Monday was a big day in the Eurovision calendar as Swedish broadcaster, SVT, announced the running order for their selection show, Melodifestivalen. SVT announced the running order for the four semi-finals ahead of the first semi-final starting on February 4th.

Tradition dictates that the last position in each semi-final is a favorite to win their semi-final and so there is always a lot of interest in who will get those spots. In 2017 in three of the four semi-finals that spot has gone to a new artist. The fourth, in the final semi-final, which has Loreen finishing the event, and she is the early favorite to win the whole contest despite songs not being yet released.

Loreen will be singing Statements as the last song in the fourth semi-final, with all four songs closing the shows in English. Nano with Hold On will close the first, Benjamin Ingrosso with Good Lovin’ will close the second and The Fooo Conspiracy will close the third with Gotta Thing.

That’s not to say that not performing last means an artist won’t win Melodifestivalen, with the 2016 winner Frans performing fifth in his semi-final. Not performing last was also the case for the 2014 and 2013 winners of Melodifestivalen.

Like with the Eurovision semi-finals the order is very carefully considered by the broadcasters trying to spread up the different styles of the songs. They also look to spread out the languages with the songs in English and Sweden being interspersed so as to not have two in Swedish next to each other. The point of this to create balanced semi-finals that allow each artist to shine uniquely and allow for an entertaining show.