Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 12, 2008
Melodifestivalen is an annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio. It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959. The competition is the most popular television programme in Sweden; it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. The festival has produced four Eurovision winners and sixteen top-five placings for Sweden at the Contest. The winner of the Melodifestival has been chosen by panels of jurors since its inception. Since 1999, the juries have been joined by a public telephone vote which has an equal influence over the final outcome. The introduction of semifinals in 2002 raised the potential number of contestants from around twelve to thirty-two. A children's version of the competition, Lilla Melodifestivalen, also began in 2002. Light, orchestrated pop songs, known locally as schlager music, are seen as so prevalent that the festival is sometimes referred to as Schlagerfestivalen by the Swedish media. However, other styles of music such as rap, reggae, and glam rock have made an appearance since the event's expansion. The introduction of a grand final in Stockholm has attracted considerable tourism to the city. (more...)
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