Melodifestivalen is an annual contest held by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR) since 1959 to determine the country’s representative for the Eurovision Song Contest.
The contest is responsible for picking last year’s winner - Mans Zelmerlow, who took out the top spot with his song 'Heroes'.
Melodifestivalen, Sweden Source: SVT
This year, the host national invited Australia to participate as one of the international juries that help determine the winner. A team of industry professionals chaired by Julia Zemiro deliberated on the final performances of the 12 acts, before Australia’s Eurovision Co-Head of Delegation, Stephanie Werrett, delivered the results live on Swedish television over the weekend.
Stephanie said “It was a real privilege for Australia to be asked to provide an international jury, along with 10 other countries. The final had 3.5 million viewers on national TV and the city pretty much shut down whilst it was on. The winner, Frans Jeppson Wall won 12,643,275 votes which is a new record and more than the population of Sweden!”
The winner of this year’s Melodifestivalen, the adorably handsome 17-year-old Frans has already been tipped as the hot favourite to win the Eurovision contest overall according to betting odds from around the world. That would make for a second win in a row for Sweden and would also mean that they would host the contest again next year, as is tradition for the victor.
Australia’s not doing too badly in the betting odds either, with our own Dami Im and her song ‘Sound of Silence’ tipped for third place, which would mean a Grand Final finish for Australia. This is good news as unlike last year’s wildcard entry with Guy Sebastian, our place is not guaranteed at this year’s Grand Final as we have to earn our place there by winning over all the other voting nations.
The Australian Eurovision Co-head of Delegation Stephanie Werrett delivers the Australian jury rsults for Melodifestivalen live on Swedish TV Source: SVT
Behind-the-scenes as Australia delivers their Melodifestivalen results Source: Blink TV Australia
The Australian Head of Delegation for Eurovision, Paul Clarke, at Melodifestivalen in Sweden. Source: Blink TV Australia
Check out Frans’ finale performance at Melodifestivalen below.
