised by Sveriges Radio P4.
SVT opened two submission contests that accepted entries between 1 and 16 September 2015 for interested artists and songwriters to submit their proposals for the competition. The Regular contest was open for entries that had at least one songwriter that already had a musical work published, while the Public contest accepted entries from songwriters without previously published musical work. Entries submitted for the competition were required to be new compositions which had never been published between 2–3 minutes in length and with at least one songwriter that had Swedish citizenship. The choice of language was free, however, SVT reserved 30% of the contest's places for entries sung mainly in Swedish. SVT also aimed to have at least 50% of the contest's places for entries written by female composers and lyricists either in a solo or collaborative capacity.
Following the conclusion of the submission periods, SVT received 2,450 entries—an increase of 273 entries from the previous year. 1,982 of the entries were entered into the Regular contest, while 468 entries were entered into the Public contest. SVT created a shortlist of entries from the received submissions and formed a selection panel that was tasked to select fourteen entries for the competition. The selection panel consisted of seventeen members: ten men and seven women 18–64 years of age. Half of the jury members represented people working in or involved with the music industry (professional dancers, artist managers, music editors and programme/music directors) and the other half consisted of members of the public who are viewers of Melodifestivalen (with professions such as engineers, bloggers, teachers, consultants and students).
+Members of the Selection Panel Name Profession Anna Shimoda Editor in chief for Hänt.se, Aller Media Axel Scholtzé Production assistant Ben Robertson Teacher and member of Melodifestivalen club Carl-Philip Landin Consultant Cecilia Eriksson Student musician Edin Jusuframic Dancer and choreographer Ken Olausson Engineer and blogger Kerstin Behrendtz Music editor for Sveriges Radio P4 Lisa Arnold Dancer Magnus Rogmark Consultant Mari Hesthammaer Music editor for Sveriges Radio P3 Mari Ryberger Melodifestivalen entry producer Maria Ericson Artist manager for Allsång på Skansen, assistant project manager for Melodifestivalen 2016 Martin Glemme Marketing and PR Rickard Keilor Programme manager SBS Radio Robert Sehlberg Music director MTG Radio Simon Grusell Student
Presenters At a press conference on 17 November 2015, Gina Dirawi was presented as the main host for all six shows of Melodifestivalen 2016. Her selection as the host made Dirawi the first woman to host Melodifestivalen three times, having previously presented the competition in 2012 and 2013. Dirawi was joined by guest co-hosts during each show: Petra Mede (heat 1), Henrik Schyffert (heat 3), Sarah Dawn Finer (heat 4), Peter Jöback (Second Chance round), Ola Salo (Second Chance round) and William Spetz (final). Originally, Charlotte Perrelli was announced as the guest co-host for the second heat, however, after a breach of contract arose regarding Perrelli's endorsement deal with mobile phone brand Comviq, her role in the programme was changed to guest performer. Mede, Schyffert, Finer and Perrelli had all hosted Melodifestivalen on previous occasions; Mede in 2009, Schyffert in 2005, Finer in 2012, and Perrelli in 2003 and 2004.
Voting During the six shows, viewers could cast their votes through telephone, SMS and mobile application voting. For telephone and SMS voting, viewers were able to cast their vote through two different voting lines per voting method: a regular line costing 3.60 SEK and a donation line costing 9.90 SEK of which 8.90 SEK was donated to the charity organisation Radiohjälpen. Up to 20 votes could be cast per phone number per voting line, allowing a single phone number to contribute a maximum of 80 votes in each round of voting. With the mobile application, each device could send up to 5 votes for free per entry. The results of the heats and Second Chance round were determined solely by viewer votes, while in the final, the results were determined through a 50/50 combination of viewer votes and the votes of eleven international jury groups. 36,711,512 votes were cast in total during the six shows with 4,633,907 SEK collected for Radiohjälpen.
Competing entries The twenty-eight competing entries were announced to the public during a press conference on 30 November 2015. Prior to the press conference, it was only known that the group Smilo (formerly Smajling Swedes) had been selected for the competition from the artists that participated in the Svensktoppen nästa competition organised by Sveriges Radio P4.
Among the competing artists were former Melodifestivalen winners Tommy Nilsson (1989) and Martin Stenmarck (2005). Krista Siegfrids had also participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in where she represented Finland. Ace Wilder, After Dark, Anna Book, David Lindgren, Dolly Style, Isa, Linda Bengtzing, Mattias Andréasson, Molly Pettersson Hammar, Molly Sandén, Oscar Zia, Panetoz, Patrik Isaksson, Pernilla Andersson, Samir and Viktor, Swingfly and Uno Svenningsson have all participated in Melodifestivalen during previous editions. In addition to having participated in Melodifestivalen previously, Molly Sandén also represented Sweden in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006.
On 4 February 2016, SVT held a press conference where they announced that "Himmel för två", written by Sven-Inge Sjöberg, Lennart Wastesson, Larry Forsberg and Camilla Läckberg and to have been performed by Anna Book, was disqualified from the competition. The disqualification came two days before the song was set to be performed in the first heat after it was discovered that the song had previously competed in the audition stage of the 2014 Moldovan Eurovision Song Contest national selection under the title "Taking Care of a Broken Heart" with lyrics in English.