Melodifestivalen 2008 was the 47th Melodifestivalen, and the selection process for the 48th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. A new rule—''Lex Agnes''—went into effect in 2008 calling for each submitted entry to include a document containing all information relevant to the song. It was named after

Agnes Carlsson Agnes Emilia Carlsson (born 6 March 1988), known mononymously as Agnes, is a Swedish recording artist. She rose to fame as the winner of Idol 2005, the second season of the Swedish Idol series. She was then signed to Sony Music, through which s ...

, who was disqualified from the 2007 competition for publicly revealing details of her song before the deadline.

Format

Melodifestivalen 2008 included 32 songs split up into four heats with eight participants in each. The heats were held between 9 February and 1 March 2008 and at each, the two top placing songs went to the final, while the third and fourth place songs went to the Andra Chansen (Second Chance Round). At the Andra Chansen, held on 8 March 2008, the eight songs paired off in two rounds with the two winners at the end of the night qualifying for the final. The final was held on 15 March 2008 and included the eight songs from the heats along with the two from the Andra Chansen to make ten songs in all. The winner and selected entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest was then chosen by (insert voting process here). It was hosted by

Kristian Luuk Ants Robert ''Kristian'' Luuk, (born 14 June 1966) is a Swedish comedian and television presenter. He has presented several shows such as ''Sen kväll med Luuk'', ''Melodifestivalen'' and ''På spåret''. He was married to Carina Berg. Biography ...

, who also hosted the 2007 event. Luuk was assisted by Björn Gustafsson and Nour El-Refai.

Preselection

The deadline for the submission of songs was 25 September 2007, and 3,434 songs were submitted, a new record. The titles and composers of the 28 semifinalists (excluding the wildcards) were announced on 10 and 11 December 2007. The wildcards were announced in January 2008.''ESCToday'
The full MF running order
Retrieved on 15 January 2008.

Schedule

Competition

The semifinals for Melodifestivalen 2008 began on 9 February 2008. There were five semifinals in Gothenburg,

Västerås Västerås ( , , ) is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 154,049. Västerås is the se ...

Linköping Linköping () is a city in southern Sweden, with around 105,000 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Church ...

, Karlskrona and Kiruna (Andra Chansen) leading up to the final at the Globen on 15 March 2008. Nearly four million votes were cast in total, raising over 5.7 million kronor (

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

605,000) for charity. In the four heats, the top two songs of the eight competing went directly through to the final. The third and fourth-placed songs went to the ''Andra Chansen'' round. Two rounds of televoting selected the qualifiers, the first round selectiong the top five songs with the second round choosing the two finalists and two songs to go to the ''Andra Chansen'' round.

Heat 1

The first heat of Melodifestivalen was held at the

Scandinavium Scandinavium () is an indoor arena located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Construction on Scandinavium began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, and was inaugurated on 18 May 1971. Scandinavium has been selected as a championship arena at least fifty t ...

in Gothenburg on 9 February 2008. Eight songs in total competed, seven songs which had been submitted to SVT, along with one of the four wildcards. The two songs that progressed automatically to the final were "Thank You" by

Amy Diamond Amy Linnéa Deasismont (born 15 April 1992), previously known under the stage name Amy Diamond, is a Swedish singer. She is known for her single " What's in It for Me". The song was a 2005 hit in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland. It was the ...

, the wildcard, and " I Love Europe" by Christer Sjögren. The two songs that passed to the ''Andra Chansen'' round were "Line of Fire" by E-Type &

The Poodles The Poodles were a glam metal/ heavy metal band from Sweden, formed by singer Jakob Samuel (a.k.a. Jake Samuels), bassist Pontus Egberg, guitarist Pontus Norgren and drummer Christian Lundqvist. Their songs include "Metal Will Stand Tall" and " ...

and "Visst finns mirakel" by Suzzie Tapper.

Heat 2

The second heat was held on 16 February 2008, at the

ABB Arena Nord ABB Arena is the common name for the two biggest indoor arenas in Västerås, Sweden. Venues Arena Nord ABB Arena Nord is the ice hockey arena and VIK Västerås HK's home arena. It was renovated in September 2007 and has a capacity of 4,902 spe ...

. Again eight songs competed in total, seven songs which had been submitted to SVT and one of the four wildcards. The two songs that progressed automatically to the final were "Empty Room" by

Sanna Nielsen Sanna Viktoria Nielsen (born 27 November 1984) is a Swedish singer and television presenter. On her seventh attempt, she won Melodifestivalen in 2014 with the song "Undo" and so represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenh ...

and "Just a Minute" by Rongedal. The two songs that passed to the ''Andra Chansen'' round were "

One Love One Love may refer to: Music * One Love (record producer), Timothy Sommers, American record producer, half of the duo Kinetics & One Love * ''One Love: The Bob Marley Musical'', a 2015 stage musical Albums * One Love (Blue album), ''One Love'' (B ...

" by Andreas Johnson &

Carola Häggkvist Carola Maria Häggkvist (; born 8 September 1966), commonly known simply as Carola, is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She has been among Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s and has released albums ranging from pop and disco ...

, the wildcard, and "Love in Stereo" by

Ola Svensson Ola Nils Håkan Svensson (born 23 February 1986) is a Swedish musician, artist and songwriter, known professionally by the mononym Ola until 2014, and as Brother Leo from 2018 to present. Born in Lund, Skåne, his career began in 2005, when he f ...

Heat 3

The third heat of Melodifestivalen 2008 was held at the

Cloetta Center Saab Arena, formerly named Cloetta Center between 2004–2014, is an arena in Linköping, Sweden. It opened in September 2004 and holds 8,500 people during sport events and 11,500 during concerts. On its opening, it became the new home ice for th ...

on 23 February 2008. The two songs that progressed directly to the final were "Lay Your Love on Me" by BWO and "Upp o hoppa" by Frida feat. Headline. The two songs that passed to the ''Andra Chansen'' round were "Smiling in Love" by Caracola and "When You Need Me" by Thérèse Andersson. The wildcard entry, "Hallelujah New World" by

Eskobar Eskobar is the name of a Sweden, Swedish Northie(Northern Indie)/indie/pop band that was founded in 1996 some 30 kilometres north of Stockholm, in the small town of Åkersberga. The band features Daniel Bellqvist as its lead singer, Frederik Z� ...

, came last in the televoting and failed to qualify.

Heat 4

The final heat of Melodifestivalen 2008 before the ''Andra chansen'' round was held on 1 March 2008, at the

Telenor Arena Telenor Arena, sometimes referred to as Fornebu Arena, is a multi-purpose indoor arena located at Fornebu in Bærum, outside Oslo, Norway. It serves as a venue for a variety of events, including concerts, exhibitions, action shows, family shows ...

in Karlskrona. The final two artists to automatically secure their place in the final were Charlotte Perrelli with "

Hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''her ...

" and Linda Bengtzing with the song " Hur svårt kan det va?". The two artists to proceed to the ''Andra Chansen'' round were Sibel Redzep with the song " That Is Where I'll Go" and

Nordman Nordman is a Sweden, Swedish duo founded in 1993, that mixes folk music with rock and pop. This genre is called etnorock or folk rock in Swedish. The group consists of Håkan Hemlin, as singer and frontman, and Mats Wester, who plays the nyckelha ...

with the song " I lågornas sken". The wildcard entry for this heat was

Niklas Strömstedt Bo Anders Niklas Strömstedt (born 25 July 1958) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, musician, record producer and actor. Early life Niklas Strömstedt was born on 25 July 1958 in Lund as the first child of Margareta (née Henriksson) and Bo St ...

with the song "För många ord om kärlek", which came last in the televoting.

''Andra Chansen'' round

The third and fourth placed songs in each semifinal perform in ''Andra Chansen'' (Second Chance) round. Eight songs performed, paired off against each other. The winners of the first two pairings compete against each other in the first final, while the winners of the other two compete in the second. The winners of the two final pairings go through to the final. The two winners of ''Andra Chansen'' that went on to the final were Sibel Redzep with the song " That Is Where I'll Go" and

with the song "I lågornas sken".

First Round

Second Round

Final

The final of Melodifestivalen 2008 was held on 15 March 2008 at the

Globe Arena Avicii Arena, originally known as Stockholm Globe Arena and previously as Ericsson Globe, but commonly referred to in Swedish simply as Globen (; "the Globe"), is an indoor arena located in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov district of Stock ...

in Stockholm. The eight direct qualifiers and the two ''Andra Chansen'' winner competed in the final, where the 11 regional juries of Sweden, along with televoting, selected the winner that would represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. The winner of Melodifestivalen 2008 was Charlotte Perrelli with the song "

", receiving a total of 114 points from the juries and 110 points from the televote. The winner of the televote, however, was

with "Empty Room".

Ratings

References

External links

Official website

Poplight.se: Melodifestivalen 2008 (official website of the Melodifestivalen Tour 2008)Official site for the preselectionSVT Television of Sweden in English
{{Melodifestivalen

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2008 Swedish television seasons 2008 in Swedish music 2008 song contests February 2008 events in Europe March 2008 events in Europe 2000s in Stockholm 2000s in Gothenburg Events in Stockholm Events in Gothenburg Events in Karlskrona Events in Västerås Events in Linköping Events in Kiruna