After six weeks, the Swedish national selection show for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, titled Melodifestivalen, has crowned its winner. John Lundvik, with his song “Too Late For Love”, came out on top scoring top marks in the jury vote and topped the televote. He will be jetting off to Tel Aviv, Israel, to represent Sweden at the international singing competition.
Winning the show, John Lundvik has done a first both for Melodifestivalen and Eurovision; he scored 12 points from every single international jury which has never been achieved before, even Eurovision winners Loreen and Måns Zelmerlöw never achieved that feat – although the latter did top nine out of 11 international juries and there was only eight this year; he is also the first Eurovision contestant to both be representing a country and being listed as a songwriter for another country’s song – he wrote Michael Rice’s “Bigger Than Us” which will represent the United Kingdom.
As with every year, Melodifestivalen 2019 was extremely competitive with many great acts gracing the stage. John Lundvik with “Too Late For Love” scored a total of 181, a total of 74 points ahead of second place. The scoring system lacked any sign of tension as the vote wasn’t even close, which made quite the change since, in previous years, tension has been ripe. John Lundvik was a clear winner, and the fact that the song is currently number one in Sweden makes it even less surprising that he won. As previously stated, he won top marks from the jury vote gaining 96 points and he also topped the televote gaining 85 points.
Watch John Lundvik Perform Eurovision Song “Too Late For Love” At Melodifestivalen 2019 Here:
The Final was hosted at the Friends Arena in Stockholm, Sweden on 9 March 2019, presented by Eric Saade, Sarah Dawn Finer, Marika Carlsson, and Kodjo Akolor. We had last year’s winner and Swedish representative, Benjamin Ingrosso, opening the show; he started off with a collaboration with last year’s runner-up, Felix Sandman, titled “Tror du att han bryr sig” (“Do you think he cares?” in English), which was a hit in Sweden last year, charting within the top 10 of Sverigetopplistan. He then went on to sing a new version of Lionel Richie’s song “All Night Long”, whilst the hosts and the contestants step out of a tour van to, that arrived in the venue and they walk amongst the crowd as they head towards the stage. This is when the competition really kicked off as the contestants performed their songs one last time.
Coming in second was the televote’s second favourite, Bishara with his song “On My Own”. He came fifth in the jury vote, gaining 38 points, but his fans backed him in the televote, giving him 69 points. Surprisingly, he came joint second with Hanna Ferm & LIAMOO who sang “Hold You”; they came third in the jury vote gaining 48 points and came third in the televote gaining 59 points. Both acts totalled at 107 points. “On My Own” charted on the Swedish chart at number four, whereas “Hold You” is currently at number two.
Watch Bishara Perform “On My Own” and Hanna Ferm & LIAMOO perform “Hold You” At The Melodifestivalen Final Here:
Second place wasn’t the only position that was shared, two contestants also came joint-fourth with a total of 74 points. Jon Henrik Fjällgren with “Norrsken (Goeksegh)” didn’t do all that well in the international jury vote gaining just 19 points placing him 12th, but he shined in the televote pushing him right into joint-fourth place as he came fourth in the televote gaining 55 points. Also placing fourth was international superstar Mohombi with the song “Hello”; he came seventh in the jury vote gaining 32 points and did much better in the televote coming fifth gaining 42 points. “Norrsken (Goeksegh)” is currently at number 10 on the Swedish chart, whereas “Hello” peaked at number six.
Watch Jon Henrik Fjällgren Perform “Norrsken (Goeksegh)” And Mohombi Perform “Hello” At The Melodifestivalen 2019 Final Here:
Even though we had a clear winner, this year, most of the other positions were shared amongst the acts. As previously mentioned, there were two acts who shared second place, and two acts who shared fourth place, but there were three contestants who shared sixth place with a score of 64 points.
Doing the best in the televote was Arvingarna who are a household name in Sweden. They got to the Final through the Andra Chansen round and they sang “I Do”. They didn’t do so well in the jury vote, coming in at ninth and gaining 27 points, they did a bit better in the televote coming in at sixth place with 37 points.
As for CelebMix favourite, Wiktoria with the song “Not With Me”, she didn’t make the impact she has previously made at Melodifestivalen. In the past, the jury votes have let her down, but this time around she just didn’t do quite so well – you would think being soaked from a shower of rain whilst performing killer vocals would’ve been enough. She came sixth in the jury vote gaining 36 points and came eighth in the televote gaining 28 points.
Also placing in sixth position was the jury vote’s second favourite of the night, Nano with “Chasing Rivers”. Just like Arvingarna, he made it through to the final after winning his duel at the Andra Chansen round. His vocals were on point during his performance, from start to finish, so it’s no surprise the international juries placed him second with a total of 54 points, but he didn’t make much of an impact at home, coming in at 11th place gaining just 10 points from the televote.
As for chart position, “I Do” by Arvingarna is currently at number 13 on the Swedish chart, “Not With Me” by Wiktoria currently stands at number eight, and “Chasing Rivers” by Nano is at number 31.
Watch Arvingarna perform “I Do”, Wiktoria Perform “Not With Me”, And Nano Perform “Chasing Rives” At The Final Of Melodifestivalen 2019 Here:
No more joint positions now. Coming in ninth was Lisa Ajax who was another contestant who made it through to the Final thanks to the Andra Chansen round. She sang the incredibly emotional track “Torn” and certainly deserved more points. She came fourth in the jury vote gaining 39 points, but she made less of an impact with the viewers at home, coming in at ninth position in the televote gaining 23 points. Her total score was 62 points. In contrast to the votes, she’s doing pretty well on the Swedish chart, currently peaking at number 12.
Watch Lisa Ajax Perform “Torn” On The Final Of Melodifestivalen 2019 Here:
Tenth place went to Melodifestivalen 2010 winner, Anna Bergendahl, who saw this year as an attempt to redeem herself after being the only Swedish representative not to make it through to the Grand Final of Eurovision. This year, she sang the song “Ashes To Ashes”, which we believe is a grower of a song. She made it through to the Final after winning her duel at Andra Chansen round, and so the song has certainly grown on us the more we’ve heard it. She came 11th in the international jury vote gaining 20 points, but fared better in the televote coming seventh gaining 36 points; therefore totalling at 56 points. Chart-wise, she’s currently at number 15 on the Sverigetopplistan.
Watch Anna Bergendahl Perform “Ashes To Ashes” On The Melodifestivalen 2019 Final Here:
Lina Hedlund, with “Victorious” came in at 11th place. She’s best known for being a part of the group Alcazar, but this year, she went solo and made it to the Final. She didn’t do too bad with the jury vote coming in at joint-seventh gaining 32 points, along with Mohombi; she didn’t do so well with the televote coming in at 12th place gaining a measly eight points. She totalled at 40 points overall. She charted on Sverigetopplistan at number 36.
Watch Lina Hedlund Perform “Victorious” At Melodifestivalen 2019 Here:
Coming in last place of the Final of Melodifestivalen 2019 was Malou Prytz with the song “I Do Me”. Her pop number and ode to the Clueless film wasn’t enough to get her the points she needed, but she did sail right through to the Final when she came either first or second in her Semi-Final, so she may have come last but she did beat five other songs to get to the Final. She came tenth in the jury vote gaining 23 points and she also came tenth in the televote gaining 12 points. She finished with a total of 35 points. She is, however, fairing better than some of her competitors on the Swedish charts, peaking at number 17.
Watch Malou Prytz Perform “I Do Me” On The Final Of Melodifestivalen 2019 Here:
The show was absolutely incredible, and the 12 Final performances proved the high calibre of Swedish acts, and so it comes as no surprise as to why Sweden always does well at the Eurovision Song Contest because they have an epic national selection show.
Interval acts left us speechless and proved that Sweden sure knows how to host a show. Intercut scenes during the performances of the show came from comedian Lynda Woodruff (who is a character played by the Melodifestivalen 2019 host Sarah Dawn Finer); her scenes had us laughing from start to finish and she’s definitely someone you need to watch.
Whilst the viewers at home were voting, we had Swedish Eurovision 1999 winner, Charlotte Perrelli, sing her winning song “Take Me To Your Heaven”. Following her was the previous winner from Eurovision 1998, Dana International, who represented Israel, singing her winning song “Diva”. Then the two female winners collaborated on a brilliant song, together on stage, titled “Diva To Diva” – it was pure magic. We also had a dance interpretation of Benjamin Ingrosso’s Melodifestivalen 2018 winning song “Dance You Off”, which represented Sweden at Eurovision last year; the dance interpretation was created by Daniel Koivunen, who was a part of the dance group on stage, which also consisted of Ann Miro, Felicia Maurice, Edin Jusuframic, and Ellen Lindblad.
For the final time of Melodifestivalen 2019, the hosts all decided to collaborate on a song, saying farewell. They surrounded a piano, to which Eric Saade played. They looked back over the last six weeks and the experiences of Melodifestivalen 2019, whilst images from the previous shows were showcased on the screen behind them. We’ll going to miss these four hosts presenting and singing together.
The ending saw John Lundvik being crowned as the winner. Benjamin Ingrosso presented him with the trophy after a few fun seconds of the previous winner not wanting to give up the trophy. We have to admit, John Lundvik’s performance had a gospel soul twist to it, and we have no doubt that it’ll do well at Eurovision. It’s getting a lot of comparisons to Austria’s Eurovision 2018 song “Nothing But You” sang by the soulful Cesár Sampson, which came third in the contest.
That’s it for Melodifestivalen 2019, we cannot wait to watch this show again next year, but first, we have the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, in May to look forward to, which is bound to be epic. Can John Lundvik bring the show back to Sweden? To do so he’ll have to score more points than the other 41 acts that are competing and representing their own countries.
Announced acts so far for this years Eurovision Song Contest are Srbuk for Armenia, Tamta for Cyprus, Jonida Maliqi for Albania, Eliot for Belgium, Miki for Spain, Serhat for San Marino, Duncan Laurence for The Netherlands, Tamara Todevska for North Macedonia, Michela Pace for Malta, Bilal Hassani for France, Lake Malawi for the Czech Republic, PÆNDA for Austria, Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman for Finland. Michael Rice for the United Kingdom, Sergey Lazarev for Russia, Mahmood for Italy, Kate Miller-Heidke for Australia, D-Moll for Montenegro, Kobi Marimi for Israel, Katerine Duska for Greece, Joci Pápai for Hungary, Jurijus for Lithuania, Leonora for Denmark, S!sters for Germany, Ester Peony for Romania, Victor Crone for Estonia, Roko for Croatia, Carousel for Latvia, Tulia for Poland, Hatari for Iceland, Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl for Slovenia, KEiiNO for Norway, Nevena Bozovic for Serbia, Conan Osíris for Portugal, Oto Nemsadze for Georgia, Anna Odobescu for Moldova, and Luca Hänni for Switzerland. The other countries are expected to reveal their acts in the forthcoming days.
The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted at the Expo Tel Aviv in Israel after Netta won last year with the song “Toy”. The two Semi-Finals will take place on 14 May and 16 May with the Grand Final taking place on 18 May. A total of 41 countries will compete in the contest.