The figures are out! SVT, the Swedish national broadcaster, has announced that a total of 2,771 entries have been submitted for the nation’s Eurovision national selection for 2018, Melodifestivalen.

At the start of this month, SVT opened submissions for Melodifesitvalen 2018 in which artists and songwriters were able to put in their bid in order to compete in the forthcoming competition.

Over 2 weeks passed and yesterday evening, the Swedish national broadcaster closed submissions after receiving a grand total of 2,771 entries, the highest the selection has received since 2012.

Whilst 2,324 entries were submitted to the ‘Ordinary competition’, the remaining 447 entries were submitted to the ‘General competition’.

Past Melodifestivalen contribution figures

• 2009: 3,440 submissions
• 2010: 2,860 submissions
• 2011: 3,832 submissions
• 2012: 3 485 submissions
• 2013: 2,549 submissions
• 2014: 2,628 submissions
• 2015: 2,177 submissions
• 2016: 2,450 submissions
• 2017: 2,478 submissions
• 2018: 2,771 submissions

Shortlisting to commence in due course

Following the closure of submissions, a selection jury will gather in order to create an initial shortlist of entries from the competition, headed by the chairman of the jury Karin Gunnarsson, with the final 28 entries being determined via the Swedish national broadcaster.

Speaking of the submissions number for Melodifestivalen 2018, selection producer Christer Björkman revealed:

We are very keen to start working with the selection process and are delighted that the interest of both the public and the music industry is still high.

The first act for Melodifestivalen 2018 was already determined last month via the selection process P4 Nästa, after hopeful Stiko Per Larsson won the competition with his entry Kumpaner. A new entry has since been produced for the Swedish national selection.

The full list of participants for the forthcoming competition are expected to be released towards late October to early November.