Melodifestivalen

Sweden will start on the road to pick its participant for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest on the 4th of February in Växjö. Final destination on March 10, will as usual be Globen in Stockholm. Six different cities around the country will be involved in next year's Melodifestivalen.  

The immensely popular Swedish TV series Allsång På Skansen had a somewhat sombre air about it yesterday, following the bomb blast and massacre in neighbouring country Norway. The Swedish people have also been greatly affected by the tragedy and Måns Zelmerlöw seized the opportunity to talk about the event in yesterday's show.

Big names such as Carola, Eric Saade, Andreas Johnson and Jessica Andersson all took part in the televised annual public celebration of the Swedish Crown Princess Victorias birthday.

Alcazar, almost a part of the fixtures and fittings at Melodifestivalen, have decided to split and the recent announcement has sent shockwaves amongst their fans.

The popular swedish tv program Allsång på Skansen has been aired for decades in Sweden. Many of this years guests has represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest or participated in the swedish national selection Melodifestivalen. The new host for the show is a well known name for those who followed Melodifestivalen in recent years - Måns Zelmerlöw.

Sweden hasn't been very lucky in Eurovision Song Contest for the last couple of years, but this certainly changed this year when Sweden placed third, behind Azerbaijan and Italy. This is the best result since Charlotte Perrelli (former Nilsson) won in Jerusalem 1999.

With fresh faced Eric riding high on favourite lists both with fans and bookmakers alike, his rehearsal was by far the most anticipated of the day. Plagued by numerous hitches, the first rehearsal was far from satisfactory, no doubt leaving SVT demanding answers as to what went wrong.

Top recording artist, Leandie Lombaard, from South Africa has just released her latest album.  It includes an Afrikaans version of the 2010 Swedish Melodifestival hit, Kom, by Timoteij.  Leandie had also recorded covers of some Eurovision songs on her previous album.

It happens every year that at least one of the entries for the Eurovision Song Contest is accused of having borrowed a little too much from another song. So far we had the Danish entry being similar to a long list of other songs and now the time has come to Sweden, who has kept it within their own country.

With Sweden choosing its participant tonight we have come to an end of the national finals. The Swedish population in combination with an international jury decided that Eric Saade will represent the country in May, despite hurting himself during tonight's performance. The national final offered several former participants in situations unfamiliar to them.

Sara Varga and The Moniker are the winners of the second chance heat in Melodifestivalen. The heat gave the 3rd and 4th placed songs of the four semi-finals a new chance to qualify to the final in Globen on Saturday the 12th of March.

Sanna Nielsen and Brolle were the winners of tonights 2nd semi-final of Melodifestivalen which took place in Göteborg. The Moniker and Loreen gets a second chance.

One of the participants in this year's Melodifestivalen has been arrested by the police. He is currently free, but still charged for women abuse while the police investigates the case. Swedish broadcaster, SVT, have had a meeting about it and is looking into the possibility of a disqualification.  

After a few years where the interest of composing songs for Melodifestivalen has been fairly low, SVT has now reached an all time high. This year 3832 songs are competing to represent Sweden in Germany next year. In addition to this twice as many applied to the Webbjoker competition.

Swedish broadcaster SVT has revealed which cities that will host Melodifestivalen 2011. Neither the cities or the format will be of any news to the dedicated viewers. One of the cities will celebrate its 10th anniversary as host next year, and all of the other cities has hosted the competition at least once before.

SVT launched the rules for Melodifestivalen 2011. The big news here are that SVT will hand-pick 15 instead of 4 songs, 15 song will be picked by a jury and 2 songs will be selected by the web wild card. Foreign song composers are also now allowed to submit their entries - if they have written the song with at least one swedish composer.

Just because Melodifestivalen and Eurovision Song Contest is over for this year it doesn't mean that there is nothing to do. On Tuesday the 29th of June the Swedish TV programme Allsång på Skansen premieres with stars as Carola and Anna Bergendahl. And as usual you will find several other artists from Melodifestivalen in the programs to follow .

Andreas Johnson is one of the favourites to win Melodifestivalen this year. Tonight he participated in the second heat in Sweden, a heat which on paper looked rather easy for him. Andreas Johnson did make it to the final, together with Eric Saade. Two other songs will get a second chance to qualify for the Swedish final.

When Chanée & N’evergreen goes on stage at the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo representing Denmark then it will be with a song both DR and SVT rejected for their 2009 selection. A year ago none of the countries liked In A Moment Like This.

Salem Al Fakir and Ola Svensson has advanced to the final in Globen as a result saturdays televoting result. Jessica Andersson and Pain of Salvation will have another chance to qualify for the final in the second chance heat on March 6th.