On July 2nd the Swedish broadcaster SVT confirmed their intent to participate in Eurovision 2023 and revealed the process for submitting entries for Melodifestivalen. The Swedish national final is constantly considered as one of the toughest national finals for Eurovision, due to the SVT’s high production budget, a large interest from artists in participating, and the pool of songwriting talent present in Sweden.
For next year, SVT will re-use a number of the regulations employed for the 2022 selection show. The regulations that remain in place are as follows:
- There will be a total of 28 entries competing in the televised shows
- At least 10 of the shortlisted songs will contain lyrics entirely or mostly in Swedish
- At least 50% of the songs much include one or more females on the songwriting team (rule added in 2022)
- Song duration can be no shorter than 2 minutes and no longer than 3 minutes
- Only new works that have not previously been made available to the public – either by transfer to the public, public performance or other publication/distribution – may participate in the competition.
- The song language when submitting is optional. The language used for the submitted competition entry must also be used in the performance of Melodifestivalen 2022, unless SVT has announced otherwise
- Each performance is allowed up to 8 people on stage, but will be reduced to 6 people per Eurovision rules upon winning
- Swedish citizens are allowed to submit entries, while non Swedish residents may take part so long as one member of the songwriting team is a Swedish citizen
SVT did publish a few new rules for Melodifestivalen that were not present last year. One new regulations makes it clear that a competition entry cannot be unilaterally revoked after it has been selected for the contest. It is currently unknown why this rule needed to be added. An additional rule was added that explains how the 28 entries will be selected for 2023: “14 of entries will be selected from the field of submissions by a jury panel, while the other 14 entries will be written by authors invited by SVT or from public submissions selected specifically by SVT.”
The announcement of which artists and songs were selected for Melodifestivalen 2023 will be announced between November and December of this year, with the heats taking place from February 4th to 25th, the semi-final on March 4th, and the Grand Final on March 11th. Interested artists or songwriters can submit their works from August 26th to September 16th electronically via the official Melfest 2023 website.
Are there any artists you’d like to see return or debut in Melfest next year? Make sure #YOU tell us on social media @ESCUnited, on our discord, or on our forum page!
