This year’s Eurovision Song Contest might have come to an end, but several countries have already kicked off their preparations for next year’s event in Israel. Following the confirmation for their intentions to join the 2019 Eurovision edition, the Swedish national broadcaster, SVT, is now starting their search for the successor of Benjamin Ingrosso.

Next August’s end will see the opening of submissions for the annual Swedish national selection competition, Melodifestivalen 2019, which every year takes place in a number of cities around the country. Artists and contributors are requested to submit their candidate entries on the official website of the competition from Friday, 31 August to Monday, 17 September at 17:59 CEST.

28 entries to be chosen

2019 will not see any significant changes in the song selection process. As with the previous years, a total of 28 songs will be chosen to take part in the live shows of the event, on the way to its Grand Final and the Swedish representation at the 64th Eurovision Song Contest.

Half of the 28 entries (14 in total) will be selected by a special appointed jury, while the rest 14 will be either composed by contributors specially invited by SVT, or will be selected by the broadcaster itself. One of them is going to be the winner of P4 Nästa 2018 competition, which will be taking place on 25 August in the Swedish city of Linköping.

Here are the words of the show’s producer, Christer Björkman, who is ready for one more spectacular Melodifestivalen journey:

After an exciting Melodifestivalen year with yet another high placing for Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest, we are now looking forward to a new Melodifestivalen season with a tour around Sweden. As usual, musical variety is what we want and therefore we are looking for songs in different languages, genres and styles.

Following his victory at the 2018 Melodifestivalen event, Benjamin Ingrosso flew the Swedish flag at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, with the pop song Dance you off. He eventually finished 7th at the Grand Final with a total score of 274 points.