Sweden was one of the contenders for victory, so it was hardly a surprise that the Scandinavian country ended up in the top 10 of the Eurovision Song Contest yet again. Sweden were placed into the top 5 after issues with the dismissal of the Belarusian jury.
In total they scored 241 from the professional juries and scored only 93 with the televoting public. The televoting result is a disappointing one for Sweden as Christer Bjorkman seeks to host the competition one more time in Sweden before retiring in 2021.
Melodifestivalen: a landslide victory
After John Lundvik gained a landslide victory in the Swedish pre-selection show, Melodifestivalen, gaining all the international jury 12 points in the grand final, the lack of public support in Tel Aviv did come as a bit of a shock to the Swedish delegation. His closest competitor in 2nd place, Bishara only gained a total of 107, whereas John Lundvik’s final total was 181.
Loreen and Mans Zelmerlow got stunning results with the jury at Melfest 2012 and 2015, but the numbers of Lundvik were stunning. The odds of him winning Eurovision 2019 rose, as he went to Tel Aviv.
Jury vote winner. Or not?
On the big night – because Lundvik was a certain qualifier in the second semi final – Lundvik got a lot of points from the jury. He even won the jury vote that night, but later that result got changed, so North Macedonia got the most points from the expert jury after all.
Just like in 2018 – even more extreme for Benjamin Ingrosso – it was the televote result that let Sweden down.
Legacy of Christer Bjorkman?
As we all know, Christer Bjorkman plans to stand down from Melodifestivalen in 2021, and he has made it known what his last mission is. He wants to get Sweden the number of wins needed to bring them up to par with Ireland, which means they would only need one win in order to do so.
After a disappointing public reaction to ‘Too late for Love’, will Sweden pull out all the stops to aim for the win in 2020. Björkman craves to bring Sweden up to par with Ireland before he steps down from the show that he has made so successful not just in Sweden, but all over Europe. Melodifestivalen under Christer Bjorkman has become the National Final that everyone watches ever year. The current format of heats, second chance and the grand final have proven successful, and the format will continue once he hands over to whoever will be replacing him at SVT.