Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s Eurovision selection, has long been one of the country’s biggest showcases for new music. But songwriters hoping to be among the competition’s 30 entries now have to compete with people who create songs using AI.
SVT does not use any technical tools specifically to search for AI, so it cannot determine with certainty how many of the 4,077 entries submitted for next year’s Melodifestivalen are AI-generated. But it has its suspicions.
For example, you can look at whether it’s a person we don’t know who is submitting a lot of songs in a lot of different genres. That in itself suggests that it could be AI, says Anders Wistbacka.
No ban
How and whether the use of AI should be regulated is a major topic of discussion in the music industry, and SVT has not imposed a ban on using the technology in Melodifestivalen. SVT is following what the music industry comes up with, according to Anders Wistbacka.
We don’t want to be the first to come up with rules for what should apply, but this is an issue that the music industry will solve, needs to solve. And then we will respect and follow it.
But, theoretically, could one or more of the 30 songs in next year’s competition be entirely AI-generated?
Absolutely, I don’t think so though. This person who has maybe submitted ten songs in ten different genres also has to find an artist who is included... And there are several other such filters. So I don’t think so.
No computer sings
Wistbacka points out that a Melodifestivalen entry can never be 100 percent AI-generated - the song must be performed live.
And I think that basically feels like something very safe for us. It’s not a computer that will stand and sing on stage on Saturdays in Melodifestivalen.
Never before have so many entries been submitted to Melodifestivalen. The record number of entries indicates that AI technology has begun to be used on a larger scale, and Wistbacka points to another dilemma that worries him: SVT listens to all the entries, which takes time and costs money.
What happens next year? We have to budget and manage so that next year we can afford to listen to all the songs. Let’s say 10,000 songs come in, then we have to increase that budget.
In the spring of 2023, the song “Heart on my sleeve,” an AI-generated duet imitating the voices of Drake and The Weeknd, suddenly appeared without permission. It received 20 million streams on various platforms in two days before being taken down.
In the fall of 2024, the previously released cult song "Visa dina tuttar" went viral on Spotify in Sweden in a new dance band version. It soon emerged that the song had been rearranged by a producer calling himself AI Music Dreams, entirely with the help of AI.
In the summer of 2025, the band The Velvet Sundown’s melodic 70s rock had more than 1 million streams on Spotify. Suspicions quickly arose that the band was entirely AI-generated, and in July, the people behind the project confirmed this.
In January 2026, the fictional artist Jacub topped Spotify’s Swedish charts with the partially AI-generated song "Jag vet, du är inte min", which several critics think sounds like something by Albin Lee Meldau. A Danish record label turned out to be behind the song. It has so far received 19 million plays on Spotify.