Melodifestivalen 2011 was a Swedish song contest held between February and March 2011. It selected Sweden's 51st song to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, and was the 50th edition of Melodifestivalen. Eric Saade, with the song "Popular", won the contest and thus was selected to represent Sweden in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.
Format
The 2011 edition of Melodifestivalen was similar to the previous year's arrangement, with four heats, a second-chance round and a grand final. The four heats were held in Luleå (5 February), Gothenburg (12 February), Linköping (19 February) and Malmö (26 February). The second chance round was held in Sundsvall on 5 March and the final in Stockholm was held on 12 March. SVT presented the competing songs during autumn 2010.
As in 2010 and 2009, a maximum of eight people were allowed on stage, while only persons of 16 years or over would be eligible. (However, in accordance with Eurovision rules, only six people were allowed on stage for the Swedish entry at Eurovision.) The main singer(s) had to perform vocals live on stage, however other backing vocals could be pre-recorded along with the song's backing track.
There was a large change in the way that the 32 songs were selected. In 2010, 27 songs were selected by a selection panel, 4 songs were then selected by SVT in order to diversify the musical quality of the contest and one song was then selected through a "Web wildcard" competition. Members of the public were allowed to submit songs onto the SVT website, with the public selecting one song through SMS voting. For 2011, this was changed: only 15 songs were selected by the selection panel. The remaining 15 songs were then selected by SVT, from remaining submissions made to the selection panel, or from specially invited artists and songs. The web wildcard competition was expanded; instead of just one song was chosen, the public selected two songs. The web wildcard competition began on 11 October, and ended with a live show on 8 November on SVT24, held at the Golden Hits nightclub in Stockholm.
Other changes introduced to Melodifestivalen 2011 were revealed by SVT. For the first time, non-Swedish songwriters were able to enter songs into the contest, as long as there is at least one Swedish songwriter also contributing. Solo singer-instrumentalists were now allowed to perform their instruments live during the TV broadcast.
On 17 November, SVT announced Marie Serneholt and Rickard Olsson as the hosts for the heats, the second chance and the final, but there was also a guest host in each program.
Changes
Reference:
All entries were submitted via Melodifestivalen website instead of by post. The selection panel and SVT chose fifteen entries each, instead of the selection panel choosing twenty-seven and SVT four. Foreign songwriters could post entries, but only in combination with at least one Swedish author. Artists were able to play at least one instrument live on stage. In the regular selection process, it was the only established songwriters who could submit entries. The public were only allowed to submit entries to the web wildcard competition. As in previous years, the songs may be up to three minutes on stage, but a new rule is that they must be at least two minutes long. The whole voting in the final will be changed. The total value of the votes are 946 points, which means that tele-votes and jury-votes represent 50/50 each. If an entry is getting 10% of the tele-votes it will be equivalent to 47 points. The Swedish jury groups are replaced by 11 international groups. Each jury group gives their points according to the ESC-standard: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points. If two songs end up at the same position, the people's votes will overrule the jury-votes.
Schedule
Entries
32 songs competed in Melodifestivalen 2011. 15 of them were selected from a public call for songs, in which public songwriters and artists could send in songs to SVT, until 21 September 2010. The format for the contest remained the same from last year's, the same format that was introduced in 2002. The 32 songs were presented over 4 heats. A public televote was held to select two songs to progress directly to the final, with the 3rd and 4th placed songs progressing to a Second Chance (Andra Chansen) round. The eight songs in the Second Chance round battled in duels until two songs are left, which also progress to the final. In the final, the votes of the public constituted 50% of the total vote, with the remaining 50% coming from the juries.
On 22 September, SVT announced that a record number of 3852 entries have been submitted. 424 of them were submitted to the web wildcard selection.