History of Melodifestivalen
A new format was imported from the Sanremo Music Festival, in which the participating songs were performed by two artists; one with a large orchestra and another with a smaller jazz quartet.
The changes meant that the 1960s winning song, "Alla andra får varann", was performed by three artists: Östen Warnerbring and Inger Berggren at Melodifestivalen, and Siw Malmkvist at Eurovision in London.
This name and format was retained until 1963, when Sweden scored their first and only Eurovision "nul points" with "En gång i Stockholm" performed by Monica Zetterlund.
The 1960 and 1963 competitions both included an informal semi-final, where a panel of judges would listen to the participating performers and select songs to go through to the televised final.
[d][4] Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson won the 1966 competition and finished second at Eurovision, which remained the best outcome in the Contest for Sweden until 1974.
Demonstrations outside Cirkus marred the festival in 1969—that year's Eurovision was to be held in Madrid, capital of Francoist Spain, which led protesters to believe that Sweden should stage a boycott.
[5] Due to a Nordic boycott of the voting system that led to a four-way tie for first place at the 1969 Contest, Sweden was absent at Eurovision for a second time in 1970.
The down time for Sweden became a period that witnessed the most tensely contested rivalries in the history of the competition, that of Björn Skifs and the pairing of Lasse Holm and Kikki Danielsson.
Häggkvist was one of a long list of Melodifestivalen winners managed by Bert Karlsson's Mariann Grammofon label.
Audience viewing reached record numbers for Melodifestivalen in 1990 (over five million viewers saw Edin-Ådahl beat Carola Häggkvist to win the competition).
[21] Christer Björkman, winner of the 1992 festival, was appointed supervisor of the competition for 2002 and began a process of modernising the event.
[22] The new heat system meant that the competition could "tour" the country, taking advantage of Sweden's ice hockey stadia.
In order to select a participant, Sveriges Radio and SKAP, the Swedish Society of Popular Music Composers, came together to choose an entrant internally.
Among the entrants was Stig Anderson, but the song selected to represent Sweden was "Lilla stjärna", performed by Alice Babs.
1959: Säg det med musik: Stora schlagertävlingen — The first Melodifestivalen proper took place at Cirkus in Stockholm in January 1959.
The winning song was "Alla andra får varann" performed with the large orchestra by Östen Warnerbring and with the kvartett by Inger Berggren.
Inger Berggren won with "Sol och vår" and, unlike in previous years, she also represented Sweden at Eurovision.
1966: Svensk sångfinal — The one-artist approach was scrapped, and Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson won with "Nygammal vals".
1970: No competition — There was no Melodifestival in 1970 as a protest by the Nordic broadcasters over the voting system at the Eurovision Song Contest, which had produced a four-way tie between France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain the previous year.
Following a count-back from the eleven regional juries, Skifs is declared the winner with "Det blir alltid värre framåt natten".
1979: Melodifestival — This year's festival marks the participation of numerous well-known faces in Swedish music: Py Bäckman, Ted Gärdestad, Magnus Uggla and Eva Dahlgren.
1981: Melodifestival — Another close finish, this time two points separate victorious Björn Skifs with "Fångad i en dröm" and Sweets 'n' Chips with "God morgon".
Lasse Holm & Monica Törnell win with "É dé det här du kallar kärlek?".
Lotta Engberg wins with "Fyra bugg och en coca-cola", which has its title changed to "Boogaloo (dansa rock 'n' roll)" for Eurovision.
1990: Melodifestival — The competition is held at Rondo in Gothenburg, a much smaller venue to the Globe Arena which hosted it the previous year.
1995: Melodifestival — Jan Johansen wins with "Se på mig", beating Cecilia Vennersten into second place.
Anna Bergendahl wins the competition with "This Is My Life", going on to become the only Swedish entry to date not to qualify for the Eurovision final.
2011: Melodifestivalen — Web wildcard competition expanded, television final in November – two acts selected for heats.
2020: Melodifestivalen – The Mamas win with "Move" in their first participation, after previously providing backing vocals for John Lundvik in 2019.
2022: Melodifestivalen – The Second Chance round is replaced by a semi-final, where the eight competing entries are divided into two groups, with the top two songs from each proceeding to the final.
