Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 explained

Year:2014
Country:Sweden
Preselection:Melodifestivalen 2014
Preselection Date:Heats:
1 February 2014
8 February 2014
15 February 2014
22 February 2014
Second Chance:
1 March 2014
Final:
8 March 2014
Entrant:Sanna Nielsen
Song:Undo
Sf Result:Qualified (2nd, 131 points)
Final Result:3rd, 218 points

Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "Undo" written by Fredrik Kempe, David Kreuger and Hamed "K-One" Pirouzpanah. The song was performed by Sanna Nielsen. The Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organised the national final Melodifestivalen 2014 in order to select the Swedish entry for the 2014 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark. After a six-week-long competition consisting of four heats, a Second Chance round and a final, "Undo" performed by Sanna Nielsen emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from eleven international jury groups and a public vote.

Sweden was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 6 May 2014. Performing during the show in position 4, "Undo" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 10 May. It was later revealed that Sweden placed second out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 131 points. In the final, Sweden performed in position 13 and placed third out of the 26 participating countries with 218 points.

Background

See main article: Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest. Prior to the 2014 contest, Sweden had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-three times since its first entry in .[1] Sweden had won the contest on five 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, and in 2012 with the song "Euphoria" performed by Loreen. 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. In 2013, Sweden placed fourteenth in the contest with the song "You" performed by Robin Stjernberg.

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 2014

See main article: Melodifestivalen 2014. Melodifestivalen 2014 was the Swedish music competition that selected Sweden's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. 32 competed in a six-week-long process which consisted of four heats on 1, 8, 15 and 22 February 2014, a second chance round on 1 March 2014, and a final on 8 March 2014.[2] The six shows were hosted by Nour El-Refai and Anders Jansson.[3] Eight songs competed in each heat—the top two qualified directly to the final, while the third and fourth placed songs qualified to the second chance round. The bottom four songs in each heat were eliminated from the competition. An additional two songs qualified to the final from the second chance round. The results in the heats and second chance round were determined exclusively by public televoting, 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. Among the competing artists were former Eurovision Song Contest contestants Helena Paparizou who represented Greece in 2001 as part of the duo Antique as well as in 2005 which she won, Martin Stenmarck who represented Sweden in 2005, Andreas Lundstedt (participating as a member of Alcazar) who represented Switzerland in 2006 and Sylvester Schlegel who represented Sweden in 2007 as part of the group The Ark.

Heats and Second Chance round

Final

The final was held on 8 March 2014 at the Friends Arena in Stockholm. Ten songs competed—two qualifiers from each of the four preceding heats and two 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 Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain and The United Kingdom. "Undo" performed by Sanna Nielsen was selected as the winner with 212 points.[9]

DrawArtistSongJuriesTelevoteTotalPlace
1Anton Ewald"Natural"4141810
2Ellen Benediktson"Songbird"3130617
3"Blame It on the Disco"62481103
4Oscar Zia"Yes We Can"3221538
5Linus Svenning"Bröder"4637835
6Helena Paparizou"Survivor"5727844
7"To the End"3943826
8Sanna Nielsen"Undo"901222121
9Panetoz"Efter solsken"1518339
10Ace Wilder"Busy Doin' Nothin'"971132102

At Eurovision

To ensure fair ticket distribution in the Nordic region for the semi-finals, the Eurovision Reference Group, at the request by the host broadcaster for the 2014 contest DR, held a draw at the European Broadcasting Union headquarters in Geneva in November 2013 where Sweden was drawn to compete in the first semi-final on 6 May 2014.[10] During the semi-final allocation draw on 20 January 2014 at the Copenhagen City Hall, Sweden was drawn to compete in the first half of the first semi-final.[11] In the first semi-final, the producers of the show decided that Sweden would perform 4th, following Estonia and preceding Iceland.[12] Sweden qualified from first semi-final and competed in the final on 10 May 2014.[13] During the winner's press conference for the first semi-final qualifiers, Sweden was allocated to compete in the first half of the final.[14] In the final, the producers of the show decided that Sweden would perform 13th, following Germany and preceding France.[15] Sweden placed 3rd in the final, scoring 218 points.[16]

On stage, Sanna Nielsen was joined by five backing vocalists: Britta Bergström, Jeanette Ohlsson, Thérèse Löf Amberg, Dea Norberg and Jessica Marberger.[17] The Swedish performance focused on Sanna alone on stage surrounded by lights which eventually shone on a large glitter ball on the ceiling.[18]

In Sweden, both the semi-finals and the final were broadcast on SVT1 with commentary by Malin Olsson and Edward af Sillén.[19] The shows were also broadcast via radio on Sveriges Radio P4 with commentary by Carolina Norén and Ronnie Ritterland.[20] The Swedish spokespersons revealing the result of the Swedish vote in the final was Alcazar.[21]

Voting

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Swedish jury:[24]

+
DrawCountryJury RankTelevote RankCombined RankPoints
011145624238
021215101315157101
034664331165
04
056743126447
06131115114131013
078211121381292
081510710591311
095537115556
103914148101414
117131396111515
1214141251414912
1310128877874
142312921112
15989151012683
161121113210
+
DrawCountryJury RankTelevote RankCombined RankPoints
011116111817131112
021619212118222223
032410172016202524
0466136158774
0517852651083
061812241214161214
0720991059665
081413182322212120
094252222717392
10923161411121313
112224111112
1232012713101916
13
14758178714101
15137191524141617
16152471921192421
171018232519232325
18121733106556
191914151323181818
202121202425251519
21131532847
22251114161215911
238410824438
245141432210
252322251120242022
262215699111715

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sweden Country Profile. 5 November 2014. EBU.
  2. Web site: Dahlander. Gustav. 10 September 2013. Städerna klara: Hit kommer Melodifestivalen 2014. 10 September 2013. SVT. sv.
  3. Web site: Fisher. Luke. 13 November 2013. Sweden: Nour El Refai and Anders Jansson announced as hosts. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20131113163605/http://escxtra.com/2013/11/nour-el-refai-and-anders-jansson-announced-as-hosts/. 13 November 2013. 13 November 2013. escXtra.com.
  4. Web site: Michalis. Vranis. Result: Melodifestivalen semi-final 1 concluded. 1 February 2014. 1 February 2014. ESCToday.com.
  5. Web site: Escudero. Victor M.. Two more finalists chosen in Sweden. 8 February 2014. 8 February 2014. Eurovision.tv.
  6. Web site: Michalis. Vranis. Result: the Melodifestivalen semi-final 3 concluded. 15 February 2014. 15 February 2014. ESCToday.com.
  7. Web site: Escudero. Victor M.. Last semi-final complete in Sweden. 22 February 2014. 6 March 2014. Eurovision.tv.
  8. Web site: Escudero. Victor M.. Melodifestivalen final line-up complete in Sweden. 1 March 2014. 6 March 2014. Eurovision.tv.
  9. Web site: Escudero. Victor M.. 8 March 2014. Sweden: Sanna Nielsen wins Melodifestivalen!. 8 March 2014. Eurovision.tv.
  10. Web site: Siim. Jarmo. Sweden and Norway drawn into Semi-Finals. 24 November 2013. Eurovision.tv. 24 November 2013.
  11. Web site: Escudero. Victor M.. Allocation Draw results: Who's in which Semi-Final?. 20 January 2014. 20 January 2014. Eurovision.tv.
  12. Web site: Siim. Jarmo. Running order for Eurovision Semi-Finals decided. 24 March 2014. 26 March 2014. Eurovision.tv.
  13. Web site: First Semi-Final of Copenhagen 2014 . European Broadcasting Union . 4 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210504122707/https://eurovision.tv/event/copenhagen-2014/first-semi-final . 4 May 2021 . live.
  14. Web site: Brey. Marco. First Semi-Final: Meet the winners at the press conference!. 7 May 2014. 7 May 2014. Eurovision.tv.
  15. Web site: Storvik-Green. Simon. Running order for the Grand Final revealed!. 9 May 2014. Eurovision.tv. 9 May 2014.
  16. Web site: Grand Final of Copenhagen 2014 . European Broadcasting Union . 4 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210504122556/https://eurovision.tv/event/copenhagen-2014/grand-final . 4 May 2021 . live.
  17. Web site: ESCKAZ – Eurovision 2014 – Sanna Nielsen (Sweden). 18 April 2014. 18 April 2014. ESCKaz.
  18. Web site: Roxburgh. Gordon. Hear the voice of Sanna Nielsen. 28 April 2014. 1 May 2014. Eurovision.tv.
  19. Web site: Mathilde . Albinsson . Malin Olsson och Edward af Sillén kommenterar Eurovision Song Contest . 2 April 2014 . 2 April 2014 . . sv . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140404141506/http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/om-esc/malin-olsson-och-edward-af-sillen-kommenterar-eurovision-song-contest . 4 April 2014 .
  20. Web site: Följ med bakom kulisserna i Eurovision Song Contest – Melodifestivalen och ESC. 5 May 2014. 6 May 2014. SR. sv.
  21. News: Eurovision Song Contest 2014: ecco l'elenco degli spokesperson. 8 May 2014. Eurofestival News. it. 8 May 2014.
  22. Web site: Results of the First Semi-Final of Copenhagen 2014 . European Broadcasting Union . 7 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210507063729/https://eurovision.tv/event/copenhagen-2014/first-semi-final/results/sweden . 7 May 2021 . live.
  23. Web site: Results of the Grand Final of Copenhagen 2014 . European Broadcasting Union . 7 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210507063730/https://eurovision.tv/event/copenhagen-2014/grand-final/results/sweden . 7 May 2021 . live.
  24. Web site: Brey. Marco. Who will be in the expert juries?. 1 May 2014. 1 May 2014. Eurovision.tv.