Frans wins Melodifestivalen in Sweden

After four semi-finals, a second chance round and tonight's final, Melodifestivalen 2016 is over. For the past 6 weeks 28 acts have been fighting for the honour of representing Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest to take place in Stockholm next May. More than 30,000 people attended the live show tonight and many more followed the spectacular show broadcast on TV and the internet. They witnessed the victory of Frans Jeppsson Wall, or simply Frans, who will represent Sweden with the song If I Were Sorry.

• The line-up

This is the order of appearance in which the artists performed tonight:

1. Panetoz - Håll om mig hårt (8th)
   (Jimmy Jansson, Karl-Ola Kjellholm, Jakke Erixson, Pa Modou Badjie, Njol Badjie, Nebeyu Baheru)
2. Lisa Ajax - My Heart Wants Me Dead (7th)
   (Linnea Deb, Joy Deb, Anton Hård af Segerstad)
3. David Lindgren - We are Your Tomorrow (11th)
   (Anderz Wrethov, Sharon Vaughn, Gustav Efraimsson)
4. SaRaha - Kizunguzungu (9th)
   (Anderz Wrethov, Sara ”SaRaha” Larsson, Arash Labaf)
5. Oscar Zia - Human (2nd)
   (Oscar Zia, Victor Thell, Maria Smith)
6. Ace Wilder - Don’t Worry (3rd)
   (joy Deb, Linnea Deb, Anton Hård af Segerstad, Ace Wilder)
7. Robin Bengtsson - Constellation Price (5th)
   (Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström, Mark Hole, Martin Eriksson)
8. Molly Sandén - Youniverse (6th)
   (Molly Sandén, Danny Saucedo, John Alexis)
9. Boris René - Put Your Love on Me (10th)
   (Boris René, Tobias Lundgren, Tim Larsson)
10. Frans - If I Were Sorry (1st)
    (Oscar Fogelström, Michael Saxell, Fredrik Andersson, Frans Jeppsson Wall)
11. Wiktoria - Save Me (4th)
    (Jens Siverstedt, Lauren Dyson, Jonas Wallin)
12. Samir & Viktor - Bada nakna (12th)
    (Fredrik Kempe, David Kreuger, Anderz Wrethov)

The 2015 Melodifestivalen and Eurovision Song Contest winner, Måns Zelmerlöw, performed a very special version of his winning song Heroes in the interval act. A nostalgia medley of hits from the last 15 years of Melodifestivalen, featuring the original artists, was also performed while the votes were being cast. Besides, the beloved Lynda Woodruff, played by Sarah Dawn Finer, also made a comeback.

The voting

In the final of Melodifestivalen 2016, 50% of the points are awarded by the viewers and 50% by a jury that consists of eleven European jury groups. The viewers allot a total of 473 points, the same amount of points as the eleven jury groups allotted. The jury groups this year came from the following countries:

• Australia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia.

While the European jury groups were delivering their votes, the Swedish viewers could still go on voting. The voting stopped five minutes after the European jury groups gave their points in order to give the Swedish viewers an opportunity to vote having seen the results of the European jury groups.

Last year Melodifestivalen released an app. The viewers could also vote using the app during the live broadcast competition, and the maximum number of app votes per song is five.