More viewers watched Melodifestivalen this year, but there’s a catch
Aftonbladet reported the viewing figures of the top shows in Sweden over the weekend, and Melodifestivalen crushed its competition, getting more than double the number of viewers of the second most watched programme. In fact, 3.419 million Swedes watched Loreen win the coveted songbird trophy on Saturday night, an increase of 130,000 viewers from last year. Overall impressive numbers for a country of just 10.5 million!
Broadcaster SVT has a lot to celebrate in Loreen’s smashing victory. She captured 92% of the points available on Saturday night, and the winning song “Tattoo” is already number 1 on the Swedish Radio Chart, the Swedish Spotify Chart, and the classic Svensktoppen radio chart!
Yet while the viewing figures look to be a positive on the surface, a deeper look into the numbers isn’t as kind. Several of the Heats recorded the lowest viewing figures in years. In fact, Heat 2 saw the lowest viewers tune in for a Deltävling since 2006!
As for Saturday’s Final, while it saw slightly more people tune in compared to last year, it was one of the least watched Finals in ‘modern’ Melodifestivalen history. Since Melfest started touring around Sweden in 2002, this year’s Final ranks 4th from the bottom (19th of 22 shows)!
The overall trend is that fewer and fewer people are tuning in to watch Sveriges största folkfest. Rounding out the bottom of the list are 2020 (3.296 million) and 2022 (3.289 million) viewers. When Loreen won in 2012, over 4.1 million watched “Euphoria” take Sweden by storm. Eleven years later, and 691,000 fewer watched “Tattoo” take the crown.
Were you happy with Loreen’s victory? Leave us a comment below or on our socials @escbubble!