Follownig the year of internal selections, it looks like numerous broadcasters are ready to host another year of fun and entertaining national finals for Eurovision fans. However, some national finals have decided to rehaul their selection process to introduce some new elements – or in the case of Malta, bring back an old fan favorite of MESC. Let’s dive into some of the updates you likely missed in the national final scene!
SVT to end Andra Chansen in 2022
According to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, SVT is planning to replace the Andra Chansen round of Melodifestivalen with a show simply titled “Semi-Final”, retiring the name Andra Chansen all together. However, this heat will not be another round of 7 brand new songs – but rather a head-to-head group knock out with two groups of four songs, and the top 2 songs in each group will advance to the Final.
Explaining the change, SVT told Afontbladet that:
“The purpose of Andra Chansen from the beginning was that the artist would have the opportunity to redo their number from the Deltävling [heats] if they felt that there was something to do differently. But today everything is almost performed to perfection so there are no major changes being made. Almost no one wants to make changes and then the idea of “Second Chance” fails. That is what we have experienced that there has not really been an uplift for the final, but rather that it may have been performed slightly worse.”
SVT also announced in September that Melfest alum Oscar Zia would be hosting the show for 2022.
Israel to Select their Eurovision artist through X-Factor Israel
While we have reported on this earlier in the year, it’s possible that you missed this nugget of news! Israel has adapted their Eurovision selection in order to hit a new pocket of talent, and will be a shorter process than Rising Star. Just last week the Auditions phase began on October 30th, and will likely continue for another few weeks leading up to the finale in January.
In the finale, the top 4 artists will compete head to head with their Eurovision potential song, and the winner will be selected live from the show along with that song. Earlier last month, it was reported that KAN had received 130 song submissions for Eurovision, giving the broadcaster a large pool to chose from for each finalist.
The six artists that have made it past the auditions phase so far are Kama Kamila, Ilai Almkeys, Michael Ben David, Anna Stephanie, Inbal Bibi, Elisha Nachmias, Liron Lev and Adi Cohen, Abigail Moyal, Gali Ben Shoshan, and Lint. Inbal, Liron, and Adi were reported as artists who had auditioned back in September by Euromix, and we will wait to see if the other rumored artists will make appearances in subsequent weeks.
NRK announces voting changes for Melodi Grand Prix 2022
MGP has faced some heat in the last few years regarding their voting method for the show, and it seems that they’ve found a possible solution for 2022. Rather than relying on a pure popular vote to decide the super finalists and winner of MGP, NRK will return to an international jury vote along with a completely new voting method. This new method will likely replace the online regional voting method used in 2021 and 2022, though it is unknown if it will be restricted to only Norwegian citizens or open to the international audience.
The show will be broadcast from Fornebu’s H3 Arena and feature 4 semi-finals and the grand final, and there will still be a number of auto-qualifying acts as well. Whether or not an audience will be allowed is still up in the air, but the venue will be expanded so that audience participation is allowed while still being in line with pandemic precautions. The show will begin on January 15th and they will select their winner on February 12th.
Sanremo gets a voting rehaul for next year’s shows as well
For those who have never watched the Italian music festival Sanremo, it is a 5 night spectacle that includes numerous performances from artists, covers of songs, and a LOT of voting. This year they will be revising the way votes are cast, and these votes are important because they decide who moves on to the superfinal of Sanremo night 5. It has already been confirmed that 24 artists or acts will be selected to compete in the show, and it will take place from February 1st to 5th.
On nights one and two the acts will perform for the press jury vote, which will be divided into three categories – print, radio and TV, and web/internet. Votes from all three categories will have the same weight in the vote totals. On night three, the acts will perform again but this time they compete for the public vote instead. RAI said that 50% of this vote will be comprised of the public televote, while the other 50% of the vote will be comprised of the “Demoscopic 1000” jury – a similar model to NDR’s “Eurovision Panel” from Unser Lied für Israel 2019 that represents the general public taste in music.
The results from night five will be decided by an additional televote, and the average results from nights one through three (the press, public vote, and Demoscopic jury). The top three acts will then perform again for the superfinal, and another round of voting will take place as is tradition. The winner will then be decided by the same juries, but with the Press vote and Demoscopic juries getting 33% of the results each, and the public televote deciding 34% of the results.
Spain extends the submission deadline for Benidorm Fest 2022
This summer RTVE announced that it would return to a national final to select it’s Eurovision entry for 2022, and it looks like the submission deadline has been extended to November 10th! But for Spanish fans, don’t worry – this decision does not mean quality songs or artists did not apply in the first round. Spain’s HOD stated the decision for an extension was made, “in order to give as many talented artists and composers the best possible proposals”.
Benidorm will be a three show national selection with two semi-finals and a final, and will feature 12 artists. By extending the submission deadline, RTVE is likely hoping that the candidate pool with not only make the process competitive, but also ensure that the show will be a successful celebration of Spanish music from all genres. Benidorm is scheduled to happen at some point in January 2022 with the winner being decided by both a professional jury and a public vote made up of a public vote. The two groups will split the results 50/50 but the jury vote will be 60% national jury and 40% international, while the public vote is 50% public televote and 50% demoscopic jury.
RTCG cancels Montevizija for 2022, opts for an internal selection instead
Following their return to Eurovision, it appears Montenegro has decided to part ways with their national final for next year. Instead they have invited artists to submit their songs to RTCG between now and December 10th to be considered as their 2022 Eurovision act. Any artists interested in applying will have to go the old-school route, as the broadcaster is only accepting entries mailed to them by post.
The rules for submissions are as follows:
- You can be from all over the globe, regardless of your nationality, however whoever you’ve got singing your song must have Montenegrin citizenship.
- Your song can be in any language.
- Your song cannot have been made public before 1st of October, 2021.
- Authors can submit up to two songs.
The full rules for the selection process can be found on the RTCG website. Montenegro’s last representative at Eurovision was in 2019 with the group D-Mol.
And that’s what you likely missed last week! Are #YOU excited about some of these changes? Let us know on social media @ESCUnited, or on our forum page!
