Aftonbladet reports on major changes in how the voting in Melodifestivalen 2022 will go. The change brings us back to system used in 2010 and 2011, where the act with the most votes will go through to the final even before the second round of voting.
The first finalist in the semifinals will be announced already after the first round of voting, based on who received the most votes in total. After that, the remaining six contributions continue for the second round of voting. On the second round, the results are based on how the votes are distributed between the different age groups in the app, as well as the telephone votes, the system launched in 2019.
This format of presenting the first finalist was used in 2010 and 2011. For example, if the system would have been in use in 2021 already, we would have seen Danny Saucedo announced as the first finalist from the first semifinal, as he received most votes in total.
On the second round of voting, the app voters will be given new five votes for each of the six artists. The votes from the first round are still included on the results of the second round. The result on the second round of voting is now based on how the votes have been distributed in the age groups in the app vote, as well as the telephone votes. For the first time, the age groups’ votes will be presented in the program, in the style of the Eurovision final, where the artist with most votes in the age category will be awarded the 12 points and the remaining points (10, 8, 5, 3 and 1) will be shown in the graphics. The act with most points from all of the groups in total will be the second finalist and the acts with second-highest and third-highest amount of points will go through to the fifth semifinal, formerly known as the andra chansen.
When we see how the viewers vote, they are very involved in the first half of the program. But when the heart voting is over, during the rest of the program you can not get involved and influence anymore. Therefore, we will now hand out new heart votes for round two.
Anette Brattström, project manager of Melodifestivalen
For the first time, we will find out the full results of the semifinals before the contest is over. Typically SVT has announced the full results only after the final. Now we will know, which artist won the semifinal and who finished last. Also in 2022, we won’t see the finalists reprising their songs in the semifinals.
Another change comes in the final of Melodifestivalen. After the international jury have announced their points, the viewers will be given new five votes for each of the artists. Sweden will select their Eurovision 2022 representative on March 13th.
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