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 C ...

2005 was the selection for the 45th song to represent Sweden at the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

. It was the 44th time that this system of picking a song had been used. Five heats had taken place to select the ten songs for the final, in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

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 ...

Skellefteå Skellefteå (, locally ) is a city in Västerbotten County, Sweden. It is the seat of Skellefteå Municipality, which had 73,246 inhabitants in 2021. The city is historically industrial, with mining being a large part of that industry, especial ...

Växjö Växjö ( ) is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden. It had 70,489 inhabitants (2019) out of a municipal population of 95,995 (2021). It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial centre of Kronoberg County ...

and a Second Chance round in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

. The final was broadcast on

SVT1 SVT1 (SVT Ett; commonly referred to as Ettan) is the primary television station of the Swedish public service broadcaster Sveriges Television in Sweden. History Television in Sweden officially launched on 4 September 1956 with the launch of '' ...

and

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio AB (, "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is d ...

's P4 network, with viewing figures of approximately 4,055,000 and with 1,519,997 televotes cast.

Nanne Grönvall Marianne Elisabeth Grönwall (, née ''Nordqvist''; born 18 May 1962), known by her stage name Nanne (), is a Swedish singer-songwriter. Biography Grönvall's musical career started in the 1980s group Sound of Music. The trio participated twice ...

's defeat was met with consternation by many people, who felt that a gap of over 150,000 votes should be enough for victory. There were even calls for SVT to scrap the jury system altogether and simply let the televotes decide the winner. For a comparison, it was noted that Grönvall had received more votes than Lena Philipsson, the popular 2004 winner. However, SVT said that there was nothing they could do about the result. Four finalists topped the Swedish charts. Alcazar and ''Alcastar'' got to number one the week before the final,

Jimmy Jansson Erik Robert Jimmy Jansson (born September 17, 1985) is a Swedish singer and songwriter. At Melodifestivalen 2020 he set a new record for the amount of competing entries by a composer at one contest with six entries. Music career Jansson's music ...

got to the number one some weeks after that with ''Vi kan gunga'',

Martin Stenmarck Martin Olof Jon Stenmarck (born 3 October 1972) is a Swedish singer. He represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Las Vegas", finishing 19th with 30 points. Career In 2006, Stenmarck released his first single in Swe ...

's winner ''Las Vegas'' hit the top spot the week after that, while Nanne Grönvall and ''Håll om mig'' topped the charts the week after that.

Heats

The heats for Melodifestivalen 2005 began on 12 February 2005. Ten songs from these heats qualified for the final on March 12, 2005. This was the fourth year that a heat format had been used for the competition.

Preselection

Artists that submitted songs

Kikki Danielsson Ann-Kristin "Kikki" Danielsson (born 10 May 1952) is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she also plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She has gained notice for yodeling in some songs. Danielsson gained ...

Sara Löfgren Sara Therese Löfgren, (born 11 April 1977), is a Swedish singer known for her participation in Fame Factory and her song "Starkare" (''Stronger''). Background Löfgren started singing at the age of 12. She got a break in the talent show Fame ...

Arvingarna Arvingarna is a Swedish dansband formed in Gothenburg in 1989. The group consists of Casper Janebrink (vocals and bass guitar), Lars Larsson (guitars, vocals and keyboards), Kim Carlsson (vocals and guitars) and Tommy Carlsson (drums and vocals). ...

Sandra Dahlberg Maria Sandra Marlene Dahlberg (born 13 March 1979) is a Swedish/ Sami singer. She sings a mix of folk and pop music and has had hits as "Kom hem hel igen", "Här stannar jag kvar" (which she performed in Melodifestivalen 2004 and finished in 8th ...

Roger Pontare Fred Roger Pontare (born Roger Johansson; 17 October 1951) is a Swedish musician. He lives in Bjuråker in Hudiksvalls kommun. Pontare was born in Arjeplog Municipality, and is of Sami descent. He has represented Sweden twice in the Eurovisi ...

Tommy Nilsson Erik Tommy Nilsson (born 11 March 1960) is a Swedish singer, songwriter and actor. Career In the late 1970s, Nilsson was the singer of Swedish heavy metal band Horizont. The group released two albums but a French producer, Yves Accary, cont ...

Jessica Folcker Jessica Elisabeth Angelique Folcker (born 9 July 1975), known professionally as Jessica, is a Swedish singer. Her debut album ''Jessica'' in 1998 used her mononym, whereas follow up album ''Dino'' credited Jessica Folker. Her following albums ''P ...

, Grymlings, Freddie Wadling,

Mikael Rickfors Mikael Rickfors (born 4 December 1948) is a Swedish singer and songwriter. From 1968, he was the lead singer and bass guitarist in Swedish band Bamboo. The band released two singles before breaking up in 1970. Rickfors later performed with th ...

Mats Ronander Mats Ronander (born 1 April 1954 in Sundsvall, Sweden) is a Swedish rock musician, guitar player, producer and composer. Biography Ronander was born in Sundsvall, but grew up in Örebro. At the age of sixteen he succeeded Peps Persson as singer ...

, Hasse Andersson & Kvinnaböske Band, Niclas Wahlgren,

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 ...

, Linus Wahlgren,

Lotta Engberg Anna Charlotte "Lotta" Engberg (born Pedersen; 5 March 1963) is a Swedish singer. She represented Sweden in Eurovision Song Contest 1987 with "Boogaloo" after winning Melodifestivalen 1987. She also tried many times in Melodifestivalen in 1984 ...

, Mathias Holmgren, Alex Falk, Johan Thorsell, Ingela 'Pling' Forsman, Lars 'Dille' Diedricsson, Peter Grönvall,

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Heat 4

Second Chance Round

Results

Juries

Televotes

Returning artists

Footnotes

External links

Melodifestivalen at SVT's open archivePoplight.se: Melodifestivalen 2005
{{Melodifestivalen 2005 Swedish television seasons

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

Eurovision Song Contest 2005 2005 in Swedish music 2005 song contests February 2005 events in Europe March 2005 events in Europe 2000s in Stockholm 2000s in Gothenburg Events in Linköping Events in Skellefteå Events in Stockholm Events in Gothenburg