Melodifestivalen 2021 was the 61st edition of the Swedish music competition

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song ...

. The competition was organised by

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

(SVT) and took place over a six-week period between 6 February and 13 March 2021. Due to the impacts of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, all shows of this edition took place in the

Annexet The Annexet is one of the venues in Stockholm Globe City, located in Stockholm, Sweden. The venue opened in 1989 and has a capacity of 3,950 people. Events Annexet is mostly used for concerts and ice hockey matches. All shows of Melodifestivalen ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, and without an audience. The winner of the competition was

Tusse Toussaint Michael Chiza, better known as Tusse, is a Congolese-Swedish singer who Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. Life and career Chiza was born in the Democratic Republic of th ...

with the song " Voices", who represented Sweden in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2021 The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's win at the with the song " Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands was set to host the ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, where he came fourteenth with 109 points. The format of the competition consisted of 6 shows: 4 heat rounds, a second chance round and a final. An initial 28 entries were selected for the competition through three methods: an open call for song submissions, direct invitations to specific artists and songwriters, and a wildcard given to one of the artists that participated in the ''P4 Nästa'' competition organised by

Sveriges Radio P4 P4 (''pe fyra'') is a national radio channel produced by the Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio. P4 was started in 1987 as a network of regional stations, but national programming was added in 1993 when P3 was relaunched as a specialist yo ...

. The 28 competing entries were divided into four heats, with seven compositions in each. From each heat, the songs that earned first and second place qualified directly to the final, while the songs that placed third and fourth proceeded to the Second Chance round. The bottom three songs in each heat were eliminated from the competition. An additional four entries qualified from the Second Chance round to the final, bringing the total number of competing entries in the final to 12. All six shows were hosted by

Christer Björkman Christer Samuel Björkman (; born 25 August 1957) is a Swedish singer and television producer. He represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1992 with the song "I morgon är en annan dag". From 2002 to 2021, he served as a producer of Me ...

, who was joined by guest co-hosts during each show:

Lena Philipsson Maria Magdalena Philipsson (born 19 January 1966), known by her stage name Lena Philipsson, is a Swedish singer, songwriter and media personality. She represented Sweden in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing fifth. Career Philipsson ...

(heat 1),

Oscar Zia Oscar Zia (born 10 October 1996) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and actor. In 2012, he first came to national attention for coming eighth in the Swedish version of ''X Factor''. In 2014, Zia finished as runner-up on the eighth season of '' Le ...

and

Anis Don Demina Anis Don Demina (; born Anis Dhahir 25 April 1993) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, musician and DJ. Early life His Kurdish father, an auto mechanic, fled from the Gulf War to Russia where he met Anis's Belarusian mother, a pianist and musi ...

(heat 2), Jason Diakité (heat 3), Per Andersson and

Pernilla Wahlgren Pernilla Nina Elisabeth Wahlgren (born 24 December 1967) is a Swedish singer and actress. She has sung in Melodifestivalen several times; her 1985 entry titled " Piccadilly Circus" became popular and successful. She has acted in several plays and ...

(heat 4),

Shirley Clamp Shirley Natasja Clamp (born 17 February 1973) is a British-Swedish pop singer.Shirley Clamp
posh24.se, accessed on May 7, 2010 ...

(Second Chance round), and

Shima Niavarani Shima Niavarani ( fa, شیما نیاورانی; born 7 July 1985 in Teheran) is an Iranian-Swedish actress and singer. She has performed in theater, film, television and radio in over 40 productions. Niavarani got her breakthrough at the age o ...

and

Måns Zelmerlöw Måns Petter Albert Sahlén Zelmerlöw (; born 13 June 1986) is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter and television presenter. He took part in '' Idol 2005'', eventually finishing fifth, won the first season of '' Let's Dance,'' and scored a hit w ...

(final).

Format

Due to pandemic precautions, SVT did not hold the usual Melodifestivalen tour around six different Swedish cities. Instead, all shows were held at Stockholm's

hall, one of the venues in Stockholm Globe City (in which the host venue of and , the

Ericsson Globe 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 Stockh ...

, is located). The shows did not have a live audience.

Presenters

On 4 January 2021, the presenters of the 61st edition of Melodifestivalen were announced.

, contest producer of Melodifestivalen for the past 20 years and outgoing head of the Swedish delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest, served as the main presenter for all six shows. Björkman was joined by guest co-hosts during each show:

(heat 1),

and

(heat 2), Jason Diakité (heat 3), Per Andersson and

(heat 4),

Shirley Clamp Shirley Natasja Clamp (born 17 February 1973) is a British-Swedish pop singer.Shirley Clamp
posh24.se, accessed on May 7, 2010 ...

(Second Chance round),

and

(final).

Competing entries

Broadcaster SVT revealed on 27 November 2020 that they would be releasing the acts for Melodifestivalen 2021 on a countdown, starting on 1 December.

Heats

Heat 1

The first heat took place on 6 February 2021. 3,308,000 viewers watched the heat live. A total of 7,824,951 votes were cast, using 628,624 devices (which is a record for a heat).

Heat 2

The second heat took place on 13 February 2021. 2,972,000 viewers watched the heat live. A total of 7,471,451 votes were cast, using 581,410 devices.

Heat 3

The third heat took place on 20 February 2021. 3,188,000 viewers watched the heat live. A total of 8,002,967 votes were cast, using 647,000 devices, again a record for a heat.

Heat 4

The fourth heat took place on 27 February 2021. 2,953,000 viewers watched the heat live. A total of 6,957,584 votes were cast, using 565,705 devices.

Second Chance

The Second Chance round took place on 6 March 2021. 2,732,000 viewers watched the show live. A total of 9,159,642 votes were cast, using 632,883 devices (which are both records for the Second Chance round).

Final

The final took place on 13 March 2021. A record-breaking 16,752,439 votes were cast, using 1,159,881 devices (which is a record for a final).

References

External links

Melodifestivalen Official Site
{{authority control 2021 in Swedish music 2021 song contests February 2021 events in Sweden Eurovision Song Contest 2021

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...