On Saturday night, Sweden will hold the grand final of Melodifestivalen 2020 and decide the Swedish act for Rotterdam. But there will be a change with how the results are presented. This year, Melfest will use a Eurovision-style results presentation, with the televote score given in the order of the jury results.
The news was confirmed today by Melodifestivalen competition producer Karin Gunnarsson. She commented, “We think it adds to the excitement of the program and that the result is most unpredictable in that way.”
At Saturday night’s grand final, the jury results will be presented in the usual way with the eight jury spokespeople revealing their country’s points. At the end of this, a total running will be presented with the contestants’ places after the jury voting. But after this things change.
In the past, the Swedish televote results were presented in order of lowest to highest. However, this time, they will be presented in order of the lowest to highest-ranked songs from the jury vote. So the entry with the lowest jury score will get their televote score presented first, and so on.
If the televote and jury favourites are the same — as is usually the case in Melodifestivalen — the act will be the last to receive their televote score and will also receive the highest televote points.
However, if a televote favourite was one of the jury’s least favourite songs, this act could get their high televote score delivered early on. This happened at Eurovision 2019, when eventual televote winners KEiiNO finished 18th with the grand final jury votes, but received a massive 291 points early on when the televote totals were revealed.
This system also led to one of the most dramatic moments of Eurovision 2019. After the jury votes were revealed, Sweden led the table. Being the last left to receive their televote points, John Lundvik eagerly waited to see if the televoters of Europe felt the same and had given Sweden its seventh Eurovision win.
But it wasn’t to be. Sweden was ninth in the televote and picked up on 93 more points, not enough to put “Too Late For Love” in the lead.
However, this format has been criticised for its potential to put too much attention on the less successful acts and for the winning moment being focused too much on the “losing” jury vote frontrunner.
It’s important to note that the Melodifestivalen voting system — the way the winner is decided — remains the same. It’s only how the points and eventual winner are revealed that will be different.
The grand final of Melodifestivalen 2020 will take place on Saturday night at Friends Arena in Stockholm.
What do you think of the change to the Melodifestivalen results presentation? Will it improve the show? Tell us your thoughts below!
Joe! You can be happy today! Mamas are back! Like you wished all that time back when the national final season had just started!
Aargh why have they done this?! The year after it was a Swedish act who had to sit there and react graciously as all of Europe heard how he hadn’t got anywhere near enough viewer votes to win. I don’t understand how anyone could have watched last year’s final and thought that it was something to emulate.
Or maybe this is just an early April fool day joke? 😀 Maybe they should get every ESC country involved in the jury voting… so voting last for 1 hour 😀 Now that would make the winner more unpredictable + I like watching the voting haha
This was a disaster at Eurovision they should be moving as far away from this as possible
I don”t like these system. If I for example have voted for an artist/song and this artist/song get it”s points I know right away if it has lost. There is no more chans and therefore not exciting. The result from the televoters also goes to fast. I think it would be bettet if the result of the televotes would be presented the same way as the international jury with 1-8, 10, 12 point from maybe voters age or other groups.
It’s the old system that does that. Someone in the middle of the scoreboard after the juryvote can recieve highest points in the televote for example. But you wouldn’t know if it’s the highest. Or someone at the top can recieve low points and drops, like Sweden in esc last year.. You never know the televote winner, or loser, til the very end.
Anis Don Demina wins the rehearsal polls from melodifestivalklubben!
Out of 1314
He got 367 votes – 27.9%
Second was Dotter with 151 votes – 11.5%
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/publiken-han-vinner-melodifestivalen-overlagset
Although the system creates drama, the old system gave the winners of televote their moment and it was easier to follow how each country did in televote. Now its just some random numbers
Bring back the old system. Same for Esc
I found this system to be way more confusing than the way the votes were presented before!
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I find the whole system complicated. It’s complicated to follow and you don’t know who is first, second and so. Saying 123 points is pointless since you dont know the relation of the score.
The previous system was much more exciting
I like the system. I get the complaints, but the suspense is even greater since it’s even less obvious who’ll win.
Agree.
But Joe it is obvious to anyone who can work out how many points there left to award. And there will always be someone who does that. The maths eliminates the suspense. So instead of being titled “EUROVISION 2019 GRAND FINAL – EXCITING MOMENT …” that clip should more accurately be called “EUROVISION 2019 GRAND FINAL – MOMENT WHEN SOMEONE SHOUTED OUT THAT THERE WERE ONLY 93 POINTS LEFT FOR JON LUNDVIG”
The new system will, just like in Eurovision, diminish the importance of a televoting winner. It took me awhile later to realize that it were Keiino, not Duncan, who won with the televoters. This move may be more “thrilling” in a short run, but it really puts jury winner in a much bigger spotlight than the televoting one if they aren’t the same.
I’m okay with that, though. The televote winner doesn’t really have any importance in itself, except in how many points it receives, same as anybody else. There’s only one winner, the person with the most points overall. I don’t want there to be an alternate “moral” winner. This new system draws less attention to the televote, true, but it’s still more than they got pre-2016.
Of course there is only one final winner. Only one act will proceed to Rotterdam. But it is important to have a full picture of who each group awarded the highest points. Jury winner has that spotlight. Televote winner doesn’t. Speaking of that, I firmly believe that since the situation turned out like it did, with Keiino never being highlighted and Tamara’s points altered later, that the two should be invited to open the semis. Duncan should perform in the final as it’s his big win and his country. I’d rather have three “moral winners” than the results being that… Read more »
Tamara Todevska would deserve that even more than Tamta and every other act who rised after the change of results, as she wasn’t highlighted as the jury winner
Yeah, it’s not perfect. I don’t think Keiino or Tamara were really cheated of anything, though. Il Volo got no on-screen credit whatsoever for topping the televote, or Raphael Gualazzi for topping the televote. Poor Italy! Last year was a mess, you’re right, but with the jury vote being so close and 58 points being fake, I’m not really comfortable with calling anyone the true (jury) winner.
I agree. Neither jurywinner nor telewinner matters because it’s not relevant, unless one of them wins the whole thing. There is only one winner, no moral winners or anything. You dont get a prize for winning televote because you haven’t won anything
Then, by your logic, winning the jury is equally irrelevant, yet this system gives a really big highlight to that one.
Now, another idea. Let the spokespersons from every country present the televotes. Then present all the gathered jury votes points, beginning with the lowest scored from the televotes. That’s transparent. And people get the chance to evaluate if the juries are even necessary.
That does make more sense. However, it would mean the jury vote upturning the public vote rather than the other way around. Or at least it would be seen that way, which would not go down well. If I were executive supervisor, I would go back to pre-2016 style even if it meant losing a little excitement. Also I’d let the spokespeople read out points 8,10 & 12 – it hardly seems worth their time now.
I don’t think it is worthwhile to have spokespeople at all, at least not on screen. Forty plus of them take up too much time and they add little to the programme other than to be the butt of jokes by the Norton brigade. My suggestion: 1. The final result is computed internally 2. The ultimately top 10 countries are announced with their jury score only 3. The televote scores are announced and added one by one in ascending order of that jury ranking. 4. After the final result is revealed then the order of the bottom 16 is made… Read more »
I dont care just hope for Sweden to die
you must be a lovely human being
Jerk
How horrible! In light of the Corona Virus!! Millions are dying, shame on you!!
You can’t count.
John Lundvik is gonna hand the trophy to the new winner so he’s gonna be there. Why give him war flashbacks after last year’s moment between Sweden and the Netherlands?? lol
No just no