While other countries have already internally selected their acts for 2021, Sweden is sticking with what it does best — its six-decades-old national final Melodifestivalen. Broadcaster SVT has now released the entry rules for the 2021 edition of the competition.
It’s mostly business as usual for Melodifestivalen 2021. While there is no mention of COVID-19 in the rules, there’s also no sense that the competition will be scaled back. However, the venues for the six Melodifestivalen shows are still to be revealed.
In the rules, SVT confirms that the usual number of 28 acts will compete in the contest. As with previous years, 14 of the acts will be chosen by the selection jury from the songs entered via the open submission process. The other 14 songs will be internally selected by SVT from invited artists.
The Melodifestivalen 2021 rules also confirm that the winner of Mello 2021 will also be Sweden’s representative at Eurovision 2021. Therefore, there will be no changes to the way Sweden selects its act for Eurovision next year.
Entry is limited to Swedish citizens or residents, however people outside this category can collaborate with Swedish creatives.
While there is no language rule, SVT intends for at least ten of the competing songs to be in the Swedish language. Entrants can also submit versions of their song in different languages.
As well, SVT confirms that again, around half of the competing entries will have at least one female songwriter.
The broadcaster has also given a heads-up for a new rule coming in 2022. From next year, all songs written by more than one person should have at least one female songwriter. But this shouldn’t be difficult for Swedish songwriters to achieve. As it stands, most Melodifestivalen entries already have at least one female creative on the songwriting team.
The entry period for Melodifestivalen 2021 submissions opens on 24 August and closes just over three weeks later, on 16 September.
SVT will announce the selected entries for Melodifestivalen 2021 sometime in October or November.
The first Melodifestivalen 2021 act will come from P4 Nästa 2020
But fans won’t have to wait until November to learn the first competing act in Melodifestivalen 2021. One finalist from Sveriges Radio’s contest P4 Nästa will again receive a wildcard entry into the Melfest semi-finals.
The contest is run by the Swedish Radio network P4 and it aims to find new artists and new music suited to the station format. Most recently, Amanda Aasa competed at Mello 2020 with her song “Late”, which placed sixth in its semi-final.
Regional heats for P4 Nästa are currently taking place. From the 25 regional winners, eight acts will be selected to compete at the grand final on 12 September. From that contest, one act will be awarded wildcard entry to the Melodifestivalen grand final.
As the P4 Nästa final takes places before the 1 September release deadline for Eurovision songs, the winner of the Melodifestivalen wildcard must enter Melfest with a new song.
It’s not known how COVID-19 may impact the P4 Nästa grand final, however as it is primarily a radio contest, it will be more flexible than a television production.
What do you think? Who would you like to see enter Melodifestvialen 2021? What kind of song should Sweden send to Rotterdam? Tell us your thoughts below.
Read more Melodifestivalen 2021 news here
I feel really sorry for the Mamas, but they already had time on the Eurovision stage with John Lundvik. Tbh I wouldn’t want to cancel Sweden’s long running selection show that has been happening since 1959 and is cherished by literally everyone in Sweden. If we sent every artist that competed this year next year then NF season would be super boring, with no national finals. The female songwriter rule is sort of pushing the boundaries of gender equality in the fact that you are allowed two women, but not two men? Of course you can have one of each… Read more »
I do feel bad for The Mamas but look on the bright side they at least got to represent Sweden alongside John last year. I’m not surprised that Melfest is proceeding as normal, that’s just Sweden’s tradition. Expect Italy to do the same for San Remo. We just have to respect that..
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Melodifestivalen has been built to be a Eurovision selection contest, Sweden has always used it as its selection since 1959. San Remo is a standalone show that even predates Eurovision. Italy has used other selection methods for Eurovision even recently, in 2014 and 2012. So I don’t expect Italy to be so strict about it.
Especially since the date of Sanremo is apparently gonna be moved. That, coupled with how impactful Fai Rumore was in quarantine, I can’t imagine Diodato not being selected.
This behaviour is borderline abusive towards The Mamas, but why are people surprised? Sweden has had the same approach towards Eurovision for many years: industrial, ruthless and soulless. There’s not an ounce of humanity in the way they deal with this, and obviously it works very well for them. Why would they change?
Sweden is doing this just to correct the mistake of sending basically the same musical act like in 2019 with basically the same musical style, hoping they’ll achieve the same success. But guess what, it was not that great. Not that Sweden was not high on the charts and polls and betting odds, but it almost failed to qualify. Dotter was robbed, justice was made! They also should rewind some of their ridiculous rules in MF like…kids between 3-9 years old can vote? This is just absurd, what normal parents will give their little children phones, and especially to vote…… Read more »
Almost failed to qualify? To what? It won the first semi final easily. Dotter only got second in her semi final and for being such a hot favourite only won jury vote by default. Dotter fans should realise that she wasn’t the big mainstream favourite and was nothing more than another hyped up entry. And I say that as a fan of hers..
Dotter lost the chance to represent Sweden by 1 point from The Mamas, so… What are you talking about? And yes, I’m not sure The Mamas would have passed the semifinal in Eurovision this year, it was a tough semifinal and they were low in the polls, they were cute but the song was like the one they sang in 2019, too similar and Boring, nothing inovative or spectacular…
Melodifestivalen won’t change their format just to please some hard core fans fantasy of seeing all 2020 acts performing together, as some sort of good will gesture. MF is about new music, finding hits, cheering on your favourites, crowning a winner. That is the fun of MF. Most casual viewers who form the majority of viewers doesn’t really care about 2020 or prompting they all should perform. So no, no internal selection, no only Mamas in it and no MF without winner going to ESC. MF will change when bosses thinks this current MF isn’t working any more. It will… Read more »
As much as I would agree with all those wishing they could come back next year it was never going to happen. What a lot of people don’t understand is that melodifestivalen is absolutely huge in Sweden. It is a flagship series of shows which is as big if not bigger than eurovision. That sounds stupid but it’s true. The only way to honour this years act is to go ahead with the show and that the winner doesn’t get to go to Eurovision. I personally don’t think that would work because there’s no incentive to win and there would… Read more »
I’ll agree with the critics of the new songwriting rule. I respect the increasing Nordic validation of female artists, but this rule is by it’s definition breaking some gender equality laws (or at least dangerously dancing around them). If the rule stated that if there is more than one writer, they “have to be of a different gender”, that would be another thing. It would still be artistically limiting, but at least it could equally apply to all. This way, two women can submit a song, while two men can’t, which is in it’s essence a discrimination. I sense there… Read more »
A lot of people are upset over The Mamas not being selected by SVT for 2021 and I could understand that but nonetheless I fully support SVT’s decision to go along with Melodifestivalen 2021. One of the great things about Eurovision is following all of the national selections in the first few months of each year and if every country were to choose the same artists for next year, there would be nothing for us Eurovision fans to do in those months and it would be extremely boring.
Or each country could do a NF like Roxen’s and Eden Alene’s, which wouldn’t be boring.
Unless you have 28 gospel songs by the Mamas, which would be boring..
Interesting how Roxen’s and Eden’s selection had literally 5/4 songs rather than 28, so that isn’t even a valid comparison. 🙂
Romania’s national selection isn’t a 60 year old festival with its own tradition well beyond Eurovision. So comparing MF with Romania isn’t a valid comparison either IMO.
I still feel sorry for The Mamas, absolutely.
Yes those had 5 songs but MF has 28 songs. That is the format. meaning that you have to find other songs..
The way SVT is treating the Mamas is soulless
It blows my mind that more people here are annoyed by the female songwriter rule than the fact that the Mamas won’t be coming back next year. Considering the songwriter rule has been in place for a couple of years now and people were upset when Ulrikke wasn’t coming back. Seriously, how hard is it to skip Melfest for one year to give the spot to the rightful winners?
Maybe you could have Melfest, but do it so the winner doesn’t go to Eurovision if it’s that important. In my opinion, Move was far below what the Mamas were capable of, so almost any song could’ve been better for them. Either way, they definitely deserve to come back again, the show could still happen, but not send its winner to Eurovision.
The prestige of winning MF is that you get to ESC. Without it is not MF. People watch it for that purpose. And no one would take part knowing winning it is essentially pointless. That would only leave us with joke songs, bad Swedish language songs and so on. Having MF without the competition factor is like ESC without the contest aspect and one liked that..
Here below you’re telling me that “The Mamas haven’t been deprived of anything, they won Melodifestivalen 2020, got a number 1 single” and so basically they’re fine without the ESC. And here you’re saying “The prestige of winning MF is that you get to ESC. Without it is not MF”.
You can’t have it both ways, these 2 arguments are both coming from you and yet they’re mutually exclusive.
The fact that ESC got cancelled doesn’t change the fact that Mamas did win Melodifestival. SVT doesn’t owe Mamas anything, it wasn’t SVT that cancelled ESC.
So, what you’re saying is that SVT is ruining Melfest by not having the winner go to Eurovision. You were saying earlier that it was fine because the Mamas got really good exposure, but now you’ve admitted that the show is pointless without the winner going to Eurovision. Meaning there was no point to the Mamas participating. Sounds like they’re losing something
it would be fair though to give a spot to Mamas only because of cancellation. We all know that Melodifestivalen executives chose variety of songs and genres and usually ignore more sophisticated or different approaches. But I think is part on how SVT deals with big names. You cannot have as a country names like Robyn, Neneh Lykke Li, Royksopp, Tove Lo and you bring as an interval act Justin Timberlake! Or don’t celebrate Swedish music by bringing The Cardigans or Roxette artists with great history. It’s kind of dismissing your own country, no matter how great Justin is To… Read more »
melodifetivalen is just a tiny show in a small country?why makes it seem that important lmoa.
All these countries who are not sending their 2020 artist to ESC 2021 are really exhibiting an awful mindset. I get they need the national finals for their TV schedule, but what kind of TV channel can’t find any material to fill in 5-10 hours of broadcast (in a year!) with something else?!
This is very disrespectful for the artists in Sweden, Finland and Estonia (so far). Sweden is the worst as they’re not even offering anything to the Mamas.
It is a song contest, not a singing contest. As much a some want it, 2021 can’t be a re-hash of 2020. I don’t think it’s fair to new artist who perhaps wants a chance to compete, to strip them of that opportunity just because of some sense of “guilt”” towards last years artists. What if that artist has a really good potential winning song but get denied to perform it because 2020 winners never got their chance? Is that fairer?
What about in Ukraine? Go_A might’ve deprived a talented singer the chance to represent Ukraine, but no one cares. You could also say the same thing about Australia, Latvia and Slovenia, all of these countries cancelled national finals to give the 2020 artist the chance to perform for real next year. What makes Sweden so special? Let me guess, tradition, or some nonsense like that.
Oh I care. They should have given the opportunity to somebody new rather than clinging on to something old. But it is what it is, I can’t change that.
Some of the countries that give the artists the opportunity are doing it because it is too expensive to do another selection
This is not about having a “re-hash of 2020”, since 2020 did not even happen. 40 artists won the right to represent their countries and could not do it because of the circumstances, this is simply about letting them enjoy their chance. The “new artist who perhaps wants a chance to compete” are not a thing yet, since 2021 selection has not even started. Your rationale is to leave a hypothetical spot open for a hypothetical someone, while depriving an actual artist who has already actually won from their actual victory. Doesn’t make much sense. I’m not saying anything groundbreaking:… Read more »
Melodifestivalen is literally a song contest. The focus has always been on songs and song writers. it is not called Artistfestivalen, is it? The Mamas haven’t been deprived of anything, they won Melodifestivalen 2020, got a number 1 single. They got their exposure. In fact you can argue they did all that twice since they won in 2019 too. Melodifesttivalen 2021 is about finding a new winner for 2021. Why should the Mamas be granted anything since they won it? That doesn¨t make sense.. And if by chance The mamas get selected internally what do you suggest should happen with… Read more »
“And deprive us of national selection period”… Omg, lol. This is textbook definition of tone-deaf. 😀 I understand how traumatic and cruel it would be for some fans not to have a TV show to watch in March 2021 (…), but if that’s the trade-off then I would still choose to let these ladies enjoy the ESC as they rightfully earned the right to do. Or at least make a gesture and offer them a spot at Melfest, but let’s not treat them like they don’t even exist. But I got the point: it’s a song contest, so artists are… Read more »
The female songwriter rule should not be a surprise. In fact, it is an update to an older Mello rule (I think from like 2013 or something) where like 1/3 of the entries should have a female songwriter. So they just increased that margin… a whole lot, and I personally don’t see it as a bad thing.
Yes but having an extra songwriter is a complex think, I mean the songwriting team has many rights on the song and they share the money. I believe that the real songwriters wouldn’t be happy to share their money with a non real composer .
Could there ever be a situation with Melodifestivalen as there is with San Remo, where the winner decides that they don’t want to do the Eurovision Song Contest?
Actually rulewise SVT decides who goes to ESC. So technically if SVT doesn’t find the winner good enough they can replace it. But they never done it, precisely because it is the people’s will.
SVT has done it before, but it was in late 50’s or early 60’s if I remember right, they kept the song but chose to go with another singer for it
is that even a valid argument though since literally no entries from Sweden have even been in Swedish since 1998
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I feel bad for The Mamas. They had a strong melfest to win, beat Dotter the favorite and nothing. I would expect SVT to announce the first wildcard is them. They must get a chance to win again.
Wildcard? We don’t have those.
Andra Chansen
Well at least winning MelFest is quite the achievement in itself, so it wasn’t all for nothing.
That whole female songwriter rule isn’t really that weird. Most of the songs already have female songwriters, this wont make any difference. I mean wasn’t “Move ” an mostly female project? Swedes wont even reflect upon that rule.
If most of the songs already have female songwriters then why is the rupe necessary? It only makes the rule sound even weirder.
exactly, lately more and more people are searching for inequality where there is none.
Actually women has to work harder than men, even in the Swedish music industry. I think SVT just wants to give them oppurtunities.
SVT says that they have received criticism for the lack of female writers. So do they what they can to help out..
In my opinion the cracks in the Melodifestivalen formula are becoming bigger every year. There are far too many songs competing. For the sake of quality it would probably be a good idea to go for a one night formula with 8 to 10 songs maximum.
Then it won’t be Melodifeativalen… And we all love melfest.
Are you saying the shows before 2002 weren’t Melodifestivalen?
No, just that this current format is so ingrained with us that it is synonymous with Melodifestival. It’s that format that Swedes think of when they hear Melodifestival. Anything else wouldn’t be a Melodifestival. Srulik is right about that. If Melodifestival was only a national selection then yes only 10 songs would have worked. But as you know it is more than just a national selection, it is above all to celebrate Swedish music and find hits.
I am sorry, but I beg to disagree. The way MF is organised, means that the most exciting acts will stay in the semis. You won’t ever see a Hatari emerging from MF. MF is most of the times a rehash of the same artists and songwriters.
March 2021 is a long time away so far now they plan it as usual. Restrictions will be loosened during summer, that is hinted at by SVT. If we still have restrictions by next year then maybe the final will be for a limited audience of family members? By the time of artists reveal in November we should have a more clear view about the situation
I don’t see much difference honestly. For Melfest 2020, they wanted 50% female songwriters, and I think they achieved that.
I still want The Mamas back, they are my favourite of Eurovision 2020
They should’ve chosen Mamas, and let them have like 5 diffent songs to compete. Also other Nordic countries…
Why not make it so that songs with more than one songwriter have at least one male and one female in the team? What an odd rule.
Oh please, I’d agree if this was Asia, USA or Africa we’re talking about, BUT this is Sweden there is gender equality in Sweden and u cannot argue that, the rule is just stupid. And this is not politics, BUT music a place where gender was never important.
The only acceptable rule would be letting The Mamas represent them next year. Now I know, I’m not gonna support Sweden no matter what will they send.
Will your attitude be the same with Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Portugal, Lithuania, Norway ? Cause they will send new artists probably 🙂
How can you say you won’t support sweden when we do not know the representing song??
I agree with Pandeme111 because this decision makes me intensely dislike SVT. I don’t have hate for any Swedish artists who will represent SVT but I don’t wish success for the soulless people in charge of SVT
Yep that rule is one of the most stupid rules I’ve heard of. I mean there is almost ZERO discrimination against women in Swedish music industry, so why bring this rule up. So a male can’t even write a song on his own if he wants to, while a woman can – that’s what I call sexism.
You misunderstood. the rule only applies when songs are written by two or more songwriters. A single man or a woman can still submit a song of their own.
It’s still stupid, I mean do they actually believe there is a male singer in Sweden, who doesn’t want to write with female songwriters, one of if not the most stupid things I’ve heard in a while
They can! They just need to be with at least one Swede
The way SVT have treated the Mamas is disgusting.
Also why not just pick the best songs and singers, why does SVT put so much focus on the genitalia of those working behind the scenes to write songs
They aren’t picking based on genitalia, they are picking based on gender.
The ‘atleast one female songwriter’ rule is too strange. It’s a forced superficial partnership. I get that they want to increase male to female songwriter ratio but let’s say you’re a male songwriter and you have this one mate who’s also a songwriter who you just hit it off with, and work really well together. You’d have to actively look for a female in the partnership inorder to be able to submit the song to melodifestivalen. That means that if Duncan laurace had been swedish he wouldn’t even have been able to submit arcade! Same with euphoria, rise like a… Read more »
and another point: this can influence genre diversity a lot because let’s say you have an all male metal band that writes their own song lyrics they’d now have to look for a female songwriter to be able to represent sweden at eurovision… say goodbye to ever having metal, rock or rap in melodifestivalen again.
I will have to disagree with the last point. So you are saying female songwriters can’t write metal, rock and rap songs?? That is discrimination in itself. There are a lot of great female rappers that are capable of writing their own songs. Women can do rap, metal and rock as well.
That’s not what i was trying to say at all… But they are underrepresented in those genres and it will make it harder for those genres to enter into melodifestivalen. Or only the female rappers will get a chance to get into the show and males will get left behind.
Well most songs already have one female songwriter so that shouldn’t really be a problem
Yes. Duncan would still be able to apply. It’s just if there is more than 2 songwriters, then one would have to be female. Duncan is solo songwriter 🙂
No, arcade has 4 male writers including duncan laurence. He wouldn’t have been able to submit arcade.
So if a duo of two male singer-songwriters wanted to submit an authentic song that they wrote themself they couldn’t but if two ladies wrote one they could? Why does their gender matter
Or, a better idea, choose the songs based on how good they are and not on the writers’ gender…
What a stupid rule with at least one female songwriter… They should choose songs basing on quality not on gender of songwriters
Could be worse. There are contest where its at least 50% female songwritters (because 45% of women is a nono but 90% is not sexist at all)
Sweden’s experiment with herd immunity will either prove extremely successful with them saving the economy and letting everyone continue their normal lives, or prove to be extremely disastrous with more deaths and inequality. What will happen remains to be seen. I believe that a mixture between Sweden’s and the rest of Europe’s model would be the ideal solution.
A lot of people already died in Sweden. So it is hardly a success anyway.
Well, there are multiple experts saying that while Sweden is having a loose strategy in handling coronavirus, its economy is hurting anyway. So they managed to kill more of their citizens, whilst tanking their economy.
Even though there are so many great acts Sweden could send – the idea that the Mamas are not even a thought in their 2021 plans really disappoints. Even if it’s a favourite of mine like Wiktoria or Ace Wilder, I’d still prefer the Mamas to get their shot
Ikr, at least Estonia and Norway had the decency to offer spots in the semi-final/final to Uku and Ulrikke. But Sweden does nothing for the Mamas? Wow
I’m sure the mammas will be back next year, and they’ll have been given top pick of the songs to chose from.
For a Swede you seem to have no clue how MF works. They don’t choose songs, SVT choose the acts for the songs. They don’t get several options. And above all, they don’t get free spots but have to work to get a spot
Why should they be favoured from the start??? If the song is bad, people in Sweden won’t even vote for it, no matter who it sings.