Swedish national broadcaster, SVT has revealed eight countries that will take place as international juries in this year’s Melodifestivalen. The international jury will provide half of the result in the grand final this Saturday.
These are the countries:
- Albania
- Cyprus
- France
- Iceland
- Israel
- Switzerland
- The Netherlands
- United Kingdom
However, this was not the initial list. Earlier today, it was announced that Belarus would be one of the eight countries involved. However, Karin Gunnarsson, the producer of Melodifestivalen, admitted that it wasn’t the best idea to involve Belarus, so they decided to replace them with the United Kingdom.
“It was a wrong decision that we selected Belarus as part of the international jury. The situation for free media is very serious in the country. We have therefore chosen to replace the jury group from Belarus with a jury group from the United Kingdom.”
Voting process
Each of the eight countries provides their 12, 10, and 8 through to 1 during the show. The jury distributes 464 points in total. The Swedish public vote provides the same amount of points. However, the audience is divided in 8 different age groups, so that the winning act resonates to each of them. The votes from each group are converted to 12, 8, 10, and 8-1 points as well. The winner will represent Sweden in Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam. Sweden will compete in the first semi-final on May 18th.
The Grand Final of Melodifestivalen 2021 will take place this Saturday, March 13th in Stockholm. It will be hosted by Christer Björkman accompanied with Shima Niavarani and Eurovision 2015 winner Måns Zelmerlöw.
What do you think about the chosen countries? Did SVT make a good decision in swapping Belarus for the United Kingdom? Let us know down below!
