SVT has released the new format for their 2024 national selection, Melodifestivalen, including significant changes to the qualification heats.
Since 2007 the 6-week competition consisted of 4 qualification heats of 7 songs each, with the top 2 advancing directly to the final and the 3rd and 4th places of each heat battling through a second chance round for the last few tickets to the final. Starting in 2024, the second chance round will be replaced with a 5th heat, with all 5 heats being now called the 5 semi-finals.
Each semi-final will include 6 songs, making a total of 30 competing acts instead of the previous 28, with the top 2 advancing directly to the final, as usual. After the 5th and last semi-final, all songs placed 3rd and 4th in their respective semi-final will be presented by a short recap clip. Following that, the audience will get the chance to vote for their favorites, and the top 2 will complete the lineup of the grand final.
That means that the grand final will remain with the same amount of 12 songs as it has been since 2015. The traditional voting system of the final will also not change, with 50% of the votes coming from the audience and the other 50% coming from the international juries.
The lack of change in the jury voting in the final of Melodifestivalen might indicate a similar destiny to the juries at Eurovision itself. Reports from the past month have stated that the EBU is considering changing the jury voting system. That is due to a significant spike in complaints following the 2023 voting discrepancies between the televote and the jury vote.
However, major changes to Eurovision’s format or voting system were almost always tested first in Melodifestivalen. Such changes include the split of televote from the jury votes in 2016 and the revealing order of the televote in 2019. In recent years, Eurovision has taken many paths following Melfest, even in 2023 with the removal of jury voting from the semi-finals, which was adopted from the tradition in Melfest too.
It would be hard to believe that a drastic change to the jury votes at Eurovision will not be tested first in Melodifestivalen. It is not certain, and we’ll be expecting the EBU’s statement on the matter later this year, but SVT’s announcement could be a good indicator of what’s headed for Eurovision in the future.
What do #YOU think about the upcoming changes to the semi-finals of Melfest? Do #YOU think that keeping the jury vote in Melfest could imply a similar path in Eurovision? Let us know on social media @ESCUnited, on our discord, or on our forum page!
