Sweden's Melfest: Why a national Eurovision show won global fans

"It's something that unites Swedes," explains 2015 Eurovision winner Mans Zelmerlow.

To represent Sweden at the song contest he first had to win Melodifestivalen - a six-week long competition.

Celebrating its 60th year, Melodifestivalen - or Melfest to fans - has been Sweden's most-watched television show since 2000.

It's developed a world interest, with fans flying to Stockholm from across Europe for Saturday's final.

"This is my second time planning to Melfest," explains 20-year-old Luke Hardwick.

"I love all the strain , it's sort of a mini-Eurovision before the main event and it's great to meet other fans from around the world counting right down to May."

It took time to convince his friends to do Melfest, but now they're avid fans too and he's traveled to the Swedish capital this year with four others.

Luke watches other national selection shows but says "nothing beats" the Swedish version.

"Being on Melodifestivalen had been a childhood dream of mine," Zelmerlow tells the BBC.

"Eurovision broke Abba worldwide and that we have such pride in them and that we want that to repeat again."

The winner is in a position "to get as getting ready to the Olympics" as a musician can, he says - with 41 countries collaborating during this year's Eurovision Song Contest within the Netherlands.

It's estimated quite 70% of Sweden's 10.3m population watched this year's heats - quite a million quite even Eurovision gets within the Scandinavian country .

Support for Melfest has grown from outside of Europe, and it absolutely was described last week as "the techno version of the primaries" by James Corden during a segment on his US late-night talk show - uploaded to 23 million subscribers on YouTube.

One of this year's Melfest finalists, 2010 winner Anna Bergendahl, believes platforms like Twitter and YouTube have played an enormous part in increasing the show's fanbase outside Sweden.

"Back in 2010 social media wasn't a thing," the 28-year-old tells the BBC. "Coming back, of these fans from around the world started emerging whom I didn't know existed."

Bergendahl has "some serious unfinished business" after she failed to qualify from the Eurovision semi-finals in 2010, making it the sole time Sweden has not reached the ultimate within the contest.

"It would be such a full circle if i used to be to represent Sweden 10 years later," she explains. "My biggest goal without delay is to finally redeem myself."

This year's favorite to win, Dotter, entered Melfest "to show the planet my song" and he or she believes a win would be huge for her career.

"I wanted to point out this in the biggest spotlight possible," says the 32-year-old singer. "I didn't want to only release it on Spotify, because then i'd only get 200,000 streams."

Twenty-two-year-old teacher Eliza Moore, who watches the show on a live stream in North-East England, believes Melodifestivalen is one in every of the explanations Sweden consistently does well at Eurovision.

"You become really enthusiastic for them because you undergo a journey with them watching Melfest," she tells the BBC.

Melfest's taste for Eurovision success

Melfest has discovered six Eurovision winners - two in the past 10 years. Its most famous act was undoubtedly Bjorn, Anni-Frid, Agnetha, and Benny.

1974: Abba - Waterloo

1984: Herries - Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley

1991: Carola - Fangad av en stormwind (Captured by a love storm)

1999: Charlotte Nilsson - Take Me to Your Heaven

2012: Loreen - Euphoria

2015: Mans Zelmerlow - Heroes

Another of Melfest's winners was Malena Ernman, whose song The Voice came 21st in Eurovision in 2009. She is probably better known nowadays as the mother of temperature change activist Greta Thunberg.

Sweden has become a large player in modern pop , with producers like Max Martin and RedOne creating global hits for acts like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.

"We're pleased with our music scene here," Dotter, who's performing Bulletproof, explains. "I just feel glad i buy this opportunity to be a part of it."