SVT have announced big changes are coming to Melodifestivalen 2024.
The Swedish broadcaster has confirmed that there will be some major format changes coming to Melodifestivalen next year. 30 acts will be competing in Melodifestivalen 2024, instead of the usual 28; but how did we get to 30?
The biggest change that Melodifestivalen 2024 will see is the removal of the Second Chance final (formerly Andra Chansen). Instead, the show will be made up of five semi finals and one final. The semi finals will see six acts competing, instead of the usual seven, and the final will see 12 acts competing.
The top two scoring acts from each semi final will advance to the final. The remaining two finalists will be chosen at the end of semi final five. A recap of the non-qualifiers from all the semi finals, who finished in third and fourth place, will be shown.
Each of the third and fourth placed acts from the semi finals will have their semi final votes added on to the votes that will be cast after the recap. The two acts with the highest number of votes overall will advance to the final. The voting in the final will remain the same as before – 50% jury vote, 50% televote.
By making these changes, SVT hope to keep Melodifestivalen alive, keep viewers as entertained as possible, and to increase ratings across all of the shows, as Melodifestivalen’s project manager Anders Wistbacka explains:
“We always want to make Melodifestivalen even better and more exciting for our audience. With this completely new arrangement, we believe we can maintain viewers’ engagement throughout the season. It’s no secret that we’ve lost audiences in the semi-finals. Now we hope to keep the excitement up through all the programs.”
The song submissions for Melodifestivalen will open on Friday 25th August at 09:00 CET, and will close on Friday 15th September at 11:59 CET.
What are your thoughts on the changes coming to Melodifestivalen 2024? Are you excited to see how the 2024 show will turn out? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Photo credit: SVT
