Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Eurovision Song Contest 2008
Country  Sweden
National selection
Selection process Melodifestivalen 2008
Selection date(s) Semi-finals
9 February 2008
16 February 2008
23 February 2008
1 March 2008
Second Chance
8 March 2008
Final
15 March 2008
Selected entrant Charlotte Perrelli
Selected song "Hero"
Finals performance
Semi-final result Qualified (12th, 54 points)
Final result 18th, 47 points
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2007 • 2008 • 2009►
Charlotte Perrelli and backup singers performing "Hero" at the 2nd semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008.

Sweden selected its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 by holding an extending national selection, namely Melodifestivalen 2008. A record of 3 489 entries were submitted to the broadcaster SVT, and 28 were chosen to compete. They were completed with 4 wildcards in the end of December. Melodifestivalen was also this year held on Saturdays, starting with the first of the four semi-finals on 9 February and ending with a final on 15 March. It was the last of the year's national selections, as the official ESC draw was held on 17 March. Four songs progressed from each semi, two to the final and two to the second chance round, where the songs were competing in a knock-out round to gain the last two places in the final.

The final was won by Charlotte Perrelli with the song "Hero", which was written and composed by Fredrik Kempe and Bobby Ljunggren. Sanna Nielsen, who was the favourite of televoters, came second, as she did not receive enough points from the 11 juries.

Charlotte Perrelli competed in the second semi-final on 22 May. She did not actually finished among the ten best, but thanks to the new rule that the last finalist will be chosen by the back-up juries, she took the final ticket at the expense of Macedonia. The actual placement was 12th, 7 points after Macedonia and 2 points after Bulgaria. She was drawn into the 15th spot in the final. Although being one of the heavy favorites before the final, Sweden did not finish higher than 18th, receiving only 47 points.

The commentators for the event for SVT were Kristian Luuk and Josef Sterzenbach, with a brief appearance by Carl Bildt in the final. The spokesperson announcing the votes for Sweden was Björn Gustafsson.[1][2]

Melodifestivalen 2008

Main article: Melodifestivalen 2008

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, who was disqualified from the 2007 competition for publicly revealing details of her song before the deadline.[3]

Format

Melodifestivalen 2008 included 32 songs split up into four semi-finals with eight participants in each. The semi-finals 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 semi-finals 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, who also hosted the 2007 event.[4] 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.[5][6] The titles and composers of the 28 semifinalists (excluding the wildcards) were announced on 10 December and 11 December 2007.[7] The wildcards were announced in January 2008.[8]

Schedule

Date City Venue Notes
9 February Gothenburg Scandinavium Semifinal 1
16 February Västerås ABB Arena Nord Semifinal 2
23 February Linköping Cloetta Center Semifinal 3
1 March Karlskrona Telenor Arena Semifinal 4
8 March Kiruna Arena Arctica Second Chance
15 March Stockholm Globen Final

Semi-finals

Main article: Melodifestivalen 2008

Final

The final of Melodifestivalen 2008 was held on 15 March 2008 at the Globe Arena 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 "Hero", receiving a total of 114 points from the juries and 110 points from the televote. The winner of the televote, however, was Sanna Nielsen with "Empty Room".

#[9] Artist Song Lyrics (l) / Music (m) Votes Place
Jury Viewers Total
1 Charlotte Perrelli "Hero" Fredrik Kempe (m & l), Bobby Ljunggren (m) 114 110 224 1st
2 Sibel "That Is Where I'll Go" Christian Antblad (m & l) 39 - 39 7th
3 Rongedal "Just a Minute" Amir Aly (m), Henrik Wikström (m), Magnus Rongedal (m & l),
Henrik Rongedal (m & l) 		76 66 142 4th
4 Linda Bengtzing "Hur svårt kan det va?" Johan Fransson (m & l), Tobias Lundgren (m & l), Tim Larsson (m & l) 64 - 64 5th
5 Christer Sjögren "I Love Europe" Torgny Söderberg (m), Magnus Johansson (m), Ingela "Pling" Forsman (l) 1 22 23 9th
6 Amy Diamond "Thank You" Sandra Nordström (m & l), Mathias Venge (m & l), Peter Wennerberg (m & l) 25 11 36 8th
7 Sanna Nielsen "Empty Room" Bobby Ljunggren (m & l), Aleena Gibson (m & l) 74 132 206 2nd
8 Nordman "I lågornas sken" Lina Eriksson (m & l), Mårten Eriksson (m & l) 4 44 48 6th
9 Frida feat. Headline "Upp o hoppa" Anderz Wrethov (m & l), Frida Muranius (m & l), Sam Persson (m) 6 - 6 10th
10 BWO "Lay Your Love on Me" Alexander Bard (m & l), Anders Hansson (m & l),
Bobby Ljunggren (m & l), Henrik Wikström (m & l) 		70 88 158 3rd

Juries

Song Örebro Luleå Falun Karlstad Umeå Norrköping Göteborg Sundsvall Växjö Malmö Stockholm Total
Hero 12 12 12 12 12 4 6 12 10 10 12 114
That Is Where I'll Go 1 2 4 2 2 2 4 8 1 12 1 39
Just A Minute 8 4 6 8 6 10 12 10 2 - 10 76
Hur svårt kan det va? 6 8 10 6 4 8 4 4 4 8 6 64
I Love Europe - - - - - - 1 - - - - 1
Thank You 2 1 1 - 1 1 10 1 6 - 2 25
Empty Room 10 6 8 4 10 6 - 6 12 4 8 74
I lågornas sken - - - 1 - - 2 - - 1 - 4
Upp o hoppa - - - - - - - - - 6 - 6
Lay Your Love On Me 4 10 2 10 8 12 8 2 8 2 4 70

Televotes

Song Jury No. of televotes (%)[10] Points Total
Hero 114 +397.907 (16.5%) +110 224
That Is Where I'll Go 39 +120.587 (5%) - 39
Just A Minute 76 +273.521 (11.5%) +66 142
Hur svårt kan det va? 64 +115.321 (4.8%) - 64
I Love Europe 1 +228.674 (9.5%) +22 23
Thank You 25 +188.872 (7.8%) +11 36
Empty Room 74 +449.419 (18.7%) +132 206
I lågornas sken 4 +233.467 (9.7%) +44 48
Upp o hoppa 6 +81.691 (3.3%) - 6
Lay Your Love On Me 70 +320.741 (13.3%) +88 158

At Eurovision

Sweden qualified from the second semi-final as the jury wildcard. They performed 15th in the final, behind Latvia and before Denmark, where they achieved 18th place and 47 points.

Points awarded by Sweden[11]

Semi final

12 points Denmark
10 points Iceland
8 points Latvia
7 points Albania
6 points Turkey
5 points Portugal
4 points Croatia
3 points Ukraine
2 points Macedonia
1 point Georgia

Final

12 points Norway
10 points Bosnia and Herzegovina
8 points Iceland
7 points Finland
6 points Serbia
5 points Denmark
4 points France
3 points Latvia
2 points Armenia
1 point Greece

Points awarded to Sweden (Semi-Final 2)
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
  •  Denmark
  •  Iceland
  •  Malta
  •  United Kingdom
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
  •  Cyprus
  •  Lithuania
  •  Portugal
  •  Serbia
  •   Switzerland
  •  Turkey
  •  Albania
  •  France
  •  Hungary
Points awarded to Sweden (Final)
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
  •  Malta
  •  Denmark
  •  Norway
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
  •  Finland
  •  Albania
  •  Iceland
  •  Estonia
  •  Serbia
  •  Cyprus
  •  Hungary
  •  Israel
  •  Lithuania
  •  Spain

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Björn gör comeback" (in Swedish). Retrieved 2008-05-24.
  2. ↑ "Björn Gustafsson to announce SVT viewers' vote". oikotimes.com. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
  3. ↑ Lex Agnes i Melodifestivalen 2008 (Swedish). Aftonbladet (13 May 2007). Retrieved on 15 October 2007.
  4. ↑ ESCToday (18 April 2007) Kristian: I'm happy and honoured. Retrieved on 21 May 2007.
  5. ↑ Sveriges Television (May 2007) Melodifestivalen 2008 Tävlingsregler (Swedish). Retrieved on 21 May 2007.
  6. ↑ ESCToday 3434 songs submitted for Melodifestivalen. Retrieved on 29 December 2007.
  7. ↑ ESCToday Melodifestivalen line-up complete. Retrieved on 29 December 2007.
  8. ↑ ESCToday The full MF running order. Retrieved on 15 January 2008.
  9. ↑ Poplight.se (9 March 2008). Så här blev det när Björkman bestämde finalordningen. Retrieved on 9 March 2008.
  10. ↑ Poplight.se (16 March 2008). SVT satte nytt röstningsrekord. Retrieved on 16 March 2008.
  11. ↑ Eurovision Song Contest 2008
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