SVT have opened Melodifestivalen song submissions for next year’s contest. They run from today, August 26th, until September 13th.
The song submission window to find Sweden’s next Eurovision entry has begun! The selection of Amanda Aasa on Saturday found the first contestant for next year’s show, and this opening has come two days after.
The broadcaster opened the submission window at 9.00am this morning in Sweden. This will run until 15th September, making it just under 3 weeks for interested acts to submit their songs.
Aiming for 50% female writing teams
A stated aim for SVT in the contact form is for ‘at least 50% of the selected entries to be written solely by female composers/lyricists or by a team consisting of both male and female composers/lyricists’. This showcases a message of gender diversity from the broadcaster.
The rules for Melodifestivalen stipulate that 28 entries will compete. 14 entries will be selected from this process by a jury, while a further 14 will be specially invited by SVT or selected by SVT from this process. Further information on the rules can be found at this page.
In 2015, SVT reduced the number of selected entries from 32 to 28. The broadcaster explained that the reduction would guarantee a grand final with the highest quality of songs.
Melodifestivalen turns 60
The Eurovision 2020 season will mark the 60th Melodifestivalen show to have been held, as Sweden enters Eurovision for the 60th time.
Sweden will be looking to follow up a very respectable 5th place for John Lundvik in Tel Aviv with ‘Too Late For Love’. Lundvik followed a longer trend of Sweden achieving great success at Eurovision, making the top five an astonishing seven times in the last decade. Expectations will be very high for Lundvik’s successor to achieve similar.
Who do you hope enters Melodifestivalen? Should Sweden be looking for another entry by John Lundvik? Let us know in the comments below and on our social media @ESCXTRA.
