The final of the Swedish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, Melodifestivalen 2026, was watched by just under 3 million viewers.
An average of 2,785,000 viewers watched the final of Melodifestivalen 2026 last Saturday night. The figure represents a decrease in the audience compared to 2025 by 236,000 viewers, going back to the same numbers of the final of Melodifestivalen 2024.
Across the selection, the audience on SVT1 for the contest was:
- Heat One – 2,679,000 viewers
- Heat Two – 2,547,000 viewers
- Heat Three – 2,213,000 viewers
- Heat Four – 2,232,000 viewers
- Heat Five – 2,207,000 viewers
- Grand Final – 2,785,000 viewers
Besides the Grand Final, the Second Heat was the most watched event of Melodifestivalen 2026. Felicia, the overall winner of the Festival, competed for the first time during Heat Two.
The grand final of Melodifestivalen 2026 took place in Stockholm’s Strawberry Arena, following 6 weeks of competition and was hosted by Gina Dirawi and Hampus Nessvold.
A total of 12 acts competed to represent Sweden in Vienna next May. The final results were decided by a split vote between an international jury (50%) and the audience vote (50%). The results were as follows:
| Running order | Artist | Song | Jury points | Televote points | Total points | Result |
| 1 | A*Teens | “Iconic” | 31 | 36 | 67 | 7th |
| 2 | Meira Omar | “Dooset Daram” | 33 | 8 | 41 | 9th |
| 3 | Lilla Al-Fadji | “Delulu” | 24 | 39 | 63 | 8th |
| 4 | Saga Ludvigsson | “Ain’t Today” | 5 | 13 | 18 | 12th |
| 5 | Smash Into Pieces | “Hollow” | 49 | 41 | 90 | 4th |
| 6 | Cimberly | “Eternity” | 48 | 30 | 78 | 6th |
| 7 | Medina | “Viva l’amor” | 66 | 66 | 132 | 3rd |
| 8 | Greczula | “Half of Me” | 64 | 70 | 134 | 2nd |
| 9 | Robin Bengtsson | “Honey Honey” | 22 | 7 | 29 | 11th |
| 10 | Felicia | “My system” | 71 | 90 | 161 | 1st |
| 11 | Sanna Nielsen | “Waste Your Love” | 17 | 16 | 33 | 10th |
| 12 | Brandsta City Slackers | “Rakt in i elden” | 34 | 48 | 82 | 5th |
Felicia will perform in the first half of the first semi final on May 12.
Source: MMS
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 7 times, tying with Ireland, the most recent being in 2023. Abba´s win in Brighton 1974 with the song “Waterloo” marked Sweden’s first victory. Since missing out on the final in 2010, the country has gone on to finish 3rd twice and has won the contest three times. Only in 2013 and 2021 did the country place outside of the top 10 in the final.
