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 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 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.
First act already chosen
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 they will announce the names of the songs and songwriters in the fall.
Earlier in the year SVT confirmed that the format of Melodifestivalen will not change for next year’s contest.
Ben Robertson: “Serving on the Melodifestivalen jury”
Eurovision journalist Ben Robertson had one of sixteen places on the Melodifestivalen selection jury for 2016. After the contest, he opened up about the process in three highly interesting background articles. You can find the first one HERE.