The second chance became a semifinal – which became a qualifying final – which became a trimmed qualifying final. This year, SVT has, as usual, rearranged the moment that distributes reserve tickets to the final.
What applies now is that only one contribution from each qualifying round goes on to the qualifying final, instead of two as before.
During the tour, Meira Omar, Kaliffa, Dolly Style, and Ella Tiritiello have gone on to the qualifying final. One more contribution will join from the starting field in Jönköping.
Old votes count
The qualifying final is decided after the qualifying round in the same broadcast – with all qualifying artists present in the arena.
The first finalist is presented directly. The winner is the one who received the most votes in their qualifying round, relative to the total number of votes in each qualifying round, recalculated into points.
Then comes a quick replay, a bit longer than last year, of the four remaining contributions. And now it's time to vote again. The new votes become new points worth as many as the previous points, and the contribution with the highest final score after the new vote gets the last final spot.
Popular on Spotify
So who's doing best among the qualifying finalists?
On Spotify, it's Meira Omar and her "Hush hush" that are far and away the most popular. The song has, at the time of writing, over 3.2 million reported listens on the streaming service. Second is Dolly Style's "Yihaa" with 1.6 million listens, followed by Kaliffa's "Salute" with 858,000.
On Youtube, it's also Meira Omar who has the most exposure. And she's the only one among the artists in the qualifying final who makes it into the top ten on the betting companies' odds lists.
It should be noted that Omar participated in the first qualifying round and has therefore had more weeks to gather listens and views.
At the same time, it can be an advantage to be fresh in the audience's memory. Last year, SVT received criticism after both Annika Wickihalder and Jay Smith went on to the qualifying final from the last qualifying round – and then were sent to the final.
1. Meira Omar: "Hush hush"
099-908 11 (9.90 kronor per vote, of which 9.20 kronor goes to Radiohjälpen)
099-208 11 (3.60 kronor per vote)
2. Kaliffa: "Salute"
099-908 12 (9.90 kronor per vote, of which 9.20 kronor goes to Radiohjälpen)
099-208 12 (3.60 kronor per vote)
3. Dolly Style: "Yihaa"
099-908 13 (9.90 kronor per vote, of which 9.20 kronor goes to Radiohjälpen)
099-208 13 (3.60 kronor per vote)
4. Ella Tiritiello: "Bara du är där"
099-908 14 (9.90 kronor per vote, of which 9.20 kronor goes to Radiohjälpen)
099-208 14 (3.60 kronor per vote)
5. To be decided on Saturday
099-908 15 (9.90 kronor per vote, of which 9.20 kronor goes to Radiohjälpen)
099-208 15 (3.60 kronor per vote)
