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

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; ) 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 Contest, and has been staged almo ...

. The competition was organised by (SVT) and took place over a six-week period between 6 February and 13 March 2021. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, all shows of this edition took place in the Annexet in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

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

Tusse Toussaint Michael Chiza (born 1 January 2002), better known as Tusse, is a Congolese-Swedish singer who represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. Life and career Chiza was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When he was ...

with the song "

Voices Voices or The Voices may refer to: Film and television * ''Voices'' (1920 film), by Chester M. De Vonde, with Diana Allen * ''Voices'' (1973 film), a British horror film * ''Voices'' (1979 film), a film by Robert Markowitz * ''Voices'' (1 ...

", 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 (song), Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands was se ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, 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 you ...

. 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 M ...

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

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

(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 (Swedish TV series), X Factor''. In 2014, Zia finished as runner-up ...

and

Anis Don Demina Anis Don Demina (; born Anis Dhahir, 25 April 1993) is a Swedish media personality, YouTuber, rapper, DJ and comedian. Early life His Iraqis, Iraqi father, an auto mechanic, fled from the Gulf War to Russia where he met Anis's Belarusians, Be ...

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

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

(heat 4),

Shirley Clamp Shirley Natasja Clamp (born 17 February 1973) is a British-Swedish pop singer. She has achieved four Top 10 singles in Sweden including a Number 1 with " Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus" in 2009, and three Top 10 albums. She has competed seven times ...

(Second Chance round), and Shima Niavarani and

Måns Zelmerlöw Måns Petter Albert Sahlén Zelmerlöw (; born 13 June 1986) is a Swedish singer and television presenter. He took part in ''Idol 2005'', eventually finishing fifth, won the Let's Dance 2006, first season of ''Let's Dance (Swedish TV series), Le ...

(final).

Format

Due to pandemic precautions, SVT did not hold the usual Melodifestivalen tour around six different Swedish cities during the 2021 edition. Instead, all shows were held at Stockholm's Annexet hall, one of the venues in

Stockholm Globe City Stockholm Globe City or Stockholm Globe Arenas is an area in Johanneshov, in Stockholm, Sweden. It contains a number of venues, office areas, and a shopping centre. Venues Avicii Arena represents the Sun in the Sweden Solar System The Swed ...

(in which the host venue of and , the

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

, 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.

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

(heat 1),

and

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

(heat 4),

(Second Chance round), Shima Niavarani 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 in Sweden Eurovision Song Contest 2021

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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