Although the Swedish broadcaster set the deadline to submit the songs for the annual selections on 30th September, the Swedes show no sign of losing interest in the upcoming Melodifestivalen. Over 3000 songs have been submitted!
Thomas Hall of SVT confirmed that a high number of submitted songs will be achieved once again this year. “We are still counting but do not expect to reach last years record of 3232. We have counted 3031 so far and can assume maybe another hundred”, he said.
SVT expects around 1000 songs to be left after a first elimination of the weakest songs, executed by 25 Swedish publishing houses. Out of those songs, 28 songs will be selected for Melodifestivalen 2005. The list will be published on 19th October.
Additionally four wild cards (songwriters approached by SVT) directly enter the semi finals of Melodifestivalen 2005. The wild cards will be announced by the end of the year. SVT claims that priority will be given to songs performed in the native language and garantees at least 10 songs in Swedish in the national selection of 32 songs.
