They are probably among the most succesful nations in the current century, and it shows that they intend to keep that trend going. The Swedish broadcaster (SVT), has over the past several weeks, been sharing more and more details regarding their upcoming national final, and so, it’s about time to gather everything that is known so far.
Melodfestivalen 2026
2025, marked quite the year for the Swedish national final. Most noticeable being, that the final of the 2025 edition, was ultimately won, by a song performed in the Swedish language for the first time since 2006.
It’s hard to say whether this has had an effect on the upcoming edition, but nonetheless, a total of 3888 entries, was submitted to the Swedish broadcaster, who is in charge of organizing the national final. This figure is an all-time record high number for the competition. Despite the huge increase of interest, the rules for the 2026 edition will remain the same, and will not allow anymore spots into the competition, but rater allow far more possibilities for more variety, so it’s indeed a phenomenal milestone for the contest.
To summarize, a total of 30 participants will make the field of the 2026 edition. These 30 acts will be divided into 5 semi-finals, with 6 participants in each semi-final. The final will consist of a total of 12 songs, with the two best placed song from each semi-final qualifying, and a wildcard round taking place right after the last semi-final. The wildcard round will grant all the songs that placed third in their semi-final a new chance to reach the final, with two songs qualifying as well, making it a total of 12 songs taking part in the final.
Now, where will the shows take place? Well, SVT has also finally set their dates on where in the country the show will come by and when. These are the following host cities and dates for the upcoming national final:
- First semi-final: Linköping – January 31st
- Second semi-final: Göteborg/Gothenburg – February 7th
- Third semi-final: Kristianstad – February 14th
- Fourth semi-final: Malmö – February 21st
- Fifth semi-final: Sundsvall – February 28th
- Final: Stockholm – March 7th
It is quite noticeable as well, that Melodifestivalen 2026 has been set to start in January. Sure, it might be a small detail, but this will still mark the first time since 2002, that the show will start within the first month of the year.
As usual, the final is held in the capital – Stockholm, with the show also coming to the 2nd and 3rd largest cities of the country, namely Göteborg and Malmö. However, the other cities on the host also have former hosting experience, but far from as much as the main 3 cities of the country. Linköping is a regular hosting venue, being selected to host a show every 3 years, meaning automatically, that last time the city hosted the show as well, was in 2023. On the other hand, neither Kristianstad or Sundsvall are familiar host cities, with both having last hosted a show – both being the second chance round – back in 2018 and 2011 respectively. Which goes to show, that this show is indeed about including all of Sweden, every year.
Soon enough, the 30 acts are expected to be revealed, sometime during the Autumn months of 2025, but songs will not be released publicly anytime soon, but instead shortly ahead of the liveshows for each semi-final.
As pointed out earlier, in 2025, a song in Swedish won the national final and that song was “Bara Badu Bastu” performed by the comedy trio KAJ. The trio could’ve made a English version of the song, which has been the case for the Swedish entries since the national language rule was abolished, but decided not to do so, making it the first Swedish language entry from Sweden, since 1999. The song still impressed viewers, which voted to the song to the final, where it overall finished 4th with a total of 321 points. One of only three songs, that did better than eventual winner Austria, with the televote.
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Source(s): SVT.se (In Swedish)