Fantasifestivalen (The Fantasy Festival) | |
---|---|
Genre | Pop music, etc. |
Location(s) | Sweden |
Years active | 2013–present |
Founded by | Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR) |
Fantasifestivalen ("The Fantasy Festival") is a music competition organised by the Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT). It determines the country's representative for the North Vision Song Contest, and has been organized for every edition but two to date.
The festival has already produced three North Vision winners so far - Malena Ernman's "One Step From Paradise" from Fantasifestivalen 03 taking the victory in North Vision Song Contest 3, Loreen's "Statements" from Fantasifestivalen 22 winning North Vision Song Contest 22 and Janice's song "Hearts Will Bleed" from Fantasifestivalen 29 winning the twenty-ninth edition, as well as fifteen other top ten placings, including seven other finishes in the top 3 for Sweden at the contest. Light orchestrated pop songs, known locally as schlager music, are so prevalent that the festival is sometimes referred to as Schlagerfestivalen ("The schlager festival"). However, SVT tries to present other styles of music such as indie, rap and rock for example.
Origin[]
Fantasifestivalen is based on Melodifestivalen, the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Further information: History of Melodifestivalen
Participation[]
Many different songs and performers have entered Fantasifestivalen since its debut. Swedish as well as non-Swedish artists are allowed to enter. In the sixth and seventh edition non-Swedish artists were allowed to enter the 'Foreigner Final'. In the eighth, ninth edition and fourteenth edition non-Swedish artists were allowed to submit an entry to SVT, from which one entry had been picked internally to compete in the contest.
A CD of each edition's competing songs had been released between the second and tenth edition and between the fifteenth and the twenty-first edition onwards.
Selection of contestants[]
Songs[]
SVT opens a submissions period before the competition and invites musicians and composers all over Sweden to take part in the contest. The song can be in any language, any length and any music style. SVT prefers a huge variety of music styles to make the show more exciting.
Artists[]
Every edition, SVT invites various Swedish artists to compete in Fantasifestivalen, while the remaining spots will be filled with received submissions.
Notable artists[]
Artists that participated most times in the contest[]
Hosting[]
Usually cities like Malmö, Gothenburg, Östersund, Uppsala, Örebro or Linköping are hosting the semi-finals and the Andra Chansen Round, whereas Stockholm is hosting the grand final, mostly in the Friends Arena.
Hosts[]
Edn. | Format | Dates | Locations | Hosts | Voting |
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#01 | 32 songs, 4 semi-finals, one second chance round & one final | 22 March 2013 - 5 April 2013 | Danny Saucedo & Petra Marklund | 50% Jury, 50% SMS and telephone voting in the final. 100% SMS and telephone voting in the heats and Second Chance round. | |
#02 | 3 May 2013 - 24 May 2013 |
|
Andreas Lundstedt & Marie Serneholt | ||
#03 | 12 June 2013 - 30 June 2013 |
|
Gina Dirawi & Eric Saade | ||
#04 | 19 July 2013 - 3 August 2013 |
|
Helena Bergström & Sean Banan | ||
#05 | Not taken place | Loreen & Måns Zelmerlöw | |||
#06 | 25 August 2013 - 23 November 2013 |
|
Helena Bergström & Sean Banan | ||
#07 | 25 December 2013 - 31 January 2014 |
|
Pär Lernström & Kakan Hermansson | ||
#08 | 3 April 2014 - 1 May 2014 |
|
Marie Serneholt & Rickard Olsson | ||
#09 | 30 May 2014 - 10 July 2014 |
|
Carina Berg | ||
#10 | 21 July 2014 - 12 September 2014 |
|
Nour El-Refai & Anders Jansson | ||
#11 | 12 October 2014 - 13 November 2014 |
|
David Hellenius & Jessica Almenäs | ||
#12 | 25 November 2014 - 3 January 2015 |
|
Caroline Winberg & Malin Persson | ||
#13 | 24 January 2015 - 6 March 2015 |
|
Sanna Nielsen & Robin Paulsson | ||
#14 | 28 songs, 4 semi-finals, one second chance round & one final | 21 March 2015 - 17 May 2015 |
| ||
#15 | 31 May 2015 - 18 July 2015 |
|
Christine Meltzer & Måns Zelmerlöw | ||
#16 | 5 songs, one final | 20 September 2015 |
|
Christer Björkman | 100% SMS and telephone voting in the final. |
#17 | 28 songs, 4 semi-finals, one second chance round & one final | 11 October 2015 - 6 December 2015 |
|
Gina Dirawi | 50% Jury, 50% SMS and telephone voting in the final. 100% SMS and telephone voting in the heats and Second Chance round. |
#18 | 12 songs, one final | 28 February 2016 | Eric Saade, Sarah Dawn Finer | 100% SMS and telephone voting in the final. | |
#19 | 28 songs, 4 semi-finals, one second chance round & one final | 15 March 2016 - 28 May 2016 |
|
William Spetz, Charlotte Perrelli | 50% Jury, 50% SMS and telephone voting in the final. 100% SMS and telephone voting in the heats and Second Chance round. |
#20 | 9 June 2016 - 12 August 2016 |
|
Gina Dirawi, Jovan Radomir | ||
#21 | 31 August 2016 - 4 November 2016 |
|
Pär Lernström, Gina Dirawi | ||
#22 | 12 songs, one final | 7 April 2017 |
|
Robin Bengtsson, Malin Gramer | 100% SMS and telephone voting in the final. |
#23 | 28 songs, 4 semi-finals, one second chance round & one final | 24 June 2017 - 3 October 2017 |
|
Clara Henry, David Lindgren | 50% Jury, 50% SMS and telephone voting in the final. 100% SMS and telephone voting in the heats and Second Chance round. |
#24 | 31 December 2017 - 15 January 2018 |
|
Gina Dirawi, Pär Lernström | ||
#25 | 24 February 2018 - 10 June 2018 |
|
Petra Mede | ||
#26 | 26 August 2018 - 28 September 2018 |
|
Benjamin Ingrosso, Felix Sandman, Fab Freddie | ||
#27 | Not taken place | ||||
#28 | 28 songs, 4 semi-finals, one second chance round & one final | 21 February 2019 - 21 April 2019 |
|
Adam Pålsson & Tina Mehrafzoon | 50% Jury, 50% SMS and telephone voting in the final. 100% SMS and telephone voting in the heats and Second Chance round. |
#29 | 16 July 2019 - 18 August 2019 |
|
Måns Zelmerlöw & Dotter | ||
#30 | 23 October 2019 - 1 December 2019 |
|
Ace Wilder & Robin Bengtsson | ||
#31 | 21 January 2020 - 23 February 2020 |
|
Kim Cesarion & Molly Hammar | ||
#32 | 32 songs, 4 semi-finals, one second chance round & one final | 17 April 2020 - 16 May 2020 |
|
Eric Saade | |
#33 | 3 July 2020 - 1 August 2020 |
|
Malena Ernman & Rickard Söderberg | ||
#34 | 13 October 2020 - 7 November 2020 |
|
David Hellenius & Tilde de Paula Eby |
Rounds[]
One edition of Fantasifestivalen lasts about one month and consists of six shows: four semifinals, in which eight songs compete; a Second Chance round featuring songs which narrowly missed out on qualification from the semifinals; and a grand final. Twelve songs comprise the final: two automatic qualifiers from each of the semifinals, and the four most popular songs in the Second Chance round.
Foreigner Final[]
A "foreigner final" had been introduced in the 6th and 7th edition of Fantasifestivalen after the NBU allowed foreign artists to enter national selections. This round takes place before the first semi-final and will not have a specific number of participants. The public will choose the best song, that will participate in the respective Fantasifestivalen edition.
Semi-finals and Second Chance[]
Under the current system, four semifinals are hosted once in a week and eight songs compete in each show.
Unlike in the final, no juries are used; televoting decides the results. The songs are performed with voting lines open for about one and a half day for the first round of voting; the 5 songs receiving the most votes in the first round qualify to the second round. These remaining top 5 battle again for two places in the final and Andra Chansen round - the 1st and 2nd placed songs qualify to the final, and the 3rd and 4th placed songs progress to Andra Chansen.
The Second Chance round (Andra Chansen) is the fifth heat in which the last four places in the final are decided. The third- and fourth-placed songs from each semifinal (eight songs in total) compete in the event. The eight songs become divided into four duels, from which each winner qualifies to the final.
Final[]
Twelve songs participate: two from each semifinal, four from the Second Chance round. A running order is decided by the competition's supervisors to ensure that similar songs and artists are kept apart in the final.
The winner will represent Sweden in the North Vision Song Contest.
Voting[]
The current voting format is a positional voting system similar to that used at the Eurovision Song Contest. 15 international juries each award 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12 points to their top ten songs, the eleven juries account for 50% of the total score. Televotes account for the remaining 50%; The value of the votes was 2 x 473 points, which meant that tele-votes and jury-votes represent 50/50 each. If an entry is getting 10% of the tele-votes it will be equivalent to 10% of 473 points. The song with the highest number of points at the end of the voting is the winner.
If there is a tie, the song that has received more votes from the public receives the higher position.
Juries[]
Juries can send an application to SVT, when it is announced that the lines for this are open. Sweden used to be part of the juries until the 11th edition.
History[]
The following table shows the most frequently selected countries as international voting jury.
Amount | Country | Editions |
---|---|---|
27 | Norway | #01, #02, #03, #04, #06, #07, #08, #09, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #17, #19, #21, #23, #24, #25, #26, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33 |
17 | Faroe Islands | #10, #12, #13, #14, #15, #17, #20, #21, #23, #24, #25, #26, #28, #29, #30, #32, #33 |
15 | Bosnia & Herzegovina | #07, #08, #09, #13, #14, #15, #17, #19, #20, #25, #26, #28, #30, #31, #33 |
13 | Denmark | #01, #06, #09, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #17, #19, #24, #26, #29 |
12 | Azerbaijan | #03, #04, #07, #08, #11, #13, #14, #20, #21, #28, #30, #32 |
11 | Italy | #19, #20, #21, #23, #24, #25, #26, #28, #29, #32, #33 |
10 | San Marino | #01, #17, #19, #20, #21, #23, #25, #31, #32, #33 |
Sweden | #01, #02, #03, #04, #06, #07, #08, #09, #10, #11 | |
9 | Germany | #10, #11, #12, #13, #15, #17, #21, #23, #33 |
8 | Andorra | #02, #03, #06, #12, #20, #23, #29, #32 |
Greece | #01, #02, #03, #04, #10, #11, #12, #26 | |
Moldova | #04, #06, #09, #10, #13, #15, #29, #32 | |
Ukraine | #03, #04, #06, #07, #15, #17, #19, #21 |
Winners[]
All Swedish North Vision representatives have come from Fantasifestivalen to date, except NONONO in the 5th and ORKID in the 27th edition, due to organization problems and low viewing figures the Fantasifestivalen edition had been cancelled. Sweden has won the North Vision Song Contest 3 and North Vision Song Contest 22, and achieved thirteen other top 10 placings, including top 3 placings in the first, fifth, eighth, thirteenth, ninteenth and twenty-third and twenty-sixth edition.
1 The song has not been chosen through Fantasifestivalen.