Despite being number one on Spotify, Fröken Snusk did not advance to the final in Melodifestivalen this year from the Final Qualification Round. Even rewritten Gunilla Persson, who has created a lot of headlines, was eliminated.
Instead, the final spots went to Jay Smith and Annika Wickihalder, who had previously competed in the fifth qualifying round the same evening.
The extra exposure for the two artists who got to perform their song multiple times the same evening was perceived as unfair by critics, and now SVT is fine-tuning the concept.
Received criticism
Instead of ten artists, there will now be five artists competing for two final spots. In the Final Qualification Round, it will be revealed which entry received the most votes in the qualifying rounds and will get a direct final spot – then the viewers will vote for the second finalist.
The Final Qualification Round received criticism. I, who have the voting figures, know that it's not entirely justified. It wasn't that simple that just the two songs that had been played earlier that evening had a complete advantage. But the suspicion that it's so is bad enough for us. So we wanted to adjust it simply, says Anders Wistbacka.
With the new setup, Fröken Snusk would have gone to the final this year – her entry received the most votes in the qualifying rounds among the Final Qualification Round's artists, according to the voting figures published by SVT.
The songs are released
Another change is that the songs for Melodifestivalen will be released to radio and streaming services in their entirety the day before the competition is broadcast on SVT. It's the first time in Melodifestivalen's history that this is being done.
Fundamentally, the rules we've had have been very strange and outdated. So we're making a fresh start on this and looking at it like everyone else does, says Anders Wistbacka and continues:
I think the viewers are used to and expect to see and listen to the music when they've seen it on TV. And when they haven't been able to do that, it's been strange. So we're starting from scratch.
