SVT, the Swedish national broadcaster, has revealed that the submission window for Melodifestivalen 2026 will open on August 18.
The submission window for Melodifestivalen 2026 will open on August 18 at 09:00 CEST. The window will remain open until 11:59 CEST on September 12. Once the submission window has closed, a professional jury will review all of the submissions and make recommendations to SVT, who will then choose 30 entries to compete in Melodifestivalen 2026.
Previously, the Melodifestivalen selection jury included members of the public with no experience in the music industry. The Melodifestivalen 2026 selection jury consists of:
Karin Gunnarsson (contest producer)
Viktor Berglund (contest producer and head of voting)
Lotta Furebäck (producer)
Daniel Edvardsson (producer)
Anders Wistbacka, project manager for Melodifestivalen, explained the reason for the changes:
“We at Melodifestivalen always want to improve. We keep the editorial power that has made Melodifestivalen so strong, but complement with insights into what engages and works in today’s digital music landscape.”
Some selection rules for Melodifestivalen 2026 include:
Songs must be between 2 to 3 minutes long.
Songs must be original and must not have been publicly released, either partially or completely, before the contest.
Songs must not include any offensive lyrics.
Songs can be in any language. Any songs not in Swedish or English must be accompanied by a Swedish translation when submitted.
All Swedish citizens and residents are eligible to compete.
Non-Swedish citizens and residents are also welcome to participate, as long as at least one Swedish citizen/resident is included in the application as a songwriter, composer or performer.
Around 30% of the selected songs will be in Swedish.
At least 50% of the selected songs will have female songwriters and/or composers.
Up to 8 people can appear on stage during the performance in Melodifestivalen. If the song is chosen for Eurovision, the number of people on stage cannot exceed 6.
Incomplete submissions will not be accepted.
The full rules for Melodifestivalen 2026 can be found here.
The competing artists and composers in Melodifestivalen 2026 will be revealed in a press conference in November or December 2026. The winner of Melodifestivalen 2026 will represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Austria.
KAJ represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with “Bara Bada Bastu”. They finished 4th in the final with 321 points.
Image source: Alma Bengtsson/ EBU | Source: SVT / Göteborgs-Posten
Sweden debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 and has gone on to be one of the contest’s most successful countries. They share the record for the most victories with Ireland. The country has won the contest seven times, the most recent being in 2024. Sweden’s first victory came in 1974, when ABBA won the contest in Brighton with “Waterloo”. Since missing out on the final in 2010, Sweden has gone on to finish in the top ten 12 times, including three victories. Only in 2013 and 2021 did the country place outside of the top 10 in the final.
