It was Annika Wickihalder and Jay Smith who made it to the final in Melodifestivalen’s new final qualifier.
The two artists also competed in the evening’s sub-competition, which was broadcast side by side with the qualifier. Now viewers rage both on social media and in SVT’s live chat against the new part of the music competition as they believe that it was to the advantage of the qualifying finalists that they competed on the same evening.
Melodifestivalen’s project manager Anders Wistbacka believes that Jay Smith and Annika Wickihalder were already popular in their part of the competition. However, he says they will evaluate the final qualification for next year.
– We will absolutely do that, if we didn’t it would be frivolous, he says.
Hear Anders Wistbacka’s response to the criticism in the clip.