Sweden picks the first artist for Melodifestivalen 2013
Next year's host country, Sweden, kicked off the 2013 national selections' season last Sunday. In a competition organised by Swedish Radio P4 and their popular show Svensktoppen, they chose Terese Fredenwall as the first artist that will compete for the honour to represent Sweden on home ground.
It was announced last winter that the winner of the radio competition Svensktoppen nästa would get a spot in the artist's list of Melodifestivalen 2013, the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. The final of Svensktoppen nästa took place last Sunday at the Liseberg amusement park in Gothenburg.
The winner was Terese Fredenwall, 26, representing the Stockholm district with the song Drop The Fight. The song will be changed though as the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest state that "the songs must not have been commercially released and/or publicly performed, in full or in part, before 1st September...".
Terese is not thinking on Melodifestivalen or Eurovision yet: "Though I'm looking forward to it, I'm still in the middle of the Svensktoppen euphoria".
It is the first time that this competition is used to choose an artist for Melodifestivalen. "A natural choice" says the producer of the Swedish national selection Christer Björkman. "Many of the songs that take part in Melodifestivalen end up in the charts of Svensktoppen".
Melodifestivalen is the most popular tv show in Sweden every year. Since 2002 it has 32 songs that compete for the right to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. Terese Fredenwall will perform one of those 32 songs, the rest of the artists will be revealed during the autumn.
...but you don't need to wait until 2013, did you know there is an alternative melodifestivalen organised by disabled musicians for disabled musicians? Live streaming on the night 17th November...
http://www.musikschlaget.se
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