Sweden – Melodifestivalen 2015. Photo : historia.foroeurosongcontest.es

Sweden is all about change this year as they select their song for Eurovision 2015 at the juggernaut that is Melodifestivalen.

What are the new changes that were announced by SVT (Swedish National Broadcaster) today? They relate to the ‘Second Chance’ semi final. This was where Sweden’s 2013 representative Robin Stjernberg came from to win the Swedish National final.

This year – unlike others – after each heat the songs that have made it to the Second Chance round could not be heard again until after all the preliminary heats were completed. Not this year. You will be able to continuously listen to the Second Chance songs directly after their heats.

“We want to make Second chance at a better and more exciting programs and create better conditions for the songs that become classics and live longer in viewers’ consciousness,” says Christer Björkman

The Automatic qualifiers will not be played until after the fourth round heat is completed as before. The thought process is to give the public more of a chance to become familiar with the second chance entries and ultimately make the Grand final more interesting with potential songs growing in popularity.

So you will have 7 acts competing in each weekly heat with the top 2 progressing directly to the grand final and the songs in 3rd and 4th place going to the ‘Second Chance’ stage.

4 sing off will take place in the ‘Second Chance’ semi-final which will ultimately give us 12 songs in the Grand Final of Melodifestivalen as opposed to 10 in the past and offering up more choice to the public and in essence a hoped more exciting selection.

What do you think of the new rules in Melodifestivalen? Will you be tuning into the contest each week?

Author/Editor in Chief Garrett Mulhall

Source : SVT