[1] For the twelfth consecutive year, the competition consisted of four heats, a "second chance" round, and a final.

In addition, the winning artist of Svensktoppen nästa, a music competition organized by Sveriges Radio P4, automatically qualified to submit an entry for Melodifestivalen.

The final evening of the competition migrated to the newly built Friends Arena and for the first time since the creation of the current format, it did not take place at the Ericsson Globe.

Terese Fredenwall ultimately won the competition and on 19 October, SVT announced that she would compete in Melodifestivalen with the song "Breaking the Silence".

[6][7] For Melodifestivalen 2013, SVT decided to discontinue the Web Wildcard competition that was previously held between 2010 and 2012.

On 17 October 2012, SVT announced that the song "Island" performed by Elin Petersson had been selected and would receive the wildcard.

[8] On 19 November 2012, the first of two press conference was held to present the artists, songs, and composers for the competing entries in the first and second heats.

[9] On 26 November 2012, the second press conference was held to complete the line-up and present the remaining entries that would compete in the third and fourth heats.

[15] The Andra Chansen (Second Chance) round was held on 2 March in Löfbergs Lila Arena, Karlstad.

For example, if a song gained 10% of the public vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 473 points rounded to the nearest integer.

Robin Stjernberg was the winner with the song "You" after gaining the most points overall from the jury groups and achieving the second highest number of votes from the viewers.