The Swedish national selection, Melodifestivalen, is back, and has just broadcast its first heat live from Saab Arena in Linköping. As usual, two artists qualified directly to the final, with a third one going to the “Final qualification” round, although the selection methods changed this year.
Greczula first to the final, A*Teens follow with the groups voting
The first entry to qualify was Greczula with “Half of Me”, for receiving the most votes overall in the evening.
The second entry to go “direkt till final” was chosen through the “age groups” point systems which has been in use in Melodifestivalen for a few years, with seven age groups and an eighth televote/paying vote group (the “Radiohjälpen” group) each giving points on a 12-10-8-5-3 scale to the five remaining songs.
The age group votes came from the free-to-use Melodifestivalen app (with five votes per user), while the eigth group consisted of both traditional televoters (voting through a charity line) and bonus votes from randomly selected app users over the age of 16, costing 10 SEK (equivalent to the televote cost).
After the full voting, A*Teens came first of the remaining five and got the ticket to the Stockholm final, with 92 points (out of a possible 96), where they will perform “Iconic”.
Jacqline to the Final Qualifiers
The actual TV show ended after the second qualification, with the third qualifier chosen in an online-only aftershow. This time, the raw number of votes were used again, instead of the points system, and Jacquline got through to the Final Qualifiers round with her song “Woman”, which will be held after Heat Five at the end of February, to select the last two entries to go through to the Final.
Who was your favourite tonight? How do you feel about the new voting systems and presentations? Tell us more in the comments below!
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