Melodifestivalen 2021 semi winners

They’ve been kept a secret over the past six weeks. Now Swedish broadcaster SVT has revealed the full voting results for all six Melodifestivalen 2021 shows. And there are a few surprises in the numbers.

Melfest 2021 voting results

  • The four semi-final winners were Danny Saucedo, Dotter, Tusse and The Mamas.
  • None of the semi-final winners got top marks from all eight voting groups. However, The Mamas, Dotter and Tusse all got 12 points from seven categories and 10 points from one.
  • Tusse got the highest semi-final vote — 1,919,353. The Mamas were second with 1,550,459 and Dotter third with 1,464,962. 
  • Paul Rey received the second-highest number of votes in semi two. However, Arvingarna had more appeal across the age groups.
  • Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos received less votes than both Frida Green and Patrik Jean in semi-final two. However, they proved more popular across the different age groups, so they finished third.
  • Patrik Jean would have finished third in semi-final two under the pre-2019 voting system. Instead, he came fifth.
  • Elisa and Mustach tied for last place in semi-final three. However, Mustach won the tiebreak as they received more votes overall.
  • Tusse received maximum points from all eight public voting groups in the final.
  • In the final, Danny Saucedo and Clara Klingenström tied on the jury vote. Clara won the tiebreak as she had more 10s.
  • Paul Rey and Anton Ewald tied last with 25 points in the final. Paul lost the tiebreak because Anton had more votes.

You can read the point and vote breakdown below. SVT has published a detailed PDF outlining how each of the eight voting categories (seven app age groups and the televote) voted. You can access that here.

Since 2019, SVT has broken the public vote into eight categories. Seven of these consist of app voters which are broken into age groups: 3 to 9, 10 to 15, 16 to 29, 30 to 44, 45 to 59, 60 to 74 and 75 plus. The eight category is the traditional televote. In the semi-finals, each category can award points in blocks of  12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1. In the andra chansen duels, the most popular act with an age group will receive one point while the other will get nothing. In the final, the point blocks match those awarded at Eurovision — 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1. This system means that an act with more votes will not necessarily come out on top.

Melodifestivalen 2021 – Voting Breakdown

Semi-final 1

  1. Danny Saucedo “Dandi dansa” 78 points (1, 377,663 votes)
  2. Arvingarna “Tänker inte alls gå hem” 72 points (1,190,449 votes)
  3. Paul Rey “The Missing Piece” 68 points (1,239,146 votes)
  4. Lillasyster “Pretender” 48 points (1,159,154 votes)
  5. Jessica Andersson “Horizon” 38 points (1,065,794 votes)
  6. Kadiatou “One Touch” 29 points (967,331 votes)
  7. Nathalie Brydolf “Fingerprints” 11 points (825,414 votes)

Semi-final 2

  1. Dotter “Little Tot” 92 points (1,464,962 votes)
  2. Anton Ewald “New Religion” 68 points (1,218,312 votes)
  3. Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos “Rena rama ding dong” 52 points (997,947 votes)
  4. Frida Green “The Silence” 47 points (1,028,299 votes)
  5. Patrik Jean “Tears Run Dry” 44 points (1,049,434 votes)
  6. WAHL feat. SAMI “90-talet” 30 points (961,160 votes)
  7. Julia Alfrida “Rich” 11 points (751,337 votes)

Semi-final 3

  1. Tusse “Voices” 94 points (1,919,353 votes)
  2. Charlotte Perrelli “Still Young” 62 points (1,272,523 votes)
  3. Alvaro Estrella “Bailá Bailá” 60 points (1,193,914 votes)
  4. Klara Hammarström “Beat of Broken Hearts” 58 points (1,252,895 votes)
  5. Emil Assergård “Om allting skiter sig” 34 points (987,458 votes)
  6. Mustasch “Contagious” 18 points (763,045 votes)
  7. Elisa “Den du är” 18 points (613,779 votes)

Semi-final 4

  1. The Mamas “In the Middle” 94 points (1,550,459 votes)
  2. Eric Saade “Every Minute” 72 points (1,179,580 votes)
  3. Efraim Leo “Best of Me” 52 points (1,035,821 votes)
  4. Clara Klingenström “Behöver inte dig idag” 51 points (930,002 votes)
  5. Tess Merkel “Good Life” 40 points (868,050 votes)
  6. Lovad “Allting är precis likadant” 21 points (783,763 votes)
  7. Sannex “All Inclusive” 14 points (609,909 votes)

Andra Chansen

  • Duel 1
    1. Alvaro Estrella “Bailá Bailá” 7 points (1,365,376 votes)
    2. Lillasyster “Pretender” 1 point (1,163,807 votes)
  • Duel 2
    1. Paul Rey “The Missing Piece” 7 points (1,207,581 votes)
    2. Frida Green “The Silence” 1 point (925,473 votes)
  • Duel 3
    1. Clara Klingenström “Behöver inte dig idag” 5 points (1,276,040 votes)
    2. Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos “Rena rama ding dong” 3 points (1,173,492 votes)
  • Duel 4
    1. Klara Hammarström “Beat of Broken Hearts” 8 points (1,139,262 votes)
    2. Efraim Leo “Best of Me” 0 points (908,611 votes)

Grand final

Place Artist Song Juries Televote/App Total
Votes Points
1 Tusse “Voices” 79 2,964,269 96 175
2 Eric Saade “Every Minute” 69 1,471,324 49 118
3 The Mamas “In the Middle” 50 1,646,198 56 106
4 Dotter “Little Tot” 57 1,488,599 48 105
5 Clara Klingenström “Behöver inte dig idag” 39 1,455,605 52 91
6 Klara Hammarström “Beat of Broken Hearts” 43 1,341,566 36 79
7 Danny Saucedo “Dandi dansa” 39 1,309,741 35 74
8 Charlotte Perrelli “Still Young” 32 1,016,557 28 60
9 Arvingarna “Tänker inte alls gå hem” 22 923,022 22 44
10 Alvaro Estrella “Bailá Bailá” 7 1,071,188 19 26
11 Anton Ewald “New Religion” 9 1,066,340 16 25
12 Paul Rey “The Missing Piece” 18 998,030 7 25

What interesting titbits have you pulled out from the numbers? Let us know below.

Follow all of our Sweden Eurovision 2021 news.

Additional analysis by Robyn

70 Comments
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Thisisntourlastdance
Thisisntourlastdance
3 years ago

No one hates Sweden, just accept the fact that eurovision televoters prefer going for fun and cool over guys who feel themselves too much like Sweden 2018 and 2019.

Malia
Malia
3 years ago

What seems highly unlogical is that the people paying to vote get the least say in deciding the winner, only making up 1/8 of the public vote and 7/8 are made up by free 60 total votes per phone from the app that only inflates the total number of cast votes. Maybe it’s a good tool for creating a more age-diverse line-up and engaging people who are not hardcore fans and would not pay to have a say in Melodifestivalen, but it also gives power to spam voting and people using a fake age to push their favourite artist. It’s… Read more »

Yes
Yes
3 years ago
Reply to  Malia

I don’t think converting the international jury votes to 12-1 would make any favourable difference. Watch Portugal, two years in a row having a winner which didn’t win either Jury or Televote, and they use that system. If they didn’t convert the votes, the results would be different

Valentino
Valentino
3 years ago

If they introduced the same system of age groups in Eurovision, we’ll be in for some big surprises!

Max
Max
3 years ago

I do not get the age group limits. The concept seems very off to me.
It tries to bring in sort of demographic gravitas into a music show AND competition which has insanely high viewing figures.
But what is it? Market segments in the music industry?

Last edited 3 years ago by Max
Yes
Yes
3 years ago
Reply to  Max

They are trying not to repeat the same 21 points in Televote at ESC by using a system in which matters more an overall appeal for the people, rather than having huge appeals in young people or old people but less support in other age groups

Danny
Danny
3 years ago

Still think Rena Rama Ding Dong was robbed

Samo
Samo
3 years ago
Reply to  Danny

They should have won. In Rotterdam.

AM2PM
AM2PM
3 years ago

I hope that all these Swedish acts are paying something toward Wiwibloggs staff’s salaries because they certainly get a lot of free PR from this site.

Jake
Jake
3 years ago
Reply to  AM2PM

Who doesn’t? It’s a Eurovision news blog, it’s March. This is why I’m here.

@oihanagallas
@oihanagallas
3 years ago

I like this transparency, but I don’t think the voting system is fair. Except with the youngest age group, which in my opinion should not even be able to vote, every vote should count the same independent of age or number of people in each group. Otherwise youngsters could start registering within the 75+ group so that their vote is really taken into account.

Last edited 3 years ago by @oihanagallas
Dida
Dida
3 years ago

Children 3 to 9 can vote? Do they have access to telephone? This category is utterly ridiculous, who ever made up this category was insane. It’s a premiere on Planet Earth where Kids under 14 years old are allowed to vote for a TV show for grown-ups…

Last edited 3 years ago by Dida
Mattias Sollerman
Mattias Sollerman
3 years ago
Reply to  Dida

Yes, they can vote, and they have access to mobile devices. MelFest is a family show, and in a sense kids are the most important demographic. If you ever watch MelFest pay attention to the audience and you’ll see plenty of small kids.
There is no reason to not let them vote. You claim it to be “utterly ridiculous” and even “insane” but fail to give an explanation as to why.

Milla
Milla
3 years ago

I really don’t wanna read any comments. I already know pretty what fans say about the swedish entry. When it comes to Sweden and the judgement of the swedish entry then fans are being extra harsh and full of contradictions. What’s being critisized about Sweden is not a problem with other countries and so on, then it’s called “catchy and a good popsong” and not “generic and un-original, we hear this every day on the radio”. And this year people are hung up with Tusse’s skin-colour and if he’s a boy or a girl. It’s so stupid. I’m glad Tusse… Read more »

Lolek
Lolek
3 years ago
Reply to  Milla

Tusse was not my favourite this year but it’s up to Sweden to chose their singer/entry for Eurovision. Wishing him the best of luck. I will say though, I’m very surprised that the overall number of votes for him jumped by a MILLION from his semi to the finals. It’s quite intense!

Giolo
Giolo
3 years ago

I agree about the fact that Eurofans’s hate for Sweden is insane and unjustified, but the fans votes don’t have really an impact on real results.

notyourtoy
notyourtoy
3 years ago

Tusse almost 3mil votes. That’s truly insane

Eurovision2016>
Eurovision2016>
3 years ago

The voting in melodifestivalen should be one hundred percent jury since that would remove a certain type of Swedish bias and it’d give a more fair winner. With more juries, they’d have to bring in more countries with good taste such as Greece Ukraine and Russia to balance out juries like Iceland.

Last edited 3 years ago by Eurovision2016>
Anne
Anne
3 years ago

Yes, the jury from Russia like Kirkorov is the best taste /sarcasm off/

Erik
Erik
3 years ago

If we want to send the song that will score the best in esc, then yes. But of course the Swedish selection should represent the Swedish general opinion and not only esc experts

Jake
Jake
3 years ago

You have to appreciate the transparency from SVT. This eliminates any questions or fan theories. It’s all out there and justifies the actual winner of Melfest. I wish other broadcasters were this transparent—I’m looking at you NRK and RTP. What are you trying to hide?

simply put, a duck
simply put, a duck
3 years ago

What the heck??
Dotter is supposed to be 3rd in televoting, not 4th. Hence 3rd in the overall results.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
3 years ago

In the final, Dotter is 3rd in the televoting. Beyond that, I don’t know.

Jimmy Smit
Jimmy Smit
3 years ago

She came 4th, one point behind The Mamas.

Thus, Dotter face.

Chessguy99
3 years ago

The app voting is divided by age with the older demographics counting more. It’s the same as last year where The Mamas dominated the two oldest demographics and thus got more points.

Pasadena
Pasadena
3 years ago

Dotter got more votes than Eric Saade, but Saade got 1 more point from the app + tele votes (based on the points system from the different age groups). Dotter was more popular among the younger age groups, whereas Saade was more popular among the older groups.

Last edited 3 years ago by Pasadena
Mattias Sollerman
Mattias Sollerman
3 years ago

1 159 881 people voted in the final, out of 3 625 000 watching.
A 37% increase from last year.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
3 years ago

It looks like Tusse won this competition by a large margin on all statistics. This should put an end to the moans and complaints once and for all. Congrats to Tusse.

About Patrik Jean – wow that’s really unlucky. There might be an argument in the future for introducing two more wildcards to Andra Chansen, just to give situations like these another run at it. Any thoughts?

Lolek
Lolek
3 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

Agreed on the Patrik Jean situation! The exact same thing happened with William Stridh last year. He came third in total amount of votes for his semi but the age breakdown gave him only enough points for 5th place.

Ugnius
Ugnius
3 years ago
Reply to  Lolek

Both Patrik Jean and William Stridh performed similar type of songs, so I guess this new voting system really disfavours male ballads (even if you look at Paul Rey – he was actually 2nd in the televoting in SF and had to go DTF, and in the final he also received more votes than Arvingarna)

Mattias
Mattias
3 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

Patrik Jean got 4p in the Phone vote so I think its fair he got 5th, same case with klara H/alvaro and Charlotte Perrelli 🙂

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
3 years ago

Poor Patrik Jean.

Colin
Colin
3 years ago

The great thing about Melfest voting, compared to the one in MGP, is that in end, it becomes transparent. In MGP, we only know how many people voted for KEiiNO and how many for TIX in the very last round. But who was third – Blasemafian or Jorn? By how many points? Who was 5th? Who was last? How wildcards fared from 2nd to 15th spot? It would be good to know. Norway had a fantastic NF, but this is one thing I would suggest them to improve.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Good point. 🙂

Ethan1994
Ethan1994
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I remember NRK said once before (I think it was 2018) that they don’t put out the full result because they think some artists might be less willing to compete if they have to risk facing the humiliation of finishing last. Or something like that.

Colin
Colin
3 years ago
Reply to  Ethan1994

I don’t think there’s anything humiliating in finishing last, unless it was due to artist’s glaring mistake, like singing off-key or forgetting the lyrics. If it was just due to poor luck, there’s nothing more to it. It happens all the time, especially if the competition is high. But I get that some artists might take that harshly. Look for mistakes even where there aren’t any. Some songs might just be less impactful on average. But I get NRK’s reasoning behind it. Thanks for sharing.

Last edited 3 years ago by Colin
Dawid
Dawid
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

You are underestimating how fragile some artist’s ego is

Dave
Dave
3 years ago

I feel like we need some kind of voting system that does not fully enable kids to vote like crazy for their favorite (aka a Tix situation) but one that also considers the fact that younger ppl tend to vote more (which is fair in the actual Eurovision itself). So some kind of balanced voting system that combines both systems and has age-based divisions with each group having a certain weight on the outcome (e.g. if younger ppl vote more in total, they contribute to 30% of the voting result vs older people who vote less contribute to 15% of… Read more »

Malmklang
Malmklang
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave

Just to point out, I gave my 3 online votes to Tix in both super final and the last duel and have never been a pronounced Tix fan. I’m 37 y.o. So it’s not always that easy to predict which songs that appeals to which age groups;-)

Last edited 3 years ago by Malmklang
Kris
Kris
3 years ago
Reply to  Malmklang

Did you vote for the song cause you liked it or you thought it will do the best at ESC ? Cause being neutral I liked the Norwegian version butam very meh’d by the English version

Dave
Dave
3 years ago
Reply to  Malmklang

I didn’t say older people did not vote for Tix, however from my general understanding it seemed like younger people voted a lot for him as he seems to be super popular in Norway especially for that age group! Either way I respect your choice just wanted to point out that he may very well be more popular with certain ages vs others

Chessguy99
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave

Sweden has an aged based division of the app votes, and it gives more weight to the older demographics. That’s how The Mamas won last year by solidly winning the older demographics, while Dotter didn’t even win all the younger demographics because the youngest one went for Hanna Ferm.

Alex
Alex
3 years ago
Reply to  Chessguy99

The Mamas are so strong with the age group between 10 and 29.
They won them last year and they proved it again this time. Young people really like them 🙂

Ethan1994
Ethan1994
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave

Being someone from Norway, I can tell you for a fact that it wasn’t just kids who voted for TIX. But even if it was, so what? Why should kids’ votes count for less? What I honestly find kind of hilarious about comments like this is how I remember used to hear all the time about how supposedly, “only old people vote in shows like Melodi Grand Prix, that’s why it’s always some ballad that wins, blah blah blah”. I really don’t like this idea that somebody’s vote should count for more or less because of how old they are.… Read more »

Dave
Dave
3 years ago
Reply to  Ethan1994

I totally respect your opinion but I was simply talking about ways to amend the Swedish system and how it can avoid the complaints that Norway received for its own system so I just came up with a suggestion. I do think it’s a bit more fair to weigh the younger votes more IF their category votes in much larger amounts

cats and dogs eurovision
cats and dogs eurovision
3 years ago

so people complain about MGP because all young kids voted for Tix and say that the voting is not fair.. In Melodifestivalen the voting is splitted in to different age groups to prevent exactly this! And now people say that Melfest voting is also unfair 😀 ? Doesn’t make sense

Colin
Colin
3 years ago

Perhaps different individuals are complaining about the one and about the other? Besides, it’s hard not to see both benefits and faults in both systems.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

In other words, people like to moan about everything they can. They will probably moan about this comment… (*waits for it)

Jimmy Smit
Jimmy Smit
3 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

wHAT an OUTragEouS commmmmmment!!!

Ethan1994
Ethan1994
3 years ago

They’re complaining because it didn’t go their way. 99% of the time, that’s what it all comes down to; people just being bitter because it didn’t go their way.

kir
kir
3 years ago

Tusse winning every single voters group is a landslide victory of madness.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
3 years ago
Reply to  kir

Isn’t that the point of voting?
What am I missing?

Mark
Mark
3 years ago

This new system sucks

kir
kir
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

I guess TIX thinks the same. Had Norway the same system, he would have received 36 points from 3-30 and would have lost to Keiino.

Jake
Jake
3 years ago
Reply to  kir

That’s a good theory or a valid opinion but not a true fact

Colin
Colin
3 years ago

Am I reading this right? Nathalie would’ve finished SECOND if there wasn’t for this APP age groups thing? Instead, she finished SEVENTH or LAST with it! Talking about getting a shaft… 🙁

Diana
Diana
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

That’s wrong, she got the least amount of votes in semi 1, She got 825 000 ish. Wiwibloggs has the wrong info

Colin
Colin
3 years ago
Reply to  Diana

Oh, I see that they accidentally just copied Danny’s votes to Nathalie. It would’ve been too much of a disparity, even for Melfest. Paul not finishing DTF is underwhelming enough.

I see that this has been corrected now. Yes, 825 k votes sounds about right.

Last edited 3 years ago by Colin
Diana
Diana
3 years ago

These results were kind of expected. Although The mamas getting 94/96 with Eric Saade in the same semi is pretty surprising. I think Tusse will have the 94/96 and 96/96 record for a long time.

nycforever
nycforever
3 years ago

How did Clara get less votes than Eric and Dotter but received more points? How did Dotter get more votes than Eric and Clara but received less points?

Diana
Diana
3 years ago
Reply to  nycforever

Clara’s votes were spread out in more age categories while Dotter got high poins in a fewer age groups instead.

nycforever
nycforever
3 years ago
Reply to  Diana

Strange rules. And meanwhile people say Sanremo voting is unfair or difficult to understand…

Diana
Diana
3 years ago
Reply to  nycforever

I think this is more fair for us. Otherwise only the kids would’ve been powerful like previous years

Chessguy99
3 years ago
Reply to  nycforever

People say Sanremo voting is unfair because many years the public vote counts the least in the end. And the fact that in the seven years I’ve watched it, Sanremo has never had the same voting system from year to year.

kir
kir
3 years ago
Reply to  nycforever

Cause the points are not transforming directly from the percent of votes, but rather made of the points of different age groups and voters using phone.

3-9
10-15
16-29
30-44
45-59
60-74
75+
telephone

Dave
Dave
3 years ago

Happy that Dotter did well!!Although I wish I could see her in the actual esc I’m still happy for her

Ana Banana
Ana Banana
3 years ago

Unpopular opinion: I think Melodifestivalen has too many shows and there is little musical diversity.

kir
kir
3 years ago
Reply to  Ana Banana

Well, it’s a pretty much popular opinion. Sweden is kinda one-trick pony.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
3 years ago
Reply to  kir

I find that’s hard to justify from outside Sweden. There are broadcasters that can’t ever dream of having a national song festival on the scale of Melodifestivalen, even if it is just made of pop music. Those broadcasters and their viewers tune into MelFest because it is the biggest pop festival show pretty much anywhere. I have been watching MelFest from different countries online since 2015, and I knew about its existence way before then. It has greater value than its critics suggest.

Last edited 3 years ago by Purple Mask
Denis
Denis
3 years ago
Reply to  Ana Banana

Unpopular opinion: the show is made for Swedish audiences and what we want to hear. And we want to hear songs that you can add to Spotify and that can chart on lists..