| Year: | 1979 |
| Country: | Sweden |
| Preselection: | Melodifestivalen 1979 |
| Preselection Date: | 17 February 1979 |
| Entrant: | Ted Gärdestad |
| Song: | Satellit |
| Final Result: | 17th, 8 points |
Sweden selected their representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 in a show called Melodifestivalen 1979. The winner was the popular pop singer Ted Gärdestad with the song "Satellit", which he composed, while the lyrics were by his brother, Kenneth Gärdestad.
Melodifestivalen 1979 was the selection for the 19th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 18th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 452 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was held in the Cirkus in Stockholm on 17 February 1979, presented by Ulf Elfving and was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio.
| Draw | Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) | Points | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Det känns som jag vandrar fram" | Ulf Wahlberg | 85 | 3rd | ||
| 2 | "Tillsammans" | Tomas Adolphson, Anders Falk | 58 | 6th | ||
| 3 | "Om jag skriver en sång" | 85 | 3rd | |||
| 4 | "Det ligger i luften" | 96 | 2nd | |||
| 5 | Kjell Hansson | "Mer än bara över natten" | Kjell Hansson | 59 | 5th | |
| 6 | Timjan | "En egen fela" | Bengt "Charlie" Hillson, PeterOlsson | 39 | 9th | |
| 7 | Pontus Platin | "Nattens sång" | Patrice Hellberg, Pontus Platin, Susanne Wigforss | 44 | 8th | |
| 8 | Py Bäckman and Py Gang | "Var det här bara början?" | 45 | 7th | ||
| 9 | "Satellit" | 105 | 1st | |||
| 10 | "Johnny the Rocker" | 22 | 10th |
| Song | scope="col" | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Det känns som jag vandrar fram" | 10 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 85 | |
| "Tillsammans" | 6 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 58 | |
| "Om jag skriver en sång" | 8 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 85 | |
| "Det ligger i luften" | 12 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 96 | |
| "Mer än bara över natten" | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 59 | |
| "En egen fela" | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 39 | |
| "Nattens sång" | 1 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 44 | |
| "Var det här bara början?" | 4 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 45 | |
| "Satellit" | 5 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 105 | |
| "Johnny the Rocker" | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 22 |
The contest was held in Jerusalem, and Sweden performed 15th. Gärdestad finished only 17th out of 19, with 8 points.[1]