SWEDEN – Swedish newspaper AFTONBLADET reports that SVT is changing a rule for Melodifestivalen 2021. Female songwriters on almost all contributions in the Melodifestivalen. It is SVT’s plan when the competition rules for Sweden’s largest music competition are rewritten.
From 2022, we introduce that all contributions must have a woman on the rise simply, says competition producer Karin Gunnarsson.
Even more female songwriters in Melodifestivalen. It is SVT’s message in the new rules that have now been published for the upcoming competitions.The rules are intended to apply to the competition in 2022 and imply a requirement for female songwriters for all contest entries, except for those written by one person. The rules for next year’s competition, which SVT has now published, states:
“It is SVT’s intention to introduce to Melodifestivalen 2022 a requirement that all contributions written by more than one author must have at least one female composer or copywriter.”
“Every year we get a lot of criticism for what it looks like on the origin side. This is something we take most seriously and we want to see a greater proportion of female authors. To help this development, we are introducing from 2022 that all contributions must have a woman on the rise simply”, says Melodifestivalen’s competition producer Karin Gunnarsson.
SVT has gradually quoted female songwriters in the Melodifestivalen. For the 2014 competition, a requirement was imposed that 20 per cent of the songs should have at least one female author. The following year, the requirement that was applied until now was that half of the songs in the competition should have at least one female songwriter.
However, the current rules, which will also apply to next year’s competition before being changed in 2022, have not produced the desired results. Although this year’s competition included female songwriters of more than half of the contributions, a total of only 21 of 79 songwriters were women, 58 were men.
“It’s not a figure you want to hit your chest for, but above all, it’s about getting strong hits and pushing the Melodifestivalen into the future together. If you look at this year’s final, the top five had a woman on the rise. Those hits have been created because you simply worked together”, says Karin Gunnarsson.
Did you not achieve what you hoped for with the previous rules?
We have not really seen the development we had hoped for and we think this is a way to open up more constellations, broaden musically and creatively and get new perspectives and topics to write about. It is to take the Melodifestivalen into the future.
Isn’t this restrictive for established songwriting teams made up of just men?
I don’t think it is. It is a chance and an opportunity to broaden their spectra and get new input. I just see it as a positive measure. this is something we’ve been talking about for years.
Does SVT have any initiatives of its own to find and highlight female songwriters?
In recent years, we have supported an initiative we have called Mello-kollo, which has been a songwriting camp for girls only. This year, we intend to try to make it fifty-fifty with guys and girls just to enable people to meet and get to know each other and can find new constellations and partners, says Karin Gunnarsson.
