Maria Sur

Every year the Swedish entertainment industry is taken over for weeks by a single television show trying to find Sweden's representative at the Eurovision Song Contest. Melodifestivalen has grown into a center around which a large portion of the Swedish music industry revolves and is financed by. Is it really reasonable that so much power is wielded by a single production?

Melodifestivalen (direct translation: The Melody Festival) is an annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT). The competition is a six part tour (5 heats + the final) with stops in cities across Sweden to determine the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest. Melodifestivalen is also known informally as "Mello", or internationally as "Melfest".