Sweden: The Mamas win Melodifestivalen 2020

Nu kör vi!

The Final of Melodifestivalen 2020 was held tonight in Friends Arena in Stockholm. After four Semi-finals and a Second Chance-show 12 songs were selected to compete in the Final of Melodifestivalen, the biggest television show in Sweden.

28 songs and six amazing shows concluded tonight, when the Swedish public and eight international juries agreed to send The Mamas for Rotterdam.

The Mamas will represent Sweden at Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song Move – They won with just 1 point over the favourite, Dotter.

Move is written by Melanie Wehbe, Patrik Jean and Herman Gardarfve.

The Mamas

The group "The Mamas" was created last year as backing singers for John Lundvik's Too Late for Love (Sweden 2019, 5th). After that they decided to continue as a soul and gospel group.

The Mamas are:

• Ashley "Ash" Haynes (33)
• Loulou Lamotte (38)
• Dinah Yonas Manna (38)

After last year's backing succes with John Lundvik, they have released their own music, and held their own concerts. Founding member Paris Renita left the group in 2019.

The Show

Melodifestivalen 2020 - its 60th edition - featured a quick introduction from last year's winner, John Lundvik (Sweden 2019) and remembered all past Sweden's representatives. A comedy sketch carried on - featuring the show's hosts - in order to introduce every finalist.

Lina Hedlund (singer and member of the pop group Alcazar), Linnea Henriksson (Swedish singer) and David Sundin (Swedish television presenter) took over the stage individually and quickly introduced the first performer of the night.

As soon as the performances came to an end, the televoting was opened and the hosts took over the stage once more for a musical number to next speak to the contestants.

Before the announcement of the public vote and winner, Babben Larsson - a Swedish actress and comedian - performed another version of "Too Late For Love".

Melodifestivalen 2020

• 1 February: Deltävling 1 (Linköping)
• 8 February: Deltävling 2 (Göteborg)
• 15 February: Deltävling 3 (Luleå)
• 22 February: Deltävling 4 (Malmö)
• 29 February: Second Chance (Eskilstuna)
• 7 March: Final (Stockholm)

The format for Melodifestivalen 2020 was the same as previous years: Each of the 4 heats qualified 2 songs directly to the final and two songs to the "second chance"-show. In the "second chance" 4 songs were selected for the final.

Hosts of the shows were David Sundin, Lina Hedlund and Linnea Henriksson.

Sweden in Eurovision Song Contest

Since 1958 Sweden has participated 59 times in Eurovision Song Contest with great succes. They have won the contest 6 times:

• 1974: Abba - "Waterloo"
• 1984: Herreys - "Diggi-loo Diggy-ley"
• 1991: Carola - "Fångad Av En Stormvind"
• 1999: Charlotte Nilsson - "Take Me To Your Heaven"
• 2012: Loreen - "Euphoria"
• 2015: Måns Zelmerlöw - "Heroes"

They came last two times (1963 and 1977), and since the introduction of the Semi-finals in 2004 Sweden managed to qualify for the Grand Final 15 out of 16 times! (only skipped the qualification in 2010)