Melodifestivalen point system to be changed for 2018

Melodifestivalen will change their point scale and will start using the same one as in Eurovision. This will give the audience a little bit more power when it comes to choosing the winner.

Jury to give points to 10 instead of 7

Ever since 1999, the jury of Melodifestivalen has been awarding points 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1. In this 2017 this meant only half of the songs got points from one jury.
Now Melodifestivalen will start using the same point scale as Eurovision has used since 1975. The change causes the jury groups to rank 10 contributions instead of only 7 out of 12 in the final. This will also increase the total amount of points awarded by jury and the televote from 473 to 638.

Televote will matter even more

This means the power of the people increases from two directions. The differences between the contributions in the jury’s points distribution will be smaller, while the differences will increase among the people.
With the old system, four times audience’s favourite failed to win. In 2013 Yohio won the televote with “Heartbreak Hotel”, but Robin Stjernberg was sent to represent Sweden after placing second with televote and jury vote.
Sanna Nielsen got very close to winning in 2008 after winning the televote, but jury placed her only third and Charlotte Perrelli won with “Hero”.
Nanne Grönvall was the favourite of Swedish people in 2005, but Martin Stenmarck won Melodifestivalen after being the favourite of Swedish juries and finishing second in the televote.

Robin Bengtsson would have won, but with a smaller margin

Last year Robin Bengtsson won the jury vote, but finished only third in the televote. This was still enough for him to win over televote winner Nano. Robin represented Sweden in Kyiv with “I Can’t Go On” and placed fifth in the final.
Robin still would have won Melodifestivalen 2017 with the new point scale, but with a smaller margin.
What do you think about the change? Let us know below or on social media @ESCXTRA!