Melodifestivalen is an annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest since 1959. It is one of Sweden's most popular television shows, and it has been estimated that more than 4 million Swedes watch the show annually.
Almost every Swedish entry for Eurovision has been selected through Melodifestivalen. Only one entry, Sweden's first entry in 1958, was not selected through Melodifestivalen, having been selected internally by the Swedish broadcaster at the time, Swedish Radio Service.
In recent years Swedish songwriters have been involved in the writing of entries from several countries. For instance, in 2010 the songs from Denmark, Norway, Ireland and Azerbaijan were written entirely or partly by Swedes, in 2011 the songs from Russia and Azerbaijan, in 2012 the songs from Italy, United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Norway, Azerbaijan and Spain and in 2013 the songs from Georgia, Finland, Norway, Russia and Netherlands.
Read more about this topic: Sweden In The Eurovision Song Contest