The Finnish public broadcaster Yle will once again be broadcasting Melodifestivalen on YLE TV1.
Melodifestivalen 2026 is set to be aired on YLE TV1 on delay for viewers in Finland. The Swedish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, will be broadcast from 10:45 EET. The Finnish broadcaster has been broadcasting Melodifestivalen on its channels for over a decade.
Yle has not yet announced whether it will also live stream the shows on Yle Areena or whether there will be Finnish language commentary for the television broadcast.
Melodifestivalen 2026 will take place across six cities in Sweden. The dates, places and host cities for the shows are:
- Heat 1: January 31 – Saab Arena, Linköping
- Heat 2: Feburary 7 – Scandinavium, Gothenburg
- Heat 3: Feburary 14 – Kristianstad Arena, Kristianstad
- Heat 4: February 21 – Malmö Arena, Malmö
- Heat 5: February 28 – Gärdehov Arena, Sundsvall
- Final: March 7 – Strawberry Arena, Stockholm
Several favourites from recent previous years are included in the lineup including Medina and Smash into Pieces, who both reached top 3 twice each between 2022 and 2024.
Greczula, Vilhelm Buchaus, Meira Omar, Saga Ludvigsson, and Arwin are all straight back to the contest after making their debuts in 2025.
There are two previous Swedish representatives among the lineup. Robin Bengtsson, who represented Sweden in 2017 with “I Can’t Go On”, will compete in the second heat, while Sanna Nielsen, who represented Sweden in 2014 with “Undo”, will compete in the fifth heat.
Eurovision fans may be familiar too with AleXa in Heat 5. She was the winner of the inaugural and to date only edition of American Song Contest in 2022 with the song “Wonderland”, winning the contest for the state of Oklahoma.
Melodifestivalen has been held annually since 1959, except for 1964 and 1976, when Sweden did not compete in Eurovision. The winner of Melodifestivalen 2026 will represent the country in Vienna.
Image source: Janne Danielsson/SVT | Source: Yle
Finland first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961. They debuted alongside Spain and Yugoslavia. Finland has finished last in the contest on 10 occasions and has received ‘nul points’ three times. It wasn’t until 2006 that Finland won the Eurovision Song Contest. Lordi represented the country in Athens with the song “Hard Rock Hallelujah” scoring 292 points, a record total at the time.
