And the biggest news about that is, that actually: there are no rule changes!
SVT is known to make (sometimes quite impactful) changes to Melodifestivalen, wether that’s contest-wise, voting-wise or in the way the show is hosted, but you can bet on SVT to surprise. For Melodifestivalen 2018 however, when it comes to rules at least, they surprise by continuing on the same track they were on during this year’s edition.
Christer Björkman, project leader for Melodifestivalen since 2002 and Head of Delegation for Sweden, explains:
After an intense Melodifestivalen year with yet another top 5-placing for Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, we are now looking forward to a new season of Melodifestivalen on tour around Sweden. As usual it’s breadth, diversity and variety we want and that’s why we’re looking for songs in different languages, genres and styles.
The plan for 2018:
The song submission opens at svt.se/melodifestivalen on September 1 and closes at September 18, 23:59 CET. There will be two links to upload songs to: ”Allmänhetens tävling” (Public contest) for songwriters who have never released a song before, those who have turn to ”Ordinarie tävling” (Regular contest).
Read the rules here in Swedish and English.
Melodifestivalen 2018 will have 28 songs competing once again. 14 from the songs that were sent in and picked by a public jury, the other 14 can be either picked by SVT from the songs that were sent in or they can be songs from songwriters and/or artists that SVT invited themselves. One of the 14 ”SVT places” will be given to one of the finalists of the P4 Nästa 2017 contest that will be held later this summer.
