Voting at Melodifestivalen

There have been many voting systems used at Melodifestivalen over the course of its history. The Swedish broadcasters have experimented with various techniques over the years including splitting the juries by age, regional voting and an "expert" jury. Televoting was controversially first introduced in 1993, as an unannounced experiment. The Swedish telephone network promptly collapsed under the strain of phone calls being madeESCtoday.com [http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/7428 Melodifestivalen 1990-2000] . Retrieved on 6 April 2007.] . Televoting was permanently reintroduced in 1999, but the regional jury system was retained, and given a 50% weighting in the overall results. The current voting system has been controversial, as it is possible for the song which receives the most televotes not to win, as happened in 2005 and 2008. The current televoting record is 2,410,200 set in 2008.

ummary of voting systems used

Records

In the event of a tie, the song that received more votes from the public receives the higher position. [ [http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/gavleborg/nyheter/artikel.asp?artikel=575492 Nordman undvek sistaplatsen] sv icon. SR.se (13 March 2005). Retrieved on 28 April 2007.] The closest victories are Tommy Körberg's in 1969 and Björn Skifs' in 1978. In 1969, Körberg tied for first place with Jan Malmsjö before winning after the jury voted for their favourite out of the two. In 1978, Björn Skifs tied for first place with Lasse Holm, Kikki Danielsson and Wizex; but won after each jury was called to vote for their favourite out of the tied songs. Unlike in 1969, each jury "group" (rather than individual jury members) counted for one point in the tie-break.

Since the current voting system was introduced, results have been more clear-cut. The televoters and juries agreed on the winner in seven out of nine finals between 1999 and 2007. The closest victory since 1999 is Martin Stenmarck's three-point win in 2005. The biggest victory by straight-points in the history of the event is ABBA's win in 1974 with 302 points (this total would be impossible with the current voting system since 264 points is the highest possible score). Two songs have scored top marks from each voting region: Carola Häggkvist in 1983 with "Främling", and Arvingarna in 1993 with "Eloise". However, in 1993, experimental televoting was used and the two are not entirely comparable. The biggest victory in terms of points as a percentage of the total possible score is also held by Carola and "Främling", which defeated Kikki Danielsson's "Varför är kärleken röd?" by 43 points, 48% of the total potential mark.

Jury regions

The eleven jury towns and cities used since 1965 are:

*Örebro
*Luleå
*Falun
*Karlstad
*Umeå
*Norrköping
*Gothenburg
*Sundsvall
*Växjö
*Malmö
*Stockholm

References