Elin Petersson is the second participant confirmed for Melodifestivalen 2013. She won the official website contest for non-established artists. Swedish public broadcaster SVT wants that at least one non-established singer will compete in the popular Swedish selection.
Petersson won the competition for artists who never released a song. The jury selected her own penned song entitled Island. In comments to SVT, Christer Björkman said, I am delighted that Petersson wrote her own song. SVT is keen to have non-established artists in Melodifestivalen.
It was already previously announced that Terese Fredenwall, the winner of Svensktoppen nästa, gets the ticket for Melodifestivalen 2013. Another 30 artists will be announced by SVT in due course.
This is the first time since the year 2000 that the final will take place in Friends Arena in Stockholm instead inside Globen arena, which was also the home of the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest. In total 2549 entries were submitted for the Swedish popular selection.
The selection will consist of four heats in which the top two songs from each show will advance to the final. The songs placed third and fourth will go to the second chance show. In the second chance show two more songs will join the already eight qualified songs. In the final the winner will be selected to represent Sweden on its soil on 18 May 2013.
Source: SVT