Melodifestivalen is an annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio. It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged, almost every year, since 1959. The competition is the most popular television programme in Sweden; it is also broadcast on radio and the internet. The festival has produced four Eurovision winners and sixteen top-five placings for Sweden at the Contest. The winner of the Melodifestival has been chosen by panels of jurors since its inception. Since 1999, the juries have been joined by a public telephone vote which has an equal influence over the final outcome. The introduction of semifinals in 2002 raised the potential number of contestants from around twelve to thirty-two. A children's version of the competition, Lilla Melodifestivalen, also began in 2002. Light, orchestrated pop songs, known locally as schlager music, are seen as so prevalent that the festival is sometimes referred to as Schlagerfestivalen by the Swedish media. However, other styles of music such as rap, reggae, and glam rock have made an appearance since the event's expansion. The introduction of a grand final in Stockholm has attracted considerable tourism to the city.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melodifestivalen

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1881: Andrew Watson made his debut with the Scotland national football team and became the world's first black international football player. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Watson)

1930: Gandhi began the Dandi March, a 24-day walk to defy the British tax on salt in colonial India. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Satyagraha)

1938: Anschluss Österreichs: Austria was occupied by the Wehrmacht, and subsequently became Ostmark, a province within the German Reich. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschluss)

1940: The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed, ending the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Peace_Treaty)

1993: A series of thirteen coordinated bomb explosions took place in Bombay, India, killing over 250 civilians and injuring over 700 others. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Bombay_bombings)

2003: Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was assassinated in Belgrade.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Zoran_%C4%90in%C4%91i%C4%87)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

candor: Sincere and open speech, honesty in expression. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/candor)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together. -- Jack Kerouac