The second chance round for Melodifestivalen coming up this Saturday in Sweden brings with it an exciting new change.
SVT has revealed that for the first time the duels will be completely separated within the program, by presenting the results directly after each duel. Therefore the program will cover four sets of results during the night.
In 2015 the system for the second chance round was changed so that the eight songs competing were divided into four duels, with one song from each duel qualifying to the final. In the first year, two winners were presented at a time and in the last two years, all of the winners were presented at the end of the program.
Björn Wahren, the content producer of the show, has said that this adjustment would hopefully add to the fun of the viewers voting:
We think it will be more fun to vote as a viewer when you get a receipt for the results right away
Duels taking place in this year’s second chance round:
• Margaret – Moncho
• Renaida – Olivia Eliasson
• Felix Sandman – Mimi Werner
• Sigrid Bernson – Mendez
The winner of each duel will advance to the Melodifestivalen final on 10 March in the Friends Arena in Stockholm.
Similarly to previous years, the starting order for the Final will be presented in the live broadcast at the end of Saturday night’s program.
Already qualified to the final from previous weeks are Benjamin Ingrosso, John Lundvik, LIAMOO, Samir & Viktor, Martin Almgren and Jessica Andersson. All of the performances are now available to watch on the official Melodifestivalen YouTube page.
The winner of Melodifestivalen 2018 will be determined by a combination of votes from international juries and the Swedish public. The 11 international juries that will determine 50% of the results are Albania, Armenia, Australia, Cyprus, France, Georgia, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
The winner will follow in the footsteps of Robin Bengtsson who represented Sweden in 2017 and finished in 5th place in Kyiv with I Can’t Go On.
Source: SVT
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
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.
