Melodifestivalen 2005 was the 45th edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen, which was organised by Sveriges Television (SVT) and took place over a five-week period between 12 February and 12 March 2005.
[1] Nanne Grönvall's defeat was met with consternation by many people, who felt that a gap of over 150,000 votes should be enough for victory.
There were even calls for SVT to scrap the jury system altogether and simply let the televotes decide the winner.
For a comparison, it was noted that Grönvall had received more votes than Lena Philipsson, the popular 2004 winner.
Unlike past years, where all Melodifestivalen participants were chosen by a selection jury, starting in 2004, four out of the 32 participants were selected directly by the contest's producers, in order to increase musical and artistic breadth.
The wildcards in 2005 were the following:[2] In the first two heats, a jury was used to select two of the five songs that would proceed to the second round of voting, with the intent of giving some entries that could be slow in accumulating votes a chance.
However, after heat 2, SVT dissolved the jury as it had chosen entries that were already voted by the viewers together with criticism that this reduced the people's influence in the result.
The jury consisted of:[3] The first heat took place on 12 February 2005 at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg.