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Changes in Melodifestivalen 2011 announced
The first change is that foreign composers are now invited to take part of the competition. They have to participate together with at least one Swedish composer but has previously been forbidden to take part at all. The pre-selection jury, that earlier years have chosen 28 of the competing 32 songs will now only choose 15. SVT has in addition to these 15 the right to specially invite and select 15 songs and acts as wild cards against previous years' only 4. "This is a big change for us. Earlier we have only had 4 wild cards, now we can be much more active in the process." says Christer Björkman, Swedish head of Delegation and Competition Producer of Melodifestivalen in a press release.
Last year's web wildcard competition on SVT's home page was a huge success according to SVT and therefore 2 acts instead of one will be chosen this way in the 2011 contest, thus completing the 32 acts. "We are keeping the dream to become a star over night alive", says Christer Björkman. There are no known changes in the format of 4 qualifying semifinals, 1 Second Chance Contest and a big final in the Ericsson Globe Arena. Neither have any changes regarding the voting system been announced.
"I'm sure there will be people thinking this is wrong. There are always those who are not satisfied. What is important is that we can secure the quality of the show." says Björkman in response to criticism raised against him having too much power in the Swedish competition.
Special thanks to Anders Ringqvist for this article.
Related polls
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Melodi Grand Prix
- Azerbaijan: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Milli Seçim Turu
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the final of A Dal
- Iceland: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Songvakeppni Sjonvarpsins
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the second semifinal of A Dal
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the third semifinal of Melodi Grand Prix
- Sweden: Vote for your favourite act in the first semifinal of Melodifestivalen
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the semifinal of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Bulgaria: Vote for your favourite act in the Bulgarian national final 2012
- Latvia: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Eirodziesma 2012
- Belarus: Vote for your favourite act in the final of EuroFest 2012
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Max
heheheh, yes, I think Sonja Alden links me with many ppl!
But she became my favorite of 2007 MF only after it! Then I realized her song was smth special!
My ultimate favorite during MF was Sanna Nielsen "Vagar du, vagar jag", but later she dropped down on the 3rd place!
@ Marko
Wow, I'm surprised - I finally share my #1 with you...;-)
Sonja Alden was marvellous in my opinion, it was my big personal disappointment in 2007 that they didn't choose her...
@ CC X.
To be honest, I'm glad the juries are back... I don't feel like explaining that to you at the moment because discussions here in this forum are always kind of exhausting...
Anyway, what I want to say is that in my opinion the 50/50 solution is the best one at the moment... and it's got nothing to do with me terribly disliking the East or whatever...
That's MY opinion and btw the last time I read "BILD" is about ten years ago...
Oh, and I hated Charlotte Perrelli...
I've got my own taste as you can tell when you take a short look at my profile...
2007 is my favorite MF ever!
I loved almost all songs, but I hated winner! LOL
1. SONJA ALDEN - "FOR ATT DU FINS" 
2. VERONA - "LA MUSICA"
3. ANNA BOOK - "SAMBA SAMBERO"
4. SANNA NIELSEN - "VAGR DU, VAGAR JAG"
5. MANS ZELMERLOW - "CARA MIA"
And many others....
It seems Sweden get caught in the "emotion" or "personality" of the act. That explains this year, and years like The Ark (yes, a horror show) and Charlotte Nilsson (should have been Sanna that year). This year should be Timoteij. This flaw is probably because the selection series is so long, so much so that the public just gets too involved in the act rather than just a brief knowledge of the song.
I noticed Denmark reduced their series from multi-weeks to one night. It seems since Sweden added the four semi finals, their selections have returned poorer and poorer ESC results.
The other option is they ignore any ESC result and just accept their MF is just for them. They just want to find their favourite song and artist. If it bombs at ESC, so be it. The ESC ticket is the extra to winning MF, not the point of MF.
I'm not sure if "cara mia" had done THAT well. I don't know all mf-participants of 2007, but bigger mistakes were defenitly made in 2010 not to send darin or timoteij, 2009 not to send caroline of ugglas or (even if a bit fan-fave) alcazar, in 2008 not to send sanna nielsen or even (almost) any other act that competed in the final and in 2005 not to send nanne grönvall.
it really hurt to see sweden withal trying so hard it just don't take its chances.
i think the first thing they need to do is kick out Christer Bjorkman - he is just so awful.
secondly, they should select the best song - otherwise it will be the same script over and over.
like in 2007 they picked the horrorshow of "the ark" rather than Mans Zelmerlow and from there it only got worse.
so the point is that it's not the songs or the show - but which song they select evantually - which usually is one of the weakest among a bunch of songs that each one of them can bring them top 3
@Andrew Berlin
Think what you want, but those ''farting cow countries'' sends good songs almost every year and puts much effort, so their Final-places and TOP 10 rankings are deserved! 
@andrew berlin
do I always miss the most exciting moments? oO when did one of those countries send a farting cow to eurovision (and qualified)? or whence do you know that?
it's not east vs west, but indeed we do have countries who qualify regardless the quality of the song: Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaidjan etc... We call them with a bit of sarcasm "farting cow countries", because they could send a ....... and still qualify. And that has absolutely nothing to do with east vs. west, it's a simple empiric or stastic fact.
Agree with CC X, some will be happy if all Eastern European countries have 0 points (or maybe few which they like personally to have some points lol) and all Western European countries to be on the top of scoreboard no matter how songs are!
@just me and my guitar..
do you have any proofs for your arguments? or is it just about you didn't like the russian entries in the past? it's your prerogative to do so, but disparaging and polemic statements like "russia would be in the final even if it was represented by 3 min of absolute silence thanks to the dissolvement of the USSR to all those cute and objective countries with Belarus as a leader" show that you are only ignorant and uneager to accept the audience don't consist of western viewers only anymore.
btw: I follow the contest since 2000.
@ CC X.
Sorry but your way of thinking is naive really..you seem to have no idea on how the televote works in esc..i don't know for how long you ve been watching esc but the only way to respect that kind of thiking is to think that you don't have much esc experience..as for michael von der haide i won't try to convince you that if russia was written on the left corner of the screen this would be in the same place if not higher with televote..you will obviously continue considering the same things..ask anyone you want around here and you ll get the same answer..russia would be in the final even if it was represented by 3 min of absolute silence thanks to the dissolvement of the USSR to all those cute and objective countries with Belarus as a leader..the booing of the public during the award of the 12p from belarus to russia is my answer to everyone who talks about "public opinion"..because that's exactly what it isn't..
@just me and my guitar..
oh yet, it was the "public opinion" that brought russia to an 11th position. *mayhap* (we still don't know the whole lists, eurovision's always good for some surprises!) not the belgian one, the dutch one or the danish one. but the one of ukrainian inhabitants, belarussian inhabitants, moldavian inhabitants... and so on. they have an equally right to vote as western states, even though some people from the last-named tend to "forget" about this. ;-) apart from that, russian's position stays the same: with juries or without juries. same thing with azerbaycan, that was the big favourite to win before the contest by british bookmakers (so not the best example to put in big writing I guess).
michael von der heide would have gotten last for every country. still wondering about the nation which gave him one point. because he sang in a national langauge, perhaps. would be the only acceptable reason.
@ Eurovisionary
So well said ! all your comments are so honest true and reasonable.Great arguments and a very realistic point of view indeed ! congratulations !
Really I could not stand all the "the televoters are the only one who are right" and "respect the public opinion" and stuff like that..you must be very biased to think that televoting is the "public opinion"..we all know that it was not the "public opinion" which brought russia to the 11th yet again serbia in the 10th place of the ridiculous televote or armenia to the 4th place..and most important : AZERBAIJAN TO THE 5TH PLACE ! If any of these represented switzerland for instance and michael von der haide was representing armenia or so then we all know what would happen..
@eurovisionary
there will be always ignorant people who never can't accept other tastes or opinions. so they have to look for explanations it didn't proceed that way they wanted to do so: irrespective the "system".
I don't boycott juries because my favourites don't do well (e.g. I adored france and croatia last year and put ireland into my top5 this year), I do it because I don't tolerate manipulation, corruption and intoleration.
however, a eurovision festival without voting would be wonderful, I agree either. ;-) anyhow, it's a rooted part of the contest and I suspect without it the esc wouldn't be there where it is now.
Come on, we all know the financial crisis caused many countries to withdraw.
If you can't see a return to more ballads and guitar songs this year, then must be deaf.
That's all digression from the topic of jury impact on voting.
Whether the jury has bias, we can't be 100%. We know from history that their tastes vary wildly from the televote and any bias is no where near extreme as televote, therefore their return is to restore some balance from the heavily biased televote.
Maybe I live in an alternative universe, because I'm sure all I've read for 10 years is Balkan bloc that, Baltic bloc this, disapora vote that, nordic vote this. Now when the organisers do something, there's more complaints, with the key example being one song vote 9th by televoted and 11th on jury? Maybe just have no vote and make a random winner!
@eurovisionary
ps: where did we a see a greater variety of songs? are there ones I missed? last year 42, this year 39... most of them could be classified as english radio-mainstream, english radio-mainstream, english radio-mainstream, radio-mainstream, english english or radio-mainstream... 
no wonder, "juries" only vote for this kind of songs and slow ballads.
I'm sure next year it even 'll be much clearer. 90 percent english songs... it'll come that way if juries don't get abolished. they destroy our EUROvision contest. 
@eurovisionary
I don't believe any decisions are only up to "us fans", sry. even less these very important changes.
and as ya can see, a lot of people don't and didn't want an "extra-jury", were happy with the former results/nowadays the televoting-results, don't blame them as biassed but are able to accept the opinion of a majority.
"it's a matter of opinion", ya wrote. a good sentence.
It's a matter of opinion. As I said, I prefer Israel and Ireland in the final than Sweden and especially that horrible Lithuania. The bigger point with Sweden this year is that it only finished 9th on televote. That's hardly an endorsement of the song. When you consider the jury had Sweden 11th, the televote and jury basically agree that Sweden is below average!!! If Sweden finished 5th and still missed out, then maybe there's a case. There's no case after just one year, and especially not after 10 years or so of sole televoting and fans complaining about the bias!
For me, the voting and the winner is the least important. Most important is the songs. The ESC season last 6 months if you count Albania's nomination each December. This year, with juries involved, we saw a greater variety of songs, and that's another benefit of the juries. After 6 months of the ESC season, does hearing Sweden only once in the competition and that XYZ won instead of ABC ruin it all? No.
I will say once again, after 10 years of complaining about biased televote, it's stupid just to throw out the new system based on one or two choices of the jury that some fans did not like. It's all the fans' complaints that brought the juries back.
@Eurovisionary
"Every year we complain about biased televoting, and now when ESC introduce juries to help correct the balance, it's the bad old juries.
Sorry, you cannot have both arguments."
well, who is more biassed? jury or televoting? just compare both lists of 2009 and ya'll easily get the answer.
additionally me and many others NEVER required "correcting juries" (at least not in that way they are now managed).
it nearly always has been a thing either of a few fans who still (most of them) wish for winners like "charlotte perrelli - hero" and can't accept the majority's will either the lower-class-media (like well-known and "beloved" BILD-zeitung in the DACH-states) fomenting bad moods and preconceptions against an "eastern [corrupt, communistic] bloc".
@Max
I don't get how you can enjoy a voting if you know it ain't real / how the audience has voted!? a even cheaper way would be to cast lots, but the information you get tends to force to zero.
@ togravus ceterum
Ah okay... Yes, I tend to see it in quite a similar way... I always thought that the predictability of the voting destroys the Contest...
At least this one has changed a bit with 50/50... I enjoyed 2009 and 2010 much more than the previous years, with the worst example 2007 where there was no need to watch because you could fill in the results before...
Yeah, you're right... I've realised that before, even without following esctoday that much in the latter months... Despite of this, I'm always a bit sensible when it comes to Israel... I think that's not really wrong for a German...
Anyway, have a nice trip and a bon sejour in France!
This year the jury failed to correct the biased televote as some would like
Sure they did. They dropped Spain and France who, as we know, always count on televote.
lol
Every year we complain about biased televoting, and now when ESC introduce juries to help correct the balance, it's the bad old juries.
Sorry, you cannot have both arguments.
If Anna's song was so good, it would have qualified in the first 5 regardless of juries or televote - both would rate it high. The big truth is that the televote only ranked Anna 9th - that's so low probably due to the biased televoting! Without biased televoting, it would be higher.
This year the jury failed to correct the biased televote as some would like. In other years it will. This year, Israel and Ireland would be grateful of the jury vote to correct the bias.
Don't just throw the system out because one of your own personal favourites did not benefit.
Remember, only 2 years ago, Sweden did benefit from the jury with "wildcard". You win one, you lose one.
On my personal preference, I much preferred Israel and Ireland in the final this year than Sweden and Lithuania. Sorry!
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeey laila! 
I missed you and your pic of Nalitch! 
My favorite in MF won only once (Carola "Evighet" but still I like almost all winners!
Laila ♥ Peter Nalitch ♪ ♫
"Either way - the best in MF rarely ever wins."
well... that belongs to the tradition of melodifestivalen, don't it?
If anything needs to change it is the voting system. Or the way they vote. Either way - the best in MF rarely ever wins. Opening up for foreign composers is a real shame and a mistake in my opinion. Hopefully they can invite some better bands/artists, but what good will that do when the best are never chosen anyway? Crucified Barbara for example. Well, I hope for good genre-variety like this year (just better songs than this year).
Stockholm calling,
yes I knew and I also know what they said after "In a moment like this" qualified for the final
read here: http://www.dr.dk/mel(...)/2010/0528145536.htm
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