Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959. In the early 2000s, the competition was the most popular television program in Sweden; it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. In 2012, the heats averaged 3.3 million viewers, and over an estimated four million people in Sweden watched the final, almost half of the Swedish population. The festival has produced six Eurovision winners and 25 top-five placings for Sweden at the contest. The winner of Melodifestivalen 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 outcome. The competition makes a considerable impact on the music charts in Sweden. The introduction of heats 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 that year. Light orchestrated pop songs, known locally as schlager music, used to be so prevalent that the festival was sometimes referred to as ("the schlager festival") or ("schlager Swedish championship") 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 substantial tourism to the city. Origins With seven nations competing, the first Eurovision Song Contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland in May 1956. Sweden's first contest was the third, in 1958. Without broadcasting a public selection, Sveriges Radio (SR) chose to send Alice Babs to the contest in Hilversum, Netherlands. The song selected was "" (The same stars shine for the two of us), later renamed "" (Little star). It finished fourth at Eurovision on 12 March 1958. The first Melodifestivalen, incorporated into the radio series, took place on 29 January 1959 at Cirkus in Stockholm; eight songs participated. Four "expert" juries in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, and Luleå decided the winner. The competition was won by Siw Malmkvist performing "Augustin", but SR decided that the winning song—regardless of its original performer—would be performed by Brita Borg at Eurovision. This policy, of selecting the artist for Eurovision internally and having other artists perform potential Swedish entries