Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "I Can't Go On" written by David Kreuger, Hamed "K-One" Pirouzpanah and Robin Stjernberg. The song was performed by Robin Bengtsson. The Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organised the national final Melodifestivalen 2017 in order to select the Swedish entry for the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine. After a six-week-long competition consisting of four semi-finals, a Second Chance round and a final, "I Can't Go On" performed by Robin Bengtsson emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from eleven international jury groups and a public vote.

Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Country Sweden
National selection
Selection processMelodifestivalen 2017
Selection date(s)Semi-finals:
4 February 2017
11 February 2017
18 February 2017
25 February 2017
Second Chance:
4 March 2017
Final:
11 March 2017
Selected entrantRobin Bengtsson
Selected song"I Can't Go On"
Selected songwriter(s)David Kreuger
Hamed "K-One" Pirouzpanah
Robin Stjernberg
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (3rd, 227 points)
Final result5th, 344 points
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2016 • 2017 • 2018►

Sweden was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2017. Performing as the opening entry for the show in position 1, "I Can't Go On" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 13 May.

Background
Main article: Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2017 contest, Sweden had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-six times since its first entry in 1958.[1] Sweden had won the contest on six occasions: in 1974 with the song "Waterloo" performed by ABBA, in 1984 with the song "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" performed by Herreys, in 1991 with the song "Fångad av en stormvind" performed by Carola, in 1999 with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven" performed by Charlotte Nilsson, in 2012 with the song "Euphoria" performed by Loreen, and in 2015 with the song "Heroes" performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Sweden's entries, to this point, have featured in every final except for 2010 when the nation failed to qualify.

The Swedish national broadcaster, Sveriges Television (SVT), broadcasts the event within Sweden and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Since 1959, SVT has organised the annual competition Melodifestivalen in order to select the Swedish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Before Eurovision

Melodifestivalen 2017
Main article: Melodifestivalen 2017

Melodifestivalen 2017 is the Swedish music competition that would select Sweden's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017.[2] 28 songs would initially compete in a six-week-long process which would consist of four semi-finals on 4, 11, 18 and 25 February 2017, a second chance round on 4 March 2017, and a final on 11 March 2017.[3] The six shows were hosted by Clara Henry, David Lindgren and Hasse Andersson.[4] Seven songs competed in each semi-final—the top two qualified directly to the final, while the third and fourth placed songs qualified to the second chance round. The bottom three songs in each semifinal were eliminated from the competition. An additional four songs qualified to the final from the second chance round. The results in the semi-finals and second chance round were determined exclusively by public televote and app voting, while the overall winner of the competition was selected in the final through the combination of a public vote and the votes from eleven international jury groups.

Semi-finals and Second chance

Final

The final was held on 11 March 2017 at the Friends Arena in Stockholm. Twelve songs competed - two qualifiers from each of the four preceding semi-finals and four qualifiers from the Second Chance round. The combination of points from a viewer vote and eleven international jury groups determined the winner. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 473 points to award. The nations that comprised the international jury were Armenia, Australia, Czech Republic, France, Israel, Italy, Malta, Norway, Poland, United Kingdom and Ukraine.[5][6] Robin Bengtsson emerged as the winner of the national selection with his song "I Can't Go On".

Draw Artist Song Juries Televote/SMS/App Total Place
Votes Percentage Points
1 Ace Wilder "Wild Child" 35 920,421 6.8% 32 67 7
2 Boris René "Her Kiss" 35 904,646 6.7% 31 66 8
3 Lisa Ajax "I Don't Give A" 16 847,353 6.2% 30 46 9
4 Robin Bengtsson "I Can't Go On" 96 1,435,963 10.6% 50 146 1
5 Jon Henrik Fjällgren feat. Aninia "En värld full av strider
(Eatneme gusnie jeenh dåaroeh)"		 56 1,395,012 10.3% 49 105 3
6 Anton Hagman "Kiss You Goodbye" 6 1,058,232 7.8% 37 43 10
7 Mariette "A Million Years" 62 1,068,531 7.9% 37 99 4
8 FO&O "Gotta Thing About You" 7 962,987 7.1% 34 41 11
9 Nano "Hold On" 76 1,627,843 11.9% 57 133 2
10 Wiktoria "As I Lay Me Down" 29 1,474,526 10.9% 51 80 6
11 Benjamin Ingrosso "Good Lovin'" 54 961,104 7.1% 33 87 5
12 Owe Thörnqvist "Boogieman Blues" 1 910,160 6.7% 32 33 12

Promotion

Robin Bengtsson made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "I Can't Go On" as the Swedish Eurovision entry. On 2 April, he performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French. Between 3 and 6 April, Bengtsson took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel where he performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue.[7][8] On 8 April, Robin Bengtsson performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.[9] On 15 April, Bengtsson performed during the Eurovision Spain Pre-Party, which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain.[10]

At Eurovision
Robin Bengtsson during the opening ceremony of Eurovision 2017

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[11] On 31 January 2017, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Sweden was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2017, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[12]

Once all the competing songs for the 2017 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Sweden was set to open the show and perform in position 1, before the entry from Georgia.[13]

The two semi-finals and the final were televised in Sweden on SVT1 with commentary by Måns Zelmerlöw and Edward af Sillén.[14] The Swedish spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Swedish jury during the final, was Wiktoria Johansson.[15]

Semi-final

Robin Bengtsson took part in technical rehearsals on 30 April and 4 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May.[16] This included the jury show on 8 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.

At the end of the show, Sweden was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Sweden placed third in the semi-final, receiving a total of 227 points: 103 points from the televoting and 124 points from the juries.

Final

Shortly after the second semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the reverse order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Sweden was drawn to compete in the second half. Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Sweden was subsequently placed to perform in position 24, following the entry from Belgium and before the entry from Bulgaria.[17]

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Sweden and awarded by Sweden in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:[18][19]

Points awarded to Sweden
Points awarded to Sweden (Semi-final 1)
Televote
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Jury
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Points awarded to Sweden (final)
Televote
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Jury
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by Sweden

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Swedish jury: [20]

Split voting results from Sweden (Semi-final 1)
Draw Country Jury Televote
M. Cederberg Wiktoria M. Lundin G. Efraimsson A. Johnson Average Rank Points Rank Points
01 Sweden
02 Georgia5124775617
03 Australia1631311292
04 Albania1016717131415
05 Belgium91499283210
06 Montenegro12171461617101
07 Finland6721184738
08 Azerbaijan158121261116
09 Portugal119115165112
10 Greece13111614101512
11 Poland145138141256
12 Moldova21104521065
13 Iceland410155129247
14 Czech Republic74510177411
15 Cyprus326293874
16 Armenia161581341383
17 Slovenia1731131510113
18 Latvia8131716111614
Split voting results from Sweden (final)
Draw Country Jury Televote
M. Cederberg Wiktoria M. Lundin G. Efraimsson A. Johnson Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Israel 16 10 21 20 19 20 18
02  Poland 11 16 19 14 21 17 6 5
03  Belarus 25 22 15 13 20 23 23
04  Austria 13 2 6 3 18 7 4 19
05  Armenia 17 18 12 24 11 18 15
06  Netherlands 7 4 3 19 14 8 3 14
07  Moldova 2 5 13 4 5 3 8 3 8
08  Hungary 21 11 20 17 15 19 7 4
09  Italy 4 13 10 7 3 5 6 10 1
10  Denmark 14 3 5 8 9 6 5 17
11  Portugal 8 7 1 6 2 1 12 2 10
12  Azerbaijan 20 15 11 12 13 15 20
13  Croatia 19 24 14 21 12 21 9 2
14  Australia 5 8 4 1 6 2 10 12
15  Greece 18 23 25 25 23 24 21
16  Spain 23 12 22 9 25 22 25
17  Norway 9 17 7 16 16 13 5 6
18  United Kingdom 22 6 9 15 10 12 16
19  Cyprus 3 9 16 2 22 9 2 11
20  Romania 6 19 23 23 7 16 8 3
21  Germany 10 14 8 11 17 11 24
22  Ukraine 24 25 24 22 24 25 22
23  Belgium 15 21 17 5 1 10 1 1 12
24  Sweden
25  Bulgaria 12 1 2 10 4 4 7 4 7
26  France 1 20 18 18 8 14 13
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References
  1. "Sweden Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  2. "Dags att börja skriva låtar till Melodifestivalen 2017". svt.se (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. 29 June 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  3. Laufer, Gil (6 September 2016). "Sweden: Melodifestivalen 2017 dates and cities announced!". esctoday.com. Esctoday.com. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  4. Lindqvist, Anton (30 September 2016). "Clara Henry, David Lindgren och Hasse Andersson blir programledare för Melodifestivalen 2017". svt.se (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  5. Petersson, Emma (10 March 2016). "Här är den internationella juryn i finalen av Melodifestivalen 2016". svt.se (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  6. Petersson, Emma (12 March 2016). "Här är den internationella juryns röster i Melodifestivalen 2016". svt.se (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  7. Kavaler, Ron (22 March 2017). "ISRAEL CALLING! EUROVISION PROMO EVENT SET FOR APRIL 3 TO 6". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  8. Laufer, Gil (5 April 2017). "Tonight: Israel Calling 2017 to be held with 28 participating countries". esctoday.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  9. Jordan, Paul (29 March 2017). "Eurovision in Concert sets a new record with 33 acts". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  10. Fuster, Luis (1 April 2017). "MADRID CALLING! 19 ACTS WILL TAKE PART IN EUROVISION SPAIN PRE-PARTY". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  11. Jordan, Paul (25 January 2017). "Semi-Final Allocation draw to take place in Kyiv". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  12. Jordan, Paul (31 January 2017). "Results of the Semi-Final Allocation Draw". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  13. Jordan, Paul (31 March 2017). "Semi-Final running order for Eurovision 2017 revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  14. Herbert, Emily. "Sweden: Edward af Sillén & Måns Zelmerlöw Announced Commentators". Eurovoix. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  15. Herbert, Emily. "Sweden: Wiktoria Announced Spokesperson Eurovision 2017". Eurovoix. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  16. "Press". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  17. Jordan, Paul; Nilsson, Helena (12 May 2017). "EXCLUSIVE: Running order for the 2017 Grand Final released!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  18. "Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 First Semi-Final". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  19. "Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Grand Final". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  20. Jordan, Paul (29 April 2017). "Who will be the expert jurors for Eurovision 2017?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
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