A total of 2771 songs have been submitted for Melodifestivalen 2018.
Swedish broadcaster SVT have revealed that the total number of songs submitted for next year’s Melodifestivalen is 2771. Out of these, 2324 have been submitted to the Ordinary competition, and 447 to the General competition. The General competition is made for songwriters who haven’t professionally released music before.This is the highest number of songs submitted since 2012, and has increased by almost 300 entries since last year.
Melodifestivalen Producer Christer Björkman said:
“We are very keen to start working with the selection process and are delighted that the interest of both the public and the music industry is still high”
The next step is for the song selection process to begin, which involves a jury lead by Karin Gunnarsson, the Vice-Contest Producer of Melodifestivalen. The jury will select 14 songs, and SVT will select a further 13 songs, to make the complete line-up.
The first artist in the final Melodifestivalen 2018 line-up has been chosen. Stiko Per Larsson won the competition P4 Nästa, and will therefore take part in next year’s edition of Melodifestivalen. He’s not allowed to compete with the song that he won P4 Nästa with, and will find a new song. SVT have confirmed that the names of the songs and songwriters will be announced in the fall.
Earlier in the year SVT confirmed that the format of Melodifestivalen will not change for next year’s contest.
Source: SVT
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Sweden debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 and has gone on to be one of the contest’s most successful countries. The country has won the contest six times, the most recent being in 2015. Sweden’s first victory came in 1974 when ABBA won the contest in Brighton with “Waterloo”. Since missing out on the final in 2010, Sweden has gone on to finish 3rd twice and has won the contest twice, only in 2013 did the country place outside of the top 10 in the final.
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WIKTORIA FOR VICTORY!!!
@Schultzebulle: I think they have a rule in place that says you can’t enter MF 3 consecutive years. Wiktoria entered this contest in 2016 and 2017. She would have to sit out 2018.
Once more, her brand of folktronica doesn’t seem to be working. What she gains in televotes, she loses from the jury. It may be time for her to try something different, next time she enters this contest; or do what Erika Selin (who competed at Ireland’s national contest in 2015, finishing 3rd) did; enter a song in a different national contest.