Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016

Background

Prior to the 2016 contest, Sweden had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-five times since its first entry in 1958. Sweden had won the contest on six occasions: in 1974 with the song "Waterloo" performed by ABBA, in 1984 with the song "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" performed by Herreys, in 1991 with the song "Fångad av en stormvind" performed by Carola, in 1999 with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven" performed by Charlotte Nilsson, in 2012 with the song "Euphoria" performed by Loreen, and in 2015 with the song "Heroes" performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Sweden's entries, to this point, have featured in every final except for 2010 when the nation failed to qualify.

The Swedish national broadcaster, Sveriges Television (SVT), broadcasts the event within Sweden and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Since 1959, SVT has organised the annual competition Melodifestivalen in order to select the Swedish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Melodifestivalen 2016

Melodifestivalen 2016 was the Swedish music competition that selected Sweden's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. 28 songs were initially selected to compete, however, after a disqualification, 27 ultimately competed in a six-week-long process which consisted of four semi-finals on 6, 13, 20 and 27 February 2016, a second chance round on 5 March 2016, and a final on 12 March 2016. The six shows were hosted by Gina Dirawi, who was joined by guest hosts during each show: Petra Mede (Semi-final 1), Henrik Schyffert (Semi-final 3), Sarah Dawn Finer (Semi-final 4), Peter Jöback (Second chance round), Ola Salo (Second chance round) and William Spetz (Final); Charlotte Perrelli was originally supposed to host the second semi-final, however, due to a conflict of interest concerning her endorsement deal with Swedish mobile brand Comviq, she was demoted to a guest performer. Seven songs competed in each semi-final—the top two qualified directly to the final, while the third and fourth placed songs qualified to the second chance round. The bottom three songs in each semifinal were eliminated from the competition. An additional four songs qualified to the final from the second chance round. The results in the semi-finals and second chance round were determined exclusively by public televote and app voting, while the overall winner of the competition was selected in the final through the combination of a public vote and the votes from eleven international jury groups. Among the competing artists were former Eurovision Song Contest contestants Tommy Nilsson who represented Sweden in 1989, Martin Stenmarck who represented Sweden in 2005 and Krista Siegfrids who represented Finland in 2013. Molly Sandén represented Sweden in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006.

Semi-finals and Second chance

Final

The final was held on 12 March 2016 at the Friends Arena in Stockholm. Twelve songs competed—two qualifiers from each of the four preceding semi-finals and four qualifiers from the Second Chance round. The combination of points from a viewer vote and eleven international jury groups determined the winner. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 473 points to award. The nations that comprised the international jury were Australia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia. "If I Were Sorry" performed by Frans was selected as the winner with 156 points.

Promotion

Prior to the 2016 contest, Frans performed "If I Were Sorry" during the London Eurovision Party on 17 April 2016, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.

At Eurovision

All countries except the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the host country, are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As the host country, Sweden automatically qualified to compete in the final on 14 May 2016. In addition to their participation in the final, Sweden is also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. This would have been regularly decided via a draw held during the semi-final allocation draw on 25 January 2016, however, prior to the draw, SVT requested of the European Broadcasting Union that Sweden be allowed to broadcast and vote in the first semi-final on 10 May 2016, which was approved by the contest's Reference Group.

The two semi-finals and the final were televised in Sweden on SVT1 with commentary by Lotta Bromé. The three shows were also broadcast via radio on SR P4 with commentary by Carolina Norén and Björn Kjellman. SVT24 also broadcast the three shows interpreted in international sign language for the hearing impaired. The Swedish spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Swedish jury during the final, was Gina Dirawi.

Final

Frans took part in technical rehearsals on 3 and 8 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 9, 13 and 14 May. This included the semi-final jury show on 9 May where an extended clip of the Swedish performance was filmed for broadcast during the live show on 10 May and the jury final on 13 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries. As the host nation, Sweden's running order position in the final was decided through a random draw that took place during the Heads of Delegation meeting in Stockholm on 14 March 2016. Sweden was drawn to perform in position 9. Following the second semi-final, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. While Sweden had already been drawn to perform in position 9, it was determined that Sweden would perform following Bulgaria and before the entry from Germany.

The Swedish performance featured Frans alone on stage performing in front of a screen of lights, which displayed various patterns and spelled words from the song lyrics. During the performance, Frans moved from the main stage to the satellite stage where he finished the song. Frans was joined by one off-stage backing vocalist: Jonathan Jaarnek Norén. Sweden placed fifth in the final, scoring 261 points: 139 points from the televoting and 122 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows was conducted under a new system that involved each country now awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Sweden and awarded by Sweden in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Swedish jury:

Wiktoria Johansson was originally announced as one of the Swedish jurors. On 4 May, Johansson was replaced by Lisa Ajax due to her participation as a panelist in the SVT1 programme Inför Eurovision Song Contest, where she evaluated and distributed points to the competing entries prior to the contest.