Danny, Gina and Melodifestivalen 2013

Next year's host nation Sweden takes care of every detail when it comes about their much loved Melodifestivalen, the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.

While we already know some of the names involved, like Terese Fredenwall, the winner of the artists' competition Svensktoppen nästa and her song Breaking The Silence, or Elin Petersson and her song Island, winners of the non-established composers contest Allmänhetens Tävling, the rest of the 30 participant names remain unconfirmed.

Sixteen of them were chosen earlier in the autumn out of  the 2549 entries that were submitted to the selection panel. The rest of the songs are being chosen by SVT right now. The producer of Melodifestivalen, Christer Björkman states that "We are in the final phase, and everything begins to fall into place [...] there are a few pieces left, but we expect that soon we'll be able to notify all those who get through".

Meet the presenters

The popular singer and dancer Danny Saucedo (26) first participated in Melodifestivalen in 2009 as one third of the group E.M.D. which came 3rd with Baby Goodbye and scored a #1 hit in Sweden. Two years later he was the runner up as a solo artist with the energetic In The Club, another massive success. He repeated this feature this year with Amazing. He won't be trying to win the competition again next year, as he's just been named as one of the hosts for 2013.

After her success in Melodifestivalen 2012, SVT didn't let go of Gina Dirawi (22). With her humor, charm and naturalness she won many hearts as one of the three presenters of Melodifestivalen 2012. Her role was worth a Kristallen award as best female host 2012. And now the young TV presenter is back to the program where she got her really big breakthrough. Besides this Gina is also a popular blogger and radio profile.

Melodifestivalen 2013 will tour Sweden for six weeks next winter:

• Semi-Final 1: the 2nd of February in Karlskrona's Telenor Arena
• Semi-Final 2: the 9th of February in Gothenburg's Scandinavium
• Semi-Final 3: the 16th of February in Skellefteå Kraft Arena
• Semi-Final 4: the 23rd of February in Malmö Arena
• Second Chance round: the 2nd of March in Karlstad's Lofbergslila Arena
• Final: the 9th of March in Stockholm's Friends Arena

The tickets for the live shows and the two dress rehearsals for each date are already selling fast with the tickets for the final being almost sold out.

With a total of 372 points, Sweden won this year's Eurovision Song Contest with the successful Euphoria performed by Loreen which has sold now in excess of 1 million copies accross Europe.