This Saturday (tomorrow), the fifth heat and “Second Chance” round of the Swedish Eurovision national selection – Melodifestivalen 2025 – will begin at Husqvarna Garden in Jönköping. In all five heats, the two songs receiving the most votes will advance directly to the grand final on March 8 in Stockholm. Songs placing third in votes in each heat will advance to a “Second Chance” round at the end of the heat, getting another opportunity to reach the grand final.

Changes in the “Second Chance” Voting System

Last year, each song received an initial score based on the number of votes it received in its heat, relative to the number of people who voted for it. For example, a song that received 1,000,000 votes in a heat where 500,000 people voted would have a value of 2. If another song also received 1,000,000 votes but only 400,000 people voted in that heat, this song would have a value of 2.5 and thus receive a higher initial score. This initial score was presented first. At this stage, a total of 1000 points were distributed among the songs.

Then, voting began through the app and phone for the audience’s favorite song among the “Second Chance” songs. After voting ended, an additional 1000 points were awarded based on the number of votes for each song. When all points were displayed, the two candidates with the highest final number of points advanced to the final.

This year, the voting method will also start by displaying each song’s score based on the number of votes it received in its heat, relative to the number of people who voted for it – at this stage, a total of 1000 points will be awarded (similar to last year). However, in the second stage (i.e., the number of points to be distributed that evening) only 800 points will be awarded. This means there is a significant advantage for songs that received more points in the heat they participated in, rather than judging the “Second Chance” songs in relation to each other.

Implications of the New Voting System

This means that the Swedish audience might prefer a certain song among all the “Second Chance” songs, but because the song competed in the same heat with a clear favorite to win the entire national selection – its initial number of points (and the more significant portion at this stage) might be lower than a song that the Swedish audience doesn’t necessarily prefer, but competed in a relatively weak heat, which gave it more points.

This year, there is a disadvantage given to songs in later heats – because this year, the songs are not published all at once after the last heat (as done in previous years), but before each heat! This gives an advantage and more views to songs that competed in earlier heats – which may also help them advance to the final.

The change in the voting method comes following criticism from fans last year, whose previous method brought two songs that participated in the fifth heat to the final, instead of songs with higher enthusiasm around them, which surprisingly failed to qualify.

SVT’s Response to Criticism

Aftonbladet – one of the largest daily newspapers in Scandinavia, drew the Swedish national broadcaster’s attention to unfair rules in the “Second Chance” stage, which caused them to change the rules now. This is what was written in the Aftonbladet article by Tobbe Ek:

“We read your article, that’s where it started,” says Anders Wistbacka, the project manager of Melodifestivalen.

“It’s in our DNA to always try to improve, adapt, change, when we believe it’s for the better and here we felt that ‘you have a point’, it will be better, fairer.”

Wistbacka adds that the details of the voting change will not be discussed in the “Second Chance” stage this Saturday, because “the moment you tell us exactly what the rules are, it becomes very boring television, but at the same time it’s important that television viewers understand and are updated on what’s happening.”

“However, we will say that the scoring is based on the number of votes. I think that’s enough for the viewer to understand that I need to call or press many times for my favorite to advance to the final.”

Full List of Cities and Dates for Melodifestivalen 2025

• Semi-Final 1: February 1, Coop Norrbotten Arena, Luleå
• Semi-Final 2: February 8, Scandinavium, Gothenburg
• Semi-Final 3: February 15, ABB Arena, Västerås
• Semi-Final 4: February 22, Malmö Arena, Malmö
• Semi-Final 5 & Second Chance Round: March 1, Husqvarna Garden, Jönköping
• Grand Final: March 8, Friends Arena, Stockholm

Song Submission and Selection

The song submission window for Melodifestivalen 2025 opened on August 23 and closed on September 13. According to official information from SVT, a record 2,794 songs were submitted. Out of these, 30 songs were selected to compete in the contest, with one ultimately chosen to represent Sweden at Eurovision 2025, to be held in Basel, Switzerland.